Home exteriors encompass more than just siding and roofing; they also include outdoor spaces like porches, decks, and gardens.
Eco-friendly landscaping helps reduce energy usage while also contributing to a healthier environment. Features of such eco-friendly landscape designs may include adding native plants, limiting water usage and eliminating fertilizers and pesticides from usage – to name just a few benefits of such designs.
Energy Efficiency
Energy efficiency is one of the easiest ways to reduce a building’s environmental impact, cutting utility costs while helping prevent fossil fuel use that causes greenhouse gases and pollutes the planet.
The shape and exterior envelope of a building are key factors affecting energy efficiency. A more straightforward design may prove more efficient in terms of managing indoor temperatures more effectively; eco-friendly cladding materials like timber may even further increase energy efficiency in their use for facade cladding.
Energy-saving practices such as solar orientation, strategic window placement and shading devices, as well as using smart systems to optimize performance are also effective energy-efficiency methods. Not only can these technologies reduce energy consumption and maintenance costs; they may even help mitigate air pollution effects in marginalized communities that disproportionately suffer its ill effects.
Materials
One effective way to enhance the exterior design of your property is to choose high-quality materials, which not only increase durability but will make it more aesthetically pleasing as well.
Building materials have a dramatic effect on numerous features of a building, such as energy efficiency, sustainability, durability, indoor air quality and acoustic performance. Therefore, architects, builders and designers should carefully select material properties in order to maximize performance.
Feng Shui principles advocate the use of natural materials when building outdoor areas. Such elements exude luxury and stability, which promote positive energy flow throughout a property. For example, in this villa’s outdoor areas are covered by Kebony wood that complements its surroundings by being sustainably harvested and manufactured.
Passive Design
Building construction and infrastructure development industries represent a substantial global energy consumption. Implementation of passive design strategies into projects can dramatically decrease this figure; passive designs use natural ventilation and heating systems instead of powered ones to provide ventilation and heating, thereby cutting energy costs and carbon emissions significantly.
Passive design strategies involve optimizing spatial planning and orientation, manipulating fabric and form to promote natural ventilation and shading, including thermal mass for cooling purposes and using solar access to reduce energy demands. These strategies work in concert with a building’s specific climate conditions to optimize energy efficiency and comfort.
As an example, aligning buildings to maximize southern exposure allows more sunlight into the building during winter and reduces mechanical ventilation needs. Meanwhile, long building footprints allow more natural lighting while decreasing mechanical ventilation requirements.
Green Roofs
Green roofs or living roofs are designed to incorporate vegetation and a growing medium on top of roofs for aesthetic reasons, typically divided into two broad categories: extensive and intensive green roofs.
Extensive green roofs include a filter layer, drainage system and lightweight growing medium with plants requiring low maintenance requirements. On the other hand, intensive green roofs feature similar components but boast wider varieties of vegetation and may even incorporate permanent installations.
Both systems help lower energy costs by decreasing air conditioning usage. They also promote biodiversity and act as natural sponges to absorb stormwater runoff – something many cities now mandate on commercial buildings.
Renewable Energy
Architects are increasingly turning to renewable energy systems in their designs to lower building costs and enhance occupant comfort.
Solar, wind and geothermal are three popular renewable energy trends that are making waves today. By harnessing nature’s resources responsibly, these energy sources help lower greenhouse gas emissions as well as air pollution while providing reliable electricity production without negatively affecting the environment.
Biomass, wood waste products and biomass alcohol fuels are examples of renewable organic materials that can be burned for energy generation. Hydrogen and biodiesel fuel are both made using vegetable oils or animal fats from renewable sources as inputs to produce fuels such as these.
architects that incorporate renewable energy sources into their designs can reduce carbon emissions and combat climate change, increase resilience against power outages and energy price spikes, gain a reputation for sustainability and attract clients who care about environmental matters.
