Rebuilding Earth: Designing Ecoconscious Habitats for Humans

by Teresa Coady, Elizabeth May (Afterword), Christiana Figueres (Foreword)

A revolutionary guide to designing humane, eco-conscious homes, buildings, and cities of the future.

It is estimated that the earth's population will expand to an unprecedented nine billion people over the next century. This explosion in population is predicted to place further stress on our environment, deplete our natural resources, and lead to increases in anxiety and depression due to overcrowding. In this visionary and uplifting book, Teresa Coady offers readers new hope. Rebuilding Earth is her blueprint for designing and building the cities, buildings, and homes of tomorrow, resulting in more conscious, sustainable, and humane living. Coady shows us how we can shift from an outdated Industrial-Age framework to a more humane, Digital-Age framework. This revolutionary approach will enable communities to harness various forms of green energy and reduce the amount of material needed to build infrastructure while contributing to a healthier planet (and society). We can then experience a new sense of purpose, health, and happiness. Meaningful and lasting change, the author tells us, can only come through designing interconnected communities that are vibrant, resilient, and communal. Unlike most predictions of doom and gloom, Coady presents a refreshingly optimistic view of humanity and its future. This book will appeal to those in the construction, design and development finance industries, as well as anyone interested in improving their lives through understanding the connections between the environment and health.

Genres: Sustainability, Nonfiction, Urbanism, Environment, Reference, Architecture

312 pages, Paperback

First published March 20, 2020

Reviews

[Reace · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book definitely had *really* good information that makes u think about how u see and use the earth differently. it’s very dense, but it’s clear that Coady tries to simplify the information so the reader doesn’t feel too bogged down. the only thing is that i didn’t love the writing and there were a lot of typos.

[Abby Rizz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was inspirational. After reading how poorly designed buildings are killing the Earth, I want to start designing more eco-friendly structures. It amazes me that since this book has come out, not every single architect or designer has read it and used it in their own plans of design. Coady is able to put her research and ideas down into 12 simple principles; Inow see the 12 Conscious Construction Principles everywhere. She has many facts and statistics supporting her work, which makes her ideas more valuable to the reader. This book was very eye opening and well written. I had never considered a career in design, but I feel almost obligated to do so with the knowledge I have after reading this book. Before reading the book, I knew some aspects of eco-conscious design such as solar energy, preserving forests, restoring wetlands, and pollution, but I never considered us humans in the design. Coady explained how not only will these “new” design aspects help the environment, but how they will also improve our quality of life. In the end, this book is a must read for any aspiring designer or someone who cares about the environment! 10/10 ;)

[Daniel Caplan · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this might seem a bit cliche to say about an environmentally positive book, however Coady's work is truly eye-opening. Elizabeth May best describes the importance of this book in the "Afterward" by writing, "Politicians, carbon policy wonks, and city planners can all learn something from Rebuilding Earth." However, this book truly teaches more than simply just the importance of using solar energy over polluting our world. Coady uses her background of architecture and simply their experience as a person in order to teach the reader how we can save our world. Coady uses 12 "eco-concious" principles in order to achieve this. While several of these principles cover things we already know to be important such as restoring waters and wetlands and preserving forests, Coady also emphasizes how human life needs to be improved when restoring the world. I feel it is rare to find an author acknowledging the harm to human life our actions are causing when reading about the environment. So often, we just read the same things. This book uniquely discusses how we also need to make changes to our cities so they produce less noise, since noise pollution is now causing poor psychological effects on people. Additionally, Coady discusses how a huge part of reaching these goals relies on society reaching a agreement on how to better our Earth. Coady's plan in this book is clear, and it truly makes it seem like the impossible goal of fixing our planet is doable. I highly recommend everyone reads this book, and starts working hard to repair our planet. However, it should be noted that if you are not familiar with architecture, and are just a regular person, like myself, you will have to make the effort to look up terms and other information you will not be familiar with.

