Sustainable Home (Photo – Sander van Dijk, flickr).
Green has become standard even as the term itself reaches saturation.
By Marguerite Kribs
What was considered cutting-edge (solar panels, low-flow shower heads and tankless water heaters) is now commonplace in Southern California.
Green may have reached its tipping point, but younger architects today need to redefine it — to go beyond the advertising argot and energy-efficient appliance add-ons and embrace sustainability in innovative ways. We need a new crop of young architects pushing the envelope on sustainability and integrating environmentally responsible features into a building’s life cycle, from conception to construction.
“A home is a machine for living”
“A house is a machine for living in,” wrote Le Corbusier 80 years ago.
Young architects need to design homes with compact floor plans and multi-use spaces. They need to start implementing homes with more efficient use of space and less overall square footage that will translate into lower utility bills.
Incorporate sustainability through passive tactics such as maximizing opportunities for natural ventilation is a good practice. A house that breaks larger spaces into a series of linked pavilions along a ridge-line will cool the house without the use of an air conditioner. A house with a bank of steel-framed windows cut into the center of the ceiling will bring in natural light. A laser-cut wood shade mimicking the shadows cast by oak trees overhead will reduce heat gain.
Nearly a 1/4
of all newly
built homes
in the U.S. last
year were green…
Those born in the 1980s and 1990s are starting to place intense demands on architects and builders for sustainability. With a focus on social responsibility, green design is critical to this generation. And as the majority of them prefer to live in cities, the definition of sustainability will continue to evolve.
New single-family residences will never be as sustainable as converting existing buildings in dense cities to housing. The most sustainable projects are adaptive reuse lofts and homes in urban cities. They may not be LEED-certified, but they promote a car-free lifestyle and upcycle old buildings.
The next level of sustainability
Once we have the buildings right, it’s also critical to think about where we are building.
We need to build in walkable, transit-oriented neighborhoods that have easy access to jobs, stores and services. And the most important thing we need to do is to start creating more responsible housing to accommodate the increasing number of people moving into urban cities. This will take us to the next level of sustainability.
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