Academic literature on the topic 'Sustainable architecture'

The prevailing approach to sustainable design focuses on low environmental impact objectives rather than the enhancement of the connection between people and the natural environment. According to Edward O. Wilson, biophilic design attempts to place an emphasis on the human to nature relationship in the built environment under the ideology that we have an innate affinity for the natural world because of our evolutionary development. In order to properly apply biophilic design, it is necessary to study and understand what it is about specific elements in nature that creates a sense of pleasure and well being. Nature is rich with sensual features, and the expression of these biophilic traits in architectural design is really what â sustainable designâ is all about. The purpose of this thesis is to explore Wilsonâ s theories of biophilic design through the development of an office skyscraper. The driving force behind the project is the design of the sensory oases, which are vertical extensions of the ground plane that contain features intended to stimulate the senses.<br>Master of Architecture

Sustainable architecture is about meeting the environmental, cultural, social and economical needs of today without compromising the ability of future generations to fulfill their own needs. This is quite a complex and challenging task because the architect must consider the impact of these needs through the whole life cycle of the building. The objective of this thesis is to evaluate what the management can do to support and create an environment were the architects can inspire and excel in the complex and challanging task of implementing sustainable solutions in architectural projects. Further to map prohibiting factors that architects working with sustainable architecture meet and describe the whole building chain and what factors are important to support development of sustainable architecture. This thesis investigates in theories of environmental management, knowledge management, change management, psychological and economical aspects of environmental problems. The theories draws among some principal guidelines that the management should aspire to define a new business logic that is rooted in a wider view of human values and ethics, concerning time, quality, cost reduction, distribution and critical staffing issues. Encourage employees to respond emotionally to an issue is a natural and powerful motivation for action. They see, then feel and then change behavior. Encourage employees to spend time in the nature to experience that we are interconnected with the nature and that we are dependent on it. This perspective leads to sustainable behavior that is not based on self-sacrifice or self-denial, but out of a sense of love and common identity. The architectural organizations interviewed describes quite similar aspects but highlights the importance of letting environmental issues be equally important and incorporated with other significant issues, learning by doing and letting the process be flexible, take its time and give room for communication in order to develop naturally. When working with complex sustainable solutions it is important to avoid pre-accepted solutions by understanding the whole picture and thinking on your own. They experience how valuable it is to use successful environmental architecture as inspiration and how counterproductive “bad” environmental architecture is to sustainable development. The management must focus on removing prohibiting factors to relieve and protect the architects from these strains so that they can preserve and use their energy on sustainable development instead. Initiating projects with a broad approach, establishing a broad and qualified network and cooperating and communicate across the whole building chain in the initial stages of the project, supports better and holistic solutions and decrease the costs and time frame of the project. Overall one of the most important factors is to encouraging a feeling of community in the organization. It is central because it provides a work environment where the employees inspire, share knowledge and support each other to strive for good results. Such a work environment equips the organization to be better at facing rapidly changing and complex demands.

Remotely Sustainable focuses on a specific line of work that could be called 'remote Indigenous architecture'. I define this as architecture for Aboriginal clients who are the traditional owners of their homelands, where these projects are built. This context is critical because the issues I discuss may be relevant to other Indigenous communities in Australia. However, the customs, culture, bureaucracy and conditions mean I must caution anyone in applying any of these ideas to another community without deep consideration of and good consultation with that community. The context also extends to the broader framework of federal and state governance. As architects and citizens it seems there is little we can do to impact on these systems, but if the government and agencies do not make appropriate decisions, there is little chance of improving the outcomes for Aboriginal people. Working in this field as an architect is extremely hard. There are almost insurmountable problems that arise from ineffective government agencies, difficulties in communicating with clients, extreme distances to travel, physical discomfort to be endured and very little in the way of fees to perform these tasks. The difficulties begin at the consultancy stage and continue throughout the project until occupation by the clients. There is great difficulty in ensuring that the builders and tradespeople do their jobs properly and ensuring they return to sites to fix defective work is problematic. The budgets allocated to Indigenous housing projects are often well below that required to produce buildings that satisfy the clients' needs and expectations. Finally, there is little appreciation of the work that architects do in these communities, possibly because in some cases architects do their job badly. This Master of Architecture Project uses case study buildings by iredale pedersen hook architects to reveal some of the difficulties faced when delivering these projects, in order to encourage the development of better solutions in the future.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the role of sustainable development in Landscape Architecture. From reviewing the literature, a position is developed. The position is that Sustainable Development is an important issue for landscape architects and that there are reasons landscape architects have had limited success in sustainable development. The method of the thesis is derived from assessing a problem of sustainable development and landscape architecture and developing a solution to this problem. The solution is a procedure, not a tool, that landscape architects can use to learn about Sustainable Development and how it applies to landscape architecture. This thesis culminates in the development and application of a Sustainable Development Framework for Landscape Architects. The Framework is a procedure for landscape architects to become informed about sustainable development and how it applies to landscape architecture. For this thesis, the application was applied to the build out of an existing community, Top of the World. The implications of applying this framework are then discussed.<br>Master of Landscape Architecture

