The New Sustainable Architecture: “Making the Ordinary Extraordinary”
Seri Hieatt
(805) 709-2996
shieatt@usc.edu
Seri Hieatt is a fourth year architecture student at the University of Southern California.
She was fortunate enough to have Lawrence Scarpa as her studio teacher and has
been able to learn firsthand from his creative aspirations. She hopes one day to be an
inspirational architect like he has.
Abstract
Architectural sustainable design contributes significantly in reducing a building’s
environmental impact through the use of recycled materials and energy efficient
technology. Today’s architecture has become a design process focused around the
sustainable aspects of buildings. The combined desire of clients and architects to
implement sustainable design into their projects has created a shopping list of standard
green options. However, the problem with the repetitive use of sustainable design in
projects is that it impedes the creative process of architectural design. Lawrence
Scarpa, a pioneer in sustainable architecture, is designing projects that are creatively
breaking from the standard choices of sustainable design by using common or ordinary
objects in new inventive ways.
Key Words: Lawrence Scarpa, sustainability, ordinary objects, recycle materials
Introduction
In the United States, buildings account for 48% of the total energy consumption and
39% of the total carbon dioxide emissions (1). The environmental impact of a building’s
footprint has led architects and engineers to develop solutions to these problems
through sustainable design. Most architects integrate sustainable design into their
projects in conventional ways, with energy efficient cooling and heating systems and
recycled materials. However, by using the standard options to achieve sustainable
design, architects are hindering their creative design process, causing their designs to
lack originality. To address this problem today, some architects are beginning to
integrate new material possibilities into the sustainable design process.
Lawrence Scarpa is an architect who is pushing the boundaries of new sustainable
design. He uses ordinary materials in unorthodox ways by incorporating colored
translucent Dixie cups, ping-pong balls and recycled cans into his architecture, making
ordinary objects extraordinary architectural experiences. Lawrence Scarpa is
considered a pioneer in the field of sustainable design because of his creative reuse of
conventional materials that are inexpensive and readily available in unique and
unexpected ways. If more architects can begin to think about innovative design as
Scarpa does, more spaces and buildings will benefit from the architect’s creative
incorporation of new material options with traditional sustainable design.
Development of Sustainable Design
Within the last twenty years, sustainable design was implemented as a reaction to the
carbon and energy footprints that buildings have on the global environment. Sustainable
design helps to lower a project’s environmental impact by increasing energy savings,
increasing innovation and increasing corporate responsibility through practiced and
sensitive design (2). The implementation of sustainable design in projects requires the
designer or architect to strive to create renewable solutions to our building problems (3).
The success of sustainable design requires an effective collaboration between the
architects, the engineers, and the clients in the project delivery, construction, and final
product. The elements that help define sustainable design are listed below.
Elements of Sustainable Design:
Low-impact materials: Low-impact materials include the reuse or recycling of existing
materials so that it takes less energy to process and make the materials. This also
includes the reuse of prefabricated materials, such as shipping containers, for use as
building structures, to cut down on building costs. Another way to reduce costs is to use
materials that are readily available in close proximity to the project site. (4).
Energy Efficiency: Energy efficient concerns include elements of heating, ventilation and
air conditioning (HVAC), lighting systems on timers and effective window shading to
reduce the buildings overall energy use (4).
Quality of Products: A product’s quality depends on the product’s durability over the
lifetime of the building to lower costs of having to replace materials. This includes
exploring alternative materials that many be suitable for implementation into projects
(4).
Alternative energy sources: Alternative energy sources include onsite power generation
by either roof or wall solar panels, or wind power energy (4).
Water Reuse: Water reuse includes water collection facilities, on-site water filtration,
reuse of grey water and the control of water run off (4).
Architects can use these elements in uncreativeways as they check off the sustainability
requirements for their projects; instead of looking outside of this prescriptive box.
Lawrence Scarpa Principal Theories
Lawrence Scarpa is the design principal in his architectural firm, Brooks + Scarpa
Architects, in Santa Monica. He strives to be investigative and exploratory with the
materials that he uses and the design ideas that he implements. He collaborates with
his clients to create innovative designs that “shed all preconceptions” in search for a
new, fresh approach (5). Lawrence states, “Each project appears as an opportunity to
rethink the way things normally get done – with material, form, construction… making
the ordinary extraordinary” (6). He integrates new materials into his projects like Dixie
Cups, ping-pong balls and recycled aluminum cans. With this mindset, he is able to
transcend conventional solutions and produce work that is both inventive and
environmentally sustainable. For example, the following projects described below:
Creative Domain, Jigsaw and Broadway Housing, demonstrate his creative reuse of
conventional materials.
Creative Domain: Dixie Cups
Figure 1: Plan view of where the Dixie Cup wall is and detail of how light enters into the space. Image
source: author
The Creative Domain project was a renovation of the Creative Domain’s (a marketing
and advertising firm) headquarters in Los Angeles. Scarpa placed the offices on the
south side of the building to take advantage of the light. These rooms have windows to
the exterior of the building and white walls that allow the daylight to be reflected
efficiently. The design dilemma was getting light past the offices and into the interior
spaces of the building while simultaneously reducing the heat generated by the sun.
The southern façade receives the most sunlight so the smaller the window openings the
less solar gain the building will receive and the less air conditioning that the building will
need.
