Sustainable Architecture Architecture: place and time Architecture has changed with the pass of the years losing its relationship with the environment, transforming itself according to different architectural trends and their different Politecnico di Torino designs. The energy crisis of the 70s forced to retake the architectural criteria based on the relationship of buildings I Facoltà di with the environment. As a consequence, developed Architettura countries were forced to change their wasteful energy’s L a u r e a S p e c i a l i s t i c a thoughts for more sustainable ones, unlike the Latin Costruzione American countries that were not affected by this crisis, and therefore its development as a nation in search of S t u d e n t : A n a V i c t o r i a sustainable architecture has been, nowadays, weak or Faria Delfino nonexistent.
Introduction Architecture and its relationship to the environment have changed significantly over time. It can be said that the vernacular architecture has always had a close relationship with the environment in which it is implanted, but with the passing of time and technological evolution, this relationship has dwindled until it achieved complete independence between the building and environment. With the twist of history, during the 60s and 70s there is a return to this architecture, based on obtaining comfort through a coherent relationship between the environment and building. These ideas have evolved and even merged with others in countries that now occupy much of its resources to improving its energy consumption, generating a wealth of information on sustainability. However, in tropical countries of Latin America, this relationship is non‐existent and the bibliography limited, as it cannot be pretended that architects design the same in different climates that are in the world. As Glenn Murcutt says: “The decision about the meanings of architecture can convey places a responsibility on the designer who can determine whether to think afresh, work with the past as precedent or to willfully replicate the past… we can discover an architecture that responds to our culture and our ecological demands, incorporating technological responses that possess the junction of the poetic & rational… also ask what an appropriate architecture of our culture, time and place is”1 Sustainable Architecture trough time It can be said that most countries have a long history of sustainable buildings known as vernacular architecture or architecture that 1 Glenn Murcutt. Sustainable Architecture, Let’s no kid ourselves!
belongs to the place. The warm desert regions with warm days and cool nights, developed for centuries a perfect balance of shadows, light and natural ventilation and heat storage. In the humid and warm regions, ventilation systems and shadows were perfectly suited to the local climate. In this way, architecture and place were in perfect harmony, designed according to the advantages and disadvantages of the site variables. During the second half of the eighteenth century came the Industrial Revolution which "…introduced the idea that man could be released, through technology, the limitations imposed by nature…"2 This mechanization produced at the urban and architectural level that buildings lose their close relationship with the context that was proper in vernacular architecture and worked in perfect balance. New resources began to be used and the waste moved to other territories through the development of new mechanisms of transport. At the architectural level, the buildings were turned into bubbles; losing contact with the outside due to the perfect climate conditioning that was generated through the implementation of new technologies. In this way, there have "…finally overcome the inclement weather, the adversity of the external environment...”3 Climate independence has reached and only prevailed the aesthetics of buildings. The architecture lost its inherent sustainability. With the passing of history and architectural movements, architecture lost its relationship with the environment. One example is the Modern Movement that not only focused on rationalism, functionalism and standardization, but was based on a completely abstract architecture with no relation to the place. It was a movement in favor of a universal architecture, devoid of regional features, designed to "man" user. This thought 2, 3 Rodríguez, Eduardo de Santiago and col. Habitar entre la tradición y la vanguardia. Arquitectura sostenible para el siglo XXI. (Translated by the autor)
