From oxford dictionary the word sustainability means “conserving an ecological balance by avoiding depletion of natural resources” so sustainable architecture is the form of architecture which has less negative impact to the environment. The designed space must be friendly to the environment. This type of architecture focus on impacts of buildings to the environment, then those impacts must be minimized.

      Sustainable architecture has many other names such as Eco-housing, green development, sustainable design, environmentally sound housing, it has as many names as it has definitions, sustainability also became known as "green" architecture. Rocky Mountain Institute, in its "Primer on Sustainable Building", flexibly describes this kind of architecture as "taking less from the Earth and giving more to people." In sustainable architecture the building become part of the environment.


A building with plants on a wall, this helps the façade of the building to be more environmental friendly

      Sustainable architecture must control environment within the building as well as outside the building. This means that environment within a building must be comfort, that is thermal comfort, visual comfort, acoustic pleasing & adequate ventilation. Also the building must have less impact on the outside environment, that is no glare effects, no island temperature (there are buildings which rise the temperature of the surrounding) and bring comfort-ability to pedestrians around it.

In buildings sustainability can be achieved by considering the following;

• Design of the building.
• Materials used.
• Energy used to power the building.

Design

    The design of the building is important since this is the stage where the designer develops the concept of the building, the designer (architect) must take in hand sustainability during the early stages of the design. By considering sustainability during the design stage, it will help to come to with a certain building orientation and form which is environmental friendly & sustainable. It is in this stage where the designers choose where to put windows and doors, if the windows are placed in a place where the sun rays go directly to the room and disturb thermal comfort of the room, that won’t be good. In this stage it is better to consider sustainable design so that we can control nature elements such as wind, sun& rain or at least use them for our benefits.

Materials

     Materials can be used to have positive impacts to the environment. Proper selection of materials to be used in a building is vital towards sustainable architecture. We all love to use/see glasses in tall buildings in town, but in reality there are glasses which have negative impact to the environment, they produce glare effects and rise the temperature of the surroundings also the building demand much energy to cool itself. This doesn’t mean that glasses are bad, but there are good glasses which are sustainable. The usage of natural materials such as stones, wood, natural fibers, native metals & composites are good in sustainability. The usage of recycled materials; the reduction in use of new materials create a corresponding reduction in embodied energy (energy used in the production of materials). Often sustainable architects attempt to retrofit old structures to serve new needs in order to avoid unnecessary development. Industrial materials can be employed in construction but they must have low/no negative effect in environment.

Energy

    It is better to use renewable energy in the powering of our buildings since they are non-poultice and cost effective. The proposed dynamic tower in Dubai is self-powered building and has the ability of powering another five buildings of its kind, and it is powered by wind (renewable energy). There are so many buildings today which use environmental elements such as wind, sun, geothermal, thunderstorm as their source of energy. It is better now to look on this side of energy source rather than sticking in fossil energy such as oil which has negative impacts on environment. 75% of energy produced is used by buildings, then it is important to use energy which has less or no negative effects to the environment.


                                         A house with solar panels at the roof




      If we consider those three things (design, materials, and energy) in building, then we are making our building sustainable and we will take less from the environment.
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