Vivian Loftness on standards, educating architects, and buildings that surf

Design the Future

Vivian Loftness is a professor in the architecture school at Carnegie Mellon University who also serves on the board of the AIA and ILFI, among others. We talked about the value of standards, as goals and metrics, and the critical pull they provide for industry. We talked about improvements to architecture education, including making sure that all studios address environmental and equity issues, inherent as they are to design, and involve metrics. She also talked about using the Triple Bottom Line to cost justify better buildings (and encourage owners to think about net present value). And if she’s in charge for a day, one of her edicts would be that all buildings be designed for “environmental surfing.”