Deep Green Design from RFP Magazine

Deep Green Design

article from: RFPmagazine.com

Issue 33 - August 07



Creating buildings that integrate seamlessly and benignly into their local environment could pave the way for a sustainable future.

Two statistics demonstrate the impact that building design in Asia can have in the global effort to achieve environmental sustainability. Globally, buildings are estimated to account for 30 percent of energy usage and carbon emissions. At the same time, more than half of the world’s new construction is taking place in Asia. Clearly there is a huge opportunity for the industries that make up the built environment to put the right foot forward.

The question that seems to be on everybody’s lips is: “Who will take responsibility for driving this change?” Is it the developers and building owners who should take the lead, the clients and consumers who should drive the demand, or the governments who should legislate? However, designers and architects are emerging as the leaders, mainly because they are the initial creators of the buildings we use. Increasingly it appears that without their vision and expertise, even the will to change cannot create an environmentally sound building.

integrating with nature

Dr Ken Yeang, principal of Llewelyn Davies Yeang (UK) and author of numerous books on ecodesign, has long championed the concept of environmental integration through architecture. He believes that design must begin by looking at nature and imitating its properties and processes. Yeang points out how nature’s systems re-use and recycle all waste, and says that “our built environment can and should imitate ecosystems.”

This process of ecodesign, says Yeang, “is designing the built environment as a system within the natural environment.” Following this, good eco-design is that which maximizes interaction between the natural (organic) and artificial (inorganic). This is the guiding precept behind Yeang’s approach, which uses a number of architectural strategies to blend and enhance this connection, connecting the outside environment with the very structure of the building.

misperception

This approach should not be confused with the common concept of ecodesign as a technological endeavour, says Yeang. He believes strongly that “we must not be misled by the popular perception that if we assemble enough eco-gadgetry we will instantaneously have an ecological architecture.” Instead, he states, the built environment should be balanced by “incorporating greater levels of bio-mass, ameliorating bio-diversity and ecological connectivity”.

zero-energy means zero carbon emissions

Another approach that is essential in ecodesign is zero-carbon design. While this concept has often been regarded as impractical, one Indian architectural collective is offering a uniquely Asian approach that is pushing the boundaries of zero-carbon. Manit Rastogi, Principal, Morphogenesis, says that design should take sustainability in all its forms, be it environmental, social, cultural or economic. He points out that nature itself gives us much that we re-create artificially. When looking at designing, he says, “you’ve got light that’s free, wind that’s free, climatic conditions that can be used. The question is: How much do we need to moderate it and how can we moderate it? That’s the starting point for zero energy buildings. We build it bottom up from there.”

Rastogi believes that traditional Asian architecture holds the key, pointing to an evolution driven by a lack of resources to use natural, low-cost solutions. The heart of his design approach goes back to these methods, “looking at how they dealt with that development, learning the principles, then using modern computational techniques and methods to analyze for current demands”.

If a truly global change is to happen, says Rastogi, the global design community must completely re-invent how buildings are created. “The problem of architecture today,” he says, “is that it’s such a highly competitive field that even practices within themselves are not collaborative.” Over the past few years, Rastogi has traveled throughout Asia and abroad, demonstrating successful examples of his architectural approach.


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