Every year, Earth Day serves as a reminder to the world to take a moment to reflect. It’s a day to take stock of the environmental situation, and to dwell on what can be done to ensure a better tomorrow. Every year, Earth Day serves as a reminder to the world to take a moment to reflect. It’s a day to assess the state of the environment and consider what can be done to ensure a better tomorrow. While the world grapples with environmental issues and the climate crisis worsens, a few architects emerge as forerunners committed to creating a more eco-conscious world.
Today, we shine a light on firms that have recently completed projects that demonstrate creative material use and have given shape to some exemplary, environmentally friendly structure.
- Designing for energy efficiency
One of the most important ways we can reduce our environmental impact is to design energy-efficient buildings. “Buildings account for nearly 40% of global carbon emissions,” says architect Keith Menon, founder of Spiro Spero, “so we need to start designing them with energy efficiency in mind.” Menon suggests building to last. The more we build things that have a short shelf life of 20–30 years, the more we have to demolish and rebuild. A mountain sliced for marble isn’t going to regenerate that marble again for another million years.
Same for cement, clay, sand, copper, brass, iron, nickel, and the hundreds of other elements that go into making a home. Forests aren’t regenerating as fast as we’re wiping them out. The more thoughtful our design becomes, the more direct and indirect positive impacts on nature will start becoming visible. Organisations in this field need to proactively start ensuring that the buildings we design are for 100 years or more, and with some government regulations as a guardrail, we could be a country that could lead the way for the rest of the world, as we’re on the cusp of becoming the most populous country in the world, and with that comes a great responsibility considering the amount of infrastructure India needs and is currently building.
- Water Conservation
It is crucial to understand the topography and climatology of a location, as well as the availability and quality of water, before undertaking any development to ensure sustainable development. Kishan Govindaraju, Director, at Vaishnavi Group our project in Yelahanka Extension, where the northern part of Bangalore sees less rainfall than the southern part, we hired an external consultant who specializes in hydrology, hydrogeology, environmental and infrastructure engineering.
The consultant set up hydrological and hydraulic models to understand the complete hydrological cycle for the 45-acre parcel of land. They quantified the availability of groundwater, rainwater, and planned to intercept 100% of the rainwater to reduce stress on the groundwater. Additionally, a Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) was set up to produce tertiary-treated recycled water for non-potable purposes such as irrigation and cleaning. The project also integrated the Rain Water Harvesting system with the storm water network, and utilized V-Wire technology for groundwater recharge. The water infrastructure has been engineered to work as a system, contributing to sustainable development not only for the project but also for the larger community and the greater geographical area beyond the development. In conclusion, an integrated water and wastewater engineering, planning, and implementation methodology has been adopted, benefiting society at large.
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- Focusing on regenerative design
Regenerative design is an approach to architecture that aims to restore and regenerate the environment rather than just reducing our impact. Architect Sumit Dhawan believes that “We need to move beyond sustainability and focus on creating buildings that actively regenerate the environment.” This can include strategies like designing buildings that generate their own energy, capture and reuse water, and promote biodiversity.