Author(s)

M. J. González-Díaz & J. García-Navarro

Abstract

Sustainability, as a new concept, has been adopted recently in the world of architecture, related to new technical utilities and new assessment environmental methods. At the same time, several eco-logics have been developed, according to a new approach from the world of energy, resources and health. After that, economical and social items have been summed up. From an aesthetical and expressive point of view, the architecture based in this new paradigm has not developed a new common language yet, which is still diverse, confused and non identifiable, but the trend in the future will establish new formal and coherent initiatives. Eventually, all activities related to the world of architecture and construction are creating a holistic approach from an environmental viewpoint, which will be a really important matter for the human habitat in the future, according to the actual trend. The economics and social items related to architecture are showing that the environmental conscience must be spread not only to market and economical diplomacy, but to education, participation, and ethics too. The approach, then, is finally global, holistic and focused on values. This scenario rooted to values means that the environmental awareness will be placed in a very significant position, in opposition to the last age, in which the technical pattern was one of the predominant, overestimated values. Hazards and impacts from Human activities over Nature are now essentially analyzed in every discipline, including construction and architecture. That means that what is really changing in the construction world is not only science or technology. What are changing are the values, which turned up from the sense of man as the centre of the universe to Nature in a first place, in harmony with nonanthropocentric values.

Keywords

sustainable architecture, ethics, vernacular