How Architecture Affects the Environment
The architecture industry has both a direct and indirect impact on the environment. With 36% of global energy consumption and 8% of global carbon emissions coming from buildings alone, architects have a responsibility to embrace sustainability.
Most people know that going green is important, but it’s not often discussed in terms of how architecture can help. Here are some ways that architecture can have a positive impact on the environment.
Energy
Architecture is the design and construction of buildings, structures, and complexes needed for a variety of processes. It is the oldest field of human activity, encompassing everything from primitive dwellings to today’s high-rises and shopping malls.
Architecture can be art, a political statement, a functional space, or a thing of beauty. It is the personal, internal response and experience a person has with a piece of architecture that determines its meaning.
In addition to its practical function of providing a place for people to work, play, and meet, architecture also creates a sense of community. It is responsible for the culturally rich structures that have entertained people for centuries, such as ornate theaters and concert halls, and ancient stadiums where athletes competed against each other. It is also responsible for the spiritually uplifting temples and churches that bring followers closer to their gods. All of these structures are the result of a combination of operative concepts (functionality), decorative concepts, and constructive concepts.
Water
Architecture plays many important roles, including evoking emotions and memories, providing shelter, promoting health, enriching lives aesthetically and spiritually, creating jobs, and expressing culture and traditions. But one of the most important functions it serves is a functional environmental role, by helping the man-made fit into and support the natural world.
Architects are working to ensure that the buildings they design have as little impact on the environment as possible. This includes building with sustainable materials, minimizing energy consumption, and making sure that water is used responsibly.
Another way architects are helping combat climate change is by pursuing “net-zero” buildings, which produce as much energy as they consume. These buildings are a great example of sustainable design.
There are also many ways architects can reduce their environmental footprint, such as using natural light, maximizing fenestration, improving air circulation, and incorporating green roofs and sheep’s wool insulation. They can also limit their carbon emissions by conducting life-cycle assessments of all the materials they use, and choosing those with low embodied energy.
Materials
Architecture is an important part of human life. It supports activities such as work, eating, drinking, resting and exercising, while reflecting cultural traditions and establishing identities.
It also helps to protect the environment by reducing pollution and waste. It does this by ensuring that building materials are recycled and reused. One way to do this is by implementing a life-cycle assessment, which evaluates the environmental impact of different building materials from their inception to their eventual decomposition.
Architects are increasingly turning to green architecture, which involves using sustainable materials in their buildings. This can include wood, stone and other natural materials, as well as new technologies that allow for carbon-neutral manufacturing.
Architects are also making use of green features such as transparent facades, maximizing fenestration and incorporating solar panels into their buildings. Some even incorporate biophilic design, which aims to connect people with nature through the inclusion of natural elements in the built environment. This helps to promote health and wellbeing, as well as helping restore the natural balance of the ecosystem.
Waste
Despite energy-efficient buildings and sustainable materials, the world is still producing massive amounts of waste. From plastics in the sea to animals that ingest hazardous materials from litter, waste directly kills nature and contributes to climate change.
Sustainable architecture is a way to minimize the negative impact of built structures on their environment. It uses natural sources for inspiration and takes advantage of existing structures as a means to reduce the environmental footprint of new projects.
It also considers how a building will operate once it’s in use, including both operational and construction emissions—which can be up to 18 times as high as the initial energy consumption. However, sustainability is only one part of the answer to our current global crisis. In fact, some experts are starting to question whether it would be better for the environment to stop building altogether. After all, a single new building emits the equivalent of three New York City skyscrapers every month.