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Sustainable Architecture
sustainable architecture and how it help the environment research paper
Sustainable Architecture
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Sustainable design steadily becomes the architecture catch phrase of the day, being thrown around to make us aware that everything we “design” has an environmental burden. Many designers, architects and builders have installed the “idea of green” into their buildings to demonstrate a potential to improve performance and reduce costs through sustainable strategies. Despite all this one fact remains, that is the enviable depletion of fossil fuels, and without a major overhaul of our society, our economy and our politics, the ideas of “sustainable design” are just band-aids on the bigger problem. In the 1970's Bill Mollison and David Holmgren decided to create a design system for sustainability, looking to create a harmony between humans and the land they live on. From this the original incarnation Permaculture was born and over the years it has evolved into a vision of sustainable culture.
Permaculture has an ideal for the world, for everyone to live in a permanently sustainable culture, a method to allow the human race to continue and exist indefinitely on the resources available to us. It is a highly idealistic goal, but a goal that might have to become a reality. To achieve this goal, as you would expect, the ideas behind the movement cover a very broad and complex scope. Even though it started as a method for sustainable agriculture, it has evolved and grown to cover more than just gardening “Permaculture is not the landscape, or even the skills of organic gardening, sustainable farming, energy efficient building or eco-village development as such. But it can be used to design, establish, manage and improve these and all other efforts made by individuals, households and communities towards a sustainable future.” (page xix PPB...
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... spread of some innovative design solutions that illustrate Permaculture principles, but that it has been less effective in spreading the system and design thinking which underlies those solutions.” (PPBS) Mike Reynolds is an architect that created and specialises in what is known as “Earthship Biotecture”, a form of architecture which share the exact same goals as that of Permaculture. Implementing passive design, creating long lasting sustainable design practises, and independence on foils fuels or the “grid”. One of the interesting concepts which they share is how they use recycled materials, Permaculture and Earthship design both celebrate the use of “waste” into their schemes, giving a visual representation of the objects that they recycle.“if modern living generates rubbish, pollution and waste, then it is childish and naive to try to hide and ignore it” (PPBS)
“Houses are machines for living in,” as Le Corbusier once said. One could say that a building is one of the largest and most used machine in existence today. So why is it that this particular type of machine is so inefficient? A new precedent for design inspiration is needed to mitigate the impact that buildings have on the environment. A machine can be defined as a device that uses energy to perform an activity. Nature, which uses solar energy, can therefore be said to be the most sustainable machine. So why not use this as a model to base building design and construction off of? Biomimicry, or the study of nature’s models which are then imitated or used for inspiration, is a process to solve design problems.
In earlier years, observing nature brought happiness. One look around at the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee or at Lindsey’s Rainbow Farm in Arkansas showed everything the world offered—tall grassy fields, magnificent black bears, chilly fall nights, clear streams, slimy trout, and the warmth of the sun on my face at sunset. Breathtaking sights awaited us around every corner. Nature seemed endless. Today, places such as these appear to be found less and less. With the expansion of not only civilization but also its economy, Americans slowly destroy the once symbiotic relationship between nature and community. Americans face such a difficult situation due to the way we live our lives—specifically, the way we obtain our food.
Earthship design is a movement initiated by Michael Reynolds. Earthship Biotecture is a method of architecture and design that incorporates recycled materials, earthen materials, and renewable energy sources into a sustainable and self-sufficient home. The purpose of this according to Michael Reynolds it to achieve energy independence, sustainable housing, and relieve the burdens of stress on the environment from conventional building methods while keeping cost minimal. Utilizing waste and earthen materials, Michael was able to construct comfortable living, beautiful architectural design, and self-sufficiency with sustainable technologies. In achieving low cost construction methods, as little as $20 a square foot, a new way of living can be imagined in which utilities, mortgages, and sustenance cost are reduced. This reduction in expenses provide for the availability of greater opportunities due to decreased economic constraints, but furthermore provides a cost effective and sustainable method for supplying homes for those stricken with poverty.
In the past century, with the help of the industrial revolution, architecture has reached new levels of ingenuity and innovation. New materials and machines have been created to make buildings bigger and better but something we are beginning to realize is that with this sudden acceleration of technology we have lost any regard to the ground we are building on. Because we have discovered our own ways of creating things, our environment is being left behind in a haze of smog. Perhaps we have built our skyscrapers so high that we believe we are closer to space than the earth. We disconnect ourselves from the planet and pretend that the problems the w...
