In recent years, the idea of sustainability has become increasingly popular, up to the point of turning into a buzzword. While sustainability is usually perceived as a positive goal, it may be difficult for a non-specialist to explain the meaning of sustainability in a particular industry. Due to this problem, one has to outline components of sustainability in a specific context in order to grasp the concept as a whole. In the case of architecture, sustainability can be defined via three key points. Most importantly, sustainable architecture limits its environmental impact by achieving energy efficiency of the buildings. In addition, sustainable architecture utilizes space and materials efficiently by emphasizing the reusability of materials. Finally, sustainability means achieving improved comfort and liveability for inhabitants of newly-constructed buildings (Garofalo, 2018). These key points are highly dependent on eco-friendly building materials. Ultimately, a claim that sustainable architecture is impossible without eco-friendly materials should not be considered an exaggeration.
One might wonder how sustainability, a concept frequently used in connection with climate change and the protection of the environment, is related to architecture. However, a closer look at the essence of architecture and the construction industry provides an answer to this question. While climate change has occurred on Earth before, the current situation is beyond the natural order. Human activities have created conditions for an unprecedented increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In particular, urbanization, a process directly connected to architecture, played a significant part in the GHG emission process. According to Sijakovic and Peric (2020), cities occupy only 2% of the total land area. However, cities consume 78% of global energy and produce 60% of total carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) in the atmosphere (Sijakovic & Peric, 2020). Essentially, big cities are the worst offender in terms of contributing to undesirable climate change. In this regard, sustainable architecture serves as a means to reduce this negative influence.
Building materials represent one of the main components of sustainable architecture. Materials used in the construction industry have an enormous impact on the environment. In particular, materials affect the environment throughout the whole life cycle, from extraction and processing to use and disposal (Sijakovic & Peric, 2020). Therefore, the material selection process is vitally important for sustainable architecture, given the scale of GHG emissions produced by cities. The sustainable architecture of the modern era strives to reduce the negative environmental impact of building materials by deploying certain selection criteria and methodologies for material evaluation. For instance, the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) methodology communicates transparent information on building materials’ life cycle (Sijakovic & Peric, 2020). Consequently, land developers and architects get an opportunity to increase the sustainability of their projects by identifying and selecting more eco-friendly materials.
The materials preferable from the sustainable architecture’s standpoint share certain common properties. Altuma and Ghasemlounia (2021) defined fourteen criteria of sustainability for building materials, ranging from improving indoor air quality to reducing water consumption. However, the most important takeaway from this classification lies in the clear connection between sustainable architecture and GHG emission reduction. For instance, energy efficiency, or minimization of energy use for building operation, aligns with combating the problem of GHG emissions in big cities (Altuma & Ghasemlounia, 2021). Four of the fourteen sustainability criteria — material production from renewables, capacity for biological degradation, capacity for recycling, and reusability, are interconnected with efficient use of space and resources (Altuma & Ghasemlounia, 2021). As such, one can claim that sustainable architecture perceives eco-friendly building materials as a solution to the ever-increasing GHG emission from major cities. The use of sustainable materials in the construction industry, especially in the residential housing sphere, represents one of the most promising ways to mitigate the negative impact of human activities on climate.
For instance, the use of eco-friendly materials is crucial for achieving better energy efficiency of buildings via thermal insulation. According to Asim et al. (2020), buildings consume approximately 40% of global energy output. Of this amount, 60% is used for heating and cooling purposes (Asim et al., 2020). However, the application of eco-friendly building materials has the potential to improve energy efficiency without compromising on other essential properties, such as compressive strength. In particular, Asim et al. (2020) found that the addition of 2.5% of coconut fibers to concrete improved its thermal insulation capacity by 6.5%. In addition, a 3.7% improvement in compressive strength was achieved compared to plain concrete (Asim et al., 2020). An addition of 2.5% jute fibers to concrete resulted in a 6.7% improvement in compressive strength and a 2.6% improvement in thermal insulation, respectively (Asim et al., 2020). As such, eco-friendly materials can simultaneously make buildings more durable and reduce the amount of energy necessary for heating or cooling purposes. The latter part is particularly valuable in terms of GHG emission reduction since fossil fuels commonly used for heating purposes are a significant source of global CO2 emissions.
Furthermore, the global population growth sets a demand for providing new inhabitants of Earth with housing. This situation might present a significant challenge for the future since the construction industry already utilizes a massive amount of resources. According to Dahy (2019), the global building industry consumes approximately 45% of the world’s resources. As such, the threat of running out of energy or severely damaging the environment in order to satisfy the global need for residential housing and goods should not be neglected. Sustainable architecture offers a solution in eco-friendly materials that can be recycled to preserve our planet’s most valuable resources. For example, the biocomposites, such as natural fiber-reinforced polymers (NFPRs), could replace wood applications in the building industry (Dahy, 2019). As a result, forests, the slowly-renewable resource vitally important for GHG absorption, would remain intact and help Earth mitigate the consequences of urbanization. In this regard, sustainable architecture utilizes eco-friendly materials to lift the pressure from the lungs of the planet and prevent the drastic shortage of resources in the future.
From these examples, one can conclude that eco-friendly materials are a cornerstone of sustainable architecture. In particular, these building materials allow the architecture to meet two major criteria of sustainability — energy efficiency and reusability. Improvement in energy efficiency is necessary for reducing GHG emissions and cutting the costs of heating and cooling in cities. The reusability of building materials helps to cut construction costs and contributes to preserving valuable resources such as forests, leaving them intact for tackling the GHG emission issue. Given the size of the construction industry and the relentless nature of urbanization, even marginal improvements in energy efficiency, GHG emissions, and cost reductions can lead to massive positive change on a global level. Therefore, eco-friendly building materials must be considered an inalienable component of sustainable architecture.
References
Altuma, M. I., & Ghasemlounia, R. (2021). Effects of construction materials to achieve sustainable buildings. International Journal of Engineering and Management Research, 11(1), 25-30. Web.
Asim, M., Uddin, G. M., Jamshaid, H., Raza, A., Hussain, U., Satti, A. N., Hayat, N., & Arafat, S. M. (2020). Comparative experimental investigation of natural fibers reinforced light weight concrete as thermally efficient building materials. Journal of Building Engineering, 31, 101411. Web.
Dahy, H. (2019). Natural fibre-reinforced polymer composites (NFRP) fabricated from lignocellulosic fibres for future sustainable architectural applications, case studies: segmented-shell construction, acoustic panels, and furniture. Sensors, 19(3), 738-751. Web.
Garofalo, F. (2018). What is sustainable architecture: Definition, concept and famous examples. Lifegate. Web.
Sijakovic, M., & Peric, A. (2020). Sustainable architectural design: towards climate change mitigation. Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research, 15(2), 385-400. Web.