A Blueprint for Sustainable Design PART 1 Sustainable design is the ultimate act of function matching form to maximise positive impact, says Juliet Kinsman. It’s not a new concept, and it’s not just a trend. Good design means being more sustainable.
S
ustainability is more than a buzzword;
Nations declaring its 17 Sustainable Development
back-of-house activity has increasingly
Goals, corporations and consumers alike were
become as important to guests as the
given clear calls to action in 2012. As such, any
comforts and facilities facing them. No longer do
hotel or hospitality business that tunes into
sleek fixtures impress this hotel reviewer – what
these goals – from ending hunger and poverty
gives me a thrill is peeking behind the curtain
to improving education, promoting equality and
to discover a hotel’s reduced solid waste being
preserving oceans and forests – is by its very
delivered to landfill thanks to anaerobic digestion.
nature more sustainable.
The organic food-waste tanks at Treehouse
The thing is, the topic of sustainability is
London and Paramount Sydney are particularly
complicated. Being green refers to impact in
impressive. Ditto the new glass-crushing
the short term, the long term, on a micro level
machine at Middleton Lodge in Yorkshire,
and a macro one, as well as considering the
and the bio-mass system at Heckfield Place
consumption of natural resources at every turn.
in Hampshire. Rather than spilling over with
Which is why it’s important for luxury hotels to
disposable amenities, hotels – both chains and
decide what they want to stand for, and how to
independents – with dazzling performance
stand out for it. When the construction, furnishing
indicators and ambitious energy-reduction
and management of sustainable hotels works to
targets are more and more the crowd-pleasers.
minimise the use of non-renewable resources,
As the adage goes, the true function of design
or allows for low-energy low-waste operations,
is letting design function. The hallmark of
and considers the seven rules of sustainability –
sustainable design is that it lets a hotel exist in
refuse, reduce, repurpose, repair, return, refill
harmony with nature, minimises negative impact
– at every decision-making crossroads, it’s onto
on place, and promotes the health and comfort
a winner.
of people, all the while optimising a building’s performance and durability.
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A GREEN BILL OF HEALTH
Harlem Brundtland’s 1987 definition of
Depending on the location and the scale of a
sustainability set a benchmark: “Development
hotel, it’s certainly easier in the design of a
that meets the needs of the present without
newbuild to be more considerate of people,
compromising the ability of future generations
place and planet when starting out with a blank
to meet their own needs.” Thanks to the United
canvas. But often the perception of owners and
