The Ultimate Green Architecture Quiz

Estimated Completion Time
2 min
The Ultimate Green Architecture Quiz
Image: Creatas Images/Thinkstock

About This Quiz

If you've heard more than enough about eco-conscious, environmentally friendly and green stuff, test your knowledge and see if you're retaining the information or are still green behind the ears.
What is "greenwashing?"
cleaning up products to make them more environmentally friendly
promoting something as green when it's not
providing a protective coating; like whitewashing but safer for the environment
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Greenwashing is the under-the-table practice of marketing products and services as environmentally friendly or organic when they're not. Often it's like whitewashing because it gives the appearance of being green, but is anything but green underneath.

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What percentage of a building material has to be from reused or repurposed materials for it to be called "recycled"?
depends on weight and cost calculations
at least 15 percent
more than 30 percent
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) publishes guidelines and calculations for products and recycled materials. Depending on local codes and desired certification, LEED or otherwise, the number will depend on the size and cost of the project and even the weight of materials. It comes down to the math.

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How much additional, formal schooling does an architect need in order to be a green architecture specialist?
two years
15 course credit hours
none
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

While some architecture degree programs specialize in preparing students to become green professionals, it is a specialization within a general course of education to become an architect. Professional certifications and graduate level coursework can make an architect a specialist in green architecture, but requirements aren't black and white.

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What is "green fatigue"?
an erosion of materials used in construction
a disorder from living and working in "sick" or toxic buildings
a weariness in talking about all things green
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

With an increasing focus on being aware of what we buy, build with and throw away, some get tired of all of the focus on being green, leading to "green fatigue" and sometimes the urge to just rebel and be environmentally-unfriendly instead of friendly.

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Which architect said: "In 10 years we're not going to talk about sustainability anymore, because it's going to be built into the core processes of architecture...Advertising sustainability...will be like an architect getting up in front of a room to 'proudly proclaim how his buildings didn't fall down.'"
Frank Lloyd Wright
Charles Eames
Robert Stern
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Eames and Wright championed some pre-green architecture and design concepts in the early and mid-20th century, but in 2010 Robert Stern spoke of making sustainable architecture just par for the course.

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Which housing type might have the smallest carbon footprint?
multi-family
solar single-family
rural farmhouse
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

A 2011 EPA study found that multi-family dwellings, with their shared walls and likelihood of being closer to transportation, can use much less energy than detached single-family residences.

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People who live in glass houses should:
reconsider
glaze
both
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Glass houses have many qualities that make them environmentally friendly, including the ability to take in lots of natural light and heat. But they also can allow for wasted energy when glass areas aren't joined or glazed properly. Reconsider a house with lots of glass unless it's a solid design backed by builders with the actual numbers and sustainability measures of products being used.

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What's a solid choice for furnishing an eco-conscious home and keeping it, well, conscious?
buy used
use wood only
shop eco-friendly
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Taking great pains to build or rehab a home to make it environmentally friendly will be cancelled out a little or a lot if it's filled with toxins. Treated fabrics, floor and wall treatments, and even retro pieces can emit toxins in the most pristine and well-ventilated environments.

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Which very famous architect has had to defend some of their negative comments about green architecture?
Eric Owen Moss
Zaha Hadid
Frank Gehry
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Award-winning architect Frank Gehry spoke of the race to reach LEED certification with a critical tone, and many have picked up on his comments as being un-green. Gehry has restated his support of green building, just with some reservations about LEED. Look into the certification and media comments for more on the hoopla.

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This housing type may seem environmentally friendly, but it's often not.
timber frame
adobe
brick
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Many outdoorsy types also value rustic designs and wooden architecture for its naturalness, but timber frame houses actually have a lot of negative impact when they're full of lofty spaces requiring added heating and cooling, or if they're not joined properly and let too much air in and out. And locating a timber family home off the beaten path adds to environmental concerns if you have to drive twice as far and often to shop, go to school and get to work. A green timber frame specialist can get the look, siting, materials and construction in line with sustainability.

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LEED is an acronym for:
Lean Engineering in Environmental Direction
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
Leading Environmental Engineering Design
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a certification award for buildings and communities that achieve high standards in environmental friendliness and sustainability.

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One of the most acclaimed public green projects in the United States does NOT have this:
concrete
air conditioning
a parking lot
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Architect Renzo Piano designed the California Academy of Sciences with numerous sustainable features and without air conditioning, relying instead on windows that actually open -- a rarity in modern building design -- and a motorized ventilation system that circulates breezes through the main building.

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Which of these is sold online for use as housing?
train cars
shipping containers
both
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Large sea and train-faring shipping containers are available for purchase on the Internet and can be customized and assembled in groups for residential, office or other uses. Entire cities and housing developments in the United Kingdom, The Netherlands and elsewhere use these containers as urban, rural and student housing.

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Is it more green to sell your house and live in an RV?
don't know; I have green fatigue
it can go either way
home is where the green is
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Depending on the amount of travelling you plan to do and the eco-friendly features or lack of them on the RV itself, staying in a home or hitting the road can be green or not at all green. Those who consider RV living are already thinking about the possibilities of downsizing, so in that sense it's green, but guzzling fuel and picking up lots of Styrofoam takeout along the way? Well, you get the picture.

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Who are the green police?
environmental enforcers
St. Patrick's Day cops
recycling ticketers
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Aside from being featured in a rockin' Cheap Trick song from the 1970s, the green police are members of a fictional, real and abstract force all at the same time. Some use the term for government oversight of environmental responsibility and others use it to describe really committed and vigilant environmentalists. If you get a dirty look for using plastic bags at the grocery checkout, it could be the green police, or it could just be your own guilt and paranoia, self destroyer (but that would be the Kinks).

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What is the Zerofootprint Prize?
a house design competition
a building re-skinning contest
an off-the-grid award
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Entrants in the Zerofootprint Prize have to work with an existing concrete high-rise and cover and retrofit it inside and out, giving it a zero footprint -- making it an environmental hero from a design zero so to speak -- while achieving architectural integrity. Winning buildings will need to look good and perform well in their new green skins.

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When will green architecture be regulated under a standard international building code?
2012
2014
2015
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

An International Green Construction Code (IGCC) is scheduled for release by the International Code Council (ICC) in 2012. If you're reading this in 2013 and it's not yet available, you might want to check with the ICC.

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How much more per square foot does it cost to build a green home?
it costs less
it varies
both of the above
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Some types of green building can be very expensive, but building a straw bale house or a tiny cottage can cost less than building a traditional home.

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Who focused on sustainability long before it entered mainstream design?
Donald Ross
Dick Wilson
Bucky Fuller
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Ross and Wilson were truly "green" designers because they each designed hundreds of the world's best golf courses, but Buckminster ("Bucky") Fuller (1895-1983) talked about sustainability long before the greening of mainstream architecture. Fuller's designs and "do more with less" principles for social issues are still studied today.

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Green architecture and design professionals can look to which of these influential cultures for eco-friendly designs?
Native American
Appalachian
Polynesian
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

While all cultures contribute to understanding and improving building design, groups such as the Pueblo Indians of the Southwestern United States lived together and stayed cool in family units or communities of distinctive adobe structures that are still valued and copied today for their sustainability.

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You Got:
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