MITIGATING MAN’S IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT 1
MINIMAL SURFACE & VOLUME Architectural volume encloses space. It carves away space which is also part of the existing ecosystem and reclaims it. Space that serves a purpose for its surroundings in providing a place to dwell in. By minimizing the surface area and optimizing the volume of the built construct, to take away only the necessary, this spatial impact is therefore reduced. Also, along with a minimal surface area, comes a reduction in material resource usage as well.
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POINT OF CONTACT
EXTRACTIVE VS. DISTRIBUTIVE
Our current way of building occupies an excessive amount of land area that serves as a niche for many organisms. Raising a building up from the ground minimizes the amount of land impacted by the architecture as well as the invasion of the existing ecological system and whatever is dependent of it.
When architecture is built, the local biological system’s energy flow is disturbed. Solar energy, in order to fuel photosynthesis, is blocked; wind patterns are modified; migratory and feeding routes are interrupted; organisms are deprived of water sources; the list can go on indefinitely. But what architecture can do in order to avoid falling in a parasitic behavior is employ an arsenal of sustainable strategies aiming to cooperate and give back what it has taken away.
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Fig. 6.45
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