Sustainable Design and Development

The Sustainable Design and Development Research Cluster at BE brings together academics and postgraduate students who focus on research and scholarship across the multiple domains of sustainability – ecological, social, economic and cultural – as applied to the planning, design, construction and management of the built environment. We welcome diverse and cross-disciplinary perspectives.

The cluster is structured to facilitate greater exchange of ideas among colleagues from all disciplines in the BE.  It aims to develop a comprehensive approach to sustainability that can underpin the BE’s reputation in learning, teaching and research.

The cluster seeks to bring together sustainability experts from within UNSW to search for more sustainable options for current environmental problems. It seeks pioneering approaches to sustainability research using methodologies that can integrate and implement cross-disciplinary solutions to complex sustainability issues. In this way, the cluster will become a space for inclusive and inspirational knowledge exchange and transfer, seeding sustainability research, grant applications, publications and community initiatives.

Convenors: Catherine Evans and Paul Osmond

Sustainability: multiple dimensions, multiple scales

Sustainability is:

• a professional and personal philosophy and practice focused on the ethical use of resources so that these resources are conserved for future generations
• a way of living aimed at creating a balance between environmental and socioeconomic concerns
• an ideal of social equity that balances present quality of life with the needs of future generations
• a challenge to many aspects of the way we live today, particularly the emphasis on growth and consumption.

Sustainability is not an end state but a process in which humans must continually work to balance our needs with those of other living systems. In envisioning future built environments, products and systems, sustainability challenges us to ensure that we leave a healthy, livable planet for the next generation – including clean air, water, biodiversity and renewable energy. Furthermore, we must create cities and ecosystems which are resilient in the face of environmental disturbance and climate change.
 

Sustainable design: from product to planet 

Sustainable design:

• uses, conserves and enhances resources in the creation and operation of our buildings and cities to  achieve present and future quality of life
• creates products and services  with minimal environmental impacts from cradle to grave
• approaches the built environment with an understanding of and a respect for the natural environment, as well as a concern for human needs and wellbeing
• acknowledges cultural development and cultural diversity as central to the adaptive process of realising sustainability
• understands that sustainable development will differ between countries depending on affordability and practicality
• aims to engage and inspire our students with the urgent challenge of creating their own sustainable future.

Sustainable design is the opposite of fashion and faddism. Sustainable designers strive to make the best use of limited and non-renewable resources, achieve the ‘best fit’, create environments and products of lasting value, that are affordable and themselves ultimately recyclable. The design, delivery and management of the 21^st C city will consider long-term use of buildings and infrastructure that creates beautiful, habitable and productive environments to support human life and encourage biodiversity.