Sustainable Architecture is the Future
Healthy buildings can create a path to comfortable, carbon-neutral living.
[TOPIC: Sustainable architecture | Green building principles | Energy efficiency & net-zero design | Eco-friendly materials | Water conservation | Healthy indoor environments | Waste reduction & resource reuse | Resilient, climate-ready buildings | Long-term economic & social value]
Introduction
Here’s a hard truth: conventional buildings use too much energy.
Here’s another: our power grid is a deteriorating infrastructure that has outlived its usefulness.
As the planet warms and the population grows, we need to change the way we build; a shift to sustainable architecture is a crucial way to ensure that we’ll have enough energy for everyone and secure a carbon-neutral future.
If we continue building houses and other structures the same way we’ve been building them for generations — buildings that demand loads of energy to keep occupants comfortable — the outcome is simple: we won’t have enough power.
That future is closer than you might think. We’re based in the Pacific Northwest, where experts predict rolling brownouts within the next five years. Similar scenarios are playing out all over the world.
Section 1 — The Role of Carbon
An excess of carbon in the air is inducing climate change. Energy and climate experts say that we need to reduce our energy needs by 70% to avoid an energy crisis.
If we continue to extract and consume energy and materials from the Earth at this rate, we’ll continue contributing to a warming planet.
We need to find ways to decrease, or at least plateau, our energy use.
Section 2 — We Can Build More Sustainable, Comfortable Structures
The answer isn’t to deal with less comfortable indoor surroundings by turning the heat down in winter and the cooling system up in summer.
It isn’t to take cold showers.
Every choice to consume less energy helps, of course. But conventional buildings are so unsustainable that no matter how much comfort you relinquish, it’s impossible to save enough energy to make a meaningful impact.
The answer, instead, is to be more comfortable using less energy.
Healthy, sustainable buildings are:
Ultra temperature-controlled
Filled with natural light and fresh air
Energy-efficient with lower utility bills
It’s possible to live comfortably while consuming dramatically less energy.
Section 3 — What Do We Mean By Using Less “Energy”?
Architects consider two kinds of energy when designing a structure:
Operational energy — the energy it takes to run a building: lighting, heating, cooling, bathing, washing dishes, etc.
Embodied energy — the energy required to build the structure: extracting and processing materials. Materials like steel and concrete have a high energy impact; materials like wood, much less.
Conventional wisdom emphasizes reclaimed materials as “greener,” implying that reducing embodied energy alone suffices.
While using reclaimed wood and fewer energy-intensive materials does lighten the load, the future of sustainable design focuses first on operational energy, then addresses embodied energy in the context of high-performance buildings.
Section 4 — A High-Performance Building Uses Less Carbon
If a building doesn’t use energy efficiently, it drains the grid, no matter how sustainable its materials.
Key points:
In high-performance homes built with conventional materials, the carbon costs of materials are paid off in 1–5 years through operations.
Using low-embodied-energy materials (e.g., sustainably harvested wood) accelerates this payoff.
Low-load operations ensure energy savings continue throughout the structure’s life.
Section 5 — Systems of Sustainable Architectural Design
Essential systems to reduce carbon load:
Heat pump-based heating and cooling
Energy-efficient home appliances
Electric vehicles
On-site solar panels
It’s imperative to halt investments in fossil fuel-based infrastructures by shifting to electric and solar solutions.
For new structures, sustainable architectural design is:
Electric: induction cooking, electric water heaters, electric dryers
Generative: create as much energy on-site as possible through solar
High-performance: lean, draft-proof buildings optimized for efficiency of all electric/generative systems
Combined across future new buildings, these strategies provide a fighting chance to meet future energy needs.
© Artisans Group Architecture + Planning — Sustainable Architecture, Passive House, and Passive Building Design Experts
Image from Passive House Accelerator
Posted on June 01, 2023
