AR6015 SUSTAINBLE PLANNING AND ARCHITECTURE

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UNIT-I
Concept of Sustainability – Carrying capacity, sustainable development – Brunt land report –
Ethics and Visions of sustainability.
INTRODUCTION:
 Contemporary architecture works according to a linear model, meaning that it takes in
fresh air, energy generated from fossil fuels, drinking water, various building and other
materials necessary for life and having squandered them inefficiently, it releases stale-air,
smoke, fumes, sewage, noise and refuse that will chemically pollute the environment. The
basic tenet of sustainable architecture is a response to the dangers of the growing sick-
building syndrome and the degradation of the earth’s biosphere.
 Air, water and soil pollution, global warming, overpopulation, health and social problems,
waste disposal issues, and the fear of the approaching exhaustion of fossil fuels announces
an environmental crisis for humanity.

Socio-cultural changes and causes:

 The world-wide spread of the Euro-American production and civilization model, based
upon a technologically innovative, high energy input, consumer oriented short-term profit
approach.

 Building involves processes of extraction, production of base-material, semi-finished and

finished products, transport, renovation, demolition and the disposal of rubble, which
causes a negative impact on the environment.

 Technological advances and increase in comfort and decrease in adaptability. Currently

buildings consume 33% of the energy (electricity) with residential sector at 22% and
commercial sector at 8%. This illustrates the high amount of energy used in the comforts of
everyday residential architecture.

ATTITUDES TO ARCHITECTURE, THEORETICAL BASIS FOR A SUSTAINABLE AND ECO FRIENDLY DESIGN.

Sustainable architecture is a response to the dangers of the growing sick-building syndrome and
the degradation of the earth’s biosphere. Air, water and soil pollution, global warming,
overpopulation, health and social problems, waste disposal issues, and the fear of the
approaching exhaustion of fossil fuels announces an environmental crisis for humanity. A cultural
and aesthetic pollution can also be observed. The reason for these phenomena is the world-wide
spread of the Euro-American production and civilization model, based upon a technologically
innovative, high energy input, consumer oriented short-term profit approach. The balance
between social spheres has been overturned with the economic sphere gaining dominance.

After World War II, progress was identified with unrestricted technical development and unlimited
consumption, while natural resources and waste disposal were considered inexhaustible.
Consumer mentality typically excludes nature from everyday life. City-dwellers spend about 80 %
of their time indoors, in closed inner spaces, in surroundings that are in every way artificial. People
themselves turn into artificial creatures, guided by advertisements and ‘experts’. For
compensation we got the so much coveted comfort, but this comfort comes with a price. After
millions of years of organic development our organism is incapable to adapt to the extremely
rapid and thorough changes that uninhibited technical development brings about. We fall ill. The
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sick building syndrome, SBS, is well known, mostly causing respiratory illnesses, allergies, diseases
connected with metabolism or the central nervous system and even cancers. The appearance of
the predominant built environment pervades almost every scene of life. Building involves
processes of extraction, production of base-material, semi-finished and finished products,
transport, renovation, demolition and the disposal of rubble. One of the significant causes of the
present environmental crisis is the practice that has evolved in recent decades in which
construction sites spill over onto large areas during the building process. We did disturb nature in
the past, but the interference was always local, shallow and slow, allowing nature to adapt to
changes and with time recuperate and re- gain the area temporarily lost. The difference today
rests in the size of the interference, its speed and complexity, and of course in the destructive
business / consumption mentality.

In order to avoid environmental catastrophes and large-scale human tragedies, new

methods should be employed that radically differ from present day practice.

Sustainable architecture is: creating and responsibly sustaining a healthy built environment,
observing the demands of ecology and optimal energy use without overexploitation.

This means that the burden on nature must be reduced with the help of sensible
compromise, legal-financial regulation, technologically clean building material and products and
at least a partial abnegation of consumer mentality.
The terms “sustainable, ecological, energy-conscious or environment-conscious
architecture”, all reflects an extremely complex perspective or point of view and is the answer of
engineers to environmental problems. A significant number of architects, however, do not take up
the challenge, which might be due to the fact that in their view the set of problems we face
cannot be dealt with as mere aesthetic issues.

