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HOW THE CURRENT ARCHITECTURE CAN TREAT SUSTAINABLE PROBLEMS WITH 20-YEAR
PERSPECTIVE?
1. Introduction
2. The depth of the research problem
3. What are the ways of architecture to influence surrounded environment?
4. What’s the influence of space and architecture on children? Principles of indoor and
outdoor spaces with examples.
5. Based on all this concept of kindergarten and, in conclusion, influencing factors of it and
how they can affect kids.
6. Literature

1. Introduction

Architecture has a huge impact on the environment we live. Basically, this is the environment itself,
artificially created by a man. From time immemorial, mankind has created and surrounded itself with an
artificial object in order to satisfy the basic needs for security, warmth and all the necessary factors for the
functioning of a living organism. Over time, the needs began to increase, as did the requirements for an
artificially created environment. Now the scale of occupied spaces by human being is huge. The influence
of such a change is obvious. Both for humans and for the environment. And since environmental problems
are one of the most urgent and require large-scale reactions, it is necessary to approach the design of
spaces in the city wisely.

Architectural masses can affect users/citizens on different levels: from basic time savings to psycho-
emotional state. Well-planned interior ergonomics, for example, increase the efficiency of work/study and
improve the experience of space using. Or the scale of the street to a person makes time spent outside
the walls of his apartment more enjoyable.

Thus, we can conclude that the artificial environment educates a person, since most of the time
growing up takes place in conditions artificially created by a human.

The influence of artificial spaces on the biological environment is difficult to overestimate.

Unfortunately, now in most cases this is a negative impact of both individual buildings and
cities/settlements.

2. The depth of the problem research

The history of sustainable development approach started long time ago in the middle of 19 th century.
Since then, a lot of people were trying to participate and make changes in this important field of work.
These are the one of the most influential “green” architects.

• Renzo Piano
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Figure 1: roof view/ California Academy of Sciences/ Renzo Piano Building Workshop + Stantec
Architecture / San Francisco, USA 2008

Figure 2: side view/ California Academy of Sciences/ Renzo Piano Building Workshop + Stantec
Architecture / San Francisco, USA 2008
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Italian architect Renzo Piano is widely considered one of the most influential green architects today.
Yet he doesn't let environmental considerations limit his ideas by forcing him to consider only stereotypical
green building shapes or materials or components. Instead, he lets his imagination fly, then incorporates
eco-friendly elements into the resulting structures.

One of Piano's more acclaimed buildings is the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco's
Golden Gate Park. The museum houses an aquarium, planetarium and natural history museum, and
appears as though it's tucked into two hills, which, in reality, are the building's 2.5-acre green, "living" roof
that absorbs up to 2 million gallons (7.6 million liters) of rainwater annually. The building also has no air
conditioning, relying on weather sensors that communicate with motorized windows to open and close at
select times so the museum can be entirely cooled with outside air.

• Jean Nouvel

Figure 3: view on the project/ National Museum of Qatar/ Atelier Jean Nouvel/ Qatar, 2019

Jean Nouvel is unquestionably one of our time’s most impactful sustainable architects. The Pritzker
Architecture Prize-winning architect behind the Louvre Abu Dhabi and Philharmonie de Paris is widely
renowned for his groundbreaking work in sustainable design. Projects like the futuristic One Central Park
and the National Museum of Qatar showcase Nouvel’s knack for blending eco-friendliness with beautiful
design.

Nouvel has always been an innovator, so it’s not surprising that his advice is similarly forward-looking.
In a 2017 interview, Nouvel encouraged sustainable architects to think about how their design might adapt
to long-term changes: “More than ever, sustainability is at stake…We live in a world of constant and
profound transformation, so architects have to radically rethink the way we build. New expressions need
to reflect new paradigms and the rise of technology. We have to project our ideas far into the future, they
need to stand the test of time.”

• William McDonough
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Figure 4: green roof view/ Ford Motor Company’s River rouge truck plant/ Dearborn, USA, 2000

To many A&D professionals, William McDonough is synonymous with sustainable design. This
sustainability trailblazer earned the first EPA Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award and a host of
others, and he designed the acclaimed Ford Rouge plant, which still serves as a beacon of sustainability
with an enormous living roof.

In 1992, McDonough created the Hannover Principles, a set of guidelines for sustainability. His eighth
principle says: “Understand the limitations of design. No human creation lasts forever and design does not
solve all problems. Those who create and plan should practice humility in the face of nature. Treat nature
as a model and mentor, not as an inconvenience to be evaded or controlled.”

