William McDonough & Partners are architects who design buildings and communities worldwide that tell stories of sun, wind, water that surrounds them and of the people who inhabit them. Using a creative balance of nature and culture, they strive to create a sustainable environment that honors the relationship between the human community and the nature that surrounds them.
Innovation
A full-service architecture and community design firm based in Charlottesville, Virginia, William McDonough & Partners consider themselves to be leaders in sustainable design. A celebration of the abundance of nature is at the core of their architectural approach and they take a positive look at natural light, fresh air, diversity, life and creativity through a wide range of economic, ecological and social criteria during the creation of each project. In all their work they seek a creative balance of nature and culture through a sustaining approach that expands upon basic considerations of materials and methods by allowing the design to guide them through the relationship between people, nature, and place.
William McDonough, the firm's founding partner, has played a prime role in defining sustainable design through his designs, writings, and speeches for more than two decades. His pioneering approach to architecture and community design has centered around the belief that all sustainability is local. The work of his firm seeks to honor the local context of the building or community by embodying the ideas and ideals of people while rendering visible the interconnectedness of the place.
Over the past ten years, William McDonough & Partners has frequently been asked to address issues of sustainability at a larger scale. Their new "eco-effective" paradigm for community design and building they are developing informs the organization and patterns of residential communities, representing a fundametnal shift in how to conceive of sustainable design. They seek to root their work in the desire to find a fit and fitting space for human habitation, letting the design become native to the place.
Impact
William McDonough calls it "cradle to cradle" design and its impact is clear. Everything is reused—either returned to the soil as nontoxic "biological nutrients" that will biodegrade safely, or returned to industry as "technical nutrients" that can be infinitely recycled. He is currently branding "cradle to cradle" to allow products that meet his criteria for biological and technical nutrients to be certified to use his logo.
A note on the packaging will tell users how to recycle it, instructing them to put the materials into their tomato plot when finished or back to industry forever. Of the many products they have approved, one is a Steelcase fabric that can go back to the soil.
William McDonough & Partners are currently making a major impact in China where the Chinese are afraid urbanization will reduce productive farmland. In response, McDonough proposes moving farms onto rooftops and having the farmers living downstairs. From a distance, the city will look like part of the landscape. Is it practical to put farms on roofs? Traditional roofs aren't practical. They degrade from thermal shock and ultraviolet radiation and have to be replaced in 20 years. But at the Gap's corporate campus in San Bruno, Calif., McDonough planted a "green roof" of ancient grasses. The roof now damps the sounds of jets from the San Francisco airport, absorbs storm water, makes oxygen, provides habitat, and is beautiful.
They want to fuel the Chinese cities with solar power. McDonough envisions square miles of marginal land covered with solar panels. And for every job making solar panels, there are four jobs putting them in place and maintaining them.
Inspiration
“I believe we can accomplish great and profitable things within a new conceptual framework—one that values our legacy, honors diversity, and feeds ecosystems and societies . . . It is time for designs that are creative, abundant, prosperous, and intelligent from the start,” says William McDonough.
McDonough imagines buildings that generate more energy than they consume and factories whose waste water is clean enough to drink, then makes his dreams a reality. He's not your traditional environmentalist. McDonough's vision for the future includes factories so safe they need no regulation, and novel, safe materials that can be totally reprocessed into new goods, so there's no reason to scale back consumption (or lose jobs). He and his partners want to overhaul the Industrial Revolution.
McDonough is the former dean of architecture at the University of Virginia and co-chair of the China-U.S. Center for Sustainable Development. In 1999 Time magazine recognized him as a 'Hero for the Planet' (2/22/99), stating that "his utopianism is grounded in a unified philosophy that—in demonstrable and practical ways—is changing the design of the world." His ideas and efforts were also honored when, in 1996, he became the only individual to receive the Presidential Award for Sustainable Development, the nation's highest environmental honor, presented by President Clinton in a White House ceremony.
The World Inquiry editorial team edited this profile from the original submission of the interviewer or other source. The views expressed do not necessarily represent Case Western Reserve University, the Weatherhead School of Management or the Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit. More >>
