Efficiency Of Space

Sustainability is the ability to exist, sustain and survive without affecting destructive or negative impacts on surroundings.

- Sushil Aggarwal

In an architectural perspective, it evokes an image of a built environment that is friendly and positive.

Every built space and activity has two facets, one internal that affects the user, and second external that impacts its surroundings. Sustainability encompasses both these facets in addition to the resource consumption of said spaces and activities. It has three components:

• Constructing with minimum negative environmental impact 

• Creating a built environment that enhances the positive energy of the occupants, thereby providing more comfort, improving productivity and efficiency.

• Using minimum amount of effort and energy to function in the previously mentioned manner

The goals stated above mention intangible metrics like maximum and minimum. These terms are comparative and can be defined in a variety of ways. Minimum can be as low as zero, where that zero could still carry some value. Similarly, negative environmental impacts have also been defined in terms of measurable generated carbon or other particles, where as one cannot exclude the psychological and emotional responses which have remained immeasurable till date.

When we say efficiency, it is understood as evaluation of quantity; quantity of built area versus the number of people using it, or to say the intensity of usage. More intense the usage of a facility, the more efficient it is bound to be. Over provision of facilities to the extent that the resources go unused is unsustainable.