About Sustainable Buildings

The first week's lecture introduced some basic concepts and the history of the development of sustainable cities. This included the concepts of green and sustainable buildings, which I was very interested in. This type of building aims to reduce energy consumption, use resources efficiently and reduce the environmental impact of artificial structures through advanced technology or design. However, achieving this requires a certain level of technology and, more importantly, adequate budgets, thus for many developing countries building sustainability seems unachievable. I, therefore, wondered how sustainability could be achieved through more detailed design if sustainable buildings could not be constructed immediately. One example from my civil engineering-related studies is the installation of double glazing in some areas, which is created by injecting inert gas between two pieces of glass to achieve thermal and acoustic separation. This allows the building to be more comfortable and energy efficient at a lower cost. It might be possible to make cities more sustainable gradually by promoting such easy-to-install and less costly structures on an urban scale.

However, deeper reflection within the mind reveals that there are other issues with such an initiative. Firstly, only some people are willing to retrofit existing structures. Secondly, adapting new modifications to the current urban environment and maximizing their function still requires a high degree of urban design, which may not be available in some areas. Consequently, the effort required to achieve a sustainable city through minor modifications to existing structures does not necessarily diminish.