We can observe that the world population grows more and more (The United Nations states that 70% of human beings will live in urban centers in 2050) there are countries with economies that emerge and its inhabitants are discovering the new needs that the consumerist world creates for them, and with those, we are creating a world where the cities eat up the fields fertile agricultural fields, create huge amounts of waste, of contamination, pollution, etc.
For a long time, people have been talking about methods to destroy our environment a little less. people we think that by contaminating less, for example, saving us to take the car one day, we are already doing well, when in Actually, what we are doing is doing less wrong.
The cradle to cradle method goes further than current reduction methods and proposes not only to destroy a little less, but adopt the existing model in nature in which not a single residue is produced but rather plants and animals when they finish their life cycle serve as food to the earth and form a cycle .
In nature there are no 3 R’s (recycle, reuse, reduce), and that is why the cradle to cradle proposes to overcome this maximum and start using materials and processes similar to those of nature in which the garbage serves as food (for clear fields) and interest, see the article on what is the blue economy and how does it work circular economy that are in the same vein.
Cradle to cradle method is intended to pass from current concept from cradle to grave to cradle to the cradle, and that the cycle of life begins again constantly. The upcycling , as they call it, it's something that can be reused constantly.
This theory, which was presented in the book “ Cradle to cradle: redo the way we make the things ” by the German chemist Michael Braungart and the architect American William McDonough in 2002, says that no good consumption should be created if at the end of its useful life it is becomes useless and polluting garbage.
The important thing in this theory is reusability and Although he does not reject the 3 R's, he considers that these they just try to minimize the damage. In the process Cradle to Cradle , therefore, what charges more importance is design , and for design industry is needed.
These authors do not reject our prosperity consumerist since they believe that this is the way to change our ecosystem and industrial production for the 21st century. For example, it is the best way to develop new biodegradable products or reusable.
The idea of Cradle to cradle is to conceive buildings from a more ecologically effective design so that they do not need to waste energy in order to achieve optimal results and comfort.
What sense would there be in not building a housing designed to take advantage of the benefits of orientation, natural light, currents of air and basic construction methods that do not involve waste? … If this was already done at the time of the Romans.
The constructions must imitate the trees , living beings that are a microenvironment in itself themselves since they provide shelter, refrigeration, regeneration, producing more energy than they consume and purifying the wastewater they produce.
So, buildings that follow the Cradle method to cradle are buildings that imitate the nature using facades and roofs gardens, which generate more energy than we consume, which are integrated into nature instead of come into conflict with her and that the water renew.
At the end of the useful life, materials should be biodegradable and be returned decomposed to the soil giving it nutrients, or they must be reused in other works or constructions starting the cycle over. The materials should not be used if they are to be converted into useless garbage.
As one of its principles says, and in order to generate more energy than is consumed, use will be made of The renewable energies. materials will be chosen taking into account all phases of the development of the product: extraction, processing, transport, utilization, reuse, etc.
To meet the objectives of the reuse of materials, it is preferable that these be can assemble and disassemble quickly and by separate . What would become the architecture more or less modular.
We can see some examples of these buildings:
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Points of interest:
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Article written by Albert Abadal Niubó (Technical Architect – Specialist in sustainable and efficient building) in collaboration with Home Repair Care.
