Sustainable architect

or Why sustainable architecture is just not enough.

Usually when I’m talking to a designer about sustainable architecture, the topic of the conversation usually changes to solar power or how to make buildings more energy efficient. I believe we are missing the main case. Although the perfect and ideal sustainability of something includes ecological and economical improvements like decreasing usage of fossil fuels. But in reality paradigms of real life is different from the paradigms of a sustainable world.

In usual sustainable design, We think: So we are going to put a big window over there to receive more solar energy, therefore we won’t be needing a traditional heating service. But in reality: there are many other things that can happen. The simplest are that, the residents put a curtain in front of the windows. Or the windows lose energy more than expected. or even simply the windows get dusty and no one will have the time to fix them. These are the simple thing that could come to my mind in 3 minutes. You can find more complex problems there.

Although it might seems like that I’m talking against sustainable architecture, But actually I’m pointing a flow in the system which can only be fixed by one component: Sustainable Architects.

Sustainable architects are not the same as sustainable architecture. A sustainable architect knows the system. He/She is specialized on that kind of building. He/She makes sure that the resident have a Sustainable life. Even if it means using the fossil fuels. Sustainable architecture is the outcome of the design process of a sustainable architect. Not just combination of different solutions for theoretical problems in the lab.

To sum up, The answer to the problem I mentioned is not in more knowledge (although it’s necessary to have as much as possible), But it’s in the wisdom that comes with experience and empathy.