The city and housing are areas that challenge builders, architects and construction companies because of the urgency and the need to change. Solutions have emerged so that the architecture of the future or "green building" helps humans face global warming and pollution by integrating nature into the city. Are they really useful, really effective?
Green architecture, also called green architecture, aims to bring man closer to nature or rather bring nature back into the city. If at the beginning the projects could have aesthetic and well-being considerations, today necessarily ecological objectives are added to create a new kind of buildings in the long term. The term "green architecture", which designates a real trend in society, refers to projects for the greening of existing buildings, the optimization of installations in a sustainable manner or even architectural projects including sustainability, the use of ecological materials and eco-responsible techniques. If green architecture advocates a project for the city of tomorrow with new constructions, it is also the transformation of today's city by adding vegetation with plants and trees wherever possible.
Green building: eco-friendly materials
Green architecture rethinks all construction projects. The construction sector is one of the most polluting, right from its design stage. Building construction requires a huge amount of resources, from water to raw materials to energy. It is responsible for around 20% of greenhouse gas emissions in France. It is therefore logical for new "green" architects to adopt new ecological strategies right from the construction stage. Green building therefore focuses on lighting, heating and air conditioning systems to make them more resilient and less energy-intensive, insulation systems, and techniques for saving water throughout the entire building. A strategy to optimise energy efficiency and reduce ecological impact. As with all innovations that carry a desire for sustainability, the notion of life cycle is at the heart of the thinking: green architecture also has a long-term perspective with the maintenance of buildings, or even their destruction to have a minimum of environmental damage.
Green architecture: focus on greening
Green architecture brings nature into the city, starting from existing buildings. And in this area, the creativity of architects is limitless. We often talk about "vertical forests", the greening of a building from top to bottom to cover it with cleverly arranged trees, as the Italian architect Stefano Boeri does in Milan. These are carefully selected varieties planted on dedicated balconies, with enriched soil and supplied with thousands of ladybugs to prevent aphids. More widespread are green walls which, fixed using wire mesh or specific, humid installations, place plants all over a facade to green it. Or even wooden cladding on the exterior of buildings to improve thermal insulation. In Paris, we see green roofs with urban vegetable gardens installed on the top of buildings. In Chicago, City Hall has had a green roof since 2001. Also worth noting is the installation of "urban farms" or shared gardens planted in the middle of ultra-urban areas, such as the Bercy Beaucoup project, the Ferme du Rail in the 19th arrondissement or the Jardin21 on the Canal de l'Ourcq side in Paris. Right in the middle of buildings or on their roofs, we discover permaculture sites to support biodiversity in the city, where composting, gardening and mini harvests punctuate the life of these little green corners. The green roofs are matched by hanging gardens that turn out to be soothing places for exchange and discovery with real eco-climatic virtues.
The Many Advantages and Benefits of Green Architecture
The greening of large cities marks a desire to meet the need for connection with nature , but also to improve living conditions by fighting against the effects of global warming. Plants, thanks to their photosynthesis mechanism, absorb more CO2 than they release, and provide humidity through their "perspiration". They help create valuable cool spots during heat waves, in addition to maintaining a little biodiversity in the city by providing habitat for insects and birds. Green spaces also add comfort for residents who benefit from being close to plants whose health and well-being benefits are well-proven.
Furthermore, in addition to the human and ecological interest, green architecture has another advantage: plant installations increase the real estate value of buildings and new buildings with LEED or Energy-Star certifications are more attractive. Apartments are rented at a higher price, a price offset for families by savings on energy costs. Green architecture has all the makings of a virtuous circle, except that it is not enough to stick a few plants on an old building to make it ecologically acceptable and transform the lives of its residents... the same vigilance with municipalities that seem to support greening while sometimes continuing to carry out concrete projects or tree cutting projects like the Eiffel Tower project. A Parisian project that deprives the environment of the benefits of these century-old trees to install luggage lockers for tourists at the foot of the famous monument...
Green architecture has a bright future ahead of it, with infinite possibilities to (re)integrate nature into our living spaces and live without negatively impacting it. To do this, we must combine greening with all the latest technologies to save resources by using renewable energies (wind, solar, geothermal) rather than fossil fuels. Practices that could prove essential to support life in the city in the future.
