The green architecture started in the past era, by human attempt to coexist with their environment, using the available materials around them, the methods of using it, and the techniques used to address the environment elements and limitations.
The green architecture started in the past era, by human attempt to coexist with their environment, using the available materials around them, the methods of using it, and the techniques used to address the environment elements and limitations, which are for example:
In the ancient Egyptian civilization, local bricks, papyrus and wood were used as architectural elements. In addition, they used stones and craving mountains for temples.
While in the Islamic civilization, they used environmental thermal treatments such as "Mulqefs", which its idea depends on entering the higher cold air layers into the upper section of the "Mulqef," then they flow under the vertical gap to push, in turn, the hot air of lower density to enter the "ShokhShikha" or any other upper holes. The highest point of the building is in the direction of desired wind, which draws the air into the building.
The sustainable architecture, the green architecture, is a general term describes environmentally conscious design techniques in architecture field, which is the process of design buildings using a technique that consider the environment, with taking into account the reduction of consumption of energy, materials and resources, while minimize the effects of construction and using on the environment, while regulating harmony with nature.
The smart architecture is the architecture that saves the environmental costs by the rational design of its four main elements "structural construction, systems, management and integration among of them."
The sustainable architecture has been largely chosen during the widely discussed economically and politically critical issues in our world. The sustainable architecture seeks to reduce the negative environmental impacts in buildings by enhancing the efficiency of using of materials, energy and space. More simply, the sustainability idea, environmental design, is to ensure that our activities and decisions do not prevent opportunities from future generations. This term can be used to describe the energy in the environmentally conscious built design. Meaning that, the sustainability means not to deplete natural resources, to insure its duration and sustainability for future generations.
Accordingly, sustainable architecture means "designing buildings that consume minimum water, energy and natural resources by recycling of wastewater and using it to irrigate garden, using the modern technologies to automatically save the consumption of energy used in building for cooling, air conditioning and lighting, and using building materials that resulted from recycling of previous materials, or that these material itself can be recycled later after its expiration in the building.
Energy conservation
The energy conservation is one of the green architecture principles. A building can be designed and constructed using a technique that needs less fossil fuel and depends more on natural energies. Ancient societies understood and realized that principle in many cases, and this though has existed since the man chose to live in caves that face the south, instead of the north, to receive the sun in temperate climate areas.
For more clarification, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in "Colorado" report, the using of designs that consider the environment by using of the available technology in America may reduce 70% of energy consumption in residential buildings, and 60% in commercial buildings. A report by the Department of Energy in the United Kingdom in 1998 suggested that 50% of the Kingdom dependence in energy consumption must be on renewable resources and energies, such as "solar energy, wind, waves, waterfalls and living mass." Electricity consumption can also be reduced by using photovoltaic solar cells, which directly produce electricity from sunlight.
By using technology along with directing to mass production, the cost of electricity generated by solar cells has decreased by more than 90% since 1980. Also, with the continued low prices of solar cells, it becomes possible to generalize soon to integrate them into façade of the building's roof directly, instead of mounting separate solar panels. "Flachgals", the German company could integrate solar cells into the semi-transparent glass windows, which provide the place with filtered light during generating electricity.
Autonomous building
The autonomous building is designed to operate by independent way, with infrastructure to provide services, such as electricity energy, recycling waste water, communication network and in some cases public roads and passages. Proponents of self-contained construction's idea list its advantage, as it includes reducing environmental impact, increasing safety and lowering ownership cost.
The auto independent buildings, that called "off-grid" buildings" often have very little dependence on public civil services. Accordingly, they are safer and more confortable during disasters or military attacks. The most of researches and articles published on autonomous buildings focus on building residential houses.
"It is possible in all parts of Australia to build houses without bills. These houses can now be built using modern technology. It is possible to build a house without bills with the same cost as traditional house, but also 25% less," Brenda and Robert vale, the British architects commented on this in 2002.