Climate architecture and sustainable architecture
The climatic conditions of each region have always been one of the key issues in architecture in the past. Builders had to pay attention to the sun, the wind, the rain, the winter cold and the heat of the summer to ensure human comfort. They had to considered existing facilities and available native materials for construction. In the Arctic, ice and snow houses called Igloo were built in the form of a dome. In the tropical forests, the building had distance from the humid surface of the earth and was built with trunks and foliage of trees. In mountainous area, buildings were built in the heart of the mountain with stone materials and in the desert with clay, mud and brick.
Also in our country, constructed houses in the rainy areas of the Caspian coasts were built extroverted, with natural ventilation possibility and with a sloping roof. Houses in the desert areas of rim of the desert were conducted introverted and with convex roofs. Houses in the cold land, were densely designed and executed and in warm and humid conditions with the use of shade and draught (Ghobadian, 2018).
If in modern architecture form follows function, in the past architecture form had been followed climate (Former architecture has been a function of climate). That is, in each climate, the form of the building was subject to the climatic conditions of that region. In cold, hot and dry or humid climates, the form of the building and materials and their executive details are selected and designed to make the most use of the climate and environmental conditions and human comfort achieved with the least energy consumption in that climate.
Since the early 20th century, with the use of new heating and cooling equipment, the importance of climate in architecture has faded out gradually. Since this time, oil heaters, radiators, fans and air conditioners, provided human comfort and there was little need for sunshine and cooling wind and humidity. Thus the climatic design and arrangements intended for human comfort according to the climate were no longer relevant.
But with regard to the decrease of fossil deposits in the world and the environmental pollution associated with it and also into the danger of the Earth’s environment, the climate and ecology of the planet have become an important issue for man and the environment of human life again. Climatic architecture from the 70s and sustainable architecture from the 90s have been important topics in the field of architecture and architectural education. Currently, these architectural styles are named as green architecture. In this section, while defining and explaining each of the above two categories, we will examine the historical background of these two.
climatic architecture
As mentioned, in modern architecture the attention to climate issues was not important. In the view of Le Corbusier, “A house is a machine for living in”, and with modern supplies and facilities you can provide any comfort conditions in the building. Although the buildings of this architecture showcase the beauties of the modern age and its achievements, but the glass and metal skins of these buildings lose a great amount of heat in the winter and lead much heat from the sun radiation into the building in the summer.
But from the 70s or more precisely after the Arab-Israel war in October 1973, the subject of climate was considered in Western architecture again. In this year, the Arabs threatened to oil-boycotting the countries that supported Israel. As a result, crude oil prices jumped from about $ 2 a barrel to $ 12 a barrel. The western countries that were and still are the major oil users in the world and were and still are supportive of Israel, since that year, they have sought to reduce dependence on oil and reduce fossil energy consumption and replace it with clean, renewable energies.
Another major event in this decade was the appearance of political and non-political groups in the West1. The groups pointed out that the current human technology is destructive to the environment. The rise of factories and industrial artifacts, toxic and greenhouse gases, deforestation, and eventually exploiting natural resources, makes planet’s ecosystem barren. Or in other words, the environment will no longer be able to reproduce itself and survive. Therefore, the climate and the environment in various fields, including architecture, has become an important issue in western countries since this decade.
From the mid-70s (mid-1350s), climatic architecture was first mentioned in universities. The goal was reducing the use of fossil energies and to reliance on clean and renewable energy in buildings. After that, several articles and books were published in this field, and eventually a number of other houses and buildings were designed and implemented in the style of climatic architecture.
It should be noted that climatic architecture and eco-tech started from two relatively different origins, but there is a great deal of connection between these two styles of architecture. The origin of climatic architecture is past architecture and attention to climate for providing human comfort.
High-Tech architecture is the origin of eco-tech architecture. But given the criticisms of high-tech architecture in the 1980s and 1990s and the overemphasis on technology, the architects focused their style, idea and opinion on the eco-tech architecture. These architects replaced the Eco-Tech style with high-tech. Eco-tech means technology alongside ecology and the use of technology and ecology to provide human comfort.
