ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to challenge, at the outset, the abstract model that conceptualizes sustainability as a triangle of competing interests. This model proposes that sustainable development is achieved through the selfconscious balancing of three competing interests within society, those of economic development, environmental preservation, and social equity-what are popularly referred to as the three Es. My argument is that this increasingly popular concept is historical (or political), rather than scientific, in significance. It is an idea that is socially constructed, not one that was discovered in our DNA. In this sense “sustainable architecture” reflects the structure of an ongoing human conversation that is struggling to envision a more lifeenhancing future, not a formula certain to deliver it.
