Reaction Paper 03: Green Buildings are more than Bricks

and Mortar

This topic discussed by Mr. Bryn Davidson really reshaped my perspective on

what does Green Architecture means, he pointed out that in even we are doing things to
prevent the climate change, our buildings or our homes have connection to it. Our
buildings contribute almost half of the greenhouse gas pollution. The problem is that
even we are implementing green architecture, even it is closed to net zero impact, the
improvement is very small which means that what we are doing is not enough. We need
some better solution and that is called “Net Positive”.

The “Net Positive” does not focus on the thing or the building itself, it considers
the change or the impact of it to the environment. There are many examples of net
positive buildings that are out there in the world that we can study and learn how to
improve to provide more solution to our climate change like Passivhaus or Net-Zero
solar. Mr. Bryn said that in every green building or eco building, there something
missing and he called it a missing piece. The location of the green building that you
want to create is very essential on how you can make it a net positive building. He
introduced a site which can calculate your location if is walkable, being able to commute
or not, you can consider this if you want to build a house on that particular location. The
location is very crucial because if you chose to build it on a green fields or natural
places that have never been constructed, you did not change it positively, you just
destroyed the previous environment.

One of the solutions to be considered is to replace an old building, the purpose of

this is to convert an old greenhouse emitting building into a new net positive building
and at the same time, building on the green lands or fields is not necessary. We must
consider what will our buildings going to replace, is it going to have a positive impact or
negative? Once we know the answer, Mr. Bryn provided some points to look at to
evaluate your building. He introduced the net positive lens which asked the questions if
your building has a strategic location, how “good” is the building and what does it
replace? These questions can be applied when you want to start implementing or
practice the net zero.

For me, I agree that Mr. Bryn encourage everyone to renovate old buildings
turning it into new and has a positive impact on our environment. As an architecture
student, it motivates me to consider this in every project or design I will be making. I am
amazed that even in our profession, we can contribute to prevent climate changes and
have a better future.