International architect to look at sustainability in 'Green Design for the 21st Century' lecture

Architect Chris Butters, a faculty member at the University of Oslo in Norway, will present "Green Design for the 21st Century: Sustainable architecture and cities in Scandinavia and Europe" Monday, March 30, at 7 p.m. in the Buntrock Commons ballroom at St. Olaf College. The lecture is free and open to the public.

To illustrate the possibilities of sustainability, Butters will show examples of buildings and urban developments in Europe that have high social qualities and almost zero energy use or climate emissions. He also will discuss deeper issues related to creating sustainability in developing countries.

Born in South Africa in 1950, Butters received a degree in literature from Stellenbosch University in 1970, a degree in architecture in 1978 from the University of Montpellier, France, and a postgraduate degree in energy planning in 1979 from the University of Oslo. He has written extensively on issues of development as they relate to ecology and local culture. Butters has helped design sustainable communities and buildings throughout Europe, Scandinavia and Taiwan, and he spent a decade as a consultant architect for schools and hospitals in Bhutan. Butters is a course leader for "Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development" at the International Summer School, University of Oslo, Norway, and an architect and consultant for GAIA Architects.