Introduction to Sustainable

Building
Gita Vanwoerden
Houston PC Guild
February, 2010

The building you inhabit influences your

mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing
You need to bring your indoor environment
into greater harmony with life
Houses, schools, and workplaces emit
tainted recycled air, deliver impoverished
or artificial solar radiation, and emanate
the droning sounds of machines.
This prevents our awareness of our own
biological clocks; alternately under- and overstimulating our senses.

Lessons From Nature

We can observe the structure of nature and
apply its lessons to the design of indoor and
outdoor spaces, creating diversity, richness
and stimulation around us

What Makes a Building Sustainable

1. The use of non toxic ecological or recycled materials
2. Self sufficient energy system and design for
achieving a good temperature without heating or air
conditioning
3. Simple design without the need for sophisticated
cutting-edge technologies
4. Beautiful spaces for living in harmony with the
environment
5. Natural light, unrestricted views of and access to the
outdoors
6. Energy flow harmoniously (Feng Shui)
7. Respect for and understanding of our connection to
nature and of the connection that exists between
mind, body, and spirit

Environmentally Friendly materials

and methods

Adobe

Rammed Earth
Straw bales
Cob
Wood
Bamboo
Recycled materials such as tires, paper, glass bottles,
aluminum cans
Some of these are rediscoveries of traditional methods that
have partly forgotten since the discovery of concrete

Useful Web sites

www.animalfarmcenter.com