McDonough’s statement goes hand in hand with Nouvel’s. Since sustainable design ultimately draws
inspiration from nature, it’s only natural that it should also emulate nature. When problems are
encountered in the built environment, look to nature for potential solutions. Projects that work seamlessly
with nature can give back to the surrounding environment. This approach has led to innovations like
biomimicry and energy positive buildings that bring the built environment closer to nature than ever before.

3. Principles of minimizing the influence and bringing the harmonious coexistence of the artificial and
the biological environment

Designing sustainable architecture means taking a few fundamental elements into consideration:
orientation, shading and sunlight crated by pre-existing elements, natural ventilation, as well as the use of
biomass, Ambient Assisted Living or domotics and renewable energy systems, all created and
incorporated with materials studied specifically to interact with the environment and its characteristics.
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Sustainability in architecture doesn’t only mean reducing energy use and waste. It can’t be
segmented into various subcategories because it represents a fundamental and intrinsic combination of
factors related to our existence on this planet. The choices that make an architectural or urban project
environmentally friendly aren’t the only individual strategies to be employed; a sustainable building must
define the way in which the people who inhabit them live, for example reducing waste and energy use not
only in their own neighborhoods but in the entire city.

There are few key-points of a sustainable building:

- sustainability must be a requirement, not a characteristic

The project’s sustainability must be a requirement, not a characteristic and it has been this way since
the construction of the Ancient Egyptian pyramids. Modern milestones of successful sustainable
architecture that fully embody its principles and concepts can be often found in developing countries,
where the local workforce and community are at the core of the projects.

The Makoko Floating School in Lagos, Nigeria by Nlè Architects represents an innovative approach
to architectural planning where the community and problems created by climate change are at the core.
The design of this structure fully embraces the limits as well as the qualities of the location, in addition to
the culture and customs of the population, a project culminating in a school entirely created with reused
materials. In this sense, the Gando library in Mali designed by architect Diebedo Francis Kerè and the Green
School in Bali, Indonesia by PT Pure Bamboo are on a similar wavelength.

Figure 5: side view/ Makoko Floating School/NLE Architects/ Lagos, Nigeria 2013

The Makoko Floating School and the total planned projects makes use of local materials and
resources to produce architecture that applies to the needs of people and reflects the culture of the
community. Wood is used as the main material as the structure, support and finishing for the completed
school.
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Figure 6: side view/ School Library Gando / Kere Architecture/Burkina Faso 2012
The library will be finished in 2012 and completes the school extension in Gando. This library represents for us
an important accomplishment since it allows access to education even to people beyond the school.

- Kere Architecture

The eucalyptus rhythmical facade around the library creates a calm and open space in which pupils
can isolate themselves to learn and to relax. It is the first time in Gando that eucalyptus wood is used for
construction. In Burkina Faso, eucalyptus is usually used as firewood material since it dries out the soil and
can only offer a small shadow.

Figure 7: side view/ The Green School/ IBUKU, PT Bamboo/ Bali, Indonesia 2007
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Environmentalists and designers John and Cynthia Hardy wanted to motivate communities to live
sustainably. Part of that effort was to show people how to build with sustainable materials, namely
bamboo. They established the Green School, and its affiliates: the Meranggi Foundation, which develops
plantations of bamboo plants through presenting bamboo seedlings to local rice farmers; and PT Bambu,
a for-profit design and construction company that promotes the use of bamboo as a primary building
material, in an effort to avoid the further depletion of rainforests.

Fortunately, these types of architectural projects are becoming more common, even though they still
remain a very small percentage of what is actually constructed. The main problem is appearance: the
image dictates the rules. The sustainable image runs the risk of being trivialized and becoming a typical
wooden house with a vaguely comforting shape fitting the common imagery of eco-friendliness. So, could
appearance be more important than substance? A building that simply looks the part is often labelled as
being “green”. A building isn’t sustainable just because it uses solar panels, though it does make it less
impactful energy-wise, but sustainability is the sum of all its parts, which include social and economic
processes. Declaring a building as green, even though it actually isn’t, has become a common
phenomenon so much so that the term “greenwashing” was created to define this.

There are many such examples across the world, some of the most famous are Tishman Speyer’s
Hudson Yards in New York and the Wilshire Project in Los Angeles, both in the United States.

