Living Buildings Challenge Green Status Quo
New Take on Sustainable Architecture Transforms Urban Environments
Living buildings move beyond green buildings and even beyond the idea of sustainability. They are buildings that add to the urban environment by acting like ecosystems, maximizing the health of the animals, plants, and people who live in a city. Like an ecosystem, methods of creating a living building are specific to the area where it is built.
Moving Beyond Green Building Standards
Green building standards such as LEED have set a high goal for those who design and build homes, offices, and other buildings. However, current building standards are only a beginning. Construction and operation of buildings is moving towards zero waste and carbon neutral.
The Cascadia Region Green Building Council is challenging green building professionals to move beyond lower-impact buildings and develop buildings that work with, enhance, and even restore local ecosystems. Cascadia has introduced the Living Building Challenge and Leader Program to train current professionals in living building design.
In the Sustainable Architecture White Papers (Earth Pledge Foundation, 2001), Jason McLennan outlines principles that guide the development of a living building.
Designing Like Nature
A plant does not create garbage. When a plant exhales, it breathes out oxygen, and animals use this oxygen to breathe. It transpires water vapor that goes into the water cycle. Just like a plant or an animal, a living building is designed to live in a mutually beneficial relationship with its environment.
Harvesting Energy and Water
Living buildings create energy from renewable sources, leading to a sustainable power grid. The people and the resources used to construct the building are sourced more locally than traditional construction. In a living building, the energy that the building uses is created on site. The next step is a building that actually creates more energy than it uses, having a positive net impact on energy use.
While green buildings work on reducing water use, a living building also harvests water and filters grey water.
Designed for the Local Environment
Whether it is the passive solar use of sunshine and shade on a specific building site, or using a building envelope that works with local climate, living buildings are designed for their local area. They work with local water flow regimes and create habitats that echo what exists in the local environment.
Using Waste as a Resource
Like plants and animals, living buildings use the cradle to cradle principle of waste generation. Waste is not wasted. Instead, it is used as a resource for other people, projects, or buildings in the area. The Living Building Challenge produced by Cascadia (McLennan, 2008) recommends no less than a 95% waste diversion rate for building construction as well.
While buildings are built for people, living buildings are built to consider their impact and contribution to all life. Whether it is by adding new habitats for animals or by effectively filtering stormwater and greywater, living buildings enhance and restore local ecosystems.
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