Environment-friendly is the building that employs such functional and technical solutions
that, together with the use of the building, is in harmony with the recovering capacity of the
environment
– matches the cyclical processes of nature
– does not harm health

ECO buildings have existed since the historic past. They are built using such traditions and
know-how of generations that take into consideration such opportunities as the characteristic
properties of the wind, sun, currents of air, vegetation, water surfaces, and natural sources of light.
They use natural materials known for a long time in ways based on tradition and experience.
Environment-conscious buildings, in contrast to those of the linear model, need minimal,
especially renewable energy and material supply, which are then used economically, without
producing much waste.

The basic principles of environmentally conscious architecture are:

• Locational, functional and structural solutions need to be selected in harmony with the local
conditions, such as topography, microclimate, soil composition, water surfaces, flora and fauna
etc.
• Size must be limited, including the footprint, i.e. the reduction of used green areas.
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• Natural features must be enhanced and it is advisable to use renewable energy resources such
as solar energy, wind, biomass etc.
• The daily use must be carefully planned and organized, otherwise the building cannot be
considered ecological.
• Building structures, sanitary engineering systems, alternative ways of construction are to employ
environment-friendly building materials and take ecological construction theories into
consideration.
• Environment-conscious ventilation, energy, material consumption must be observed in the
functioning of the building as well.

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE

1851 Industrialization Crystal Palace (Joseph Paxton)

As early as 1851London’s Crystal Palace and Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II used methods
that decreased the impact of the structure on the environment. Systems such as roof ventilators
and underground air cooling chambers were used to regulate indoor air temperature.

1950's –Bell laboratories solar power

The photovoltaic effect was first recognized in 1839 by the French physicist Becquerel. But it was
not until in 1883 it was built the first solar cell by Charles Fritts. But the most important technological
breakthrough came in 1954 when Bell Laboratories, experimenting with semiconductors,
developed the first silicon solar cell. Two years later, a car driven solely by solar energy reaches
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4000 km travel to Australia within 20 days, an average of 24 km / h and a maximum of 72 km / h.
Solar panels are the most common form of obtaining energy from the sun.

1962 with the Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring

Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, the publication of which caused a paradigm shift in understanding
the environmental impact of pesticide use. The book launched the environmental movement,
reflecting on how pesticides used in agriculture and industry were killing birds and other wildlife
and threatening the health of mankind. The subsequent ban on DDT usage and the formation of
the United States. Environment Protection Agency is both widely attributed to Silent Spring’s
publication.
The energy crisis of the 1970's “Green Building”

During the energy crisis of the 1970's, green building moved from research and development to
reality. Builders and designers were looking for a way to reduce the reliance of buildings and
homes on fossil fuels.

Around the time that the “glass box” style high rise had become the icon of the American city
(circa 1970), a forward thinking group of architects, environmentalists, and ecologists were
inspired by the growing environmental movement and the higher fuel costs that were prevalent
during the 1970s.6 The genesis of these two scenarios ultimately resulted in the modern build green
movement.

The term “green building” was first coined in the mid 1970s, a time when an energy crisis,
projections about the state of the atmosphere and a myriad of other factors brought concern for
our natural environment into mainstream consciousness. At that time and for more than a decade
thereafter, green building tended to be linked with the odd and the exotic.

Windmill and geothermal power sources became topics of discussion and in a few cases reality.
Homes were built into hillsides (“subterranean”). Foundations and walls were constructed with
bales of straw. And materials as widely different as old tires, soda pop bottles and hubcaps
became “building materials,” not through the intermediary step of melting or shredding but just as
they were found.

The wild and the wacky made for some interesting news features but had little direct impact on
building practices. Nevertheless, while few of the practices took hold, the underlying premise to
build with more environmental sensitivity did gain a foothold.

From the 1930’s through the 1960’s, the forward thinking cooling methods mentioned above gave
way to some new building technologies that would change inner-city building construction
dramatically. The invention of air conditioning, reflective glass, and structural steel popularized the
enclosed glass and steel buildings that litter the American city today.