Sustainable architecture
The Club of Rome is a non-governmental organization composed of international thinkers that founded in Rome in 1968. The club investigate the issues facing human society. The Rome Club asked researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US to do research on the scope of economic development and population growth. In 1972, the report was published as Limits to Growth. For the first time, the report predicted that because of the limited Earth’s natural resources, particularly oil, economic growth would not continue indefinitely and would reach an impasse. In 1974, another report was published by the club as Mankind at the Turning Point. The report noted that many of the environmental and economic disasters ahead could be controlled by the international community.
According to this background, it should be noted that the discussion on sustainability and sustainable development, quite well-known, is related to the Brundtland Commission in the United Nations. The Brundtland Commission is actually the World Commission on Environment and Development and was named in honor of its head, Miss Gro Harlem Brundtland. In 1987, the United Nations announced the Brundtland Commission’s report on sustainable development as follows:
” Sustainable development can be defined as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. ” (World commission 1987)
In 1992, a conference called Earth Summit was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The conference raised the issue that the current development of the world is in the direction of the destruction of the environment and that if the current trend continues, the Earth’s ecology conditions will be compromised. This means that the ecology of the Earth will no longer be able to reproduce the proper environment, and the and the continued existence of biodiversity as we are familiar with it today is no longer possible.
Another conference was held five years later in Kyoto, Japan in 1997, and then in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2002. Also a conference was held in Bam, Iran as Housing and Sustainable Development on 2004. During the preliminary meeting for the Urban 21 conference in Berlin in July 2000, the following definition of sustainable urban development was proposed: “Improving the quality of life in a city involves improving environmental, cultural, political, institutional, organizational, and socio-economic conditions without imposing the pressure on future generation that results from excessive cuts in natural capital and regional debt. Our goal is to make the balance between the materials and energy as well as the Financial Output-input Data. Because it plays a vital role in all our future decisions regarding the development of urban areas.” (Regional Environmental Center 2001)
In addition to the mentioned descriptions, many definitions of sustainable development have already been adopted: “Generally, a set of definitions of sustainable development can be represented as follows: Accountability to future generation’s needs…. Considering the tolerable capacity of ecosystems… Preserving wealth and natural capital …… Maintaining and upgrading systems…. … Not to make it worse…. to sustain human life…. to protect the environment ……. Integrating Conservation and Development as an overall approach…” (Azizi, 37, 1385).
In 1990, the first sustainable building rating system (BREEAM) was introduced in the UK. Subsequently, in 1998, the LEED system in the United States was adapted from the BREEAM system. Nowadays, all the advanced countries of the world have a rating system of buildings adapted from the above two systems or their own systems. In the Middle East, Emirates, Qatar, Jordan and Turkey have a ranking system. In our country, despite of some actions in this field, such a system has not formulated in Iran yet.
The systems mentioned above are updated every few years and are constantly being reviewed. The purpose of these systems is to measure and rank buildings based on sustainability indicators. Although the details of these systems are different based on the characteristics of each country, they are similar in general.
General and important indicators of sustainable architecture for building ratings includes the following:
A. Location and transportation 
- Protect the natural environment, especially water, plants, animals and soil above ground (It has 20 cm depth and contains organic materials, air, water and suitable biological conditions).
- Compliance with the criteria of design and implementation at historical areas.
- Reviving of areas contaminated with petroleum, industrial, chemical and waste materials.
- Design and construction(implementation) of buildings in areas with high population density and diverse urban or rural facilities.
- Access to high – quality and diverse transportation such as buses, urban trains, taxis and …
- Facilities for using bicycles.
- Use green cars and reduce parking footprint.
B. Site
- Reduction of pollution during construction.
- Evaluation of site based on slope and topography, water, climate, plants, soil, human health and land use.
- Creating open and natural areas for different activities.
- Rainwater Management.
- Prevention of creating a heat island.
- Reduction of artificial light pollution.
- Site design.
C. Energy and Atmosphere
Reduce energy consumption by:
- Design of form and plan of buildings and openings.
- Design of Exterior shell (skin) Layers and Thermal Insulation.
- Thermal mass in different climates and various functions.
