Green Metropolises & Sustainable Architecture

The era that we live in has seen rapid urbanization on a global scale that has never been seen before, with cities of all sizes increasing their population significantly. If our rates continue like this by the year 2050, the global population would be over 10 billion people. This population boom and urbanization has severe consequences on the global ecosystem, with climate change, resource scarcity becoming dire every day. To combat this, so cities have started to make their transition to green economies and calling themselves “Green Metropolises”. One of the fundamental techniques is sustainable architecture. It is essential for our cities to have sustainable buildings and infrastructure.

What are Green Metropolises?

Green metropolis is a term generally used for an urban area that is designed and constructed for it to be environmentally friendly. However, this concept is not just adding green areas into major neighborhoods so that there is a green space in the city. Instead, green metropolises are designed to fundamentally alter the system in which we live and operate in our urban centers. From energy use to waste management to housing to transportation systems. It aims by altering the system to create biodiversity, lower CO2 emissions and improve the quality of life for the citizens.

The Key Aspects of Green Metropolises:

Green metropolises try to utilize renewable energy as much as possible.

  • These cities try to integrate the artificial environment into the natural environment so that a cohesive environment is in place in the city.
  • Green metropolises also advocate for biodiversity and inclusive urban areas.
    How do they work?
    Usually green metropolises adopt a sort of circular economy where the waste of one area of operation becomes the resource of the other. For instance, recycled materials are used on construction works etc. This circularity leads to the overall waste being decreased and promotes a more sustainable economy.
  • Instead of having enormous power plants, the green metropolises advocate for a “decentralized energy system”. For instance, instead of using big centralized coal generators the green metropolises uses solar panels on roofs, community oriented wind turbines. The system that were mentioned increases efficiency and reduces energy waste.
  • Green metropolises also integrate agricultural into the urban areas. They generally have rooftop farms and community gardens for the community of a small area to contribute to the greenness of the general city.
  • Finally, another vital aspect of the concept of green metropolises is that these cities mostly promote and include biodiversity. Parks, green corridors in city centers typically improve the quality of air and water in the city.
The Benefits:

Green metropolises have many positive effects to its citizens. First of it is that these cities have reduced costs for the taxpayer due to the fact that they reuse, recycle and reduce their material needs. While in the short term green metropolises might have higher upbringing costs, in the long term these cities tend to have fewer expenses than other metropolises.

As mentioned earlier, these cities improve the lives of their citizens. Clean air, green spaces, and frequent and accessible public transport significantly improve the lives of their citizens. Scientific studies show that even in the most urban area, exposure to nature help us with stress and improve our cognitive abilities.

Example Cities:

In our world, there are some cities that can be considered as in the concept of green metropolis. The first city in this list is Freiburg, Germany. Freiburg is a city that is born as a result of green politics and environmental consciousness. Freiburg, located in Baden-Württemberg in southeastern Germany, the city is a pioneer of sustainable architecture. The city of Freiburg has extensive cycling paths, public transportation, community gardens for their citizens to use. The city government of Freiburg advocates and encourages sustainability within the city’s boundaries.

The most known example of the concept of “Green Metropolis” could be the capital city of Denmark, Copenhagen. Known for their vision to be the first carbon-neutral capital in the world by the year 2025. The city promotes cycling, has extensive public transportation and encourages the usage of solar and wind energy. Notably, the city government has had cleaned the city harbor that was once so polluted and made it into a city pool for the citizens to use.

Green Architecture

Green Architecture is born due to climate change & global warming. This model of architecture refers to environmentally cautious designs for new housing. These buildings are typically aimed at trying to lower the waste. These types of buildings tend to use renewable energy sources instead of non-renewable energy resources. Green Architecture have specific aims to achieve this “green transformation of our buildings”.

Energy Efficiency:

Generally, green architecture tries to promote energy efficiency. One of the main aspects of these buildings is saving the energy waste and stop the consumption of excessive energy. This goal is achieved via passive solar panels (the possibility of getting more sunlight into the building during daytime.), HVAC systems etc.

Sustainable Resources:

Green Architectural Buildings use low impact resources and recycled materials in their construction. Typically these buildings use materials like bamboo, reclaimed wood etc. and locally sourced materials to lower their emissions.

Water Saving Systems:

At the end, these types of buildings use systems like rainwater harvesting & greywater recycling to lower their water consumption. Finally, these buildings use carbon capturing concrete (green concrete) to combat the buildings emissions.

Conclusion:

Since our understanding of climate change has improved, we found new ways o combat it. Both in our daily lives and in our living spaces, we as humanity try to do our best to combat climate change. As a united front, we have found new ways to improve and make the green transformation in our cities. Cities like Freiburg, Copenhagen and many more are pioneers in the green transition. With the improvement of more technologies, we as a united front will continue to fight the climate change in our cities.

References:

https://urbandevelopmentcph.kk.dk/climate

https://www.unep.org/resources/annual-report-2021

https://www.usgbc.org/leed

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