These buildings were able to be heated and cooled with massive HVAC systems that consumed
huge amounts of cheap and readily available fossil fuels.4 The massive consumption of energy
required to inhabit these buildings made their viability tenable and entirely dependent upon
energy availability and cost.
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1980 Appropriate technology

Appropriate technology is an ideological movement (and its manifestations)

encompassing technological choice and application that is small-scale, decentralized, labor-
intensive, energy-efficient, environmentally sound, and locally autonomous.
Appropriate technology (AT) is technology that is designed to be "appropriate" to the context of
its use. The most appropriate technologies are:

 Sustainable - requiring fewer natural resources and producing less pollution than
techniques from mainstream technology, which are often wasteful and environmentally
polluting
 Appropriate to the context, including the environmental, ethical, cultural, social, political,
and economical context. The appropriate technology for one context may not be
appropriate for another.

To be effective in practice, an appropriate technology should be easy to maintain. To be

effective for many people and have a wide impact, an appropriate technology must be
affordable.
This form of "appropriate technology" usually prefers labour-intensive solutions over capital-
intensive ones, although labour-saving devices are also valuable, provided this does not mean
high capital, maintenance cost or environmental impact.

Building methods regarded as appropriate technology include:

 Adobe  Cob wall  Autonomous building
 Rammed earth and Compressed earth
and/or other green building materials could be considered appropriate earth building technology
for much of the developing world, as they make use of materials which are widely available
locally and are thus relatively inexpensive.
The local context must be considered as, for example, mud brick may not be durable in a high
rainfall area (although a large roof overhang and cement stabilization can be used to correct for
this), and, if the materials are not readily available, the method may be inappropriate. Other
forms of natural building may be considered appropriate technology, though in many cases the
emphasis is on sustainable architecture and self-sufficiency rather than affordability or suitability.

1987 Brundtland commission “Sustainability”

In 1987, the United Nations established the World Commission on Environment and Development
(WCED), which became known as the Brundtland commission after its Chair Gro Harlem
Brundtland, the Norwegian prime minister. The commission’s report, known as the Brundtland
Report, introduced the term “sustainability” into the environmental discourse

In the 70s 80s and 90s, the growing "green movement" responded to the perception that earth’s
resources were being plundered, rather than respectfully utilized, and that the very place we live
in was being spoiled in the process.

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Architects and builders began to realize their crucial role as providers of that most intimate
environment: our homes, work places and public buildings.

CARRYING CAPACITY
In ecological terms, the carrying capacity of an ecosystem is the size of the population or
community that can be supported indefinitely upon the available resources and services of that
ecosystem. Living within the limits of an ecosystem depends on three factors:
 the amount of resources available in the ecosystem;
 the size of the population or community; and
 the amount of resources each individual within the community is consuming.

Carrying capacity is the maximum number of organisms that an area or ecosystem can
sustainably support over a long period of time.
 Therefore the Carrying capacity is set by limiting factors of the particular ecosystem and
differs from ecosystem to ecosystem, even within very similar ecosystems.
 Limiting factors- temperature, water, nutrients.
Limiting factors are resources or other factors in the environment that can lower the population
growth rate. Limiting factors include a low food supply and lack of space. Limiting factors can
lower birth rates, increase death rates, or lead to emigration.

When organisms face limiting factors, they show logistic growth. Competition for resources like
food and space cause the growth rate to stop increasing, so the population levels off. This flat
upper line on a growth curve is the carrying capacity. The carrying capacity (K) is the maximum
population size that can be supported in a particular area without destroying the habitat. Limiting
factors determine the carrying capacity of a population.

Sustainable Architecture

In order to get a better understanding of the concept of sustainable architecture, it is necessary

to present a clear definition of the concept of “sustainable development”. A generally accepted
definition of the sustainable development is the one that has been included in the Brundtland’s
report and based on that, the “sustainable development” is the kind of development which
meets the needs of contemporary generation without compromising and inconsideration of the
next generation’s abilities to respond their needs.