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was called International Style and was characterized by the search of a visual aspect that evoked lightness through the use of glass. This type of architecture is an example of the independence that was achieved between climate and buildings through the introduction of air conditioning systems. One example of this is the Seagram Building (1954‐1958) of Mies van der Rohe, International Style icon, located in New York, USA and the Torre Polar (1953‐1955) of Martin Vega and Jose Miguel Galia, located in Caracas, Venezuela, which closely resembles in their designs but their environments cannot be more dissimilar. With this example, it can be said that buildings began to generate internal climates completely independent to the external environment to be considered "hostile" at the expense of high energy consumption. This architecture was imposed over the already existing one, original to each region, evolved over centuries and increasingly adapted to their although the vernacular environment, architecture presented numerous examples of integration with the environment and consumption of materials and energy efficient that at the time, were made only by issues of human survival, not by sustainability criteria. However, not all architects have followed the international style. There were some examples, including those more orthodox, of integration with the environment as: Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Khan, Alvar Aalto and Le Corbusier's last projects in India. Even it can be said that, some of them were based to architects who later developed a more regional modern architecture adapted to the climate and its natural and cultural context, as it was: Carlos Raul Villanueva in Venezuela with Le Corbusier’s principles or Ralph Erskine in Sweden, Luis Barragán in Mexico, Hassan Fathy in Egypt, Sverre Fehn in Norway. Le Corbusier is a good example of the evolution towards the sustainability of a modern architect: "If in the beginning he was interested (of the hand of Carrier, the father of air conditioning) for the
precise breathing of the buildings and the wall neutralizing (partnership with the glass manufacturer Saint Gobain), after the failure of large crystal wall of the facade of Refuge City in Paris, he set new questions about the skin of buildings, developing the idea of brise soleil, finishing with an approach to the place and the climate much more appropriate in their latest projects of India (villas Shodhan and Sarabhai, Chandigarh), based on successful reinterpretation of vernacular architecture4. Finally, the goal of the architects was to link with nature, generating the slightest disturbance in the environment in pursuit of the maintenance a balance. These architects were able to demystify the context as an enemy or hostile element. They started to work and take advantage of it in the projects, even in extreme weather conditions, as have done architects as Erskine and Hassan Fathy. Nonetheless, this whole process that takes over from the natural was intensified during the 60s with the release of the need to integrate architecture with the environment, based on human comfort and the emerging concept of bioclimatic architecture. During the 70s, this movement was accelerated due to the oil crisis, renewed interest in new energy sources. Taking into account that the architecture and urbanism have a strong impact on energy efficiency and sustainability of societies, industrialized countries like the U.S., Canada, Japan and member countries of the European Community began to show concern about the new controls energy and started developing energy efficiency standards and programs that ensure the reduction of energy consumption. Latin American countries away from all this energy issue, especially playing the developed and industrialized countries, was in full economic 4 Rodríguez, Eduardo de Santiago and col. Habitar entre la tradición y la vanguardia. Arquitectura sostenible para el siglo XXI. (Translated by the autor)
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boom, with plenty of energy and building with formal criteria and functionalism. The technological availability of low‐price mechanical climatization and reachable by the majority, made even more buildings had air conditioning, passing them to become part of everyday life, supported by existing climatic conditions. One example is the case of Venezuela, where the economic boom experienced in the past, left a legacy of a series of habits, nowadays out a way of reality. Technological developments in the last two decades created in the public the idea that energy resources, including electricity, were inexhaustible, contributing to the formation of a culture of wasteful energy. It is important to mention the way that in tropical countries are working with natural ventilation, shadows, natural light and the control system of daylight to achieve a sustainable architecture. Proof of this is natural ventilation with the shadows that allow movement through the air, achieve thermal comfort. In Malaysia UMNO is a building that is one of the first naturally ventilated, designed by Ken Yeang. The architect used wind conductors in the walls to trap and redirect the wind toward the building. Another possibility is the solar chimney, which is still under development for use in the tropics. Note that natural ventilation has great potential still to be explored, which will significantly reduce air conditioning consumption, in turn to generate more contact with the environment and transforming into a more sustainable building. Also is the issue of the shadows (perhaps a little explored in the tropics), natural light and the control system of daylight. The biggest problem in tropical countries is the limited information that is handled in the field of environmental conditioning in buildings that has contributed to the indiscriminate importation of design concepts which do not meet the environmental requirements of each region,
