Sustainable Design
ID 404 Theory of Interior Design – Week 12
What is Sustainable Design?
Sustainable design is the intention to reduce or completely eliminate negative
environmental impacts, and the health and comfort of building occupants through
thoughtful designs. This concept can be applied across all fields of design such as
designing buildings or products. The basic objectives of sustainability are to
reduce consumption of non-renewable resources, minimize waste, and create
healthy, productive environments.
Theory of Sustainable Design
The intention of sustainable design is to "eliminate negative environmental
impact completely through skillful, sensitive design". Manifestations of
sustainable design require renewable resources and innovation to impact the
environment minimally, and connect people with the natural environment.
“Human beings don't have a pollution problem; they have a design
problem. If humans were to devise products, tools, furniture, homes, factories,
and cities more intelligently from the start, they wouldn't even need to think in
terms of waste, or contamination, or scarcity. Good design would allow for
abundance, endless reuse, and pleasure.” - The Upcycle by authors Michael
Braungart and William McDonough, 2013.
Theory of Sustainable Design
Design-related decisions are happening everywhere on a daily basis, impacting
“sustainable development” or provisioning for the needs of future generations of
life on earth. Sustainability and design are intimately linked. Quite simply, our
future is designed. The term “design” is here used to refer to practices applied
to the making of products, services, as well as business and innovation
strategy — all of which inform sustainability. Sustainability can be thought of as
the property of continuance; that is, what is sustainable can be continued into
the future.[2]
A sustainable design, regardless of the application, will seek to incorporate
environmentally-preferable outcomes such as:
• Lower energy and water consumption through the entire lifecycle – from
manufacture to daily use to disposal
• Minimize impact on climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions or
mitigating them through carbon neutralizing activities
• Limit resource consumption through waste-free manufacturing, a preference for
renewable resources, and an emphasis on recycled materials
• Reduce or eliminate waste by minimizing consumption, reusing when possible,
and recycling when necessary
• Minimize impact on the local ecosystem and look for ways to incorporate
biomimicry principles where possible
• Give preference to non-toxic materials and those that will contribute to the
health and wellbeing of humanity
• Emphasize quality and durability over price
Green vs. Eco-friendly vs. Sustainable
The meaning of the word “green” has long outgrown the color. It’s now frequently used in
a colloquial speech to apply to almost everything related to benefiting the environment,
from the movement to architecture and fashion.
Eco-friendly isn’t quite so broad. It means that something doesn’t harm the planet.
But sustainable is the most precisely defined term here, and represents the wide scope of
issues and activities that, according to the United Nations, do not compromise the ability
of future generations to meet their needs.
"Compared to ‘”green” and “eco-friendly,” sustainability has much higher standards.
Sustainability includes eco-friendly activities and green products, but green doesn’t
necessarily mean sustainable. For instance, a product made from renewable resources is
considered green, yet if a life-cycle analysis shows that it required a lot of energy to
manufacture and ship to you, and if there isn’t a proper way to dispose of the product,
then it’s not considered sustainable." - Ecocult
Green Design vs. Sustainable Design
Eco/green design is not the same as sustainable design, although it can be a
subset of it. Reducing environmental impact is a worthy goal and an important
discipline, but it's often far from striving for sustainability.
Sustainable design involves an emerging design methodology, one that strives to
understand the system in which a particular issue exists before attempting to
solve it. Unlike just about every other design discipline, with sustainable design,
the end product is not determined beforehand. Rather, it could be a product, a
communication piece or campaign, a policy initiative, a building, a product
service system, etc. Sustainable design is also a discipline which, in addition
to the environmental, strives to at least acknowledge the social and economic
ramifications (for starters) of a project as well.
Green Design
It’s easy to understand why some people think that “green design” and “sustainable
design” are the same. Both address the pillar of environmental protection, like water
pollution, indoor air quality, and waste management. However, green design focuses
more on the present, instead of the future as it’s more concerned about near-term
impacts.
Are you still confused? Let’s take bamboo flooring as an example. It’s a green material,
eco-friendly, and durable. It’s likely less harmful to the environment than concrete
flooring, but is not considered sustainable. A large portion of the bamboo flooring
available in the world is produced in China, which means that it needs to be
transported by ships and trucks to its final destination. Consequently, it contributes to
more pollutants in the air.
Sustainable Design
Sustainable design can be distinguished from green design because of its long-term
approach to environmental protection and its consideration of social development and
economic development. Here, each stage of the design process is optimized to reduce
negative impacts and to improve quality of life without depleting natural resources.
When it comes to sustainable design, the main intent is not to build a structure, but to
build a future. Ideally, it should help people envision a better world.
