ed. by David Gissen (Princeton Architectural Press, 2002)

The best single-volume guide to the movement to design large buildings which protect the planet while improving their communities is this architectural showcase book. Big & Green shows us in beautiful illustrations and clear text that even the densest, highest, most modern parts of our city can herald the arrival of a bright green future.

"Most conventional practitioners of modern design and construction find it easier to make buildings as if nature and place did not exist. In Rangoon or Racine, their work is the same. Fossil fuels make buildings in both locales inhabitable, lighting them, cooling them, heating them. An ecologically aware architect would design those buildings different. She would immerse herself in the life of each place, tapping into natural and cultural history, investigating local energy sources, the availability of sunlight, shade, and water, the vernacular architecture of the region, the lives of local birds, trees and grasses. Her intention would be to design a building that creates aesthetic, economic, social and ecological values for the surrounding human and natural communities - more positive effects, not fewer negative ones. This would represent en entirely new approach: Following nature's laws, one might discover that form follows celebration."