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Building a green tomorrow

‘Man needs green architecture to survive.’

The concept of green architecture is gaining acceptance in the country. Bangalore-based architect Sunil Kumar, who is actively promoting the green building concept, shares his thoughts with Ignatius Pereira

At a time when the building construction spree has raised concern about its adverse impact on human health and environment, the concept of green architecture has come as a silver lining.

Bangalore-based architect Sunil Kumar believes green architecture and green buildings are going to be the construction style in the future. “Man needs that style to survive,” he says.

A native of Eravipuram in Kollam city, Mr. Sunil has done his Masters in Architecture from the University of Illinois in the U.S. He said he was actively promoting the green building concept in Bangalore. “It is heartening to note that the concept is gaining acceptance.”

The basic idea behind green or sustainable architecture is to promote energy-efficient building codes for the creation of green buildings. The purpose is enable the earth to support life for a long time. Mr. Sunil says construction activity cannot be taken up without disturbance to the eco-system. But the adverse impacts can be minimised.

About one-third of the available energy is directly used by buildings. Hence, the need to make buildings green. Increasing the energy and material efficiency of buildings and reducing their impact on health and the environment is what green architecture is all about. But there is a rating system for that. Several agencies have developed systems to rate the “greenness” of buildings. The Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED) system developed by the Green Building Council of the U.S. is the widely used green-rating system. The rating is done by awarding points. The maximum is 69 points. Buildings that are rated between 26 and 32 points become LEED-certified, those between 33 and 38 get the silver certificate, between 39 and 51, gold certificate and 52 to 69, platinum certificate of LEED. He welcomed the efforts of the Centre to develop a green rating system to be called ‘Griha.’

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