DUVIVIER ARCHITECTS pioneered the integration of water resources and architecture. Their accomplishments in sustainable building design, mapping, watershed and wetland conservation, and graphic representation advance the professional/public conversation and understanding of architecture, environmental and water resources.
DUVIVIER ARCHITECTS provides a full range of design services, including architectural design, urban design and planning and ecological mapping, with an emphasis on water resources and sustainiblility.
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ISABELLE DUVIVIER, FAIA, LEED AP
As an advocate for and expert in coordinating the built environment with watershed health, Duvivier’s architectural practice approaches every project with that mindset. The outcome is an innovative, logical, and holistic design integrating water resources and showing architecture’s broader context and environmental impact.
Duvivier’s advancement is critical to bringing the newly emerging field of watershed management to architecture. By managing water resources in and around buildings, she demonstrates how saving precious water supplies can improve quality of all water bodies and save energy. According to the California Energy Commission, one-fifth of California’s energy goes to moving water; in the United States, 13% of the total energy produced each year is used to treat, transport and heat our water. By creating buildings and sites that conserve and reuse water, Duvivier’s projects conserve energy.
Isabelle Duvivier is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. She is licensed to practice architecture in the state of California #C 26807, and received her Masters Degree in Architecture from the University of California at Berkeley in 1992.
Architecture
Duvivier’s water expertise encompasses design and construction:
Her LEED Platinum Brooks project was awarded the 2013 Innovation Award from the local chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the 2012 Outstanding Home of the Year by the National USGBC, and is one of the top 10 green homes in California. It has been widely published and toured by hundreds.
- At the Center for Environmental and Urban Studies at Santa Monica College, Duvivier’s early vision and subsequent building and garden designs instigated and advanced the College’s sustainable building program.
- A three-time recipient of the Sustainable Quality Award for “stewardship of the natural environment, economic development and social responsibility” by the City of Santa Monica and its Chamber of Commerce, Duvivier was the first architect to receive the award.
Urban Design
Wetlands and estuaries soak up storm water runoff from further inland before it gets to the ocean, help clean the water, and serve as incubators of life. They are also the places most impacted by construction, infrastructure and our collective lack of environmental awareness upstream and further inland. Duvivier developed public interfaces for three important wetlands/estuaries.
Her Ballona Wetlands design established guidelines for public access and a blueprint for future communication.
Her Malibu Lagoon Project is the first designed to naturally prevent runoff from polluting the world famous Surfrider Beach, resulting in tremendous improvements in water quality.
Her exhaustive analysis of environmental and socio-economic connectivity at the Port of LA—the second largest in the world–resulted in a pedestrian waterfront plan, the first step toward increasing regional awareness of the impact of upstream pollution and the need for public interface.
Mapping
Through her research, Duvivier focuses on the critical need to incorporate watershed vocabulary into discussions of place and on reinforcing connections between energy use and water resources.
In her work, she invents tools that easily and clearly communicate the merging of architecture and spatial awareness to a wide range of audiences, from 5th graders to governments and utility agencies. Duvivier was the first international Green Map Network mapmaker to create a graphically enhanced, technically accurate watershed map. Her maps have inspired global resource agencies and mapmakers to rethink conventional borders and recognize that human-defined boundaries mean nothing to rain, pollution and bird migration. Duvivier uses maps to make difficult infrastructure concepts understandable. Her watershed maps serve as international references—from India to Africa to Japan—and have been viewed by thousands at Japan Expo and 20 other international venues. They are in the permanent collection of the Library of Congress and the New York, Los Angeles and Toronto Public Libraries. The Rockefeller Foundation invited Duvivier to the Bellagio Mapmakers Summit in Italy, resulting in the Green Map Atlas and website, a resource for developing nations including Cuba, Nigeria, Uganda and Romania with more than 200,000 downloads to date.
Duvivier has spearheaded public and professional education on the impact of human behavior on urban watersheds. Through her architecture, site planning, and maps, she celebrates water conservation and infrastructure, offering special insight to complex environmental issues. Duvivier was an invited speaker on Green Infrastructure at the H2O conference in San Diego in 2013, Green Urbanism at the 2006 National AIA Convention, and Mapping at the 2000 APA Convention and is a leading environmental advocate for the architectural profession in the international urban watershed movement.
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SERVICES AND CLIENTS
Sustainability Consulting:
Community Redevelopment Agency, City Of Los Angeles (CRA)
San Pedro Water Community Organizations
Harbor Watts Economic Development Corporation
Urban / Park Design:
California State Coastal Conservancy (SCC
County of Los Angeles
Map Making:
City of Santa Monica, Office of Sustainability
County of Los Angeles
Santa Monica Pier Aquarium
Architecture:
Los Angeles Shakespeare Academy
Ibiza restaurant
Los Amigos de Los Rios
Sae Lee Boutiques
Santa Monica Pier Aquarium
Santa Monica College – Center for Urban Environmental Studies (CEUS)
Private Individuals
LECTURES
Pepperdine University
TEACHING
OTIS College of Art and Design
UCLA Extension
Sustainable Building Advisor Program
Santa Monica College
Loyola Marymount University
Santa Monica High School
University of California Berkely
CONFERENCE PRESENTER
State of the Bay Conference, Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission
ArtsDay LA – UCLA extension 2009
Environmental Industry Summit 2008
Alt Built 2009, 2008 and 2005
American Institute of Architects 2006
American Planning Association Conference 2000
AFFILIATIONS
U.S. Green Building Council
LEED 2.0 Accredited Professionnal
American Institute of Architects
Committee on the Environment – Past Co-Chair
Association of Women in Architecture
President (1998-1999)
Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition
Founding Board Member
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Augusta Quirk
Lisa Gizara
Andrew Steinman
Clark Davis
Steve Lamme
Isabelle Duvivier