Green architecture: a new stance in construction
How sustainable architecture rethinks the impacts of construction, from raw material extraction to demolition.
Little by little, the awareness that attitudes and models need rethinking is driving actions to help with the urgent environmental issue. The construction production chain causes major impacts at every stage: extraction of raw materials, production of materials, construction, use and demolition. In addition, studies show that material waste on building sites reaches 30% to 90%, and that the rubble generated by construction makes up most of the waste in urban areas.
In this context, green architecture emerges, also called ecological architecture, sustainable architecture or eco-architecture. It represents a new stance in professional construction practice, one that values people’s perception of the environment and considers the social, economic and environmental aspects of sustainability. This way of producing space proposes that the community build and use its own technologies, making the best use of the resources available. Along these lines, the French architect Le Corbusier becomes our contemporary when he proposes:
“to make nature a theme, instead of simply housing buildings in it”.
In this paradigm shift, everyone in the production chain has a responsibility. And ecological brick, which needs no firing and makes use of the local soil, is one of the ways to build better architecture.
Text originally published in the João-de-Barro newspaper.
