Architecture has evolved for ages with different phases and with the development of surroundings. From Stone Age to Iron Age and from post-modernism to deconstructivism, architecture has been advanced through its forms, materials, and style.
During the ruler’s era the importance was given to the forts and their big open spaces as gardens or lawns, with passing time and increase in population the vertical development took place which was important at that phase rather than big open spaces which slowly turned out as concrete jungles with repetition of buildings creating monotony among a certain area.
In the current scenario where the world has developed compactly with skyscrapers and the least amount of open space for every person who has utilized the resources to the fullest and even has led to over usage or waste of the resources, is now leading towards the sustainable form of living.
Sustainability comes from the basic 3R’s, that is, reduce, reuse, and recycling of the resources. Strategies are being developed for buildings to be self-sustaining and do not depend on any other sources for their needs.
Green buildings are now a mandatory concept for any city. The laws have also changed through time so that everyone adapts to the current scenario and provides services accordingly.
Futures of the cities are dependent on sustainable infrastructure, and to make sustainable cities like Zürich, a city in Switzerland that has a waste recycling system and operates totally on solar and geothermal energies, needs to adapt the advanced technologies. Its 82% of electricity comes from renewable sources, 43% of waste is recycled and 74% of hotels and stays are sustainably certified, through these designs reduced the load on the external sources and the government.
Sustainability is a key to all the problems for today and tomorrow. Economic growth, gender growth, society growth, individual growth, and common growth for every element on the planet, all will grow under sustainability.
In this era of global warming and environmental damage that has been caused majorly by humans, there needs to be some compensation that humans need to do from their side to patch-up some amount of the damage and to assure the safety of the future of all other species and reduce the careless act which would destroy the future as a whole. It needs to be applied in every sector of development so that the environment recovers its damage in a shorter time and gives us back its pure form.
Future relies on saving the environment through every medium and architecture; it can be done through buildings or campuses which would have zero carbon footprint or net-zero buildings.
Giving back some part of nature by providing terraces, gardens or lawns on each built-up structure. Then this decade would limit their usage of resources and have alternatives, and then only the next generations would be able to take advantage of those alternatives and the other leftover resources.
“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
– Gro Harlem Brundtland
Today people imagine the future as any sci-fi movie where there are flying cars, advanced electronic gadgets, houses with fully automatic systems, and everything based on advanced technology. Due to technological advancement, people have lost touch within themselves and are only indulging in gadgets and the use of spaces by the public is reduced.
In 2020, at the time of the coronavirus, everyone experienced certain anxiety issues due to not having any public contacts or interactions and also due to the restriction of spaces. The importance of public interaction, freedom from technology, and public spaces was considered and people became more sensitive towards the public relation part as they had seen the consequences of not having one.
The future would be more on public development and making the life of the people more comfortable not in terms of physically but also mentally. Mental development through visual connectivity, as eyes play a major role in keeping the mind calm.
Watching huge density of buildings around you with more car noise, pollution would give mental disturbance and destroy the calmness of that area whereas giving green pockets between the built-up areas and buildings with green elements like roof gardens or vertical gardening gives a peaceful environment which soothes the soul and mind.
“Sustainable development is the peace polity of the future.”
-DR. Klaus Topfer
The world is moving more towards the renewable resources in each sector, diesel/petrol cars are being shifted to electrical cars and the electricity is majorly generated through solar power plants, all these cycles developed through technology are preserving the nature and that what all we need right now for the humans and other species to exits for a longer period.
