Sustainable Design and Construction Essay example

Being environmentally friendly isn’t merely a trend. After thousands of years of using the earth’s resources, we have finally come to realize that we are destroying this beautiful gift we were honored with. Architects play an influential role in trying to preserve this gift by encouraging a multitude of strategies that can be more cost efficient in the long run, be more comfortable for its users, and most importantly, have a lower carbon footprint. Strategies can include drastic changes to heat and air systems, construction material selections, or even specific design details to the architecture of a building that would reduce the amount of energy it consumes.

Robbins Elementary, an urban school located in a large city in Texas, has defied the odds by attaining and sustaining high academic success rates for an approximate twenty-year time period. As Okilwa and Barnett (2017) noted, Robbins Elementary had grown to become homogeneous in race (majority Hispanic) and economic status (increased economically disadvantaged status). According to the article (Okilwa & Barnett, 2017), 2013 census data revealed that 50% of families in Robbins Elementary attendance zone earned less than $35,000 annually, with a median income of $35,282. Assumptions regarding high-need schools would, undoubtedly, portray Robbins Elementary as a school that would struggle academically with high teacher and principal

Within the Anthropocene, buildings and other structures should be considered as more than just sustainable entities as they are able to communicate the important network shared between users and

Green buildings could become one of the main factors to preserve our rapidly decaying environment. There is no easy way to define a green building, but a green building is essentially a structure that amplifies the positives and mitigates the negatives throughout the entire life cycle of the building (Kriss, 2014). There are many definitions for a green building, but all of them include the planning, designing, constructing, and operating of the building while taking into huge considerations of the energy use, water use, indoor air environment, materials used and the effect it has on the site the green building is being built on. The first green buildings dates back to as far as the 1970’s, when solar panels went from experiments to reality. Green buildings were not as popular as they are today due to their extremely high pricing. With technology rapidly growing, solar panels are becoming cheaper and cheaper, making the transition to creating green buildings more affordable. This is the primary reason for the increased growth of green buildings today. A modern company that is paving the way to the growth of green buildings named LEED, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, focuses primarily on new and effective ideas for environmentally friendly buildings projects. With more than 60,000 commercial projects worldwide and 1.7 million square feet being certified every day, LEED is one of the leading groups for promoting green buildings. LEED has popularized the entire

Sustainable development is defined as “Development that meets the needs of the present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (IISD, par. 1 ).

The book's selection of outstanding, best quality work provides several examples for homeowners with a discerning sense of style and environmental responsibility. The spectrum of featured projects has a range between energy efficient restoration and the construction of intelligent extensions to the planning and building of new low-energy or passive homes. The book introduces not only the current building forms and materials but also case studies examining the best division of space, architectural planning, and the use of innovative technologies to control and improve heating and air conditioning. Therefore, Building Better provides a striking overview of the topic of sustainable building, and insightful information on details from technical data to blueprints. In the book, both homeowners and architects have their motivations, ideas, desires, and real experiences. Against this background, Building Better is both an inspirational and a practical guide for everyone who thinks that the sustainability not as limiting, but rather as a creative opportunity. As such, it is an essential reference for everyone who wants to build a

Construction projects use a significant amount of materials and supplies. When these materials are used in a socially and environmentally responsible way, it improves your personal relationship with the environment and reduces your impact on the earth.

In general, this report discusses the successes and failures overall, analyzes sustainable development, institutional gaps, and also a call to action. Both Lomborg and The Brundtland Report agree that “...infant mortality is falling; human life expectancy is increasing; the proportion of the world’s adults who can read and write is climbing; the proportion of children starting school is rising; and global food production increases faster than the population grows.” (Brundtland 93) In conjunction with all the positive actions being taken; there are also environmental trends that threaten to radically alter the planet, that threaten the lives of many species upon it, including the human species. There has also been a growing realization in national government and multilateral institutions that it is impossible to separate economic development issues from environmental issues. Nevertheless, “humanity has the capability to make development sustainable to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” (Brundtland 95) Furthermore, the goal for sustainable development and the integrated nature of the global environment/development challenges pose problems for institutions. “There is a growing need for effective international cooperation to manage ecological and economic interdependence.” (Brundtland 97) Last but not least, “To achieve the needed changes, we believe that an active follow-up of this report is imperative. It is with this in mind that we call for the UN General Assembly, upon due consideration, to transform this report into a UN Programme on Sustainable Development.” (Brundtland 99) There are many environmental issues occurring to our beautiful planet right now and will

Sustainability is the quality of not being harmful to the environment or depleting natural resources, and thereby supporting long-term ecological balance.

