Design with Nature

This is just the simple idea designing the building to take advantage of the sun and wind when we can to provide heat, light and cooling, rather than using a brute force approach relying on external energy and engineering.  Before the advent of cheap energy, designing for the climate was the norm, not the exception.  It was only the discovery of coal and oil that caused people to think in terms of push button solutions like turning up the thermostat or the air conditioner.  Advances in materials make it so that a climate adapted shelter that was only vaguely comfortable many years can now be as comfortable as any modern house, but use much less energy. 

Homes have always been shelters, but until recently humans had little concept of comfort.  As soon as we had spare energy, our shelters tended more toward status symbols and art work, than places of comfort.  The idea that a home should accommodate its users to help make their lives easier is actually a relatively new concept.  In green building, the idea is to build a house that matches its use by understanding both the physical needs and psychological needs that occupants have.

Rather than building generic houses based on traditional floor plans, green builders seek to build only rooms that people use, while avoiding the ones that are rarely used.  Green designer consider the flow and feel of a home and seek to design them so that people don't get in each others way, and that rooms are designed to accommodate their intended use--if a room is for relaxing, then it should be away from noise sources and have the kinds of "places on the edge" that people inevitably gravitate toward.

Design decisions often have an impact on each other, but rarely does anyone consider this.  Floor plans are designed with little thought of the structural implications, structure is added with little thought of how the plumber, electrician, and heating contractor will run these utilities in the building.  A highly insulated building might end up costing nothing extra if the added insulation reduces the size furnace, air conditioning and ductwork sizes.  When proper overhangs and deciduous landscape shading is added, air conditioning might not even be necessary.