Residential and commercial construction companies increasingly are taking strides to protect the environment when they build new homes and offices. Whenever you plan on building a new house for your family, you must consider several aspects. These apply for business office buildings, too. You may wonder what measures you can take to ensure that your own project is environmentally conscientious. These five green building architecture principles can help you create a new house or office that is both practical and innovative in its design.
5 Green Building Principles to Use in Your Next Architectural Project
#1. Durability
Another important factor of the green building today involves ensuring that your building will be durable and last for decades. There are many factors that can damage your home or office. Still, water often proves to be the most devastating. As such, when you are building for durability, you must use strategies that prevent water and moisture damages.
One of the foremost ways of preventing water damage to your new building involves using overhangs on your roof. The overhangs give rainwater and moisture a way to the ground without seeping through your roof and into your attic.
Likewise, using elements like vapor barriers can keep moisture away from your home during the wintertime. Using builders felt and house wrap properly can also go a long way in making sure that your home or office is safeguarded against water, moisture, and humidity throughout the year.
When you take all of the precautions necessary to keep water at bay, you prevent some of the most costly damages from which your building could suffer. These consequences include mold and mildew growth, peeling paint, and rot, all of which compromise the longevity of your building and cost hundreds or thousands of dollars to repair.
#2. Green Design
Home and commercial builders typically start out most building projects thinking about what kinds of designs are best for achieving the desired green building results. Design can embody everything from the size of the structure to the direction it will face once it is built.
Another consideration that more and more individuals use in building homes and office involves using solar panels to harness the natural power of the sun. Likewise, builders increasingly create structures that face north and south so that the owners can keep keeping summertime cooling costs low.
Additionally, you can keep utility costs low by adding a covered porch or utilizing overhangs in your home design. These decorative yet practical additions help keep out the sun and also act as a barrier to the wind.
#3. Energy Efficiency
Energy efficiency is another important green building principle increasingly being used today in the home and commercial construction industry. Most people want their homes or offices to be as energy efficient as possible throughout the year so that they can enjoy low utility bills regardless of the weather.
Some of the more common energy efficiency strategies that builders use today in the creation of new homes and offices include the use of fluorescent lighting throughout the new building. Likewise, more people are using Energy Star appliances that are designed to use less energy without compromising performance or safety. Other common fixtures that are found in most new residential and commercial construction include high-performance HVAC systems. These are designed with unmatched energy efficiency in mind.
#4. Water Conservation
Water conservation is another important green building principle that many experts use in commercial and residential construction today. To minimize the amount of water that your home uses, you may consider investing in fixtures like low flush toilets that utilize less water with every flush.
Likewise, your building team may consider other ways to conserve water. A good example is building your office or home on a site that can naturally absorb storm water and drainage. The focus for saving water also may center on strategies like preventing the siltation of your site’s waterways and managing storm water runoff. This way one can maintain the natural ground percolation and aquifer recharging.
#5. Green Materials
Finally, green building today involves using materials that are deemed to be environmentally friendly. They have a special designed that has the lowest impact possible on the environment. Traditional favorites like concrete, fiberglass, and metal are giving way to more eco-friendly choices that prove to be just as durable and practical to use. Green building materials also last as long as if not longer than traditional choices. Moreover, they cost a fraction of the price, making them popular with home and commercial builders today.
Moreover, because they are made from natural materials like hemp, straw, or ash, today’s eco-friendly building materials also offer added perks like being able to absorb CO2 or neutralize carbon. Some choices like straw and hempcrete are natural insulators, helping people reduce the costs for heating and cooling their buildings. These green building materials are also readily available. They are some of the top sources of renewable energy in modern home and office buildings. They help satisfy several important green building principles that builders try to abide by today.
Final Words
Residential and commercial builders know that they have an obligation to protect the environment while they build new homes and offices. Firstly, they need to please their clients by creating structures that are practical and visual appealing. Secondly, they also need to maximize the environmentally friendly features of the buildings. Furthermore, they should do this while ensuring that the new homes and offices last for decades. To achieve all of these important goals, many builders are embracing new strategies. These are green and innovative at the same time. When a building project is in your future, you can ensure that your own new home or office offers you the function, appeal, and longevity you want by learning more about these top five green building principles today.