Sustainable architecture

Sustainable architecture, also known as "Green building" (or "green architecture"), is a general term that describes environmentally-conscious design techniques in the field of architecture. Sustainable architecture is framed by the larger discussion of sustainability and the pressing economic and political issues of our world. In the broad context, sustainable architecture seeks to minimize the negative environmental impact of buildings by enhancing efficiency and moderation in the use of materials, energy, and development space.

Sustainable energy

Main articles: Low-energy house and Zero-energy building

K2 sustainable apartments in Windsor, Victoria, Australia by Hansen Yuncken (2006) features passive solar design, recycled and sustainable materials, photovoltaic cells, wastewater treatment, rainwater collection and solar hot water.

The passivhaus standard combines a variety of techniques and technologies to achieve ultra-low energy use.

Energy efficiency over the entire life cycle of a building is the most important single goal of sustainable architecture. Architects use many different techniques to reduce the energy needs of buildings and increase their ability to capture or generate their own energy.

Heating, Ventilation and Cooling System Efficiency

The most important and cost effective element of an efficient heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) system is a well insulated building. A more efficient building requires less heat generating or dissipating power, but may require more ventilation capacity to expel polluted indoor air.

Significant amounts of energy are flushed out of buildings in the water, air and compost streams. Off the shelf, on-site energy recycling technologies can effectively recapture energy from waste hot water and stale air and transfer that energy into incoming fresh cold water or fresh air. Recapture of energy for uses other than gardening from compost leaving buildings requires centralized anaerobic digesters.

Site and building orientation have a major effect on a building's HVAC efficiency.

Passive solar building design allows buildings to harness the energy of the sun efficiently without the use of any active solar mechanisms such as photovoltaic cells or solar hot water panels. Typically passive solar building designs incorporate materials with high thermal mass that retain heat effectively and strong insulation that works to prevent heat escape. Low energy designs also requires the use of (mobile) solar shading, by means of awnings, blinds or shutters, to relieve the solar heat gain in summer and to reduce the need for artificial cooling.In addition, low energy buildings typically have a very low surface area to volume ratio to minimize heat loss. This means that sprawling multi-winged building designs (often thought to look more "organic") are often avoided in favor of more centralized structures. Traditional cold climate buildings such as American colonial saltbox designs provide a good historical model for centralized heat efficiency in a small scale building.

Windows are placed to maximize the input of heat-creating light while minimizing the loss of heat through glass, a poor insulator. In the northern hemisphere this usually involves installing a large number of south-facing windows to collect direct sun and severely restricting the number of north-facing windows. Certain window types, such as double or triple glazed insulated windows with gas filled spaces and low emissivity (low-E) coatings, provide much better insulation than single-pane glass windows. Preventing excess solar gain by means of solar shading devices in the summer months is important to reduce cooling needs. Deciduous trees are often planted in front of windows to block excessive sun in summer with their leaves but allow light through in winter when their leaves fall off. Louvers or light shelves are installed to allow the sunlight in during the winter (when the sun is lower in the sky) and keep it out in the summer (when the sun high in the sky). Coniferous or evergreen plants are often planted to the north of buildings to shield against cold north winds.

In colder climates, heating systems are a primary focus for sustainable architecture because they are typically one of the largest single energy drains in buildings.

In warmer climates where cooling is a primary concern, passive solar designs can also be very effective. Masonry building materials with high thermal mass are very valuable for retaining the cool temperatures of night throughout the day. In addition builders often opt for sprawling single story structures in order to maximize surface area and heat loss. Buildings are often designed to capture and channel existing winds, particularly the especially cool winds coming from nearby bodies of water. Many of these valuable strategies are employed in some way by the traditional architecture of warm regions, such as south-western mission buildings.

In climates with four seasons, an integrated energy system will increase in efficiency: when the building is well insulated, when it is sited to work with the forces of nature, when heat is recaptured (to be used immediately or stored), when the heat plant relying on fossil fuels or electricity is greater than 100% efficient, and when renewable energy is utilized.

Alternative energy production and building design

Active solar devices such as photovoltaic solar panels help to provide sustainable electricity for any use. Roofs are often angled toward the sun to allow photovoltaic panels to collect at maximum efficiency, and some buildings even move throughout the day to follow the sun. The Samundra Institute of Maritime Studies (SIMS) at Lonavala, near Pune India, has the longest photovoltaic wall in the world, at over ninety meters long. Undersized wind turbines (normal turbines are often over 250 feet) may have been oversold and do not always provide the returns promised, particularly for North American households.[1] Active solar water heating systems have long provided heating-specific energy in a sustainable manner. Occasionally houses that use a combination of these methods achieve the lofty goal of "zero energy" and can even begin generating excess energy for use in other structures: for example the Kingspan Lighthouse project by BRE.