A sustainable building can be defined as a building which is in the least conflict with its
surrounding environment and with the region and the world in a larger scale. In this prospect, the
construction techniques are employed in order to provide an integral quality from economic,
social and environmental aspects in a large scale

Sustainable Environment

The idea of sustainable environment means depositing the earth for the next generations
efficiently or even better than what it is today. The humane activities help the sustainability of
environment, once they could make and preserve it without destroying the natural resources or
surrounding environment. Therefore, the use of energy should be low and the used materials
should be 100% recyclable or renewable so that, they do not hurt the environment and help save
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the energy and finally, the used energy could be totally renewable and could not cause any
pollution.

Three prospects of sustainable design: social, technological, environmental

The common objective in building greener
structures is that green buildings are designed
to reduce the overall impact of the built
environment on human health and the natural
environment by:

Efficiently using energy, water, and other

resources
Protecting occupant health and improving
employee productivity
Reducing waste, pollution and environmental
degradation.

Three Pillars of Sustainable Development

The three pillars of sustainability are a powerful tool for defining the complete sustainability
problem. This consists of at least the economic, social, and environmental pillars. If anyone pillar is
weak then the system as a whole is unsustainable.

 Social Sustainability- Social Sustainability is the ability of a social system, such as a country,
family, or organization, to function at a defined level of social wellbeing and harmony
indefinitely.

 Environmental Sustainability- Environmental Sustainability is the ability of the environment to

support a defined level of environmental quality and natural resource extraction rates
indefinitely.

 Economic Sustainability- Economic Sustainability is the ability of an economy to support a

defined level of economic production indefinitely

GREEN ARCHITECTURE

Green Architecture, involves minimizing the building energy consumption

The concept of a green building was developed in the 1970s in response to the energy
crisis and people's growing concerns about the environment. The need to save energy and
mitigate environmental problems fostered a wave of green building innovation that has
continued to this day.

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Green buildings are not easily defined. Often known as sustainable buildings or eco-homes,
there is a range of opinion on what can be classed as a green home. It is generally agreed that
green buildings are structures that are sited, designed, built, renovated and operated to energy-
efficient guidelines, and that they will have a positive environmental, economic and social impact
over their life cycle. Green specifications provide a good set of guidelines for the building industry,
but these are still in the process of being formalized into UK regulation and many are open to
interpretation.

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Elements of Green Building
Four main areas need to be considered in green building: materials, energy, water and health.

Materials
These are obtained from natural, renewable sources that have been managed and harvested in
a sustainable way; or they are obtained locally to reduce the embedded energy costs of
transportation; or salvaged from reclaimed materials at nearby sites. Materials are assessed using
green specifications that look at their Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) in terms of their embodied energy,
durability, recycled content, waste minimisation, and their ability to be reused or recycled.

Energy
Passive solar design will dramatically reduce the heating and cooling costs of a building, as will
high levels of insulation and energy-efficient windows. Natural daylight design reduces a building's
electricity needs, and improves people's health and productivity. Green buildings also incorporate
energy-efficient lighting, low energy appliances, and renewable energy technologies such as
wind turbines and solar panels.

Water
Minimising water use is achieved by installing grey water and rainwater catchment systems that
recycle water for irrigation or toilet flushing; water-efficient appliances, such as low flow
showerheads, self-closing or spray taps; low-flush toilets, or waterless composting toilets. Installing
point of use hot water systems and lagging pipes saves on water heating.

Health
Using non-toxic materials and products will improve indoor air quality, and reduce the rate of
asthma, allergy and sick building syndrome. These materials are emission-free, have low or no
VOC content, and are moisture resistant to deter moulds, spores and other microbes. Indoor air
quality is also addressed through ventilation systems and materials that control humidity and allow
a building to breathe.

In addition to addressing the above areas, a green building should provide cost savings to the
builder and occupants, and meet the broader needs of the community, by using local labour,
providing affordable housing, and ensuring the building is sited appropriately for community
needs.

BRUNDTLAND REPORT
Events before Brundtland

The Brundtland Report was intended as a response to the conflict between the nascent order
promoting globalized economic growth and the accelerating ecological degradation occurring
on a global scale. The challenge posed in the 1980s was to harmonize prosperity with ecology.
This postulated finding the means to continue economic growth without undue harm to the
environment. To address the urgent needs of developing countries (Third World), the United
Nations saw a need to strike a better balance of human and environmental well-being.

