Aesthetical Aspects of Sustainability

By Florian Techel
Department of Architecture
American University of Sharjah
PO Box 26666, Sharjah
United Arab Emirates
florian@techel.com

Table of Contens:
Aesthetical Aspects of Sustainability.................................................................................. 1
Abstract ........................................................................................................................... 2
Discussion of Sustainability in the past 30 Years ........................................................... 2
Results ............................................................................................................................. 3
Developments in other fields, Examples ........................................................................ 4
Concept of Branding ................................................................................................... 4
Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 5
Outlook for the field of Architecture & Building ........................................................... 6
Marketing the right architecture...................................................................................... 7
Final Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 8

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Abstract
The topic of sustainability in the design of buildings has in the past- been viewed
primarily under the aspects of morality, responsibility, ethics, etc. While these are
perfectly reasonable arguments, the turn towards sustainable behavior, especially in
affluent societies, has not yielded the proper behavior, has been a slow one at best.
Simply speaking: the need for conservation is more readily understood if external factors
dictate such behavior.
While there have been some references in the past that viewed the topic under aesthetics
aspects, for example, proportional aspects, such as Small is Beautiful1.
This paper will investigate possible reasons as to why the aesthetic aspects of
sustainability have been underexposed in the past. It will also argue why the aesthetic
aspects are important in this discussion in the future and may develop into the driving
force behind the movement towards sustainable design.

Discussion of Sustainability in the past 30 Years

Since the so-called Energy Crisis in the early 1970s the topic of Sustainability has been
widely discussed primarily under aspects such as economics, ecologics and ethics.
This approach has only lead to a partial change in behavior, in some countries better than
others and within those countries to changing degrees. A generally higher taxation of the
use of energy, especially the burning of fossil fuels, has lead to increase in the efficiency
of cars, primarily in Europe and Japan. On the other hand a recent trend towards Sports
Utility Vehicles (now offered by every big car manufacturer), especially in the United
States has reversed a trend started in the mid 1970s towards more efficient automobiles
and lead to grotesquely inefficient vehicles.
The trend towards higher energy efficiency in buildings, at least in Europe, was less of a
voluntary one, but rather mandated by performance standards and regulations established
by the respective governments. Depending on the price of fuel, the temptation for owners
of real estate to either follow or to try to circumvent the toughening performance
standards varied. As the price of energy varied throughout the years (e.g. depending on
the exchange ratio of the dollar towards other currencies) the customer behavior varied.
In times that the price for energy was high landlords were more likely to follow the
regulations towards energy conservation, in times of lower energy prices they were
tempted to circumvent the standards.
During these times, however, few landlords demanded more efficient (sustainable)
buildings. Clients therefore were not the driving force behind a more energy efficient way
of building, a sustainable architecture.

E.F. Schumacher: Small is Beautiful, London, Blond and Briggs, 1973.

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Sustainable behavior can be measured to a certain extent by the amount of energy used
by a nation per capita.
1.

Qatar ......................................... 26,772.64 (2000)

2.

Iceland ....................................... 12,245.61 (2000)

3.

Kuwait ........................................ 10,528.89 (2000)

4.

United Arab Emirates ................. 10,174.86 (2000)

5.

Bahrain ........................................ 9,858.09 (2000)

6.

Luxembourg ................................. 8,409.00 (2000)

7.

Canada ........................................ 8,156.31 (2000)

8.

United States ............................... 8,148.38 (2000)

9.

Trinidad and Tobago .................... 6,660.09 (2000)

10. Finland ......................................... 6,408.98 (2000)

Average ........................................ 2,546.56 (2000)
China (Mainland).............................. 904.93 (2000)
India ................................................ 494.03 (2000)
Bangladesh ...................................... 142.43 (2000)

Whether, or whether not such an energy turnover is sustainable depends greatly on the
vantage point. A middle-eastern gulf country with vast oil reserves most likely will look
at the topic differently compared to a country in the subcontinent without these energy
reserves. A meteorologist, who is increasingly alarmed by more frequent and more
intensive weather phenomena, and tracks these back to global warming, again may look
at the topic differently.

