Sustainable Architecture Part 1 : The Misconception

Energy efficiency is just doing more with less-squeezing as much useful power from as little as possible. For example, the LED bulbs use 75 per cent less energy and last 25 times longer than the incandescent bulbs. Incandescent lighting and CFLs lose 90 per cent and 80 per cent of their energy as heat and Infrared Radiations to the surroundings, whereas the LED bulbs are cool to touch since they only produce minimal heat and no Infrared Radiations. Thus, we call them ‘Energy-Efficient’. This concept of ‘Energy-Efficiency’ in the 3D structures is used in the building sector and termed as the ‘Green’ or the ‘Sustainable’ Architecture. The buildings are designed to provide a significant reduction of the energy needed for heating and cooling, independently of the energy and of the equipment that will be chosen to heat or cool the building.

The two aspects of energy-efficiency that are ‘minimizing the energy loss’ and shifting the resources of energy from non-renewable to renewable sources are largely covered under the heading of ‘Sustainability’ and interpreted as one. We need to keep in mind that there is a huge difference between the two and that we first need to minimize the energy loss to be able to shift to the use of renewable energy. If we do end up going the other way around, we might as well fail because the energy that is harnessed through the renewable resources is in fact much lesser than that which is harnessed through the non-renewable resources such as coal and petroleum.

Thus, to make a building energy-efficient, we need to follow the approach given below.

Some of the measures to start with in order to achieve sustainability are as follows:

1) Bio-climatic Architecture that focuses on the shape and orientation of the building, solar protections, and passive solar systems.

2) High performing building envelope which is done through insulation, high performing glazing and windows, air-sealed construction, and avoidance of thermal bridges.

3) High performance-controlled ventilation such as mechanical insulation and heat recovery.

Some architects and engineers simply discard the idea of sustainability considering that the construction costs are high. They do not realize the fact that there is just a mere ‘cost’ of going green and a ‘risk’ of not going ‘green’ that can affect us globally. We need to move to ‘Green/Sustainable Architecture’ since the building sector accounts for more electricity use than any other sector. It is not hard to imagine this fact since we spend more than 90 percent of our time in buildings. Besides, with increasing urbanization, higher in developing countries, the number and size of buildings in urban areas will increase, resulting in an increased demand for electricity and other forms of energy commonly used in buildings. We need to realize that “In reality, construction costs are not that much more. It simply takes a little more thought and planning.”