Author(s)

V. A. Metallinou

Abstract

For centuries, building has been seen largely as a way of living apart from the environment and dominating nature. This has turned out to be a pyrrhic supremacy and the current ecological crisis has motivated many professionals and academics to re-evaluate the fundamental premises of how buildings are designed and produced. The potential of buildings to cause global environmental damage was first acknowledged during the 1980s and out of this realization, the concept of \“sustainability” emerged which now enjoys a central place in the discourse. There are clear connections between the effects of globalization and architectural practice. There is a direct link between the destruction of the rainforests and how we build and with which materials; and the erosion of the ozone layer has led to a reassessment of how energy is used in buildings. The issues that bioclimatic buildings and settings address are essentially threefold: energy, health and wellbeing and sustainability. Yet, eco architecture is not only a matter of specific design choices that lead (most of the time) to specific high tech building products, but the appropriate mentality that emancipates a specific attitude of dealing with building within nature. In doing so, regional and national planning should surely lay emphasis on maximizing ambient energy and at the local level, planning should strive to increase density in urban areas to combat the increasing suburbanization, as a means to protect surrounding nature - the raison d’ etre of the city. To Vitruvious’ Firmitas, Utilita and Venustas (strength, functionality and beauty) a further criterion has to be added - restitutes (restitution) in which the act of building enhances the environment in an ecologically responsible manner. Keywords: globalization and architectural practice, building and energy, building within nature, eco-architecture, energy, health and wellbeing and sustainability.

Keywords

globalization and architectural practice, building and energy, building within nature, eco-architecture, energy, health and wellbeing and sustainability.