Juli Capella has designed hotels with massive solar roofs and office buildings with living facades, but he doesn’t believe in the existance of a truly sustainable building. “It’s by definition because you are creating something that wasn’t there, that will need energy”.

This doesn’t mean builders should just give up in their efforts for more eco-friendly constructions, but we should avoid all the labels and instead “every building should have an awareness that the world will end”.

While he holds architects and designers accountable for buildings that are at least more friendly to the environment than the norm, Capella avoids the obvious totems to sustainability. On one Barcelona hotel he placed 92 hot water solar panels on the roof, but wanting to avoid the appearance of an “eco friendly hat” he camoflaged them inside a pergola so they could provide shade to rooftop visitors.

In this video, Capella shows us some of his “more sustainable” structures and explains his vision for architecture and why “eco-friendly skyscrapers” make him mad.

We also have videos with Cappella on design as happiness, design to save the world and a second look at Slow Design.