O' Mighty Green by STAR

A trenchant jab at the pervasiveness of 'greenwashing', STAR's O'Mighty Green secures an honorable mention at the Eme3 International Architecture Festival.

Conceived by the Dutch practice STAR, the project O'Mighty Green exhibited at the Eme3 International Architecture Festival in Barcelona received an honorable mention in the EME3/Jesus Serra Foundation awards. Outlining a not-so-distant fictive parallel history where a color of the visible spectrum somehow rewrites architectural history, O'Mighty Green takes a trenchant view of sustainability practice in the industry today.

Parable
A long time ago in a not so faraway land, a deep economic crisis and a need for identity accelerated the creation of the Green City. In the Green City all companies changed their logos to Green or to vegetable motives. They only provided green products and eco-friendly services. Its inhabitants lived in healthy competition with one another to be the greenest of them all. In the Green City, Nuclear Power Plants were eco-friendly. Black and white movies were green too.
STAR, <i>O' Mighty Green</i>, Monumento Continuo, 2011 © STAR strategies + architecture
STAR, O' Mighty Green, Monumento Continuo, 2011 © STAR strategies + architecture
In the Green City the powers of Green were so strong that they could alleviate the shame of the past: concentration camps, Berlin walls…any moment of history could become sustainable retroactively. Green acquired confessional status and could absolve any sins. In the Green City military uniforms were the ultimate fashion, the Hulk was a superhero, and Chernobyl's Zone the most booked green holiday destination.
STAR, <i>O' Mighty Green</i>, Sustainable Cenotaph, 2011 © STAR strategies + architecture
STAR, O' Mighty Green, Sustainable Cenotaph, 2011 © STAR strategies + architecture
Architects were overexcited in their use of the Green. Facades, roofs, partition walls… everything that could be clad, was clad by Green. But behind the scenes the Green Bubble was growing out of control….Nobody dared to mention it and in an attack of greed, fearing the end of this cash cow, they started using Green psychotically. The Green City turned into a seemingly boundless golf course. The confusion was colossal and in a Saturnial act the Green City started devouring its inhabitants.
In the Green City the powers of Green were so strong that they could alleviate the shame of the past: concentration camps, Berlin walls…
STAR, <i>O' Mighty Green</i>, EcoVilla Savoye, 2011 © STAR strategies + architecture
STAR, O' Mighty Green, EcoVilla Savoye, 2011 © STAR strategies + architecture
But then, and only at that point, a second Age of Enlightenment began to flourish…The surviving inhabitants slowly awakened and did no longer need to see the Green to believe in Sustainability—as they did not need to see the pillars to believe in structural stability—and the Green City began to fade away slowly…The Green mucus was cleaned away, the Green parties were obsolete and McDonald's became red again.

The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, very Green Hairy Monsters.
STAR, <i>O' Mighty Green</i>, Eco Pantheon, 2011 © STAR strategies + architecture
STAR, O' Mighty Green, Eco Pantheon, 2011 © STAR strategies + architecture
STAR strategies + architecture was founded by Beatriz Ramo (1979, Spain) in Rotterdam in 2006. STAR is interested in all topics directly or indirectly related to architecture, and works on projects and research of any scale in the fields of architecture, urbanism, and landscape design.
STAR, <i>O' Mighty Green</i>, Eco Villa Rotonda, 2011 © STAR strategies + architecture
STAR, O' Mighty Green, Eco Villa Rotonda, 2011 © STAR strategies + architecture
STAR, <i>O' Mighty Green</i>, Berlin Eco wall, 2011 © STAR strategies + architecture
STAR, O' Mighty Green, Berlin Eco wall, 2011 © STAR strategies + architecture
STAR, <i>O' Mighty Green</i>, Sustainable Auschwitz, 2011 © STAR strategies + architecture
STAR, O' Mighty Green, Sustainable Auschwitz, 2011 © STAR strategies + architecture

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