Leed is for wimps; the Living Building Challenge really pushes the building envelope.
The Greenbuild conference is built around the LEED certification developed by the US Green Building Council, but LEED is for wimps compared to the Living Building Challenge (LBC). A tour of Kendeda Building on Georgia Institute of Technology campus is a great example of the standard’s ambitions and contradictions. It’s also a really lovely building designed by Lord Aeck Sargent and the Miller Hull Partnership, the same firm that designed the other great demonstration of the LBC, the Bullitt Center in Seattle.
In fact, architect Brian Court of Miller Hull worked on both buildings. He and Brad Kahn (who took me on a tour of the Bullitt a few years ago) showed me around the just-completed Kendeda Building.
The Kendeda Building represents the next step in regenerative design for Georgia Tech and Atlanta, both of which have a well- established record of commitment to sustainability. Funded by a $30 million grant to Georgia Tech from the Kendeda Fund, the project is designed to be a living, learning laboratory, showing what’s possible in the Southeast in order to catalyze even more ambitious green buildings across the region.
The Living Building Challenge is organized around seven ‘petals’, or different aspects of the building, including Place, Water, Energy, Health and Happiness, Materials, Equity, and Beauty.