Understanding Sustainable Architecture

"Understanding Sustainable Architecture" is a concise review of the assumptions, beliefs, goals and bodies of knowledge that underlie the endeavor to design environmentally sustainable buildings and other built environments. The authors set out a coherent framework within which they discuss the important ethical, cultural, and conceptual issues of sustainable architecture. Through a series of self-reflective questions, the importance of ecological, social, and built contexts is argued, and problem framing is linked to succesful practice.

Understanding Sustainable Architecture is a review of the assumptions, beliefs, goals and bodies of knowledge that underlie the endeavour to design (more) sustainable buildings and other built developments. Much of the available advice and rhetoric about sustainable architecture begins from positions where important ethical, cultural and conceptual issues are simply assumed. If sustainable architecture is to be a truly meaningful pursuit then it must be grounded in a coherent theoretical framework. This book sets out to provide that framework. Through a series of self-reflective questions for designers, the authors argue the ultimate importance of reasoned argument in ecological, social and built contexts, including clarity in the problem framing and linking this framing to demonstrably effective actions. Sustainable architecture, then, is seen as a revised conceptualisation of architecture in response to a myriad of contemporary concerns about the effects of human activity. The aim of this book is to be transformative by promoting understanding and discussion of commonly ignored assumptions behind the search for a more environmentally sustainable approach to development. It is argued that design decisions must be based on both an ethical position and a coherent understanding of the objectives and systems involved. The actions of individual designers and appropriate broader policy settings both follow from this understanding.

1. Sustainability 2. Images 3. Ethics 4. Objectives 5. Systems 6. Green Houses 7. Cohesion. Bibliography

Terry Williamson was educated in engineering and architecture in Australia and is Associate Professor and Dean of the School of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Design at Adelaide University, Australia. Anthony Radford was educated in architecture and planning in the United Kingdom and is Professor of Architecture in the same school. Helen Bennetts was educated in architecture in Australia and, after researching how architects actually use information in seeking to produce environmentally responsible buildings, now concentrates on the family business of wine- and cheese-making. All three have taught, researched and published in areas of energy, environment and sustainability. This book draws particularly on their development and teaching of a new course called Issues in Urban and Landscape Sustainability.