With concerns of sustainability in every facet of our lives, the question of how sustainable architecture reimagines our future is never far from the lips and minds of architectural practitioners. The topic has and continues to be mulled over as solutions, and counter-solutions, new ways of thinking are formulated. More than ever, with climate change issues on the rise, practitioners are looking into how the built environment can coexist with the natural environment. The natural environment is the best teacher of how sustainability works in structures, and more than ever, practitioners are embodying the natural world in design, material composition, and in technologies that make use of natural sources like solar energy.
Sustainability Within the Built Environment
Buildings, along with agriculture, energy, industry, transport, and land, are among the main sectors that cause greenhouse gas emissions, according to the United Nations. With climate change threatening and impacting the efficiency and comfort of human lives, sustainable measures are being taken to secure our future. Sustainability in this case is perceived as the salve to climate change catastrophes such as heat waves or mass flooding. One of the ways to combat climate change is to switch to renewable sources of energy, like solar power or wind energy. Sustainable architecture hereon is not just a trend but essential for both the planet and all its inhabitants.
Reciprocity
How sustainable infrastructure reimagines our future is that it melds beauty, responsibility, and the future as an objective of all architectural practices. It imagines structures that adapt to changing weather patterns as opposed to them reacting to climate change, eg, walls to repel sea waves as opposed to walls that allow the waves to occur without causing havoc to settlements, or simply avoiding construction close to sea lines. Sustainability practices are conscious decisions from the initial stage of construction. Sustainable buildings today are those that lean into practices that encourage the use of renewable resources that minimise waste and also lower the demand for new resources. The most common practice is the use of solar panels, recycled( plastics, steel) or reclaimed materials(mostly wood). The goal is to allow for reciprocity between the natural and the built environments. The use of bamboo, which grows fast, is also another common practice.
Model Sustainable Buildings
In major cities like Amsterdam, Seattle, or even Milan, which are populous and house residential complexes along workspaces, a common practice here is the incorporation of green walls and roofs. Green roofs and walls not only make a building aesthetic but also greatly help with insulation. Cities are notorious for air pollution, and the green walls and roofs come in handy in improving air quality. The Verticale Bosco Buildings in Milan, for instance, can host over 900
trees and 2500 plants, greatly providing the residents with clean and fresh air. Green roofs also help with rainwater management, which leads us to the other practice— water conservation. Water shortages, which correlate with food shortages, are also common in cities. The greenery also makes use of superfluous water which is absorbed by the soil underneath the vegetation. As a result, these buildings become not only sources of food but also of water. Through such activities, sustainable buildings end up minimizing water wastage. Rainwater/mist collection is another practice.
Challenges Towards Sustainability
But the transition to sustainability is never seamless. The use of renewable sources of energy, or the use of solar power, or bio-based technologies alone, is not enough. A rational approach to how sustainable architecture reimagines our future, therefore acknowledges these challenges. Michael Green, a Canadian architect and author of The Case of Tall Wood Buildings, talks about how, inasmuch as the future of sustainability is looking bright, it’s still a paradox. In North America alone, buildings represent about 39% of the greenhouse gas emissions, which is way higher than those produced by the transportation system, which is 23%. Green says, “I don’t believe that word, ‘sustainable building’ or ‘sustainable practice’ is true in most cases. And the reason is that the built environment uses an enormous amount of the world’s resources, and far too few of these come from renewable resources.”
The Politics of Climate Change
Climate change is still considered a trivial topic in most governments across the world. Across the world, most governments have yet to lay down laws that regulate the building industry in line with sustainability goals. They seldom provide incentives to support and facilitate sustainable architectural practices. Transitioning to green energy, for instance, is a slow process full of many policy and implementation hurdles. It is also more expensive to switch to eco-friendly technologies and materials. Maintenance of rooftop gardens or care for vertical plants is another challenge. A lot of planning goes into making sure the vegetation is healthy and thriving. But the race has just started, and there’s so much room for development.