A varied sequence of crops provides benefits that a monoculture cannot. A monoculture is an unnatural system; the relationship between soil, plants, and climate is designed to be balanced by diversity. A carefully planned rotation that considers as many aspects of this relationship as possible is a significant step toward establishing sustainability. Although not all the effects of rotatio...
The term “permaculture” was coined in 1978 by Bill Mollison, an Australian ecologist, with one of his students, David Holmgren. It is a contraction of “permanent agriculture” and also “permanent culture.” Permaculture is a relatively broad term subject to interpretation, but generally it is a design system for creating sustainable human environments. The aim is to create systems that are ecologically sound and economically feasible, which do not damage or pollute and are therefore sustainable in the long term. It is based on the careful observation of natural ecosystems, the value of traditional farming practices, and modern scientific and technological knowledge (Mollison, 1991).
Urban Homesteading can be defined in three ways, one, “a suburban or city home in which residents practice self-sufficiency through home food production and storage” (The Urban Homestead). The second definition is, “the home and garden of a person or family engaging in sustainable small-scale agriculture and related activities designed to reduce environmental impact and increase self-sufficiency”. The final definition is, “a name describing the home of a person or family living by principals of low-impact, sustainable self-sufficiency through activities such as gardening for food production, cottage industry, extensive recycling, and generally simple living”. Farms and gardens in a urban setting has a long history, before present day technologies
Yan, J. & Plainiotis, S. (2006): Design for Sustainability. Beijing, China: Architecture and Building Press.
"Various parameters such as geographical location, climatic conditions, occupation, culture and tradition of the society/ community decide these principles in a specific set up and make the structures sustainable in all respects." (Jayasudha, Dhanasekaran, Devadas, & Ramachandran, 2014, p. 762). "Vernacular architecture based on bioclimatic concepts was developed and used through the centuries by many civilizations across the world. Different civilizations have produced their own architectural styles based on the local conditions" (Singh, Mahapatra, & Atreya,
In contemporary Western culture there is in an increasing withdrawal into the mechanisation and artificializing of spaces, which causes difficulty with experiencing the natural environment. “Architects and designers of inhabited spaces construct barriers to the external environment that are both physical and psychological.” (Hay, pg. 1) In this paper titled ‘Outside as Inside’ Hay discusses the question of alternative modes of design thinking and it’s potential to opening up the supposed boundaries of the built environment to what exists beyond it. To do this she examines what has led humans in Western cultures to develop such enclosed dwellings, considers the effects of technology on how humans live and interact with their environment, and explains the potential of learning from simpler vernacular dwellings of other cultures.
Kellert, S. R., 2005. Building for Life: Designing and Understanding the Human-Nature Connection. 1st ed. Washington, DC: Island Press. .
The beginnings of today's green revolution can be traced back to the environmental awareness of the 1960s and European design. New construction techniques have lead to the development of innovative materials and design concepts. Green buildings are designed, constructed and commissioned to ensure they are healthy for their occupants. Successfully designed green projects can involve an extensive array of factors, ranging from the resourceful use of materials, to careful consideration of function, climate, and location.
Agriculture is one of the most ancient forms of art and science that ties human development and well-being to natural resources and ecosystems. (Fritz J. Häni, 2007) Sustainable Agriculture is the production of food, fibre, plant and animal products using farming techniques that protect the environment, public health, human communities and animal welfare. (Sustainable Agriculture - The Basics, 2015) Sustainable agriculture is an integrated system of plant and animal production practices having a site – specific application that over the long term will:
Sustainable design seeks to reduce negative impacts on the environment, the health and comfort of building occupants, thereby improving building performance. The basic objects of sustainability are to reduce consumption of non-renewable resources, minimal waste, and create healthy, productive environments (“Sustainable Design”). Focusing primarily on the sustainable design principles, there are five, including: low-impact materials, energy efficiency, quality and durability, design for reuse and recycling, and renewability. As sustainability appears to become the necessary trend in architecture, the question concerning the cost versus outcome of “going green” really an investment or a waste of time and money comes to mind. With our research provided below, we believe the expenses may truly be with the investment in the end.
... architectures would led to a more organic organization beneficial to the people that choose to make their lives in this city. Although this model of a sustainable city is not a perfectly closed loop, it lays the foundation for one that is. Over time, with constantly evolving and improving technology and new methods of design from the scale of products to buildings, the gaps in the loop could be closed, and a “true” sustainable city could be fully realized.