5 Principles of Sustainable Interior Design
Society is becoming increasingly aware of the importance of environmentally
responsible building and interior design. As a result, more and more clients seek to
incorporate sustainability principles in their interiors. Interior designers have a
tremendous impact on the sustainability of an environment because they are the ones
deciding which materials and products will be used and how ecologically people will
be able to interact with their surrounding spaces.
5 Principles of Sustainable Interior Design
1. Design for energy efficiency
Energy consumption is one of the major contributors to climate change. Buildings are
responsible for a big share of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, caused by energy
consumption. Architects and interior designers can do a lot to improve a building’s
energy efficiency, mainly by reducing the amount of energy needed for heating,
lighting, running appliances, etc., and by providing renewable, non-carbon-based
energy to the building.
To save energy spent on lighting, a lot can be done just by picking the right colors.
Lighter colors reflect more light, while rooms with darker walls and furnishing need
more artificial lighting. Using reflective surfaces increases the amount of light in a
room by bouncing it around, decreasing dependency on artificial lighting.
5 Principles of Sustainable Interior Design
2. Design for low environmental impact
From a sustainability perspective, it’s very important to pick materials and
products with the lowest environmental impact. Organic materials (e.g. wood,
wool, natural stone) seem the obvious choice, but we mustn’t forget that natural
resources need to be treated responsibly. Choose materials that are quickly
renewable (such as fast-growing bamboo), and are extracted in an
environmentally responsible way. There are labels, standards and certifications
that give credible information about the products’ origin and help you identify
eco-friendly products. For example, an FSC label on wood products ensures that
the wood used in the product was harvested sustainably.
5 Principles of Sustainable Interior Design
3. Design for waste reduction
Interior designers have a lot of power in their hands when it comes to
waste reduction, and at the same time, a big responsibility to act
sustainably. The planet’s precious resources are limited, so the
mentality of discarding products as soon as they go out of style and
replacing them with those that are currently trendy is no longer
justifiable.
Another way in which interior designers can help reduce the depletion
of natural resources (and divert waste from landfills) is by opting for
synthetic materials that were made from recycled waste or can be
renewed/recycled at the end of their life cycle — when they are spent
or people grow tired of them.
With this cradle-to-cradle approach, waste becomes raw material for
new products and a circular loop of manufacturing is formed,
effectively minimizing or even eliminating waste all together.
5 Principles of Sustainable Interior Design
5 Principles of Sustainable Interior Design
4. Design for longevity and flexibility
To prevent materials and products getting discarded too often, interior
designers should consider the lifespan of any material they plan to use,
especially for those elements that experience a lot of wear and tear
(such as flooring). The goal of designing for longevity is to design
durable and timeless spaces and suppress the urge to change the
whole design every couple of years. The best way to achieve
timelessness is to choose quality over quantity, classics over trendy,
and simplicity/functionality over embellishments.
Innovation has brought many options for flexible design: walls that can
be modified to create more spaces when children get bigger and need
their own rooms, adjustable and mobile furniture that can be re-
assembled to fit the needs of the flexible modern workplace, modular
flooring that allows personalization and easy replacement of individual
pieces, and so on.
Maintenance of spaces with lots of easy-to-clean materials and surfaces
requires fewer cleaning products, which are often harmful for the
environment. Therefore, investing in elements that are sturdy, durable and
easy to clean or replace means that less renovations will be needed; and,
consequently, less waste will be generated.
5 Principles of Sustainable Interior Design
5. Design for healthy environments
People spend most of their time indoors; in offices, schools, at home,
etc. Although we’ve saved it for last, considering the health of an
environment should be at the top of the interior designer’s priority list.
There are several factors to keep in mind when trying to design healthy
spaces, such as the quality of the air, heating, ventilation, lighting and
acoustics.
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, indoor air
pollution is one of the five biggest environmental threats to public
health. Indoor air pollution is the result of products and materials with
high levels of toxic emissions. For example, furniture or equipment that
has been treated with harmful chemicals releases dangerous toxins in
the air. Designers should look for materials with low emissions of VOC
(volatile organic compounds) and other air pollutants.
To improve indoor air quality, it’s important that the air in a room can
regularly circulate and remain fresh. Plants act as natural air filters,
5 Principles of Sustainable Interior Design
Exposure to natural light is
another beneficial aspect for
both physical and
psychological health. This is
especially relevant for
workplaces, as natural light
reduces stress and increases
productivity. In fact, being
surrounded by elements from
nature (or ones that mimic
nature) has a calming effect in
general.
Biophilic design is a type of
design that recognizes this
need to include natural
elements into our buildings
and interiors and aims to
restore the connection
between humans and nature.
Sustainable design principles include the ability to:
• optimize site potential;
• minimize non-renewable energy consumption;
• use environmentally preferable products;
• protect and conserve water;
• enhance indoor environmental quality; and
• optimize operational and maintenance practices.