- Electric and mechanical equipment with efficient energy consumption.
- Use of renewable energy such as solar, wind, geothermal and biogas.
- Management of refrigerants(condensers) such as Freon Gas to reduce Ozone layer damage in atmosphere.
- Continuous measurement and management of consumption and pollution.
Commissioning, testing and coordination of electrical and mechanical systems.
D-Materials and substances
- Management of waste, trash and dust and pollution in three stages of building, location and building destruction.
- Maximum usage of natural and local materials in order to decrease the process of factory and energy usage decrease and helping local economy.
- Maximum usage of renewable materials.
- Usage of solid connectors like: nail, stud, bolt, rivet, welding and glue.
- For reducing of dead load of the building.
- Better resistance of the construction and its components against side forces like wind and earthquake.
- Renewing possibility of materials before the destruction of the structure.
- Building a store for collecting renewable materials and substances.
- Announcing and improvement of materials used in construction materials/substances.
- Evaluation and reduction of destructive effects of the structure on environments during the structure life.
H- Usability of water (water usability)
- The suitable usage of 6 types of water existing in the building:
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Drinking water, tap water, rain water, gray water, water mixed with fat/oil and black water.
- Suitable usage of valves and equipment in order to reduce water consumption.
- Native(local) plants usage for water consumption reduction.
- Continual management and measurement of water consumption in different parts of the building.
W. The internal environment of the building quality
- Thermal comfort, humidity and suitable ventilation of the internal air of building.
- Reduction usage of organic materials like: oil paint, industrial glues, sealants and oil polished.
- The lack of use of granite inside the building and also lack of use of asbestos and materials and equipment containing mercury.
- The use of vision and perspective with respect to more depth of vision to perspective and suitable activity of individuals in sight.
The use of suitable light especially natural one.- Restricted use of tobacco materials inside the structure and beside the entrances to the building.
- Suitable audio performance.
- Management and measurement of the internal space quality.
J- innovation
- Innovation in the field of environmental performance of the building which has not been mentioned in the rating system.
- Employing consultant’s competent system ranking from the beginning of designing up to the end of constructional activities.
Z- location priorities
- Paying attention to the specifications of the location geography (geographical specifications of the location).
- Social justice.
- General health priorities
Different buildings rating systems give nearly similar points to the above indicators. Based on the total score from the above indicators, best, good, average and acceptable ratings are given to buildings owners who receive the above ratings apart from the points received from the point of view of advertising and suitable social aspects can use some of the taxation breaks and reduction of building effects construction.
Teaching, management and creating motivation in suitable dealing with the building residences has critical importance. There should be taken into consideration the necessary facilities for the correct use of the building residents and environmental suitable behavior in a form of social duty with the cooperation of the whole residents must be done.
Today the subject of sustainability in different scientific and executive Fields is wide spread all over the world. Sustainable economy, sustainable agriculture, sustainable human resource, sustainable architecture and urban are among controversial subjects. Many of architectures of tech and eco-tech systems such as Norman Foster and Richard Rogers have been attracted to sustainable urban and architecture. Rogers considers cities as huge and horrifying monsters for environmental destruction. He writes:
“During history cities have never been having this immense population inside them. Between 1950 to 1990 the population of cities all over the world has become 10 times than before, in a way that from 200 million they have reached to 2 billion people. Undoubtedly the future of human civilization in cities will be figured out by the cities.”
Today cities consume 3/4 of the world energy and cause at least 3/4 of the world pollution. Cities are the location of production and consumption of the highest amount of Industrial Products. They have been changed to parasites on the Earth. Giant creatures which are swallowing the world for the sake of preparing their own materials and energy, they are the same as cruel consumers and deadly relentless contaminants (Rogers.2013,45). Rogers believes that the only solution to this problem is consumption reduction and renewing consumable materials in cities.
today’s technology of human construction is in a form that the highest amount of Earth sources are used and the highest amount of wastes and pollution are returned to the environment. This kind of construction technology from the point of sustainable development is not acceptable and should be completely changed. Reduction of destruction, consumption reduction, reduce, reuse and recycle are the keywords of the sustainable development and sustainable architecture too.
