Construction Ecology Nature as a Basis for Green Buildings

As designers of built environments focus increasingly on green and sustainable construction they will be able to learn much from the field of industrial ecology. Industrial ecology provides a sound means of systemizing the various ideas which come under the banner of os sustainable construction.

Industrial ecology provides a sound means of systematising the various ideas which come under the banner of sustainable construction and provides a model for the design, operation and ultimate disposal of buildings.

Contents: Foreword. Preface. Introduction. 1. Defining an Ecology of Construction. Part 1. The Ecologists. 2. Material Circulation, Energy Hierarchy, and Building Construction. 3. On Complexity Theory, Exergy, and Industrial Ecology, 4. Applying the Principles of Ecological Emergence to Building Design and Construction. 5. Using Ecological Dynamics to Move Towards an Adaptive Architecture. Part 2. The Industrial Ecologists. 6. Minimizing Waste Emissions from the Built Environment. 7. Industrial Ecology and the Built Environment. 8. Construction Ecology and Metabolism. 9. Construction Ecology. Part 3. The Architects. 10. Ecologic Analogues and Architecture. 11. Natural Metabolism as the Basis for "Intelligent" Architecture. 12. Green Architecture. Conclusions. Glossary Index.

Charles J. Kibert, Director of the Rinker School of Building Construction, University of Florida, is one of the authors of the concept known as sustainable construction. Jan Sendzimir is a systems ecologist at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria and is fostering the large-scale application of adaptive management in Central Europe, especially Poland. Brad Guy, an architect, is a Research Associate in the Center for Construction and Environment at the University of Florida and is an internationally recognized expert on building deconstruction and materials reuse.