By James Zheng

The purpose of the Green Building is to save resources, protect the environment, reduce pollution, promote health, while also being an efficient space that maximizes harmonious “coexistence” between human and nature. These are high-quality buildings.

The idea of the Green Building initially emerged in people’s minds around the 1960s-70s due to the oil crisis which made all kinds of renewable energies such as solar, geothermal, and wind energy attractive. Energy-saving buildings became the forerunner of modern building development. Within this period, Ian Lennox McHarg, who is an American architect, released a book called Design with Nature in 1969, symbolizing the official birth for Eco-building. After decades, more and more countries joined in on the advocation for “sustainable development” and established their standards for a green building.

Through a long process, the three major requirements that connote a green building were established.

• Thermal requirement

First of all, thermal comfort obviously affects work efficiency. The traditional air-conditioning system can maintain the indoor temperature, but in recent years, the research shows that if you want to ensure that the indoors are absolutely comfortable, it is at the cost of an insane consumption of energy and increase in the destruction of the ozone layer by Freon (the cooling agent used for air conditioning). It is necessary to analyze the impact of local climate on a building. A warm climate would increase the internal load and need for air conditioning for indoor environment comfort. It is better to change the load of the air conditioners every hour. For example, when the season or day cools, turn off the air conditioning.

• Daylighting and noise requirements

Similarly, the indoor light condition directly affects the work efficiency and indoor atmosphere. The bright and plentiful sunlight is an essential part of a green building. However, the comfortable and healthy light condition should also include the precondition that it is easy for people inside to see and look around. A proper brightness distribution for the internal space, glare control, and uniform illumination control is also required. Therefore, strong light should be adjusted according to the different time zones and places so as not to affect the original high quality of sunlight. In addition, a healthy and comfortable acoustic environment is beneficial to the physical and mental health of people. This specific condition results in no damage to hearing and minimizes noise sources. In this way, any noise-generating equipment is usually arranged separately away from the frequently used rooms such as offices and meeting rooms. In the design, the outdoor noise level should also be controlled. 

• Air quality requirement

The quality of air directly affects the satisfaction people feel with the surrounding environment. Generally, the factors that affect air quality include air movement, air cleanliness, and so on. If the airflow is not “open” enough, people will feel uncomfortable. If the airflow is too fast, it will negatively affect the internal temperature and air cleanliness. Therefore, it is necessary to adjust the amount of fresh air according to different environments in addition to controlling the cleanliness and airflow rates to reach maximum air quality. At the same time, the effective control of indoor air pollutants is also one of the main ways to improve the indoor environment.

By viewing the complex history and strict requirements for what makes a green building, I became impressed with the way people scrupulously analyzed the issue of energy and conceptualized the image of what we know as a green building. It is also crucial for humans to realize they need to value their partnership with nature. Build green buildings.

Green Editor: Luke Langlois