What is sustainable architecture in simple words?

Sustainable architecture is also known as green architecture or environmental architecture. It challenges architects to produce intelligent designs and use available technologies to ensure that structures generate minimal harmful effects on the ecosystem and communities.

sustainable architecture

is a general term that refers to buildings designed to limit the impact of humanity on the environment. An ecological approach to modern construction encompasses all aspects of the planning and construction process, including the choice of building materials; the design and implementation of heating, cooling, plumbing, waste and ventilation systems; and the integration of the built environment into the natural landscape.

Sustainable architecture aims to incorporate structural systems and MEP into building designs that interact positively with their environment. Ecological design is also known as sustainable development, ecological design and ecological architecture. All of these terms refer to an architectural approach that promotes environmental conservation and sustainability in building designs. Sustainable architecture is reflected in building materials, construction methods, the use of resources and design in general.

Decisions that make an architectural or urban project environmentally friendly are not the only individual strategies that should be employed; sustainable buildings must define the way in which the people who inhabit them live, for example, reducing waste and energy use not only in their own neighborhoods but throughout the city. A building is not sustainable just because it uses solar panels, although it does make it have less energy impact, but sustainability is the sum of all its parts, which include social and economic processes. Other examples of successful sustainable architecture projects in Europe are The Edge in the Dutch capital, Amsterdam, the award-winning Bosco Verticale in Milan (Italy) and the Eden Project in Cornwall (United Kingdom). Responsible architects with truly sustainable practices strive to comply with these standards and obtain the associated certifications for their projects.

Sustainable architecture and environmental issues are now part of the agenda of companies, as well as of local and international communities. The design must also facilitate sustainable operation during the building's lifecycle, including its final removal. This represents an important step beyond the basic principles of sustainable construction to help alleviate social problems and, at the same time, address environmental challenges. The new generation of high-performance wood materials offers unexpected high-tech possibilities to the world of design and architecture.

Therefore, sustainable planning is more a cultural approach than a simple branch of traditional architecture; it leads to designing a structure with minimal impact on humans and the environment through a limited use of non-renewable resources and the implementation of non-harmful materials, in order to preserve the relationship between man, building and the environment. This feature is commonly used by architects in their ecological designs, since its application is quite simple.

Sustainable architecture designs

and builds buildings to limit their environmental impact, with the objectives of achieving energy efficiency, positive impacts on health, comfort and better habitability for inhabitants; all of this can be achieved through the implementation of appropriate technologies in the building. Environmental, economic and social benefits are important positive outcomes of implementing sustainable architecture.

However, an architecture based exclusively on these materials would inevitably be limited in terms of its capacity for expressiveness. In addition, many experts believe that the concept of sustainability is out of date given the current state of the planet. .