By April MacIntyre Mar 1, 2009, 18:42 GMT
USA Network previously announced the winners of the first-ever Character Approved Awards to honor individuals from a cross-section of creative disciplines who are positively influencing American culture.
Jennifer Siegal, courtesy of USA Network
This years' winner for Architecture is West Coast designer Jennifer Siegal.
Designer Siegal is known for her work in creating the mobile home of the twentieth century.
Founder and principal of the Los Angeles' based firm Office of Mobile Design (OMD), which is dedicated to the design and construction of modern, sustainable and precision-built structures.
Siegal earned a master's degree from the Southern California Institute of Architecture in 1994 and was a 2003 Loeb Fellow at Harvard's Graduate School of Design, where she explored the use of intelligent, kinetic, and lightweight materials in construction.
In 1997 she was in-residence at the Chinati Foundation and in 2004 a fellow at the MacDowell Colony in her hometown, Peterborough, New Hampshire.
Siegal's design sensibilities and expertise in futuristic concepts, prefabricated construction, and green building technologies were recognized in 2003 when Esquire named her one of the design world's "Best and Brightest" and the Architectural League of New York included her in the acclaimed Emerging Voices program.
She was featured in Fast Company's "Masters of Design" for her exceptional approach to utilizing new material and forms to create architecture.
Los Angeles mayor Antonio Viaragosa presented her with the History Channel's 2006 Infiniti Design Excellence Award for her competition entry for the Los Angeles City of the Future 2106.
Her most recent built project The Country School, the first green prefab school, was recognized as one of the five best buildings in Los Angeles in 2007.
To learn more about Jennifer and the Office of Mobile Design, go here
Siegal is part of a select group of people who are actively changing how our materials are manufactured that are powering the movement. Siegal's mission is to take advantage of building materials like bamboo and featuring large windows and open spaces; a modern take on prefabs. Siegal's idea of prefabrication even saves about 30 percent of the materials that would have been wasted on a regularly constructed home.
For these innovations, she is honored by USA network as Character Approved.
Monsters and Critics' smallscreen editor April MacIntyre interviewed Jennifer Siegal this past week. I have read that Germany has made significant strides in waste recovery in disassembling buildings, and that the Germans have a materials recovery rate in excess of 95 percent for many structures. The waste stream from demolitions and construction is staggering in the US. How do we emulate Germany in capturing these "waste" materials for usage in new green building? Jennifer Siegal : The method for altering the US building codes and practices must come from the top. It will take a focused and concerted effort by the new Obama administration to revamp the US policy toward recycling and reuse of materials.
This in turn will allow for local and regional governments and building departments to update our antiquated and wasteful building practices.
How do you and like-minded architects open this dialogue with traditional large scale developers and builders to serve your (Green) purposes? Jennifer Siegal: I propose a national summit to be held in 2010 to address this very issue. While the ‘green’ movement has gained momentum as a grass roots association – emerging through blogs and web sites – it is now strong and loud enough to step into the public realm and take on the large scale ‘traditional’ developers and builders.
There needs to be incentives and guidelines for these important groups, as they may be interested in change but are not able to enact changes due to the costs that prohibit their choices. It is up to our generation to demand new ‘green’ guidelines and compel the building industry and developers to grow and change their outdated habits.
How do you "sell" green design to those who equate it with elitist "Hollywood" types- how do convince a developer in Omaha that green is good for business, the country and long term savings? Jennifer Siegal: Good ideas sell themselves. Smart materials and technologies are available in the market place now, but are often out of the price range or not easy to obtain across the country.
When I was a child there was a successful campaign to make Americans aware of littering. I can still remember the TV advertisement of a native American man crying as he looked at trash being thrown onto the landscape.
Most people remember that ad as being a powerful image that evoked a strong enough response to alter our habits. The media still remains one of the most powerful agents for visual dialogue and it is time for us to ‘sell’ this new way of living.
So many materials available in salvage are of higher quality than those produced today, what are some of your favorite "finds" to reuse in your designs? Be specific. Jennifer Siegal I have been very interested in found materials through out my schooling and career.
I would not say that all salvaged materials are of a higher quality than new composite materials produced today and in the future, but there are some things that I like.
My ongoing fascination with truck trailers and shipping containers have sparked many building projects for me. I continue to be obsessed by truck types – mixers, trash, haulers - and the kinetic apparatus that makes each design unique and functional.
No question so many tract homes and mass developed houses are poorly designed and are a waste of space. What are the biggest design sins (example, why "great rooms?") that Developers and construction companies commit in delivering a home to market?
Jennifer Siegal The two greatest mistakes I see made are the size of new homes and their orientation.
Bigger is not better and most master plans do not account for sun angles and wind patterns. We need to be working with natural ventilation and airflow that lowers energy consumption and forces the rethinking and planning of new construction projects.
For example, parking requirements for a single-family residence in the city of Los Angeles states that one must accommodate for two cars that are housed in a garage.
The codes do not allow for homeowners to use Greywater systems and recycle rainwater that naturally falls from the sky. These are examples of building codes that must be retooled in order for a city like Los Angeles to move forward in a successful and intelligent manner.
Do you believe that people really need less space than they think? Following up, do you think people purchase these gigantic homes without thinking through the inevitable energy costs that they will be burdened with? Jennifer Siegal Yes, I absolutely do.
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