Abstract |
Sustainability is defined as meeting the needs of present without compromising the ability of future generation to meet their own needs. A growing number of people are committed to reaching this goal by modifying patterns of development and consumption to reduce demand on natural resource supplies and help preserve environmental quality. Achieving greater sustainability in the field of construction is particularly important, because building construction consumes more energy and resources than any other economic activity. The concept of sustainability in architecture means to maintain the ecological, environmental and social systems for the urban environment, and dealing with technological resources and trends to assume the current and future needs for human resources. This thesis produced terms that form the concept of sustainability in a comprehensive manner. We challenged the problem of the research by criticizing scientific knowledge that is connected to the terms of sustainable design at both levels of urban and architecture, and attempt to determine these terms and discovering the extent of achieving sustainable design in recent projects, therefore, attaining to conclude the lessons and trying to put instructions for architects, and the objectives of the research are determined by pointing out the terms of sustainable design on both levels of urban and architecture. The thesis will to acknowledge the stance of modern practitioners, in comparison to theorists and discovering the extent of achieving sustainable design in their projects and to conclude lessons and to attempt to establish basis and criteria that instructs the architect in their work.
The thesis tackled the issue of sustainability revealed four main, over lapping terms that determine research levels, these terms are the following: balance, diversity, fitness and suitable design, and flexibility. These include four sub terms, in the following order represented by: protecting the flow of resources (energy and water efficiency) and management and durability of materials, site reservation and site management, and for the purpose of solving the problem of research and realizing of the objectives and hypothesis by using an approved method and sustainable design indicators were built according to the level of environment from which we can identify the stance of modern practitioners according to the turn out of modern architecture. The research used descriptive analysis and an observation form which were done by the researcher as means testing. Ten recent architectural projects were selected, by European architects, according to a set of specifications for the study sample, texts and illustrations or images were selected as analytical unit. Data was collected from observation and tables of frequency of processing the data, which all reveal the extent of achieving sustainable design in these projects. Results of the analysis concerning the variables of energy efficiency, and water efficiency, have shown the importance of effective economic criteria to achieve sustainability. Also, they have shown the importance of selecting and diversity of materials for durability performance and reducing the waste, and restoring the material back to nature, in addition to the importance of carrying out strategies simulation of nature, and thinking within the local area, respecting topography of the site, holistic perspective and designing within environmental context, considering the earth as the major resource for energy and materials, and then investing ideally in the renewable resources. As well the importance of connecting the design stages and the
management of products within natural environment.
The thesis ended with providing recommendations and suggest future researches venues. |
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