Home Design Trend 2011

Green is a Must, not a Trend . . .

We all hear the term “green” or “green building” quite frequently last year as green topics seem to gain a lot of attention from the media in every field. For us here at GreenDwell, we generally do not think of the term “green” as a trend until we were approached by one magazine with a question on whether we think green will still remain a trend this year. We look at this question with great interest; if you went to d&D Magazine event before year end, you may have already known how we have responded to this question.

Here we summarize our view to this question in case anyone is interested to hear what we have to say and may wonder how long this “trend” would last for Thailand. Even more, the word “green” also exists in our name and embedded as our mission. If green is just a trend then GreenDwell would definitely cease to exist when this trend is gone.

To us, we do not look at green as being killer concepts to put nicely in our design package, creating another selling point. We think green is crucial and should be put as one of the design criteria, just like when we look at codes, functional use, or even the looks of our design. The term “green” itself has been defined in different ways, in academic as well as business environment. Since there is no direct translation to Thai language, the brief term we use now is just energy efficient and environmentally friendly design (even though we know that this term may not capture the full sense of being green).

We might discuss on this topic in more details in the future since this is what we usually discuss with our clients during a kick-off meeting to create a better understanding between each party as to what green design could be about.

Back to our topic on our view and approach green design as design criteria, we have 5 major points with brief explanation.

1 User-Focused | comfort – choice – passive/active
A design is centered on the occupant, where one can choose to use passive or active strategies to enhance their comfort. For example, if there is nice weather outside, they could choose to open the windows and actually getting the wind. Or, if it is too hot outside and one feels like closing the windows, the house has to be designed to optimize A/C energy use.

2 Climate-Specific | hot and humid climate
A design is climate-responsive. For example, a design under hot and humid climate condition will be different than a design under a cold and dry weather.

3 Site-Specific | sun-wind-rain-light
A design corresponds to surrounding contexts and site conditions; each site has different characteristics and is influenced by external environmental factors differently.

4 Custom-Made | sense of belonging-flexibility-adaptation-future needs
A design is customized to suit occupant’s needs, enhancing the sense of belonging and is flexible enough to allow for adaptation to future needs such as preparation for elderly living.

5 Performance-Assessed | simulation-labeling-data exposure
A design is verified for its energy or related environmental performance through simulation or measurements; data can be exposed or shared to the public, generating database for knowledge-sharing.