This week I volunteered at Greenbuild, the world’s largest green building conference/expo. I was overwhelmed and inspired by the local and international attendants who cared deeply about sustainability and was present to learn and share best practices. I had the privilege to attend a session called “Envisioning the Future” hosted by Boston Society of Architect’s Women in Design group on Thursday. The panelists from the Newburyport Preservation Trust, Urban Land Institute (ULI), New Urban Mechanics, Perkins + Will, and moderator from CBT Architects discussed the severity of the housing shortage of the future among other topics such as preservation, climate change, and community engagement. Manikka Bowman from the ULI mentioned that Boston will have 800,000 workers by 2030 and thus must add 200,000 housing units by 2030. The problem became more tangibly real when Marcy Ostberg who works for the City of Boston’s Housing Innovation Lab shared in the following panel that some people go directly to the City of Boston to ask for help with their housing woes. It is difficult to conceive of the scale of the problem and the resources that must be dedicated to it to make housing more affordable and to increase the housing stock. Nevertheless, it was also exciting to hear that the Additional Dwelling Units Pilot was approved on 11/8, just the day before the panel discussion.
A common thread throughout the conversation was that we must be able to manage change and be comfortable with being involved in difficult conversations while recognizing our limitations, realizing that ‘consensus is not real’ and that we must care for the most vulnerable populations. I was reminded to be more civically engaged, to be more critical and to assess priorities, experiment, evaluate then expand on ideas that work. Another interesting idea was shared by one of the Women in Design Award of Excellence winners, Katherine Faulkner, principal of NADAAA, an architecture and urban design firm. She talked about considering different histories, putting oneself in the shoes of people of different races, gender, socioeconomic statuses, thinking about what it is like to live in a different time. I think that is extremely important as we look back to learn from past mistakes / successes and try to listen and share with others to plan for the future.
One last thing—something cool I experienced at the Museum of Science this week was Dr. Van de Graff’s lightning show of Tesla coil lightning generators making different pitches through changes in voltage. It was stunning. I never imagined lightning could become musical. Here’s a short video I took: MOS