Bridging the gap

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The architect
Name: Benjamin Piper
Job title: Senior architect
Company: Atkins Middle East

Buildings provide the physical framework within which people lead their lives. By establishing the framework to include aspects of sustainable design, it is possible for architects to have a tremendous influence on the environmental impact of a given project, both on a physical and social level.

Physical considerations might include the choice of materials, the choice of environmental control systems and the physical sitting/orientation of the building.

Social considerations could include an understanding of the social patterns resulting from the building design and the long term flexibility of a design to support alternative uses over the life-cycle of the project.

When an architect is tasked with imagining and visualising a building, there is almost an infinite number of ways for the architect to bring that building into being.

The decisions that are made at an early stage - in terms of massing, relationship to the surrounding site, orientation etc - can have a tremendous impact on the eventual environmental footprint of the building.

For this reason, architects have a special role in being best placed to determine the primary moves of a building design in a way that aims to meet sustainable design criteria.

However, sustainable design also requires the effective collaboration of a great number of specialists besides the architect.

It is absolutely necessary for the architect to bring in this specialised knowledge at an early stage. This ensures that design solutions take a realistic and practical approach and that they are not simply a result of image conscious decision making.

Without the technical and practical backing from specialists that offer viable solutions, architects risk damaging the credibility of sustainable design.

To facilitate sustainable design, architects must also work to raise the client's and contractor's awareness of sustainability issues and highlight the potential benefits of adopting a sustainable approach.

As architects, we are trained to imagine new spaces, structures and ways of achieving these. It is our role to convince other members of the construction team of potential solutions that have a basis in sustainable design.

Sustainability is no longer the domain of environmentalists or scientists, but is part of the social responsibility of every decision maker. Architects make daily decisions that have a huge potential impact on material and energy resources, as well as the living patterns of our building's inhabitants.

With an ever-increasing world population and with diminishing global resources, our role is becoming increasingly critical. We must take up the challenge of providing viable examples of sustainable design. These designs must be so efficient, so sensible and ultimately so beautiful, that this approach propagates in tomorrow's world to become the norm.

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