As we become more aware of the importance of environmental issues, sustainability is now more important than ever specially in one area of our lives. This is how the buildings we live in are constructed. The construction industry, which relies heavily on natural resources such as the extraction of stone, wood and metal, has no choice but to focus on sustainability. It is no longer enough to add sustainable building practices as an afterthought; instead, they need to be embedded in every aspect of the design process. End users need it and so does the planet.
There are 4 operational principles that have to be considered in order to be ecofriendly and autosufficient. The impact of human beings on natural systems must not exceed the carrying capacity of nature. The use of renewable resources must not exceed their rate of regeneration. The use of non-renewable resources must be compensated by the production of renewable resources, which will eventually have to replace them. The emissions into the environment must not exceed the absorptive capacity of the receivers.
Whenever considering sustainability in architecture, we should talk firstly about basic problematics to take in account. We should study the relationship between interior and exterior, climate and human beings. Therefore, there are environmental conditions that are fundamental in the interaction of the building such as temperature, humidity, sunshine…
In class we have evaluated our personal footprint score in order to grow some consciousness about the subject.
