Green Buildings For A Sustainable Future

Green buildings pave the way for more efficient and sustainable urban development. Aims to strike a balance between environmental consciousness and economic and social values.

Green buildings have the ability to usher in a paradigm shift in the construction industry. Mitigate climate change while promoting the transition to a circular bio- based economy that is less resource-intensive. Building efficiency in terms of water, energy, and materials usage, as well as minimising the impact of buildings on people's health and the environment, is prioritised through improved design, construction, operation, maintenance, and removal.

WHY GO GREEN?

GREEN BUILDINGS OVER COVENTIONAL BUILDINGS

Incorporating sustainability into the construction industry will result in the efficient and technological use of land, as well as the efficient use of space and building surfaces, as well as a reduction in construction waste. India's rate of electricity consumption in residential structures is extremely high in comparison to some developed countries. Residential structures' cooling systems alone require electrical energy. As a result, implementing the notion of sustainable architectural practises will result in lower power consumption in residential structures, resulting in significant cost savings. The construction industry is one of the largest users of water and, at the same time, one of the largest producers of water waste.

Wood is a renewable resource that can help to ensure the construction industry's long-term viability. Because of its association with deforestation, it may be difficult to consider wood as a sustainable material. However, man-made construction materials such as concrete and steel have a large carbon footprint, causing even more environmental damage. Using wood instead of steel or concrete has a lower environmental impact as well as lower construction and operating costs.

Thanks to advancements in building technology, wood can now be used in  a variety of non-residential, multi-story, and long-span buildings. To accommodate wood construction methods, construction codes have evolved accordingly.

Sustainable Design

Sustainable design is about creating a future, not just a structure. As much as it is about the product, sustainability is also about the process. By viewing design as a process, green designers can better examine and anticipate the environmental, economic, and social implications and costs of building products. At the start of a project, larger-picture evaluations lead to better long-term judgments, which leads to greater overall success.

Wood systems can meet space and performance requirements while also offering cost savings, flexibility, ease of building, and a lower carbon footprint. Light-frame, heavy-frame, and mass-timber construction can all be employed to provide high- quality infrastructure, flexible space, appealing interior aesthetics, and energy efficiency while remaining cost-effective. Because of the substantial limitations on heights and areas in wood-framed buildings, many cities are turning to wood to construct higher-density multifamily complexes. Some designers are exploring the potential for different occupancy groups and contexts, such as major commercial office projects, as a result of the trend's success. Wood provides a multitude of benefits to its users as well as the environment, as it is a carbon-neutral building material. With evolving technologies and state-of-the-art engineering, it is possible to express every unique aesthetic experiment, enabling large structures to be constructed in wood.

Design Strategy: Structure, envelope, ventilation, water, lighting, and mechanical design are all aspects of a building's orientation and configuration. It is critical to bring various building systems and professions together when the design team enters the systems design phase in order to achieve considerable energy savings.

Factors to consider when designing green buildings include: water pollution reduction, human health protection, dust and air emission mitigation, adequate green space consideration, and construction noise mitigation. The initial task in the ventilation design is to determine the best Cubic Feet per Minute objectives. At least during the swing seasons, natural ventilation systems may be beneficial in buildings with access to clean air and a peaceful outdoor setting. Examine the possibility of heat recovery systems. Sensible and latent heat can both be recovered.

Important Design Elements

  • Environmental considerations
  • Effective use of space
  • Use of natural and existing resources
  • Green parking and a thermal environment
  • Utilisation of land resources

On the basis of the important variables highlighted, practical guidelines can be developed for effective and efficient design execution. The integration of green design techniques and smart technologies into buildings not only works to reduce environmental impact and the use of energy, but also reduces the costs of construction and maintenance, creates a pleasant working environment and improves users' health.

Well-being and Health

Designing for health is rapidly becoming a part of what it means to create green buildings. Improvements in interior air quality can reduce absenteeism and work hours caused by asthma, respiratory allergies, depression, and stress, as well as self-reported productivity gains. Green construction encourages resilient designs, technologies, materials, and procedures. Sustainable design, green architecture, sustainable construction, and green building concepts are design and construction processes and methodologies that strive to tackle environmental and economic concerns by lowering costs while reducing environmental effects.

In addition to being visually appealing, wood can help with the health and well- being of building occupants. When exposed to wooden panels, blood pressure drops dramatically, whereas exposure to steel panels causes it to rise. According to another study, workers in offices with hardwood interiors expressed feelings of inventiveness, energy, and comfort, but those in offices without wood expressed feelings of their environment being impersonal and uncomfortable. Because the majority of the components are made of wood, they operate well together; for example, timber-to-timber connections are significantly faster and easier to implement than timber-to-steel connections. Important parts of a building's specification, such as "air-tightness," "vapour management," and "breathability," can all operate together with this strategy.

In terms of measured and perceived indoor environmental quality and health, green buildings outperform non-green buildings. In the indoor environment, green buildings contain lower levels of VOCs, formaldehyde, allergens, ambient tobacco smoke, NO2, and particle matter. Many of the environmental contaminants linked to negative health outcomes are explicitly addressed in green building design credits, where design components aimed at improving indoor environmental quality result in significant reductions in actual exposure.

SUSTAINABLE URBAN PLANNING

The creation of eco-neighbourhoods, which are urban projects that try to reduce environmental effects and improve inhabitants' living habits to make them more responsible for their surroundings, is one of the emerging trends in urban planning.

This type of effort relies heavily on the use of sustainable technology and materials in the construction of buildings and other infrastructure.

Wood is emerging as a climate-friendly replacement for carbon-intensive materials like concrete, steel, and aluminium for large urban buildings and smaller-scale infrastructure. Trees remove CO2 from the atmosphere, which remains stored in wood for as long as the material remains intact. Using sustainable, responsibly- sourced wood can help to conserve forests, potentially producing massive climate and biodiversity benefits.

Due to their industrialised methods and new concepts, wooden buildings are a very competitive and sustainable choice. Using wood as a construction material is a climate-friendly option as well as a way to satisfy the demands of population expansion and urbanisation. From an environmental standpoint, wood is unrivalled because it is the only entirely renewable building material.

Sustainable building has become quite popular over the past decade since people have become more aware of our environmental problems and that we need to solve them somehow. Effective sustainable design is a comprehensive approach to selecting and integrating products and processes that accounts for long-term consumer satisfaction and environmental conservation.