Green Building: Dreams & Reality
Relationships between the nature and architecture are so ancient like the first man’s attempts to hide from the rain or snow. They range from nature transformation methods by a construction of simple coverings for the hearth, in which today’s energy saving technologies are noticeable, to experiments directed to protect the nature and increase it by erecting Semiramida’s gardens or covering European nation’s izbas by greenswards. Even imitation and touch in the nature through the erection of ancient palaces and buildings with the golden section or divine proportions are spied from the nature.
From all aspects of interaction between the man and nature those are important for the green architecture which directed on the environmental protection. The inner, theoretical basis is composed from several ecological aspects. A present a dominant theory among them is a sustainable development theory. It is rather an ideology unifying economic and social sciences and pretending to win a role of original life-giving bouillon in the modern western theoretical world where critical thoughts are born referring all aspects of the life on earth.
The sustainable development model offers such use of resources which, being directed to satisfy human needs as much as possible and subject to environmental protection would permit to do it both alive and next generations it in the same volume. An appearance of the term is connected with the name of Gro Harlem Brundtland, a chairman of the World Commission on Environmental Development (WCED) created by the UN General Assembly in 1983. The concept received its further development in several environmental investigations, particularly in the report “Our common future” issued in 1987.
A messianic character of the concept is shown up in certainty of followers that the humanity and nature need urgent salvation. Instruments are restrictions in consumption, renunciation of profit maximization, high rate of economic growth, utilization of up-to-date methods for extraction of natural resources. Theories of Malthusianism XVIII, nearly forgotten, are tracked here; they explained all troubles of the humanity by the demographic growth and lack of additional nature resources for born in future. Also the Marxism made more troubles than worldwide collapse forecasts due to a distribution delay from a production growth rate.
Full version you can download here