Organic Strategies to Sustainable Buildings and Cities

Organic Strategies to Sustainable Buildings and Cities

Ozer, Ebru
Thompson, Douglas T.

In the pursuit of creating sustainable buildings and cities, architectural strategies have mainly focused on approaches relying on technological efficiency and engineered systems. The focus has been such because these strategies are evolutionary in that they are solutions to the problems posed by existing building system design strategies and are thus more easily integrated into those systems. In some cases however, architectural offices have been teaming with landscape architects and other professions whose focus are more on natural systems rather than building systems. In these cases where disciplines have worked cooperatively toward the goal of sustainability, strategies have emerged which take a combined approach in which building systems utilize and integrate with natural systems. Projects and strategies that have emerged from these collaborative endeavors can provide architects and city builders with valuable lessons and insights and contribute to developing a better overall framework for approaching sustainability in the built environment. Through an examination of recent successful sustainable building projects in which architects have worked collaboratively with landscape architects, natural scientists, and similarly focused professions, this research analyzes specific strategies, methods, and construction details which integrate building systems with natural systems, providing valuable lessons for such collaborative approaches and insights for approaching sustainable buildings.

Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed

2009-06

487