Efficiency of the Use or Not of the Use

 Working on projects in todays time and even academically like we are charged with now, we find that we are including the use and efficiency of energy in our buildings. We start with a design, align goals that fit our morality and what is best for the project, then select systems that in our eyes will be efficient and get the job done. At the end of the day we pat ourselves on the back and may even give ourselves a high five if we can make a LEED certification. Is this they way we should be approaching projects?

In the US we are spoiled with a plethora of resources and technologies. We think picking systems that will suit the design of our projects is difficult, or when we realize how much of our design is designated to mechanical systems we grope. Why do we automatically go to this? Even in parts of the world like in Europe where they minimize these systems do we implement systems that will use energy where we can design to do the same things with less. Its time we start to ask ourselves, are we really designing sustainable buildings if they’re efficient using minimal energy. Or will our buildings be sustainable if we design them not to use energy?