Sustainable
Buildings
by : CETArchis..
Author : CETArchis..
Journal entry on 10/29/2002,
Sustainable
building” refers to the economic, social and environmental impact of
buildings and building activities. Over half of the world’s population
lives in urban areas. Houses, factories and offices in cities, towns
and villages have to be heated, lit, cleaned, managed, maintained, renovated,
rebuilt or conserved. Buildings consume. They use energy, whether for
office equipment, televisions or electric lighting, and so burn fuel,
from wood to mined fuel. This contributes to greenhouse gases, while
refrigeration adds to ozone production.
The
operation of buildings accounts for 25-40% of final energy consumption
in the urban areas.
This
is comparable with transport. And this does not even count the energy
consumed for manufacturing building materials, etc. Construction
of buildings and infrastructure could be responsible for up to half of
all material used in some countries.
And
then there is the waste that has to be managed and minimised.Safety
is another building concern, as disasters like earthquakes in
cruelly remind us. This means setting standards and responsibilities that
apply throughout the buildings’ lifetimes.Air quality
is another building concern and a health one too. Most people
spend as much as 90% of their time indoors. From birth, through school,
work, rest and play, indoor space and air quality is influenced by buildings
and affect our health. This is another good reason why public policy
should seek to influence building norms and objectives, not to mention
reducing the environmental burden.
One problem is that the building sector is unique. Indeed, it is
many things together: water supply, heavy materials, excavation. And houses
have different demands than hospitals, schools or offices. Buildings are
expected to satisfy a wide variety of demands, such as protection
from weather; thermal and noise comfort; safety from fire and other
hazards; supply of quality water, etc. But these demands sometimes
contradict each other. For instance, insulation work to improve heating
efficiency in offices during the oil crisis in the 1970s also led to
worsening air quality and a rise in related health problems from formaldehyde,
a chemical found in pressed wood and insulation foam that causes irritation
and dizziness.
Moreover,
buildings are fixed capital: the French call them immobile capital,
as distinct from mobile types, like money and equity. They are a form
of investment, vehicles of value and products of exchange, though fixed
in physical space during their entire lifetimes. They are a key part of
the urban engine of capitalism. One problem is that while buildings can
inject value into land, they can also fall apart from negligence, reducing
their own value and that of those around them. Buildings require maintenance,
upgrading or demolition. They can, in short, be a planning headache.
Clearly,
environmental policy instruments that have been successful in other
sectors cannot always be applied to buildings. Take-back programmes
of the type used for beverage containers would probably not work, for
instance. It would be unrealistic to oblige designers or contractors to
take any responsibility for, say, demolition decades ahead. Can we really
know how long a building will last? The Eiffel tower was built a century
ago as a temporary structure for a world fair but still stands robust.
The Great Pyramids have lasted an eternity, but will Pei’s glass pyramids
in the Louvre?
Copyright © 2002 CETArchis. All rights reserved