Results
Since the mid-1970s the conduct of an intensive environmental discussion in
industrialized countries has led to two distinct results.
It led to the formation of a political (green) movement. This group is open towards
rational and primarily ethical arguments and is willing to change its own behavior
accordingly. This has, to date, been a minority within these countries.
Through the participation of some green parties in government coalitions, it has led to an
increase in sanctions towards environmentally unfriendly (unsustainable) behavior.
Legislation has been passed to increase the taxation on fossil fuels (with the beneficial
side-effect of reducing the demand for imports) and technical standards have been
introduced and repeatedly stiffened defining the energy consumption of buildings.
This has, in part, led to an increase in the efficient use of energy and thus the
sustainability of modern buildings. At the same time a general increase in wealth in these
2

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/ene_com_ene_use

Commercial energy use (kg of oil equivalent per capita). Commercial energy use refers to apparent
consumption, which is equal to indigenous production plus imports and stock changes, minus exports and
fuels supplied to ships and aircraft engaged in international transport.

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societies has led to the desire for more and larger residential and office spaces and thus
partially consumed the increases in efficiency.
This approach assumes that the clientele is susceptible for rational arguments. The
introduction of laws, however, concedes that a significant portion of a society is not able
or not willing to follow rational arguments in this area and, in varying degrees, has to be
forced.
Unfortunately this approach only focuses on one single aspect (utilitas) of the trinity of
architectural design as originally formulated by the Roman architect Vitruvius Pollio:
Firmitas (Stability), Utilitas (Utility), Venustas (Attractiveness). Vitruvius stated the goal
that every building design should strive to fulfill all three aspects. Consequently a
building that is wasting energy may be attractive on the surface but not truly beautiful for
it is not in harmony with its environment.

Developments in other fields, Examples

The previous discussion has shown that sustainability appealing towards the ratio or the
conscience of the user may have a limited effect. The pricing of energy, while generally
impacting the behavior of the customer, is not generally a limiting factor. In an affluent,
post-industrial society, people are not kept off purchasing expensive items simply
because they are expensive. The trend towards fuel-guzzling SUVs in industrialized
countries with a perfectly developed road system, in the past decade, is ample support to
this assessment. Instead customer behavior is frequently motivated by irrational motives:
love, envy, jealousy, greed, vanity, sense of belonging, self esteem, etc.

Concept of Branding
Many industries, such as cars (Mercedes, BMW, Lexus, etc.), sport shoes (Nike, Adidas,
Puma, etc.), mobile phones (Nokia, Sony-Ericsson, Motorola, etc.), computers (Toshiba,
Apple, Dell, etc.), fashion (Nike, Levis, Tommy Hilfiger) have shown in an exemplary
way that customers are willing to spend more for a brand product for various soft issues
(not necessarily rationally motivated). Self-definition, alleged user-friendliness, fashion,
lifestyle, role models, etc. are strong motivators in the purchase of brand products.
Companies have realized this long ago and invest large amounts of money in advertising
not particular features or qualities of a single product, instead developing an image for
the brand label overall. Research has shown that customers frequently display a strong
brand loyalty, hardly ever changing the car manufacturer, frequently staying with one
mobile phone manufacturer and frequently sticking to the same computer brand. This is
why so much advertising is going after young customers, for once the brand loyalties
have been formed, the average customer is not likely to change his/her opinion towards a
certain brand / label.

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Various Brands known worldwide

Conclusion
People do not always behave in a reasonable and sensible fashion when it comes to
making purchasing decisions. Customers are displaying a behavior in their daily lives that
is not always oriented towards maximizing returns, increasing efficiency and saving
money wherever they can. Customers frequently incorporate additional soft aspects into
their decisions, such a fashion, belonging, desire, self-identification, that extend beyond
mere utilitarian and/or rational aspects and dictate behavior.
In other areas, such as politics and religion many people are tempted to give credibility to
a statement not primarily because of the statement itself and if it makes sense or not, but
more likely because of the individual or the company who stated it.

