Sustainable Green Design

The premise behind sustainability is simple: Think environmentally and build with a caretaker’s or gardener’s touch; nurture rather than exploit. Sustainable principles can be applied to conventional design and construction practices in small ways with a variety of design solutions.

Projects should not be thought of as a final product but rather as a practical guide for the future: serving as a built example of the need for sensible, sensitive, sustainable solutions to provide shelter for the needs of our society. This requires a sustainable and balanced decision-making process employed by all team members that integrates environmental and social concerns with economic decisions; considering more than cost, performance and aesthetics. Every aspect of the design and construction of the new facilities needs to be evaluated against an alternative standard that evaluates long term durability, increased utilization of resources and waste reduction. The goal of this process is to create buildings that meet our needs today while being mindful of the needs of future generations.

Why Design Green?

The building sector has a tremendous impact on the environment. Buildings in the U.S. consume more than 30% of our total energy and 60% of our electricity annually. They consume 5 billion gallons of potable water per day to flush toilets. A typical North American commercial construction project generates up to 2.5 pounds of solid waste per square foot of floor space. The industry appropriates land from other uses such as natural habitats and agriculture. These are just a few examples of the environmental impacts associated with the construction and operation of buildings. Green building practices can substantially reduce these negative environmental impacts and reverse the trend of unsustainable construction activities. As an added benefit, green design measures reduce operating costs, enhance building marketability, increase worker productivity, and reduce potential liability resulting from indoor air quality problems. For example, energy efficiency measures can save building operators thousands of dollars annually; students in day lit schools consistently score higher on tests than students in schools using conventional artificial lighting. Studies of workers in green buildings reported productivity gains of up to 16%, including reductions in absenteeism and improved work quality, based on “people-friendly green design.” Major grocery chains are reducing waste management costs by 60% and 50 tons of waste was recycled during construction. In other words, green design has environmental economic, and social elements that benefit all building stakeholders, including owners, occupants, and the general public.

GGOArchitects doesn't have a "style" that is heavy handedly forced upon every commission. Using the charrette process, we have created buildings that resonate with their place. Each site has its unique energy, influenced by what surrounds it. Where does the sun rise and set? What is its course across the site? How will users enter the building? How will it feel to walk by it in terms of scale and material? Where does the wind move? Rainfall? Wildlife habitat and migration patterns, etc.

Public buildings should reflect a sense of a purpose greater than commodity, something more than just satisfying a needed public service. This facility should welcome its visitors, be easy to get around, and, as is true with all good design, be understood and navigated intuitively. A public building today should be guiding the way to the future and represent a sound logical environmental stewardship and elicit a renewed personal sense of well being and an awareness of the effort each of us has as an individual citizen of our community.

Sustainable Building Basics:

Substantially reduce energy consumption for the entire life of the structure. Primarily, this can be achieved by a design that begins conceptually with passive solar principles, orienting the building to respond to the regional climatic conditions of sun pattern and prevailing wind direction. Additional considerations are given to thermal massing, reflectivity of materials, increased insulation, shading and “state of the art” glazing systems. The building envelope is designed to reduce the overall demands for mechanical systems passively. Thermal mass rejects heat gain from the intense summer sun, and acts much like a flywheel does in an automotive transmission to balance the conductive transfer of temperature. This approach will provide dynamic temperature control e.g. taking a long time to heat up or cool off and then maintain interior temperatures almost effortlessly. The earthen adobe structures of the southwest work in a very similar fashion. The HVAC systems subsequently employed can be smaller, readily available, cost effective, and, easily maintained technology. Reliance on cutting edge, complicated and often-experimental mechanical systems isn’t needed nor desired.

Healthier Indoor Environments that use economical, durable, natural, or recycled materials in lieu of chemically laden synthetic building products, coupled with employing natural ventilation techniques and fresh air management systems. Clean lives, comprehensive use of a few high-quality material selections accomplishes this.

Natural Daylighting to create interiors that are brighter and more appealing – abundant natural daylight contributes to an overall reduction of energy consumption; long-term maintenance costs and improves occupant health, attention span, and productivity.

Resource Efficient Construction requires an approach that is simple in plan and form, constructed with “off the shelf” building components thereby reducing construction waste and consequently, supports keeping construction costs within budget parameters. When building features that can endure the extremes of weather because they are suited to their climate, maintenance and replacement costs over the life span of the facility are lower.

Sustainable Site Planning places the building in a manner that reduces the impact of the structure and associated hardscape surfaces on the immediate environment to a minimum. Natural living features and habitats are respected and enhanced. The use of native landscapes is imperative to support wildlife habitat. Generally, they reduce or eliminate irrigation systems, are drought, heat, freeze and disease resistant. Overall site disturbance is controlled while runoff water is retained and utilized directly on site. Construction costs are again lower due to less reliance on conveyance structures and supplemental maintenance costs are virtually eliminated, as irrigation, fertilizer or pesticide applications, are no longer necessary.