Building placement

One central and often ignored aspect of sustainable architecture is building placement. Although many may envision the ideal environmental home or office structure as an isolated place in the middle of the woods, this kind of placement is often detrimental to the environment. First, such structures often serve as the unknowing frontlines of suburban sprawl. Second, they usually increase the energy consumption required for transportation and lead to unnecessary auto emissions. Ideally, most building should avoid suburban sprawl in favor of the kind of light urban development articulated by the New Urbanist movement. Careful mixed use zoning can make commercial, residential, and light industrial areas more accessible for those traveling by foot, bicycle, or public transit, as proposed in the Principles of Intelligent Urbanism.

Sustainable building materials

Some examples of sustainable building materials include recycled denim or blown-in fiber glass insulation, sustainably harvested wood, Trass, Linoleum, sheep wool, panels made from paper flakes, baked earth, rammed earth, clay, vermiculite, flax linnen, sisal, seegrass, cork, expanded clay grains, coconut, wood fibre plates, calcium sand stone and bamboo, which is one of the strongest and fastest growing woody plants, and non-toxic low-VOC glues and paints.

Waste management

Sustainable architecture focuses on the on-site use of waste, incorporating things such as grey water systems for use on garden beds, and composting toilets to reduce sewage. These methods, when combined with on-site food waste composting and off-site recycling, can reduce a house's waste to a small amount of packaging waste.

Re-using structures and materials

Some sustainable architecture incorporates recycled or second hand materials. The reduction in use of new materials creates a corresponding reduction in embodied energy (energy used in the production of materials). Often sustainable architects attempt to retro-fit old structures to serve new needs in order to avoid unnecessary development.

Social sustainability in architecture

Architectural design can play a large part in influencing the ways that social groups interact. Communist Russia's Constructivist Social condensers are a good example of this, buildings which were designed with the specific intention of controlling or directing the flow of everyday life to "create socially equitable spaces".

Sustainable design can help to create a sustainable way of living within a community. While the existing social constructs can be seen to influence architecture, the opposite can also be true. An overtly socially sustainable building, if successful, can help people to see the benefit of living sustainably; this can be seen in many of Rural Studio's buildings in and around Hale County, Alabama, for example. The same can be said for environmentally sustainable design, in that architecture can lead the way for the greater community.

Art can be a powerfully positive social force. It can help to reduce stress in many situations, lowering the risk of stress-related health problems, both physical and mental. Art can also be a way of individual expression, which can add to the community as a whole. Hundertwasser's buildings in Austria are an inspiring example of art giving back to the community.

Designers noted for their contribution to sustainable architecture

• Ashok "Bihari" Lall
• Brenda and Robert Vale
• Buckminster Fuller
• BV Doshi
• Charles Correa
• Edward Mazria
• Eric Corey Freed
• Glenn Murcutt
• Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum
• James Wines
• Ken Yeang
• Kirksey
• Laurie Baker
• Manit Rastogi
• Michael Reynolds
• Michael Sorkin
• Mithun, Inc
• Morphogenesis Architecture Studio
• Norman Foster
• Renzo Piano
• Sim Van der Ryn
• Tom Bender
• Walter Segal
• William McDonough
• Sauerbruch Hutton

Criticism

Sustainable architecture, it can be argued, does not rigorously form a part of architecture as a discipline. Rather, it is a concern in the building construction industry as a whole, and given the dominance of construction techniques and building subsystems, it should be considered a part of civil engineering as a discipline. Numerous schools of architecture shun "sustainable architecture" as a part of their curriculum, and it is considered to be a fashionable subject at the moment. A number of architects practicing this type of architecture have been criticized as exploiting a dominant concern in the name of architecture in order to gain reputability and garner profits.

See also

• Building Automation
• Deconstruction (building)
• Fab Tree Hab: 100% Ecological Home
• Green Globe
• New Urbanism
• Organic architecture
• Passive house
• Passive solar design
• Passivhaus
• Principles of Intelligent Urbanism
• Renewable heat
• Solar chimney
• Straw-bale construction
• Superinsulation
• Sustainable landscape architecture
• Vernacular architecture
• Windcatcher

External links

• Sustainable Architecture information from the University of Michigan
• Green Architecture- Building with recycled materials
• Building Ecology BuildingEcology.com - information, resources and links for sustainable building, indoor environmental quality, indoor air quality, energy efficient design and more.
• the NEXT Building Standard
• Learn about green prefab housing design
• US Green Building Council-- leading source for green design/building information
• Green roof design: Growing element of sustainable architecture