- the materials used in sustainable architecture

One of the main objectives of people who delve into sustainable architecture is to recycle almost
everything they use. The buildings should be modular, constructed with elements and materials that can
be easily retrieved, reused and disposed of without causing any pollution by recycling them integrally or
globally. The separation of modern elements, composed of various layers of materials that have been
stuck together chemically, poses a serious problem for recycling. Because of this, designing reusable,
modular and adaptable structures has not yet become a widespread approach.
What many architects don’t understand about a sustainable architectural project is that materials
can have a different life and function from the one they originally had. The reuse and recycling of materials
must be taken into consideration starting from the design phase of a new structure, and in the case of a
demolition, materials must be easily retrievable and reused or recycled through careful planning. Japanese
architect Shigeru Ban has been researching and spreading this practice for years, even from a social
standpoint, studying and creating structures with cardboard tubes.
Therefore, sustainable planning is more of a cultural approach than a simple branch of traditional
architecture; it leads to designing a structure with minimal impact on humans and the environment through
a limited use of non-renewable resources and the implementation of non-harmful materials, in order to
preserve the relationship between man, building and environment.

4. What’s the influence of space and architecture on children?

To be sure above-mentioned statements will be held as a main principles in a building and designing
process, these are should be implemented into the kindergartens and schools studying programs.

And also here are the important principles of indoor and outdoor spaces for kids, which can be
beneficial for harmonical development of a child and can be added to the aforementioned in previous
paragraphs ones:

– basic concepts: like color, scale, humidity, ventilation, amount of sunlight, etc;
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– involvement into the process of forming/ creating environment around kids, so babies can learn
the influence of actions and decisions, that they also have certain responsibilities (for example – planting
in a greenhouse);

- children are learning by playing → they should be provided with activities, which include lessons
about current eco-problems the World dealing with right now and methods of solving and correcting
these issues;

- the diversity of functions of the play rooms/play spaces (these kinds of spaces should not limit the
imagination and dictate a certain scenarios of playing);

- greenery, playgrounds, outdoor spaces bring the sense of a place and attachment to a place;
that makes experience from being in the kindergarten more pleasant and helpful;

5. Conclusion

In order to influence the bright future mostly in a good way and not bring destroying consequences
from present times to the descendants, mankind should pay more attention to the way of parenting
nowadays children through architectural spaces and strengthening the relationship between the child and
nature.

6. Bibliography

Website content

- «LifeGate», What is sustainable architecture: definition, concept and famous examples,

accessed 19.06.22 18:36, https://www.lifegate.com/sustainable-architecture-definition-
concept-projects-examples
- «ArchDaily», Makoko Floating School / NLÉ, accessed 19.06.22 18:42,
https://www.archdaily.com/344047/makoko-floating-school-nle-architects
- «Terramai», 6 famous architects share their top sustainable design tips, accessed 19.06.22
18:21 https://www.terramai.com/blog/6-famous-architects-share-their-top-sustainable-
design-tips/
-«ArchDaily», School Library Gando / Kere Architecture, accessed 19.06.22 18:39,
https://www.archdaily.com/262012/in-progress-school-library-gando-kere-architecture
-«ArchDaily», The Green School / IBUKU, accessed 19.06.22 18:39
https://www.archdaily.com/81585/the-green-school-pt-
bambu?ad_source=search&ad_medium=projects_tab
- «ArchDaily», California Academy of Sciences / Renzo Piano Building Workshop + Stantec
Architecture, accessed 19.06.22 18:25 https://www.archdaily.com/6810/california-
academy-of-sciences-renzo-piano/5010014b28ba0d42220003a0-california-academy-of-
sciences-renzo-piano-photo?next_project=no
- «HowStuffWorks?», 10 Influential Green Architects, accessed 14.06.22 17:25
https://home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/construction/green/10-influential-
green-architects.htm
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Article
- Ismail Said (PhD), Architecture for Children: Understanding Children Perception towards Built
Environment (Associate Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture, Faculty of Built
Environment, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia), 6. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/11779912.pdf
- Richard Taylor, Mònica Coll Besaand, Nilufar Matin and Marion Davis, Understanding social
equity and sustainability interactions in the Sustainable Development Goals: Gender
differences in food security (Stockholm Environment Institute, Jan. 1, 2017, 6).
https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep02782?searchText=sustainability+and+children&search
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