leading to a greater technological dependence, excessive and unjustified use of energy and loss and abandonment of values of a more regional architecture. The Finnish architect Juhani Pallasmaa points: “Architecture will again take root in its cultural and regional soil. This architecture could be called Ecological Functionalism … It must become more primitive in terms of meeting the most fundamental human needs with an economy of expression and mediating our relationship with the world … and more sophisticated in the sense of adapting to the cyclic systems of nature in terms of both matter and energy. Ecological architecture also implies a view of building more as process than a product. And it suggests a new awareness in terms of recycling and responsibility exceeding the scope of life. It also seems that the architect’s role between the polarities of craft and art has to be redefined… After decades of affluence and abundance, architecture is likely to return to the aesthetics of necessity in which elements of metaphorical expression and practical craft fuse into each other again; utility and beauty again united”.5 As the German architect Thomas Herzog said, it means to assume a new projectual philosophy: “The aim of our work in the future should be the project buildings and urban spaces so as to safeguard the natural reserves and used as widely as possible renewable forms of energy, to avoid many of the current urban development undesirable. Architects and engineers must design their projects based on knowledge of local conditions, existing resources and the main criteria that rules the use of various sources of renewable energy and ecological components and techniques ..."6 Pallasmaa, Juhani. From Metaforical to Ecological Functionalism 6 Herzog, Thomas. Architecture + Technology (translated by 5
the autor)
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Conclusions The knowledge and management of environmental variables, their characteristics and relationships, will enable the architect to have a real sense of the problem or site specific conditions, the compression of this reality and assume it as the key determinant in the design process becomes a practical tool to facilitate the development of an architecture better adapted to local conditions, such as the tropics. Due to the variety and complexity of the component parts of the site, it follows that each is somewhat unique, and this complexity as well truss has a decisive factor, which deserves interest, concern and effectiveness, by the architect. Compression of this essential character which proposes the need to understand the environmental dynamics of the site will see the constraints of it and what is more important, this will reveal the hidden potential of this place, will identify the points where the intervention could reveal the character of the site, make new connections or develop deeper meanings.
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References
Internet References
Books and Articles
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juhani_Pallasmaa • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Herzog • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernacular_archit ecture
• ALONSO, E. Ecología y Desarrollo. Escalas y problemas de la dialéctica Desarrollo ‐ Medio Ambiente. Complutense Publishing. Madrid, April 1996. • GIVONI, Baruch. Man, climate and architecture. Amsterdam: Elsevier Publishing C. L., 1969 • HERZOG, Thomas. Architecture + Technology. Prestel Publishing. Munich, 2001. • LAAR, Michael. Sustainable Buildings in the Tropics. Institute for Tropical Architecture. Prince Claus Fund For Culture & Development. Germany, October, 2006. (http://www.arquitecturatropical.org/EDITORI AL/documents/EDIFICIOSSOSTENIBLESENELTRO PICO.pdf) • PALLASMAA, Juhani. From Metaforical to Ecological Functionalism. The Architectural Review, June 1993 • RODRIGUEZ, Eduardo de Santiago and col. Habitar entre la tradición y la vanguardia. Arquitectura sostenible para el siglo XXI. UNAM Magazine. Volumen 8 Number 7. July 10, 2007. (http://www.revista.unam.mx/vol.8/num7/art5 3/jul_art53.pdf) • USON GUARDIOLA, Ezequiel. Dimensiones de la sostenibilidad. Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, SL. Barcelona, October 2004. Conferences • Conference by G. Scudo at Alta Scuola Politecnica Spring School. Title: Sustainable Architecture. April, 2009. • Conference by Glenn Murcutt at the Institute of Tropical Architecture. III Tropical Architecture, Urbanism and Landscape Encounter, San Jose, Costa Rica. November 27, 2004. Title: Sustainable Architecture, Let’s no kid ourselves! (http://www.arquitecturatropical.org/docume nts/ArquitecturasostenibleMURCUTT2.pdf)
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