As U.S. residents celebrate the nation's 232nd birthday this holiday weekend, many Chicago area homeowners, while appreciating the country's proud history, are considering the nation's (and the world's) future in terms of protecting the environment.

A new exhibit at the Chicago Architecture Foundation, "Green with Desire: Can We Live Sustainably in Our Homes?" explores how homes determine the quality of our lives -- and the health of the planet.

" 'Green with Desire' challenges myths about sustainable living. It goes far beyond the offering of simple solutions," said Gregory Dreicer, the CAF's vice president of exhibitions and programs.

"We are inundated with 'green-wash' -- the marketing of products that claim to protect the environment," he said. "People think that by buying things, they can buy their way into sustainability.

"But preserving and maintaining what you have is the most sustainable thing you can do. It's all about how you live, how you define comfort," he said.

For example, Dreicer noted how people tend to use a large amount of lights all over their homes, on the exterior as well as the interior.

"Most people over-light, in homes and in businesses too. It's way more than you need. Just turn out those lights you're not using," he said.

Refrigeration is another example. "People throw out one-quarter of their food," Dreicer said. This is food that had been cooled, and it was shipped around, too. The average meal in the United States travels 1,200 miles from the farm to your plate, according to Climatecrisis.net. "You're tossing out all that cooling."

Long, hot showers are a staple in many households in the Chicago area, with hot water heaters on duty at all times. After all, Lake Michigan has plenty of affordable water for residents all over the area. But Dreicer points out that fresh water is a scarcity in many areas throughout the world. "Everyone expects a hot heater on all the time. You're using incredible quantities of water," he said. "A lot of people don't have that luxury."

One measure homeowners can take is to use more efficient water heaters. But Dreicer feels that simply using less energy whenever possible is essential: less heat, less cooling, less water, etc.

Notable artifacts in the exhibit include original furnishings of Mies van der Rohe's twin apartment towers at 860 and 880 N. Lake Shore Drive. The architect's steel-and-glass towers were his first buildings to be designated as Chicago Landmarks. Mies even considered residing in one of the buildings, but he feared being hassled with various complaints from neighbors, it's noted at Archiseek.com.

"The 860/880 Mies buildings are famous for their windows. They have incredible views," Dreicer said. "But with those large windows there is an enormous amount of energy used to prevent people from baking in summer and freezing in winter. In the past, you could open the windows and now you can't, but that's another issue.

"We are offering a unique experience that encourages people to think about how we might live green in homes not designed for sustainable living, which is what we inhabit," he said. Older homes, which comprise much of the housing stock in the city and throughout the area as well, were not designed with the same energy efficiency as houses in the modern era.

Visitors to the exhibition will find household scenes in a giant green installation (which looks somewhat like a house in the framing stage). Building components, advertising materials, publications, artwork, photographs, drawings and video are presented. The environmental impact of daily activities (like refrigerating food and taking a shower) are considered.

"Green with Desire" guides visitors to question their behavior: Can you buy your way out of global warming? What are the consequences of continuing a lifestyle based on lavish consumption of water and fuel? How can you reduce waste?

The exhibition presents case studies of typical housing types in the Chicago area, including public housing, bungalows, upscale high-rise buildings and suburban one-level houses. The exhibition addresses the big questions about how we live, while providing information about strategies for conserving energy. Visitors are urged to consider the issues that address climate change and other urgent challenges facing the environment.

Homes represent a mountain of materials, energy, money and emotions, and they are built to accommodate buyers' sense of status, comfort, convenience and privacy.

" 'Green with Desire' encourages people to think about what they desire in their homes. These values will determine how green their homes, city and world will become," Dreicer said.

"It's the first exhibition to focus on the fundamental issues behind sustainable construction," he said. "Typically, exhibitions on green design present architectural magazine-like displays and celebrate new products. Because most people will not have the opportunity to build new homes and many cannot afford alterations such as window replacement, it is critical to promote understanding of the relationships between expectations of home and how one lives there. With this understanding, and with knowledge of how home construction shapes daily life, the public can begin to consider how sustainable their homes might become."