Building with Green Architecture

Navigation

You are here: Free Article Directory » Finance » Environment » Building with Green Architecture

by: Elise.Fendmeyer | Total views: 4 | Word Count: 447 | View PDF | Print View
Share This Article

Building ‘Green houses and using green designs to conserve our natural resources and save money is a common topic of conversation now a days. Ever wondered why? To have a clear appreciation we must ask the question how much do our average buildings consume? A rough estimation of consumption of normal commercial buildings in the US point to about 18 percent of the total energy consumption and 33 percent of the total electricity consumption. On an average every year such buildings generate about 18 percent of total manmade CO2 emissions in the US. Green designs aim at cutting these figures, which in turn yield many benefits.
Green designs approach the entire process of building houses in a holistic manner. The designers take into consideration the ‘lay of the land, availability of local building material, suitable adoption of traditional green designs being used by indigenous people of that area, or from an area with similar weather characteristics, new breakthroughs in ‘green technologies and the best incentives the government can offer to produce a green building or a green township.
How do designers use ‘lay of the land for their green designs? Terrain mapping includes wind flow studies to arrive at the best optimum positioning of windows and ventilation shafts so as to use natural air and obviate the use of air conditioners. They calculate the annual duration of day and night of a particular place to determine the suitability of using various solar capture devices. Technology is brought in to control the switching on and off of lights according to the daylight to conserve electricity. Terrain mapping also includes mapping the ground water resources and calculating the best harvesting methods required to recharge the ground water and make it available for the green project. Water conservation is a key aspect of green designs wherein recycled water from the bathrooms is used to green the gardens. Scientifically designed roofs, channel rainwater to soak pits, which help invigorate the underlying water table, are some other ways that are incorporated in green designs.
Some of the Green design concepts in vogue are Compressed Earth Blocks, Cob Houses, Earth Shelters, Straw Bale, Rammed Earth and Adobe construction. Each of these concepts has their range of applicability and pluses and minuses depending upon the likely are of use. The vital detail is that such designs are no longer the in the realms of conceptual art but are being used by mainstream architects. Green designs are thus the harbingers of future architecture.
Share This Article