WHAT IS SUSTAINABLE?

Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their own needs.

WHAT IS SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE?

Sustainable architecture is architecture that seeks to minimize the negative environmental

impact of buildings by efficiency and moderation in the use of materials, energy, and
development space and the ecosystem at large.

WHAT IS SUSTAINABLE ENERGY USE?

Technologies that promote sustainable energy include:

Renewable Energy Overview.

Solar Energy. Photovoltaic Systems. Solar Hot Water. Solar Electricity. Passive
Solar Heating & Day lighting. Space Heating & Cooling.
Geothermal Electricity Production. Geothermal Direct Use. Geothermal Heat
Pumps.
Bio energy. Bio fuels. Bio power. Bio products.
Hydropower.
WHAT MAKES A SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY?

1. A flourishing local economy to provide jobs and wealth;

2. Strong leadership to respond positively to change;

3. Effective engagement and participation by local people, groups and businesses, especially in the
planning, design and long term stewardship of their community, and an active voluntary and community
sector;

4. A safe and healthy local environment with well-designed public and green space;

5. Sufficient size, scale and density, and the right layout to support basic amenities in the neighbourhood
and minimise use of resources (including land);

6. Good public transport and other transport infrastructure both within the community and linking it to
urban, rural and regional centres;

7. Buildings - both individually and collectively - that can meet different needs over time, and that
minimise the use of resources;

8. A well-integrated mix of decent homes of different types and tenures to support a range of household
sizes, ages and incomes;
9. Good quality local public services, including education and training opportunities, health care and
community facilities, especially for leisure;

10. A diverse, vibrant and creative local culture, encouraging pride in the community and cohesion
within it;

11. A "sense of place";

12. The right links with the wider regional, national and international community.

What is Sustainable design?

Sustainable design (also called environmental design, environmentally sustainable design,

environmentally conscious design, etc.) is the philosophy of designingphysical objects, the built
environment, and services to comply with the principles of social, economic, and
ecological sustainability.

Architecture and Sustainability Factors

Architecture presents a unique challenge in the field of sustainability. Construction
projects typically consume large amounts of materials, produce tons of waste, and often
involve weighing the preservation of buildings that have historical significance against the
desire for the development of newer, more modern designs.

Sustainable construction is defined as the creation and responsible management of a

healthy built environment based on resource efficient and ecological principles. Sustainably
designed buildings aim to lessen their impact on our environment through energy and
resource efficiency.

It includes the following principles:

Minimising non-renewable resource consumption
Enhancing the natural environment
Eliminating or minimising the use of toxic materials

Sustainable building can be defined as those buildings that have minimum adverse
impacts on the built and natural environment, in terms of the building themselves, their
immediate surroundings and the broader regional and global setting. Thus, the rational use
of natural resources and appropriate management of the building stock will contribute to
saving scarce resources reducing energy consumption and improving environmental quality.
Sustainable buildings should:
Harvest all their own water and energy needs on site.
Be adapted specifically to site climate and evolve as conditions change.
Operate pollution free and generate no waste that arent useful for some other
process in the building or immediate environment.
Promote the health and well-being of all inhabitants, as a healthy ecosystem does.
It should comprise energy efficient integrated systems that maximize efficiency and
comfort.
Improve the health and diversity of the local ecosystem rather than degrade it.
Be beautiful and inspire us to dream.
Sustainable design is the thoughtful integration of architecture with electrical, mechanical,
and structural engineering. In addition to concern for the tradition; aesthetics of massing,
proportion, scale, texture. Shadow and light, the facility design team needs to be concerned
with long term costs: environmental, economic and human. All in all sustainable design is
more of a philosophy of a building than perspective building style.
Principles for sustainable architecture :

1. Think Small
The combined problem of natural resource depletion and population
growth is so serious that its no longer reasonable for anyone to use up
more than their fair share of either. Not only that, but theres something
special about creating a home or office that speaks to the specific needs
of your particular family. Small homes are more affordable, use fewer
resources, have less of an environmental impact, and also require less
energy to heat and cool.

2. Heat With the Sun

Speaking of heating, fossil fuels are on the wane but the sun is still going
strong. Consult your local green building expert for the best way to orient
your home in order to maximize solar gain when appropriate (and reduce
it when theres too much.) Orientation combined with a green building
material that absorbs the suns energy during the day and then
dispatches it slowly at night can drastically reduce your energy
requirement.