This was to be achieved by redefining the concepts of economic development as the new idea
of sustainable development, as it was christened in the Brundtland Report. A key element in the
definition is the unity of environment and development. The Brundtland Commission argues

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against the assertions of the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment and
provides an alternative perspective on sustainable development, unique from that of the 1980
World Conservation Strategy of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

The Brundtland Commission pushed for the idea that while the "environment" was previously
perceived as a sphere separate from human emotion or action, and while "development" was a
term habitually used to describe political goals or economic progress, it is more comprehensive to
understand the two terms in relation to each other (We can better understand the environment in
relation to development and we can better understand development in relation to the
environment, because they cannot and should not be distinguished as separate entities).

Brundtland argues: "...the "environment" is where we live; and "development" is what we all do in
attempting to improve our lot within that abode. The two are inseparable."

“What is needed now is a new era of economic growth – growth that is forceful and at the same
time socially and environmentally sustainable.” This call in the foreword of the 1987 Brundtland
Report, “Our Common Future,” still rings true twenty years later.

Sustainable development – defined by the Brundtland Commission as development that meets

the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs – has been enshrined in documents approved at the highest political level, but “the
commitment to sustainable development has not gone much beyond environmental authorities,”
says Nitin Desai, a senior adviser to the Brundtland Commission and a key draftsman of the report.

Current consumption and production levels are 25 percent higher than the earth’s sustainable
carrying capacity, according to the Ecological Footprint Sustainability Measure, an independent
measure based on United Nations statistics. If everyone in the world were to live like an average
person in the high-income countries, we would need 2.5 additional planets to support us all.

A Ground breaking Concept

The World Commission on Environment and Development, chaired by former Norwegian Prime
Minister Gro Harlem Bruntland, alerted the world twenty years ago to the urgency of making
progress toward economic development that could be sustained without depleting natural
resources or harming the environment.

Written by an international group of politicians, civil servants and experts on the environment and
development, “the Brunt land Report changed sustainable development from a physical notion
based on the concept of sustainable yield in forestry and fisheries to a much broader concept
that linked economic and ecological policies in an integrated framework,” says Desai.

“The report came at a time when the oil shocks of the seventies, droughts in Africa, concerns
about tropical forests, the depletion of the ozone layer and several other problems were posing
great challenges to policy at every level, and it offered a way of looking at these problems in a
holistic way,” Desai explains. “The main long-term impact of the report is that we can no longer
talk of economic and environmental policy in separate compartments.”

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International Commitments

The Brunt land Report laid the groundwork for the convening of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro
five years later. Held in June 1992, the Rio Summit was the largest environmental conference ever
organized, bringing together over 30,000 participants, including more than one hundred heads of
state.

The summit represented a major step forward, with international agreements made on climate
change, forests and biodiversity. Among the summit’s outcomes were the Convention on
Biological Diversity, the Framework Convention on Climate Change, Principles of Forest
Management, the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, and Agenda 21, which
required countries to draw up a national strategy of sustainable development. The summit also led
to the establishment of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development.

Ten years later, the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg led to more
governmental commitments and helped extend the concept’s reach into the areas of business,
local government and civil society. “Sustainable development is a bridge concept connecting
economics, ecology and ethics,” says Desai, who was the Deputy Secretary-General for the 1992
Rio Summit, the Secretary-General of the 2002 Johannesburg Summit, and an Under Secretary-
General at UN Headquarters from 1993 to 2003. “The challenge is to connect and integrate
various sectorial policies, such as agriculture, energy, trade or investment,” he says. “To get real
action, the ownership of the concept of sustainable development must extend to all sectoral
agencies and – most importantly – to key private-sector stake holders.”

Resolution establishing the Commission

(a) To propose long-term environmental strategies for achieving sustainable development to the
year 2000 and beyond;
(b) To recommend ways in which concern for the environment may be translated into greater
co-operation among developing countries and between countries at different stages of
economic and social development and lead to the achievement of common and mutually
supportive objectives which take account of the interrelationships between people, resources,
environment and development;
(c) To consider ways and means by which the international community can deal more effectively
with environmental concerns, in the light of the other recommendations in its report;

(d) To help to define shared perceptions of long-term environmental issues and of the appropriate
efforts needed to deal successfully with the problems of protecting and enhancing the
environment, a long-term agenda for action during the coming decades, and aspiration goals for
the world community, taking into account the relevant resolutions of the session of a special
character of the Governing Council in 1982.

