How Architects Help The Environment And Save Energy

Architects are actively shifting focus on sustainability and longevity of buildings. Replacing conventional materials like concrete, and steel with naturally sourced renewable materials like timber in the engineered form of cross-laminated timber. Using locally sourced materials reduces the carbon emissions made while transporting materials from distant sites. 

Conventional materials like steel and concrete consume a significant amount of energy while creating. Using these materials increases the carbon footprint of the building. When these materials are replaced with natural materials like wood, the carbon load of the building is way less as wood absorbs the atmospheric carbon. 

Humans have an innate need to be close to nature. In today’s concretized world, meeting this need has almost become impossible. Architects are helping the environment by creating a harmonious balance between the natural and the built environment. Creating biophilic designs is a way to restore this balance. 

Biophilic designs enhance the relationship between humans and nature. This is achieved by adopting measures like incorporating large windows to allow light and views, bringing the outdoors inside, including plants etc. Creating green roofs for natural connections while also cooling the structure is also a part of biophilia. 

The Passivhaus movement creates energy-efficient green buildings. It significantly reduces the amount of energy required to make the building by ensuring they are airtight and heavily insulated. The Passivhaus Trust hands out the certification and the method is becoming a go-to for architects to create green buildings. 

In order to meet the Passivhaus standard, architects focus on the effective design of fenestrations, and facades. The envelope of the building is designed such that it makes an airtight container where energy loss is minimised thereby reducing the HVAC load. These types of buildings are far more greener and better for the environment than the conventional ones. 

Energy efficiency in buildings is a fundamental requirement for making the building greener and having less impact on the environment. Architects are helping the environment by integrating energy-saving measures into the building. These include building airtight well-insulated facades, using standardized appliances and lighting that consume less electricity, etc. 

Water management in buildings is another crucial aspect of making greener buildings. Adopting water-conserving systems like rainwater harvesting, greywater recycling, etc. saves precious resources thereby reducing the environmental impact. The buildings with effective water management systems also feature water-saving fixtures that ensure there is minimal wastage.

A major environmental concern for architects today is reducing the carbon emissions of buildings. To combat climate change, architects aim to create carbon-neutral or carbon-negative buildings. A net-carbon-neutral building does not contribute to the overall carbon emissions over the course it stands. The carbon emitted during the construction and operation of the building is balanced by the carbon absorbed by it. This is possible either because of the energy it generates through solar power, or with the use of materials like wood that absorb atmospheric carbon instead of steel that takes a lot of energy to be produced.  

Another way in which architects are helping mitigate climate change is by creating green infrastructure and rewilding. Green infrastructure includes elements like green walls, green roofs, internal courtyards, and curating biodiversity-promoting landscapes within their designs.

Rewilding the built environment attempts to restore the natural balance of the ecosystem. It promotes and facilitates the growth of biodiversity. Architects and environmentalists are in pursuit of devising ways to rewild urban landscapes to reduce the environmental impact. 

Life cycle assessment is about understanding the life of the building and the potential environmental impacts of the materials and process used to build it. LCA is an effective method to quantify the sustainability of a building. It helps architects choose low-impact materials such as wood, bamboo, clay, and recycled materials that have consumed less energy while production, etc. 

Opting for such materials that have low-embodied energy significantly reduces the carbon footprint of the building. LCA does not stop with the production of the building, it analyses the long-term impact the building has on the environment. This includes the operational and maintenance costs of the building as well as the post-operation demolition and recycling energy costs. 

Restorative or regenerative designs not only reduce the negative impact on the environment but also create positive effects. They actively contribute to restoring the ecology and improving the natural ecosystem around them. 

Reversible designs focus on the adaptability and flexibility of structures. They promote the curation of building systems that can be modified as per alternate functional needs instead of having to demolish structures and create new ones. This prolongs the life span of a building, makes it adaptable to changing future needs and reduces wastage. 

The greenest way of creating buildings is by reusing pre-existing ones. Adopting green building measures in preexisting buildings and reusing them adaptively or as a retrofit prolongs the lifespan of the building. This reduces the load on the environment as architects then use marginally less amount of resources and save the energy required to demolish the structures. 

Constructing off-site or using prefabricated modular systems for construction reduces the negative impact of construction on the environment. The system minimizes wastage by creating accurate components of the building, reduces the construction timeline and creates around 30% fewer emissions. 

Architects have more power in this method of construction, as they can suggest environment-sensitive materials. Labour costs and errors are also minimized in this process thereby creating cost-efficient and energy-energy buildings. 

Architects are actively working towards helping the environment and saving energy through their designs. Their efforts towards designing greener buildings and advocation for saving the environment in front of stakeholders are slowly changing the building industry for good.  

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Text provided by Namita Dhawan-

Namita Dhawan is an architect and a writer. She is extremely enthusiastic about architecture, design, history, research, and writing. She believes architecture is about power, it can provoke thoughts, and emotions, and control the actions of the users subtly.