Sustainable Design
Sustainable Philosophy
What is Sustainable Design?
Sustainable design is the art of designing physical objects and the built environment to comply with economic, social, and ecological sustainability. It is also referred to as “green design”, “eco-design”, “high-performance design”, or “environmentally responsible design”.
What is Sustainable Architecture?
Sustainable architecture is the creation of sustainable communities, one project at a time. Sustainable architecture attempts to reduce the collective environmental impacts during the production of building components, the construction process, and throughout the lifetime of the building.
This design practice takes advantage of opportunities such as wind, sunlight and views that a particular site has to offer. Proper orientation and an effectively designed building envelope (walls, windows, roof, insulation, etc.) greatly affect the efficiency of HVAC systems, artificial lighting and alternative energy such as solar panels or wind turbines.
In order to derive the greatest benefit from a social, economic, and environmental standpoint, a building must be designed holistically using an integrated design process that looks at all elements of a building, including site, water use, energy use, material use, and the indoor environment simultaneously.
Looking at a project in this manner enables us to find the most sustainable solutions within a given budget. Recycled building materials, on-site power generation (solar panels, ground source heat pumps, wind power), rainwater harvesting for toilet flushing or irrigation, green roofs that control stormwater run-off and on-site waste management are typical of an integrated sustainable design.
Why is Sustainable Design Important?
It’s simple. It will save long-term and protect our environment for the future. The aim of sustainable design is to design buildings, products and services that reduce the reliance on fossil fuels needed to heat, cool, power and light our buildings.
Buildings consume 70% of all electricity in the U.S. and are responsible for 40% of all CO2 emissions—the primary contributor to global warming. Sustainable design, striving toward carbon neutrality via the AIA 2030 Challenge, reduces environmental impact while maintaining quality of life by using integrated design to create buildings and communities that exist in harmony with, and even repair and restore, their environments.
Spiezle Architectural Group, Inc. is a committed to integrating these principles into every one of our projects. The opportunities for cost savings are tremendous.
Typical sustainable design could achieve a 30– 40% energy, and 20% or more in water savings on most building projects. We believe that this can be accomplished within traditional building budgets.