Introduction 

Hey there! With all the talk about climate change and saving resources these days, architects like us are starting to realize we can make a real difference by designing greener, more eco-friendly buildings. There’s so much we can do to reduce the impact buildings have on the environment – it’s actually pretty exciting! In this post, I’ll be discussing 5 key strategies we architects can use to design sustainable buildings that meet sustainability goals. Let’s dive in!

1. Incorporate Passive Design Strategies 

One of the coolest things about being an architect is figuring out how to work with what nature gives us. By leveraging sunshine, breeze, and the natural landscape, we can drastically cut down the energy a building needs to run. Passive solar design, natural ventilation, daylighting – these ancient strategies have stood the test of time for good reason! When we thoughtfully integrate passive techniques into a building early on, it’s incredible how little electricity and cooling is actually needed. I’ve seen some buildings cut energy use by 30-50% or more doing this! The planet (and the client’s utility bills) will thank you.

2. Use Sustainable Building Materials

– Explore options like recycled materials, locally sourced materials, rapidly renewable materials, certified wood. Reduce embodied energy of materials over lifecycle.

3. Implement Renewable Energy Systems 

– Solar PV, solar thermal, geothermal, etc. On-site renewable energy generation reduces grid-based energy needs.

4. Optimize Energy and Water Efficiency

– HVAC, lighting, appliances, fixtures. Modeling, simulations, benchmarks to target high efficiency. Water reuse, low flow fixtures. 

5. Consider Operational Sustainability

– Design for durability, flexibility, deconstruction. Enable green operations and maintenance practices.

Conclusion

– Summary of key points. Architects play a critical role in moving towards more sustainable built environments. By implementing these design strategies, architects can create high-performance, eco-friendly buildings that meet sustainability goals.

Introduction

Sustainability and environmentally-conscious design have become increasingly important concepts within the architectural profession. With rising concerns about climate change, resource scarcity, and the environmental impact of the built environment, architects have a key opportunity to incorporate sustainable design strategies into their work. By doing so, they can create high-performance buildings that have dramatically reduced environmental footprints. This article will discuss five ways that architects can design sustainable buildings to meet broad sustainability goals and make meaningful progress towards more eco-friendly design practices.

1. Incorporate Passive Design Strategies

One of the most impactful things an architect can do is leverage passive design strategies that maximize natural sources of heating, cooling, ventilation, and lighting. By tapping into the natural environment and local climate conditions, passive design techniques can greatly reduce or even eliminate the need for mechanical HVAC and lighting systems, which greatly cuts down on energy usage. Some examples of passive design approaches include:

– Passive Solar Design: Strategically using windows, thermal mass, and building orientation to naturally heat and illuminate interiors. 

– Natural Ventilation: Allowing fresh outdoor air to circulate through spaces via operable windows, stacks, wind towers, etc. This reduces the need for mechanical ventilation.

– Daylighting: Maximizing the use of natural light through skylights, light tubes, reflective surfaces, glazing placement, and reducing electric lighting where possible.

– External Shading: Using overhangs, louvers, shutters, etc. to prevent overheating from the sun.

– Other techniques like green roofs, natural landscaping for shading and evapotranspiration, rainwater harvesting, and more.

Skillfully integrating these passive techniques into a building’s design can dramatically reduce energy usage intensity, sometimes by 30-50% or more compared to conventional buildings. This makes passive design a foundational strategy that every sustainability-focused architect should master.

2. Use Sustainable Building Materials 

The materials an architect chooses to build with also have a very significant environmental impact, from the raw material extraction, processing, transportation, installation, and eventual end-of-life. As such, architects should select sustainable materials with an eye to minimizing lifetime carbon and resource footprints. Some material options to consider include:

– Recycled Materials: Using recycled content like recycled steel and concrete aggregates reduces embodied energy.

– Rapidly Renewable Materials: Things like bamboo, straw, and cotton insulation have much faster growth cycles than traditional wood.

– Local Materials: Choosing materials that are extracted and manufactured locally reduces transportation impacts.

