This video explains why architect Thomas Rau decided to rent (instead of buying) his office interior, why this is, supposedly, better for the environment and financially attractive for manufacturers, though the truth is, he makes the disposition of the furniture the manufacturer's problem, not his, when he tires of it.
Then, Deutsche Welle visits a client that he has worked his magic on -the head office of WWF Netherlands in Zeist- and explains how their building became the first energy neutral building in the land of the Orange.
http://www.archicentral.com/wwf-zeist-the-netherlands-rau-architects-11212/ http://sustainablecities.dk/en/city-projects/cases/zeist-home-to-the-wwfs-innovative-new-dutch-headquarters
"A key maxim he follows is the use of 100% recyclable materials. Rau has committed himself to designing environmentally-responsible architecture."
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5887227,00.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Some day, if I can remember to, I'll write here about my plans circa 1990 to travel and write from Eastern Europe after the Berlin Wall fell.
Among other things, I was going to write about how rural communities were coping with the rapid economic and social changes that lay before them, the effect of decades of pollution on the communities and foreign investment, and the employment prospects of the young people who suddenly had choices their parents never had, and who could now move west and leave their problems -and families- behind.
Marie Ciganek, who was from the then-Czechoslovakia, was the savvy and friendly woman who was then in charge of Eastern Europe at the D.C. office of the WWF, and she couldn't have been more helpful and encouraging, even suggesting some folks I contact to make my goal a reality. http://www.worldwildlife.org/who/
But despite lots of hard work on my part to make a real go of it, the plan could never be worked out financially, which was very depressing, as I had some very definite plans for doing some very interesting things once I got over there.
It was while going around talking to people in Washington and doing some investigating that I first found out for myself how many of D.C.'s think tanks and foundations that have funds that are supposed to be used to help and encourage Young Professionals in their career efforts, were actually not much more than wink-wink slush funds/vacation jaunts for well-known establishment types already working at mainstream American news media outlets, print and electronic -and they were NOT so young, either!
I won't name names here but... well, I could.
It was quite an eye-opening experience for me to see how routinely "requirements" were flouted by well-connected media types to secure things they weren't really eligible for!
This was also roughly when I was routinely plowing thru Foreign Affairs magazine in one week, often on MARC train trips up to Baltimore from D.C's Union Station on weekends for Oriole home games at Camden Yards.
Somewhere, in the archives, there are photos of me reading it in-between innings out in the centerfield bleachers, my favorite area for watching a game there. Perhaps even this essay from 1993, The Collapse Of 'The West' by Owen Harries
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/49202/owen-harries/the-collapse-of-the-west
Those were the days!
Yes kids, once upon a time, not so long ago, the Orioles were very, very good...
When I was at IU in Bloomington, I used to routinely listen to Deutsche Welle's English-language radio broadcasts on my shortwave radio, http://www.dw-world.de/ which was even more interesting when I had a girlfriend at the time who spoke fluent German, one of the languages I never quite cracked.
http://www.dw-world.de/popups/popup_multi_mediaplayer/0,,4128016_type_audio_struct_4703_format_WMedia,00.html
Talar ni tyska, Dave?
Nej!
For more information:
http://wwf.panda.org/who_we_are/wwf_offices/netherlands/
http://rau.eu/en
RAU Architects YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/RAUarchitects
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/
http://www.timothygartonash.com/
http://www.spiegel.de/international/