The Brundtland Commission's mandate was to:

1. “Re-examine the critical issues of environment and development and to formulate innovative,
concrete, and realistic action proposals to deal with them;

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2. strengthen international cooperation on environment and development and to assess and
propose new forms of cooperation that can break out of existing patterns and influence policies
and events in the direction of needed change; and

3. Raise the level of understanding and commitment to action on the part of individuals, voluntary
organizations, businesses, institutes, and governments”. “The Commission focused its attention in
the areas of population, food security, the loss of species and genetic resources, energy, industry,
and human settlements - realizing that all of these are connected and cannot be treated in
isolation one from another”

Environmental Ethics

Environmental ethics are the part of environmental philosophy which considers extending the
traditional boundaries of ethics from solely including humans to including the non- human world. It
exerts influence on a large variety of disciplines including law, sociology theology, ecology, and
geography. Architects and designers should consider environmental ethics on their projects. There
are many aspects to consider, including why designers should think about sustainable principles in
their design projects, what environmental obligations designers need to keep for future
generations in their design, and honest ways of using sustainable design concepts and materials.
Furthermore, architects and designers should carefully understand environmental ethics in their
design process and apply ethics to the design. It is significant that analyzing what the natural
factors are and the kinds of impact they give during the thought process of environmental ethics.

Sustainable Design

Sustainable design is ecologically friendly design that enhances both the environment and
human. Sustainable design preserves natural surroundings and produces economic benefits, such
as results in decrease construction material cost and increase of energy efficiency. As sustainable
design becomes an increasingly important issue and the cost of energy and increase, people
demand that designers be more responsible.

For sustainable design, architects and designers should find the definition of natural environments
and human - made environments. People use natural environments to create human - made
environments for meeting human purposes, such as protection, safety, and aesthetics. Whereas,
sustainable design considers the relationship between nature and manmade buildings. The most
important thing is to seek harmony between the environment and human being. Golany (1995)
found the following:

Environmental design is concerned with achieving a balance between human- made physical
creativity and the reciprocal influence of natural forces. Furthermore, the environmental design
field is the study of the complex relationship within each of the town environments as well as
between the two environments.

Sustainable design has an effect on environmental problems, such as nature source

consumptions, environmental pollutants, and excessive energy usage. Before designing the
environmental and sustainable design, architects and designers also should consider similar views
and thoughts toward the environment of western and Asian architecture. Even if two
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architectures in Western and Asian cultures design building with different style and shape, they
have similar architecture and design principles. The fundamental principles have similar
consideration toward environment and human being.

The sustainable architecture is an architecture which respects the environmental considerations

and climatic adaptation and is designed and built based on the maximum effective exploitation
of the natural resources. Sustainable architecture attempts to reduce the negative effects of the
architecture on environment (Zahra Ahmadi, 2002).

A sustainable building can be defined as a building which is in the least conflict with its
surrounding environment and with the region and the world in a larger scale. In this prospect, the
construction techniques are employed in order to provide an integral quality from economic,
social and environmental aspects in a large scale.

Sustainable Development

Sustainable development quoted from Our Common Future, also known as the Brundtland Report:
"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

It contains within it two key concepts:

 The concept of needs, in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to which
overriding priority should be given; and

 The idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the
environment's ability to meet present and future needs."

Ethics of sustainable development

 reviving growth;
 changing the quality of growth;
 meeting essential needs for jobs, food, energy, water, and sanitation;
 ensuring a sustainable level of population;
 conserving and enhancing the resource base:
 reorienting technology and managing risk; and
 Merging environment and economics in decision making

Vision of sustainable development

 Follow passive strategies

 Adopt a life cycle approach
 Go low on energy costs
 Reduce water consumption,
 Recycle and harvest
 Material usage which even high energy ones if they add value to get durable,
maintenance free structures

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