Traditional architectural and urban artefacts are showed over the centuries as a powerful imprint of human actions and practices and are being developed on the basis of concrete socio-cultural factors and environmental rationalities. Spatial and morphological patterns of traditional environments have exceedingly evolved to fulfill and accomplish the social and cultural needs of the populace in their dialectical interplay with the surrounding environment. This relationship conceptualises the man-made environment, as the repository of meaning, in users‟ reciprocal relation with the surrounding environment. In the context of history, the human tends to dwell when experiencing the built environment as meaningful. Traditional contexts are highlighted as physical and spatial interpretations of human activities, skills, thoughts and resources creating identifiable and meaningful realms related to space/place, time and society. The study uncovers the process of the formation of the house and mahalla in order to shed light on how the built environment responds to inhabitants‟ socio-cultural determinants and everyday lives. It unfolds how changes in the nature of Iraqi society and its priorities affect the architecture of home and mahalla by reference to the impact of modernity with all its alien socio-cultural principles. This thesis focuses on the architecture of home and mahalla within the traditional core of Kadhimiya city and similar Iraqi socio-cultural contexts. At the macro analytical level, the research investigates the spatial and physical formation of the mahalla as a whole through detecting the socio-spatial aspects of its realms, and how its spontaneous form has responded to the socio-cultural aspects of the community in an integral pattern. At the micro level, the research will go deeper in the perception of the basic aspects of the individual and the family. It investigates how the traditional house reflects and satisfies the personal values of the individual, and achieves his socio-cultural beliefs and everyday life on the basis of inherent norms and conventions. In this vein, public, semi-public/private and private domains are investigated to highlight the mutual interplay between these spheres as key factors in understanding the architecture of the house and mahalla. The research discusses indigenous aspects and principles contained or embedded in the structure of the traditional environment, such as privacy, social solidarity and stability, neighbourliness and so on. It reveals insight into the male-female relationship in the social life of the traditional context, and how the position of women and their idle qualities impact the structure of the house and the hierarchical sequence and organisation of spaces. Identity, tradition, sustainability and everyday life are the main fields discussed with a specific end goal to outline and uncover the role of social factors, cultural beliefs and daily practices in the creation of this particular form. Building on these values, the research adopts an interpretive historical method in revealing the characters of the traditional environment referring to residents‟ habits, customs, rituals and traditions. Several approaches to the built and home environment are discussed for paving or detecting reliable one in the methodological inquiry within which many tools and methods have been utilised and used i.e. archival records, interviews, historical narratives, personal observation and photographic surveys. Data generated consists of photos, maps, interviewees‟ comments, analytical diagrams and historical and travellers‟ descriptions. Research findings indicate many of the inherent and underlying principles upon which the architecture of Iraqi traditional house depends. Within this context, the study has tried to unfold how the formation of the traditional house and the mahalla responded to the socio-cultural aspects of the community and the daily life of its members. Findings, concerning the design principles of the traditional mahalla, were realised as indigenous norms and standards embedded in the structure of society, which can be useful for architects, designers and planners to reconcile traditional and contemporary urban forms through the application of former rules and conventions in City‟s conservation or redevelopment plans. The study reveals that the traditional environment had less socio-cultural contradictions, active day-to-day practices and clear, identifiable and meaningful identity compared with contemporary built environments. Research findings, thus, lead to a set of relevant recommendations addressed to many of the community categories, architects, planners, stakeholders and those interested in this field. They aim to promote the impressive role of socio-cultural factors and strengthen users‟ competence in their physical and spatial settings for home. Moreover, research recommendations discuss how social factors, cultural values, beliefs, practices and rituals can be re-employed in our approach to achieving a more sustainable living environment. Recommendations relating to identity and tradition aim to draw attention and shed light on the significance of traditional built environments in the development of special identity, which played a big role in the sustainability of these contexts for centuries.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1997.<br>Includes bibliographical references (p. 76-77).<br>Sustainability was once inherent in many communities of the pre-modern society; however, it has been lost under the progress of the modern society through humankind's rationalized and short-term visions in pursuing more comfort and convenience in their life. Consequently, humankind is gradually heading toward destruction of not only their own systems, but also whole systems on the earth. In the context of the modern society, how can sustainability in communities be regained to promise the future of humankind, the earth, and the universe. The intent of this thesis is to investigate the possible forms and systems of urban communities, whose compact forms and efficient social and physical systems have more potentials to sustainability than those of suburban types' do, while urban communities have been major consumers of energy and resources and major producers of various kinds of pollution and wastes. In order to explore this, the thesis seeks sustainable potentials in an urban inner-city community in Kobe, Japan and develops a sustainable community with proposals of systems and community design in the scale of urban design, a block, streets, and architecture. The site is located in Takatori-Higashi district in the city of Kobe where was totally devastated by the major earthquake in January, 1995 and where is needed to be restructured and reconstructed soon. As the outcome of th is exploration, this sustainable community will establish some possible answers to the question of how the communities for next generations should be and address possible issues of sustainable communities to be further explored and discussed.<br>by Masaki Furukawa.<br>M.Arch.

In a world of excess, people rarely stop to realize their impact on their environments. Our built environment is especially feeling the effect of our irresponsibility, and the solution is only a matter of re-wiring our perceptions of energy usage. Many technologies make it possible to have the impossible, but nobody stops to question whether or not these advances are beneficial. A presumably sustainable system turned out to be one of the most energy wasteful ones in existence. In the complex process of getting food from the field to your house, the best solution is to simplify. Nature will do most of the work; we need to learn to work with it. Current building practices can benefit greatly from this concept, to rethink the existing process by simply cutting out the unneeded steps and using the free energy available to us every day. Our values need to change. Because the corporation controls so much of our daily lives, they are the ones that will bring about the change in consciousness we desperately need. By re-designing Sysco headquarters to do everything that the company claims to do (and currently doesn't), and interact with the public in a new and radical way, not only can we make changes to how we think about the built environment, but we can also start to show that a change in awareness is entirely possible. If we can change the values of those that make the biggest differences in our world, then we've effectively changed an entire populations' way of thinking.