History has taught us two essential lessons: humans have an incredible potential to destroy the built environment of all living beings while building their own, but they also can repair it through better designs.
How will architecture develop in the future?
In the last two decades, sustainable living has become a part of our life. We have evolved from the reckless era of consumerism to the age of sustainable building of everything, from our coffee cups to our furniture. Architects and designers are gradually learning to create buildings that are not only less harmful but also healthy for the earth. However, sustainable design involves more than simply the construction of green roofs and the sun’s radiation with solar cells. The design of a green, sustainable building is quite thoughtful. All that involves creating the building needs to be understood properly and its environmental impact is taken into account.
Dr. Frank Heinlein, the director of business communications of the Werner Sobek Group, defines Sustainable Development as, “On average, ZERO energy from external sources is required for achieving sustainability. ZERO carbon dioxide or other emissions to humans or the environment should be produced. And last but not least: ZERO wastage should be left when the infrastructure is renovated or destroyed.”
We may not be populating Mars or building man-made space stations anytime soon. But rapid urbanization due to expanded financial production and human population expansion has driven the advancement of buildings that have no contact with their environment or occupants. Building and construction industry is considered to be one of the most important contributors to many of the challenges facing our world today. The climate issue has shown that our cities and the surroundings we are living in are not well planned. The high carbon emissions are driven by both architecture and construction.
With only ten years to cut global CO2 emissions by 45 percent (or otherwise), we require revolutionary solutions spanning corporations, government, and all sectors of the community. Fortunately, the design community is aware of the issue. We need a multi-disciplinary holistic approach to thrive on the planet; which requires an open understanding to transition from a net-zero approach to a net-positive approach.
What is Sustainability?
Sustainability is a concept that emerges as a result of the collaboration of economic, social, and ecological solutions. In theory, it refers to “the re-connection of human aspirations and behaviors with the evolution of natural environments, i.e., co-evolution.
In this sense, we must bring into questioning the concept of sustainability, which has been prevalent for decades. Our current approach and interpretation of sustainability are simply failing because they are based on a mechanistic perspective. The new strategy should aim to minimize or mitigate the harmful environmental effects of development, but do we have a sustainable planet if green and sustainable buildings are the primary goal of carbon neutrality? We must ask ourselves questions such as, “What are we sustaining?” How can a truly sustainable future be established?
Although architects and designers cannot tackle huge global issues on their own, they are among the most essential participants in this crucial debate. Buildings that generate more energy than they consume, ethnically diverse biodiversity corridors, and adaptable designs that can endure harsh weather and migratory populations are examples of systemic changes that are emerging and are the future of architectural designs of sustainable cities. This type of challenging approach will provide the forward movement required to regenerate our planet while also making it more inclusive and beneficial for people, flora, and wildlife alike.
Present green rating systems, such as LEED, UGBC, BREEAM, and GRIHA, use a mechanical approach, separating the project site into components and viewing each element as a point. Ecology points are subsumed in the category of landscaping. Typically, energy efficiency is the most extensively worked on with these green building tools and is insufficient given the present situation. The concern here is whether we need LEED certification or renewable, stable buildings. To achieve ecologically sustainable buildings, neighborhoods, and environments, we must also facilitate collaboration between the other issues.
Sustainable strategy is vital to a more ecologically friendly future. We can only expect to safeguard our ecosystem and climate if we use our resources more wisely. With vertical farms, urbanized forests, and biodiversity-rich back gardens would become the standard, accessibility to nature will be critical as well. Nature isn’t only for aesthetics: it has been shown to help individuals recover faster and more efficiently, kids learn better, and workers become more efficient.
It is not simply a careful selection of materials but also all we can do to minimize the impact of constructing building design and maintenance. Focus is also crucial in the local delivery of materials and labor. This eliminates the transport or distribution from a distance of resources that contributes to increasing carbon emissions. This also flows into another field of sustainable design, which is becoming increasingly popular: ecologically sustainable design. An eco-centric theory of sustainable approach which, focused on ecological and living environments’ moral beliefs, emphasizes on ecosystems’ potential to conserve its basic functional properties, as well as their biodiversity, in true spirit in the long run”; differs from the scientific sustainable model, which is dependent on engineering and technology solutions to sustainable practices.
The greatest assumption we come across regarding green architecture is the assumption that “less bad” buildings are good enough to create… We’re all OK if we continue to pursue distant objectives – too late for the earth – like “decarbonization by the end of the century.” We must take a more exceptional approach. There should be no carbon pollution. And not a little more energy-efficient, but carbon-neutral. These are the goals we must pursue. But in the future, to create a healthy planet, even this is not enough. We must strive to design buildings that leave a net – positive effect on its surrounding built environment, where each design is part of a larger whole and affects the greater circle of life. The design and buildings must be able to regenerate, renew and replenish the resources and life on earth.
Sustainable design does not rely on new technologies or practices. Above all, it needs to become more conscious and be aware of actions and processes. But technology may naturally also improve the sustainability of our developed environment.
The Croatian-Brazilian architect Marko Brajovic says, “Architecture must perceive and foresee the future and urgently develop the present anthropocentric (and mechanical) sight into a natural environmental interrelation ecological activity. Architecture incorporated into our planet design metabolic process, to coexist with all species in which human beings may benefit each other.” And is the future way to move forward.
The future is about architectural synergy with natural processes, as a smart, durable, and meaningful understanding of life. For environmental concerns like rules, planning laws, policy, and particular architectural solutions, there must be a further, better long-term vision in the future. Each person in society must have specialized thinking and behaviors that safeguard the environment and quickly restore the living environment to a condition of balance to achieve sustainable human growth.