[Matt Swanson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book about redesigning human cities to be centered around life instead of machines. The most compelling chapter to me was the first one, where Coady, an architect, explains how we are still building for the industrial age, even though we have entered the digital age. There is soo much covered in this book, I honestly was a little confused sometimes about the focus even though I felt most of the author's appraisals and conclusions were accurate. The best parts of the book were the parts related to urban rewilding and the better use of materials in construction, in other words the author's wheelhouse as an architect. Less compelling to me were the chapters on energy and pollution, I didnt disagree with the author and could see the connection to her point but think there are books that explore these themes in a more engaging, comprehensive way. I was left wanting more detail on green urban design and what is already out there in terms of her design principles. Still a really compelling big picture case for a paradigm shift in how we create space as humans, of particular interest to anyone involved in architecture or engineering.

[Brett Callahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought since the moment I picked up to read this book I was interested. Coady has a way of explaining things and putting things into perspective. I am currently a student in high school and was assigned to read this book in class. I found that time and time again I was reading things that were related to my AP Environmental Science class. Each and every time I read I found that I learned something new. She hits you with countless reliant facts about our world today that will make you think. This book is more then just using solar energy initiatives. You will find that she really hits home with her background knowledge of architecture. She uses this to construct 12 principles that could help our world as we know it. She makes clear goals for all of humanity. Her writing really makes a stance and thats what I think sets it apart from other books. Coady is a very intelligent individual and your bound to learn a thing or two about architecture while reading. I think her writing could influence many especially if your an architecture planning to read this. Its a must!

[Kaylee Fitzkee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was great. It informed me on important issues while keeping me interested, and I actually enjoyed reading it. I learned a lot about construction and how current designs are not good for the Earth. I also learned about architects and how they like keeping things the way they have always been, despite it being detrimental to the planet and environment. Coady's 12 Conscious Construction Principles really helped me realize what the main issues are and gave me the tools to think of solutions. This book made me want to make a difference in a field that doesn't have many people wanting to do that right now. I think Teresa Coady definitely had an effect on people with this book and how they see new design ideas helping and restoring the environment. I would definitely recommend this book for anyone, especially those who are interested in the environment or those who are thinking about going into architecture and design. 10/10!!!

[Kathleen McRae · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so right about what we are doing to our planet because of being in a world where the greedy and uncaring will do whatever to fill their bank account and it is known that even what they do in spending their wealth hurts the planet. The building of large buildings with no sustainability goes beyond hurting our earthly atmosphere and creates cities that are not green. Teresa also mentions the noise factor and how it affects people and also how we are designing cities for machines and not people.

[Kelsey Longmoore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely inspirational. Teresa has put into words what I have known subconsciously to be a missing piece for so, so long. I am a building code consultant, and my background is environmental engineering. Her ideas feed both my tree hugger and building code souls, and have ignited a passion in me for conscious construction and to move towards a better way of building what we building, everyday.

[Castironpot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall a great book with a lot of thought-provoking ideas brought forward. It opens your eyes to the not-so rational building and planning paradigm of our modern and industrial-age world.

A bit of the more spiritual stuff put me off a bit but that might just be a fault on my side.

[Jeanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a designer in architecture, I felt this book seriously delivered a highly condensed version of architecture school in a few chapters. The historical precedence the author discusses in relation to designing and thinking about buildings in general is something ingrained in every architecture student.

I enjoyed each chapter breaking down different aspects of the built environment, especially the sound, noise, silence, acoustics chapter (since I spent nine months of my life working on a thesis project going over everything she discussed in the chapter in immense detail).

For any one who is interested in reading this book? Know that the architectural perspective behind this research is accurate for the current climate. Architects and designers are in a practicing profession, it is our job to be okay with constantly finding new methods and means to build spaces for people. With great power, comes great responsibility to make ethical decisions for our planet and everything on it. We’re taught to not solve the world’s problems with architecture in school and Coady emphasizes the same, but together we can do something.

Definitely has that Disney sliver of hope we young people need in order to keep moving forward to make a difference.