Figure 2: Interior photographs showing the applcation of the Dixie cups to the wall and the lighting effects
that the cups create. Image source: (6)
Scarpa devised a design that cut holes through the MDF sheathing walls separating the
offices from the interior spaces of the building (see Figure 1). . Over these holes they
studded the walls with colorful transparent Dixie cups, which act as skylights allowing
light to reach the interior space. The Dixie cups provide distilled light into the interior of
the building at different densities depending on the amount of Dixie cups that puncture
the wall. These Dixie cups can be removed or replaced to adjust the color or opacity of
the cups creating different lighting qualities (see Figure 2). This is an innovative way of
using a conventional cup to facilitate the transfer of light through spaces in a sustainable
way.
Jigsaw: Ping-Pong Balls
Figure 3: Exterior and Interior photographs of the ping-pong ball façade. On the left you can see the
structure of the ping-pong balls within the glass panels. On the right you can see the light qualities that
the ping-pong ball façade creates with the interior spaces. Image source: (6)
Jigsaw was a project that focused on the transformation of the interior of a bow-truss
warehouse to accommodate spaces for film editing professionals. Generally the spaces
required for this profession need to be sealed boxes with little distraction and light
reflection (6). Scarpa treated the exterior warehouse space as an envelope that holds
the individual space for the professionals. The main design elements are two central
boxes; the ends of these two boxes facing the lobby have ping-pong ball facades.
These facades consist of a sandwich configuration using two pieces of recycled glass to
hold ping-pong balls in the middle. Because the recycled glass is heavy, Scarpa chose
ping-pong balls, which are light in weight, to fill between the glass panels. The pingpong balls are not secured to the glass; they were placed into the gap between the
panes of glass and allowed to settle in the space. There are hinges at the top of the wall
that allow the ping-pong balls to be added or removed. This use of settlement
aggregation is premised upon the geometrical tendencies of how ping-pong balls stack
vertically based on their shape and space given to infill. Scarpa’s use of ordinary pingpong balls, “works with our perception and preconceptions to allow us to see things in
new ways” (6). The unorthodox use of ping-pong balls creates a screen system
reminiscent of an Arabic filigreed screen, that allows diffused light into the space (see
Figure 3). This design solution achieves privacy and lack of distraction for the users in
each space. Such a space has not been created before, but can now be accomplished
through this unique design approach.
Broadway Housing: Recycled Can Bricks
Figure 4: On the left is a close up for the aggregation and size of the recycled aluminum can bricks. On
the right is an image of their application into the building façade. Image source: (6)
The Broadway Housing project is a multi-family housing design that consists of a twolevel building with 41 units. The sustainable elements of the project include a perforated
metal screen acting as a sunscreen, inset windows for shading, energy efficient fixtures
and environmental finishes inside and outside the building (6). The skin of the building is
partially made with recycled aluminum can bricks that are twice the size of standard
concrete blocks (see Figure 4). This size was selected so that the bricks could be easily
picked up and set into place by the builders. Additionally, these bricks could easily be
cut with a skill saw if the blocks needed to be modified at the building site for unique
conditions. Scarpa worked with the state of California to get its approval to collaborate
with a local recycling company that provided the materials to make the bricks for the
project (7). These bricks cannot be bought anywhere because they were specially made
at the request of Scarpa for the project. Most architects feel as though they can only use
materials that you can go and purchase at the store. Scarpa has been praised for the,
“poetry in prosaic daily elements,” that he uses in his projects (7). By challenging
himself he is taking “throw-away materials and putting them to extraordinary uses” (7).
The innovative development of new products allows the architect to create building
materials that are more applicable to specific projects and create an interesting dialogue
between the user and the architecture.
Future of Sustainable Design
Scarpa is setting the stage for the future of new sustainable design by utilizing everyday
objects instead of allowing his designs to be ruled by conventional sustainable products.
He is maintaining his firm’s status as sustainable pioneers by having fun with the
experimentation of new products and materials (3). These innovative and unique design
decisions make these pieces of architecture inspiring for future generations of designers
(8). Architects will extend innovative green design into the future by striving to have a
similar impact on the design of sustainable projects. No longer will architects have to
continue using standard building materials. Designers following Scarpa’s lead can begin
to create their own materials, making the applicable materials for buildings endless. In
the future, more everyday objects will begin to find their unique place in architecture and
will improve the already implemented existing sustainable systems.
Works Cited
(1) G.R. Newsham and S. Mancini and B. Birt, “Do LEED-certified buildings save
energy? Yes, but…”, Energy and Buildings, Vol, 41, No. 8, pp,897-905
(2) R. E. Smith. Prefab Architecture: A Guide to Modular Design and Construction. NJ:
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2010
(3) D.E. Williams. Sustainable Design: ecology, architecture, and planning. NJ: John
Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2007
(4) S. LeBlanc. (2006 Dec/Jan). Solar Inspiration. Dwell. 138-148
(5) L. Barnard and S. Page, Home: new directions in world architecture and design, OH:
HDW Books, 2006
(6) Brooks + Scarpa Architects, 2007, (Online) http://www.pugh-scarpa.com/
(7) S. C. Duran and M. R. Eguaras. 1000 Ideas by 100 Architects. MA: LOFT
Publications, 2009
(8) J.F. Kolleeny. (June 2010). Firm Award: Pugh + Scarpa Architects. Architecture
Record.