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Architecture and commitment to climate change.

By Pedro Nel Sánchez Molina posted 02-02-2016 01:47 PM

  

Extreme weather, increased forest fires, storms of great magnitude, changes in flora and fauna in several areas: Climate change is not a remote future event. What should be the role of the architect to this event?

Much has been made of global warming and its consequences, one of the activities contributing to this change is building. Last December 12 at the head of French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, could approve the Consensus of Paris, a navigation chart with instructions to curb emissions of greenhouse gases with a global commitment of the participating countries to reduce and keep the temperature rise no more than 1.5 °. And architectural activity is the call to promote this task; its role in reducing greenhouse gases is seeking professional actions, practices and solutions to climate change, promoting responsible design. The home of our natural resources are finite and we create energy to heat, cool and light our homes, businesses and offices should not only reduce opening a faucet or turn on a switch. The densification of urban areas, carries an unusual energy to heat or cool environments in addition to parameters such as solar radiation, rainfall, and the direction of the prevailing winds, temperature, vegetation and materials will used in the construction of new works.

This awareness should start from the schools of architecture and urbanism where a mandatory program that encourages creative solutions to relevant problems by climate change and to incorporate this concept of the relationship between nature and architectural creation is included in all design workshops, evaluating projects which include ideas towards mitigating the impact on climate.

The commitment also should take the productive chain of building materials. My proposal here is to be incorporated into the obligatory information for each product or material, with regard to energy consumption. Materials that can be used in the bioclimatic building are those who meet criteria such as minimum energy consumption and clean during the production of the material; the idea of ​​recycling these materials once they are discarded and no addition of toxic substances.

The goal is to pursue reduction of between 50% and 80% of energy consumption by buildings through sustainable design and there are many examples to begin to implement the measure. However, accepting that awareness is beginning to be felt in the new works are old buildings which present the greatest challenge, since the implementation of energy improvements translated into new construction, alone, are not enough to reduce energy consumption and emissions of the building, was successful in slowing the growth of these two variables, but not decrease, the impact is therefore very precarious since the new construction represents only 2% of all the buildings.

 The park already built was built with a limiting demands very low energy demand, and in some cases nonexistent. The task is difficult, but it requires a great effort from us as creators and builders, is not unrealistic WWF's claim when he argues that "the single most effective way to reduce emissions and energy consumption in the building sector It is through the reduction of energy demand and built the park, improving insulation levels of the buildings. The challenge is raised.

Arq. Pedro Nel Sánchez Molina.

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