Sustainable Living Audio Book – Learn From Looking – Chapter 1: Part 3

GREENandSAVE Staff

Posted on Thursday 16th July 2020
Sustainable Living Audio Book – Learn From Looking – Chapter 1: Part 3

Sustainable Living Audio Book – Learn From Looking – Chapter 1: Part 3 

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The author of Learn from Looking, Charlie Szoradi, has given us authorization to share the written content and drawings from his book with our readers. This is one of many segments that focuses on the overall theme of sustainable design and overall sustainable living.

Book Topic: Sustainable Living

Learn from Looking is about critical thinking and reaching a sustainable future more cost-effectively than ever imagined. The book's subtitle "How Observation Inspires Innovation" speaks to the core aspect of the content, given that the author, Charlie Szoradi, is an architect and inventor who has traveled extensively around the world over multiple decades and built businesses that range from energy saving lighting to indoor agriculture systems. Mr. Szoradi shares insights on "green" clean-technology that are increasingly key for sustainability, profitable businesses, healthy living, and raising intellectually curious children in a pre and post Covid-19 world. We give Learn from Looking five out of five green stars! Note that the audio book comes with the E-book for only $15 together. Click here to Order the Audio Book on Sustainable Living

Sample content from Learn from Looking: 

My travel opportunities have included destinations where I have been able to live and sometimes work directly with people in remote countries that many Americans do not have the chance to see firsthand. Each sketchbook depicts a leg of an ongoing journey, from a three-month adventure working in Japan to equally as much time in Eastern Europe, from a six-month study of Amish culture to explorations into island cultures like Virgin Gorda and Hawaii, from the Mayan ruins of the Yucatan Peninsula to the hilltops of Los Angeles. Each image is also a reflection of what I see standing on site at the very place and the very time that I make the drawings. As I see new things that appeal to me, I include them along the sequence of what is now a set of multiple books comprising about a thousand panels. There is no predetermined “mural” or draft sketch since all of the work is done in ink. The sense of discovery literally unfolds, as one observation leads to another over the different days and weeks and months in the field.

Given that the average sketchbook is over seven feet long, this publication includes an outline of a human figure for each book to show the scale. 

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The documentation includes detail images as well. Within this collection, each sketchbook includes at least one detail or section enlargement on the page following the whole layout of the book, as well as notes and observations. 

 

Sample Detail Enlargement:

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Students and enthusiasts of architecture may also notice 360-degree illustrations of cityscapes, such as in Budapest, and town squares, such as the one at the center of Prague. The foldout aspect of the sketchbooks gives me the ability to make murals dynamic explorations. In many cases, the cityscapes took the better part of an afternoon to complete, while other books took multiple weeks to complete as I traveled to different places. 

 

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The foldout books also provide an opportunity to draw full-size items such as the wooden slats of a corncrib on an Amish farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, or a curved metal brace to hold open a shutter.

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The ink drawings in the field are from a combination of brush pens plus some felt-tip pens for detail work. This en plein air “in the open air” approach and stream of consciousness style has its challenges with weather and scheduling. However, if it starts to rain, I have often found an overhang or taken a break with a few locals who sometimes provided their words of wisdom and encouragement. This process of embedded documentation has embossed invaluable memories for me through the sequence of transmitting information to paper. In a fast-paced and high-tech digital world, this slow-paced and low-tech methodology creates the moments to reflect and look closer at details that are often overlooked. The images that I chose to capture resonate with me, in part because they have some combination of beauty, function, sustainability, and relevance to our current culture.

Influence comes in many forms, and my parents sparked my early interest in looking closer at the world and drawing. My father was an architect who escaped through the Soviet Union’s Iron Curtain and came over to America in the 1950s from Hungary. My mother, who was raised in Pennsylvania, is a retired teacher and champion marathon runner. Their creativity, energy, and spirit of exploration have served as my foundation. 

Sketching naturally takes some practice at a functional level, and my brother and I were encouraged to draw at a very early age. Beyond the execution of the drawings, some friends have expressed curiosity over what I have chosen to draw at any given time in any given country along my travel journeys. I have told them that in many cases the subject matter is about a solution that demonstrates some form of critical thinking on behalf of the builder, designer, or local creator. In some cases, the solutions involve an elegant reduction of energy consumption, while others may have an appealing aesthetic.

Overall, I have been interested in how people live within the built environment at a sustainable level, and this exploration with drawings is about relooking at the world to gain new perspective thought firsthand observation.

The next chapter is about the power of observation, and it focuses on some ways to cultivate looking skills, starting at a young age.

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