Considering coexistence with nature in the environmental assessment of buildings

Abstract

Green Architecture appeared to achieve what is beyond sustainability in buildings. It seeks besides maintaining the balanced environmental and building cycles to interact with the nature. Its definitions are always concerned by achieving the human psychological needs besides their physical ones. Nature in the Green Architecture is not only a party to avoid its negative effects and benefit its advantages, but it is also a party that buildings help their users to feel coexistence within. The Environmental Assessment Methods of Buildings appeared to set the principles of the optimum relation between the buildings and the environment, but, the current methods did not focus on the human psychological needs, and they included few and static assessment items for that, such as linking the users visually with their external environment through the openings. This item does not reflect an ideal relation in the Green Architecture, which should be beyond that direct and boring one. It was formerly difficult to achieve innovative relations between building users and their surroundings, but recently, there are enormous potentials to do so. Therefore, the research paper aimed to get out of the traditional borders of the environmental assessment of buildings, and focus on assessing the human psychological needs through the assessment methods by some proposed items, which help to achieve a human coexistence with nature. The proposed items may be considered an important step toward the Green Architecture, when considering the almost ignored human psychological needs within the most important tools used to encourage its application. Keywords: Coexistence with nature, Psychological needs, Interactive buildings, Building filters, Environmental Assessment Methods of Buildings