3. Keep Your Cool

The same principle works for cooling a home, a particular challenge in the
Middle East where there is no shortage of long hot days. Passive design,
digging into the earth, and insulating a home well will work wonders, as
will Islamic design techniques such as the Mashrabiya screen, which beats
the heat at the same time as it promotes natural ventilation.

4. Use Renewable Energy

We know this is hard in the Middle East, where solar panels are still quite
expensive, but an investment in the short term will pay off in the long run.
Plus, who says its necessary to buy into the most expensive renewable
technology? In Cyprus, Egypt and Israel, lower income people have
been using the sun to heat their water for years. Theirs may not be the
sexiest roofs in each country, but their energy bills are smaller, and their
ability to withstand municipal price and supply fluctuations far greater
than grid-dependent folks.
5. Conserve Water
There are as many ways to conserve water in your home as there are
reasons to do so particularly in our dry region. Firm up faucets, harvest
rainwater, recycle gray water, take shorter showers, and turn off the tap
when brushing your teeth. Also consider planting indigenous plants that
dont require a lot of irrigation, and if you must irrigate, trying using drip
irrigation or other modern developments.

6. Use Local Materials

When youre building a home out of materials harvested in some distant
land, they have to travel a long way to make it to your little plot. This
creates an unnecessarily high carbon footprint and also reduces the level
of control you have over how those materials are harvested. But if you use
local materials, as will be the case with Gazas 20 new Eco-Schools, your
carbon footprint shrinks considerably and benefits your local economy.

7. Use Natural Materials

Natural materials not only have more aesthetic appeal, at least in our
view, but it turns out that they are better for our health. A home that is
built with a porous natural material such as mud or stone or lime breaths
and promotes natural circulation in the home. Anything else creates a
terribly unhealthy internal environment. Natural materials also promote
daylighting and superior acoustics, whereas all kinds of interventions are
required in more artificial surroundings.

8. Save the Forests

Our forests are beautiful and deserve to be protected in their own right.
But they also serve important environmental services including sucking
the globes carbon. With escalating levels of greenhouse gases in our
atmosphere and a bevy of attendant climatic changes, protecting our
trees is more important than ever. The average timber home uses 100 trees
and thats not sustainable at all. Kelly Hart recommends using wood
carefully for decoration or for roofing and opting for abundant earthen
materials to build the rest of the home.
9. Recycle Materials
We belong to a throwaway culture something the earths finite resources
simply cant support. Recycling materials not only gives new life to
something discarded or disused, but also provides an opportunity to be
creative and resourceful. See how old windows have been given new life
is this wonderful design project.

10. Build to Last

We have showcased several earth architecture buildings that have lasted
centuries, such as Yemens Manhattan and these awesome cave homes in
Iran. Despite stringent new building codes, many materials used in
contemporary architecture are designed NOT to last so that the supplier
can prolong their business opportunities. This makes absolutely no sense.
Build to last as much as possible and save the earth while youre at it.

11. Grow Your Food

Growing food at home improves quality control and increases resilience
both very necessary in our region where food security is poor and where
environmental regulations regarding food quality are poorly enforced. We
have published 7 agricultural solutions that will save the Middle East. Take a
look and be inspired to start growing your own food immediately!
12. Store Your Own Food
This is something we havent considered in a long while, but it used to be
that most people built pantries into the earth in order to keep their food
cool and fresh. As demonstrated in Palestines numerous geothermal
projects, the earths temperature remains constant even as our
atmosphere warms and cools. If you use the right building material, you
can build a wonderful earthen pantry that will keep most of your food
fresh year round. Make sure to consult a professional until you get the
hang of this.

13. Share Facilities

Finally, Kelly Hart promotes co-housing and eco-villages as a good way to

save space and share facilities. He suggests that building common areas
(like the Israeli Kibbutzniks have done for years) in addition to private
areas in any housing project saves space and promotes social activity.
Wed also like to add that a shared community is likely to grow into a more
evolved and tolerant community, which promotes all kinds of goodness.

If you are considering building a new home, remember to consult this list
to determine whether you have achieved the greatest amount of
sustainability for your time and budget constraints.