Sustainable Locations
Sustainable building has taken off round the world, with developments happening in one country being copied and improved upon in another. This is in part due to increased media coverage and social awareness of the issues affecting the environment through climate change, and an understanding of the need to use [...]
In assessing a site for a potential new build, one of the key points to cover in the assessment will be the access to a water supply, and the drainage potential. How much water is used per household or building is a major issue the world over, not just in [...]
Urban reclamation is essentially reclaiming space in the city for a community's use again, either for housing, leisure, or business. The space is likely to have been used before, and may consist of derelict or abandoned buildings, waste ground, or part-used space. The land and/or buildings may have contamination issues, [...]
The concept of Sustainable Development essentially means keeping current development within sustainable levels, thus protecting the needs and resources of both the environment and human population, in the longer term. This term, the principles of Sustainable Development, originally came from the Bruntland Report in 1987, written up in the book [...]
To site your building sustainably, several considerations must be made. Firstly, it is crucial to take a long-term view of constructing a building on this piece of land. The nature of developing sustainably means that due consideration must be given to the future conditions (environmental, geographical, urban or rural, etc) [...]
Greenfield sites are areas of land, usually agricultural or amenity land, which are being considered for urban development. This is a highly contentious issue, particularly in the UK, where the development of land is split between Greenfield and brownfield sites. It becomes contentious, and political, due to a limited amount [...]
In the UK a brownfield site is defined as "previously developed land" that has the potential for being redeveloped. It is often (but not always) land that has been used for industrial and commercial purposes and is now derelict and possibly contaminated. In the USA a brownfield site always refers [...]
One of the primary considerations with any site is access and transportation. They are key factors in the success of any development; communities that aren't readily accessible both inside and outside their boundaries simply aren't sustainable. Access means safe, secure and healthy movement for all, whether old and young, rich [...]
