Team Blog Series: 5 Fundamental Principles of Sustainable Architecture - Dachi Tchezhia

The Team Blog Series is a collection of blogs written by members of our team. Each blog's author will tell you about a topic, news, or issue that piques their interest.

Today’s blog was brought to you by Dachi Tchezhia, architect at MUA - Architecture & Placemaking.?

Putting the principles of sustainable architecture into practice is a major solution for present-day social, environmental and economic challenges. By implementing and popularizing the principles of sustainable architecture, it becomes possible to carry out projects ethically, with minimal harm to nature.

1. Using Solar Energy To Its Full Extent?

Sustainability is most often related to energy consumption. This is no accident - our current energy infrastructure depends on the use of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas. However, these energy sources are exhaustible, so sustainable design relies heavily on natural sunlight as an energy source.

Nowadays, both active and passive strategies are used to construct eco-friendly and sustainable buildings. For example, installing photovoltaic panels to convert sunlight into electricity is a proactive strategy. And with the passive strategy, the orientation of the building is determined wisely and the trajectory of the seasonal movement of the sun is thoroughly studied, so that solar energy can be used throughout the year.

2. Optimization of Energy Consumption

Improving the energy efficiency of buildings is important for increasing energy independence. Zero-energy buildings do not need to consume electricity or other types of energy for lighting, heating, cooling and water consumption. This goal can be achieved by using energy modeling software to optimize building energy consumption, optimizing system control strategies during operation using CO2 sensors and other air quality alarms, etc.

Optimizing energy consumption is one of the ways to significantly reduce the consumption of natural resources and thus damage to the environment.

3. Water Conservation and Recycling

Water resources are becoming more and more scarce. Sustainable building design involves the efficient use of water to minimize the destructive impact on the environment. Water can be used efficiently and economically in many ways, for example, by conserving, recycling, filtering and reusing rainwater, installing water-efficient faucets, showers and baths, etc. Applying sustainable architecture principles in the design can help build green buildings and encourage the practice of water recycling and reuse.

According to the International Water Association, we can think of a building as a "hydrological battery" that collects rainwater and finds ways to use this liquid efficiently. Accumulated rainwater can be used for domestic purposes, seismic damping, sound attenuation, fire extinguishing, thermal mass reduction, etc. To achieve this, at the building design stage, architects create design of ducts and small water reservoirs, through which it is possible to use the accumulated water or return it to rivers or lakes.

4. Optimizing The Use of Building Space and Materials

As the world's population continues to grow, the rate of use and demand for natural resources continues to expand. Therefore, sustainable architecture dictates that residential buildings should be built with environmentally friendly and reusable materials.

The use of sustainable materials will also help to minimize the impact on the environment, which has a positive effect on large-scale problems such as global warming, the depletion of the world's resources and a polluted, toxic environment. Environmentally friendly materials do not have a negative influence on human health and the nature, and due to the fact that no toxic substances are used in their production, they contribute to the improvement of human safety and health.

5. Improving The Quality of Indoor Air

The quality of indoor air of a building has a significant impact on the health, comfort and productivity of its occupants. Along with various strategies, the volumetric structure of a building with sustainable architecture ensures air circulation so that the building has perfect ventilation and humidity control. At the same time, the acoustics are optimized and the use of materials composed of various unhealthy chemical compounds is avoided.