This manifesto proposes an approach to sustainable design that I am interested in exploring during my time studying architecture. The idea of sustainability is a complex one, not without apparent contradictions. This makes it difficult to define in a wholly satisfactory manner. For the purposes of this manifesto I will advert to the definition proposed by Jason McLennan who asserts that sustainable design: “seeks to maximize the quality of the built environment, while minimizing or eliminating negative impact to the natural environment.” I find this definition particularly useful in the emphasis which it places on quality. By quality, in this

L.E.E.D. stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), this program is designed to inform and guide all kinds of professionals who work with structures to create or convert spaces to environmental sustainability. This includes architects, real estate professionals, facility managers, engineers, interior designers, landscape architects, construction managers, private sector executives and government officials. Proposals to modify the L.E.E.D. standards are offered and publicly reviewed by USGBC's member organizations, which number almost 20,000. From 1994 to 2006, L.E.E.D. grew from one standard for new construction to a comprehensive system of interrelated standards covering

Data related to energy efficiency, utilities and construction is really difficult to obtain for a building, as many multifamily owners and operators never benchmark the energy performance of their building. This critical shortage of information about building energy performance has prevented property markets from valuing energy efficiency and severely undermined both public and private efforts to increase the energy efficiency of multifamily housing. This has really affected the development of energy efficient and green policies in multi family building. Green building is about improving our design and construction practices so that the multifamily homes we build today will last longer, cost less to operate, and won’t harm the health of workers and residents. It is also about protecting natural resources and improving the built environment so that ecosystems, people, enterprises and communities can thrive and prosper.

Sustainable materials are environmentally helpful in our planet; it is used to produce in needle size without reducing non-renewable valuable supplies. It is also thought about to be environmentally friendly that include from a certified third-party forest standard. Throughout the building cycle, it’s a useful thing to produce a lot with very little waste. Buildings around the world are subject to a wide variety of natural important events such as floods, earthquake, windstorm, and other dangers. Comprehensible development is one of the major parts that increase the value of natural disaster. These events cannot be exactly described a possible future events, their effect is well understood. Building construction can have a long direct and indirect effect on the surrounding conditions, the society, and the economy. Different weather needs different houses. Australia, for example, has eighty different climate zones, but is often simplified to eight, varying from hot and humid to mountain-related. Working with a smaller home, the easier it is to accomplish a high energy efficiency level. Using materials from old buildings and getting some local materials can save you some headache, considering you can make any vital changes right away. Importantly, the indoor air aspect is oversight of moisture that collects over time, such as dealing with growing mold and the habitation of bacteria and viruses simultaneously as a dust mite. Interior designers should use a combination of

Finally, many tools were used to document our site visits that would used during the modeling of the buildings. As stated before, PlanGrid was very useful when viewing the construction sheets. PlanGrid was used on an iPad for easy access during the site visit. The iPad, as well as our phones, was used to take pictures of any notable changes or major features of the buildings. The pictures were used as references during the modeling portion of the project. A measuring tape was also used to take the dimensions of sections of the buildings that were not clearly labeled on the construction sheets. For example, the Architecture Annex’s terrance needed a measuring tape to measure its dimensions because the top-down view was absent from the

Urbanization, which is becoming a buzzword during the last few decades, is enlarging at a booming speed. It is predicted that 93 percents urban growth will occur to the year 2020, in the developing world (Elliot J.A, 1999). Generally speaking, more than half of the people around the world have been moved to cities, which led to a series of “matters” connected with people’s life that changed in a dramatical way. In this period, sustainable development, another buzzword during the past few years, came into people’s view and gradually became the mainstream of society development. Its definition is to make the development continue in a long term, which means allowing appropriate economic growth and industrialization without