How did this profession come about?

The development of green architecture began in the 1950s and 1970s, when large cities were overpopulated and fuel prices rose. This pushed engineers to look for other energy sources right in the urban environment. During this period, many projects for solar-powered buildings appeared. The first such project appeared in 1972 in Manchester (Great Britain), where a building was erected that served itself, without external communications.

In the same years, ideas were developed to create an eco-city - a closed ecological system that receives a significant part of the energy for its life support from the Sun. And although there are still few such cities on Earth, over time they will appear more and more. And the profession of an architect of green cities will be useful to many countries. For example, in Germany there has been a village called "Solar Park" for several years - it consists of houses with solar panels, which consume 10 times less energy than ordinary city buildings.

In the past few decades, people have started to care more about the environment. The problem of pollution is especially acute in large cities, where there is a lot of industry, waste and harmful emissions from transport. In such cities, green spaces do not cope with their task: they are hampered by the use of reagents, precipitation of heavy metals in the soil, general air pollution and much more. Plants wither, die quickly and do not have time to purify the air.

This led to the emergence of a new - "green" - architecture. Its goal is to maximize the greening of urban spaces and apply green spaces in the design of urban buildings and spaces. Today, technologies already exist that allow creating such plantings, for example, on unused roofs - without damaging the structure of buildings.

It is in the coming decades that the need for the active growth of ecological architecture will arise. And the profession of an architect of green cities will be in great demand. Let's see what the fundamentals of green building are.

The main features of eco-architecture and the organization of urban space

Eco-friendly building materials

This is a silicate or clay brick, which is made from natural components: a mixture of limestone with sand, clay, natural wood, natural stone. And also reeds and straw - light and durable blocks of reeds or straw, in which clay is used as a binder. Geokar - blocks of peat with wood chips.

Eco-friendly interior decoration of buildings

Interiors of houses are decorated with clay plaster, wood, linoleum made of natural materials.

Alternative energy saving energy sources

These are heat pumps, solar collectors, as well as installations for waste-free combustion of raw materials.

Landscaping of roofs

Huge scope for imagination in this profession! For example, the Italian company Barilla, a world-famous pasta manufacturer, built a huge community center made of straw, wood and soil near Parma. At the same time, wheat is planted on the roof of the building, and the house itself is partially submerged in the soil. It's practically a house-plant!

Buildings with vertical gardens

In Milan, Italy, Bosco Verticale has built two terraced towers with over 20,000 plants and 800 trees. The total green area is equal to the area of a small real forest! The main innovative idea of these architects is the project of combining high-rise buildings and green landscapes. In other words, vertical landscaping is not just a skyscraper decorated with flower beds with plants, but a real forest consisting of different types of trees. Thus, the skyscraper has become at the same time a park where you can live, walk, have fun and enjoy the fresh air.