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Outlook for the field of Architecture & Building

This behavior extends well into the realm of architecture. It is common practice to quote
prominent architects with the motif of adding credibility to the point one is trying to
make. The better is the enemy of the good in itself may be a statement worth some debate,
but if Walter Gropius has stated that The better is the enemy of the good one is less likely
to question the statement, simply because the phrase has been made by a famous
architect. That appears to be one main motif behind the usage of quotes to begin with.
One could argue that architectural styles, at least in the 20th century, had the prime focus
of selling architecture. An architect, alone by him- or herself, appears relatively weak
versus the market as a whole. The moment he or she starts to engage in a compound, a
network, starts to bond with other, similar minded architects, starts to promote them as
he/she expects to be promoted by them, a strengthening effect takes place. Workers
unions claimed long ago: United we stand, divided we fall!
The International Style, Post-Modernism, Structuralism, Deconstructivism are all design
doctrines that were conceived by individuals with a certain rationale in mind, but only
became successful once a certain minimum number of supporters rallied behind the
respective theme. Once they became successful, many, for the urge to simply emulate the
previous economic success, copied them.
Few big architectural design offices have been successful at creating architecture brands
for themselves: Foster & Associates, HOK, Perkins & Will, Renzo Piano, Richard
Rogers, SOM are all internationally recognized names. Although the architecture of these
offices has changed substantially over time and depending on the respective chief
architects (e.g. Gordon Bunshaft, Bruce Graham, at SOM), these offices can sell their
architecture worldwide primarily on their own reputation, similar to a car company where
the sense of brand quality transcends beyond the individual model line.
Most other architectural practices are small in size and therefore do not have the
respective marketing clout, therefore are either known only on a national, perhaps even
regional level, frequently only post-mortem.
Strangely the topic of sustainability has not become an architectural style, an ism, perhaps
thankfully so, because styles have the tendency to come and go. On the other hand,
perhaps it is worth the effort to learn some marketing-101 from the successful branding if
only to do the right thing.

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Marketing the right architecture

When comparing the emergence of previous architectural styles one can trace certain
similarities:
1. Manifestation of certain ideals
2. Gathering of a group of followers
3. Coining of a catching name
4. Careful creation of images that either describe objects of that style or that help to
define and render the objective
5. Occupation of the media, first special trade magazines, later more popular general
periodicals
Sustainability, even among architects, is too frequently still viewed as an afterthought,
something for specialists, just not genuinely architectural, something that the profession
as a whole and with every stroke of their design is concerned about. In as much as the
topic is afterthought it is not really surprising that the profession still not fully identifies
with it as genuinely theirs, therefore rarely makes it to the front page of architectural
magazines. In many countries architects leave the energy performance calculations to a
specialist similar to leaving the structural calculation to a civil engineer.
The questions arises: Is it possible to view a building as sustainable, i.e. are there
typological elements in the building that can be recognized as sustainable or elements
that make a building sustainable? Just as deconstructivist architecture could be identified
by elements that defy order, symmetry and organization (all elements of previous
architectural styles that the deconstructivist movement tried to overcome) the question is:
are there building elements that can be identified with sustainability or that identify
sustainability? If that were the case this could be translated into an imagery language that
could be exploited in an aesthetic sense. It would then become possible to brand
sustainable architecture by carefully exploiting these elements in a language of images.
Some readers may start to wonder if these have not been the same questions as with any
other architectural style in the past (always good architecture, of course!). Any good
architecture should have always incorporated all aspects of the design of a building and
consequently also the aspects of environment and sustainability.
The difference may be, that, after a quarter century of discussing the topic, architects
have received some strong allies. Big business has become involved in this market. Major
European energy conglomerates (oil, electricity) are investing major amounts into
renewable forms of energy. No more are a few (lonely) individual architects behind this
movement, but major capital-intensive industries. Market forces dictate that they need a
return on their investments. If architectural quality, both technical and aesthetic, supports
that direction, they are behind it just like the board of any car manufacturer is behind a
breathtaking new car design that promises lots of sales.

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Final Conclusion
Instead of repeatedly emphasizing the utilitarian, ecological and ethical dimensions of
sustainability, which should all appear perfectly clear to the experts, it is the
responsibility of designers to visible-ize these aspects. Our challenge as designers is to
make sustainable buildings so breathtakingly beautiful that potential clients will look at
them in their neighbors yard, magazines, coffee table books, or the Internet, gasp and
exclaim: I want to have one of these! The fact that these buildings will be friendly to
the environment then turns into a very welcome side-effect, but the main motivator will
be aesthetical aspects of the respective design.
New communication technologies such as the World Wide Web have helped to level the
playing field and now permit small architectural firms or interest groups to easily
compete with the Big Guys. It is not very difficult to create online discussion fora that
focus on these topics, consequently little excuse to doing it.
Just like the architects of the Modern Movement, we know we are doing the right thing.
So (paraphrasing the American philosopher Nike: lets do it!
We all will be better off because of it.

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