– Certified Wood: Ensuring any virgin wood comes from responsibly managed forests certified by FSC or similar groups. 

– Alternate Materials: Consider using alternate options such as adobe, rammed earth, or compressed earth blocks.

– Red List Avoidance: Exclude unsustainable materials like old growth wood, toxic finishes, PVCs, etc.

– Lifecycle Assessment: Compare the full lifecycle impacts of different material options.

By carefully selecting lower footprint materials, architects can design buildings that embody significantly less energy and resources, decreasing ecological impacts.

3. Implement Renewable Energy Systems

Once energy demand has been reduced through passive design and efficiency measures, architects should look to satisfy remaining energy needs through on-site renewable power generation. Renewable energy systems that can be implemented in buildings include:

– Solar Photovoltaics: Grid-connected or standalone PV arrays generate emissions-free electricity from the sun.  

– Solar Thermal Systems: Solar hot water collectors provide renewable heat for DHW, heating, or pool systems.

– Geothermal Heat Pumps: Leverage subsurface temperatures for space heating and cooling.

– Small Wind Turbines: Harness wind resources for electricity generation.

– Waste-to-Energy: Use organic waste streams for process heat or electricity generation. 

Integrating renewables like solar PV or geothermal heat pumps directly into the building design allows architects to offset grid-purchased energy with on-site renewable generation. If implemented at scale, these technologies can drastically reduce the building’s net carbon footprint.

4. Optimize Energy and Water Efficiency

There are also many ways architects can design buildings to be inherently more energy and water efficient, including:

HVAC and Geometric Optimization: Simulate building energy performance early in design to optimize factors like building shape, orientation, envelope performance, and HVAC equipment selection to maximize efficiency.  

High Efficiency Equipment: Specify ENERGY STAR appliances, high-efficiency water fixtures, intelligent lighting controls, and heat recovery ventilation.

Advanced Envelopes: Use high R-value insulation, insulated glazing units with low-E coatings, insulated doors, and minimal thermal bridging to minimize heat loss/gain.

Water Reduction Systems: Install low-flow plumbing fixtures, rainwater harvesting, graywater recycling to reduce potable water waste.

Benchmarking: Set quantitative efficiency targets using standards like LEED, Energy Star, or the Architecture 2030 Challenge.

By making buildings as efficient as possible, less renewable energy systems are needed to offset overall usage, reducing the size, embodied carbon, and cost of these systems.

5. Consider Operational Sustainability

Lastly, architects should think about the full lifetime sustainability of buildings by considering how design decisions affect operational energy use, as well as deconstruction and eventual reuse or recycling of materials at end of life. 

Some strategies for maximizing sustainability from a full lifecycle approach include:

– Flexible Design: Create adaptable spaces that can serve different functions over time as needs change.

– Durability: Design durable building assemblies that do not need frequent replacement or maintenance. 

– Design for Deconstruction: Avoid composite products and use mechanical fasteners so assemblies can be more easily disassembled later. 

– Design for Disassembly: Enable reuse of products/components after deconstruction by using standardized and modular building systems.

– Lean Construction Methods: Reduce construction waste through prefabrication, modularization, just-in-time delivery, and more.

– Commissioning: Ensure building systems are calibrated and functioning optimally post-occupancy. 

– Operator Training: Educate facilities managers on optimal sustainability operations and maintenance practices.

By taking a more holistic view of the building lifecycle, architects can design for reduced environmental impacts from construction through occupancy and even after eventual decommissioning. This is critical to meeting broad sustainability goals.

Conclusion

Creating a truly sustainable built environment requires reducing the environmental footprint of buildings from initial concept through operational lifetime and eventual deconstruction. Architects are uniquely positioned to lead this charge by incorporating passive design, material efficiency, renewable energy, reduction of energy and water waste, and lifecycle thinking into their sustainable design strategies. By doing so, architects can play an instrumental role in creating ecologically restorative, carbon neutral buildings that help meet pressing sustainability goals. The strategies outlined in this article are just some of the many ways architects can design holistically sustainable structures that provide comfort, appeal, resilience and dramatically reduced environmental footprints.