WEBSITE UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Promoting Social Economic and Cultural Upliftment Development needs to take into consideration the effects and opportunities on local peoples and their communities before, during and after the construction phase.

 

Green Architecture and planning is:

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• Consensual and consultative. Consensual and consultative Being sensitive to local community needs and concerns. Involving affected peoples in the decision-making processes. Recognizing the importance of all the people involved and affected by a development.

• Sensitive to local history and culture. Sensitive to local history and culture Respecting of local materials, skills and vernacular designs. Sensitivity to the existing built environment of the given location. Prioritize the conservation and preservation of old buildings as cultural beacons in the history of a place.  

• Respecting and promoting of a sense of place. Imparting a sense of uniqueness and diversity that helps instill a sense of identity and community. 

• Providing for mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly neighbourhoods. Promoting a safer, more integrated multi-functional use of land. Provide greater diversity of activity and employment opportunities.  

• Respecting the health of builders & occupants. Using only healthy, non- polluting processes and materials. This also improves builders and occupants’ rates of productivity as well as resulting in higher property values.  

• Supporting environmentally responsible suppliers and contractors. Avoids putting money into the pockets of businesses that are polluting the environment. 

• Minimize high running costs & respect user’s finances. Design for efficiency of services. This avoids cutting initial costs to the bone at the expense of future tenants, who are often left to carry the on-going financial burdens imposed by inefficient services i.e. air conditioning, dependence on artificial lighting etc.  

• Duty of care. Designers have an overriding responsibility to protect local and global planetary systems. Place community interests over and above any short-term, profit-motivated developer interests.  

• Providing for local job opportunities. In the construction process as well as in the choice of products. This ensures that a significant amount of any funds invested in a building remains and circulates in local hands, to the benefit of local populace.

For instance:

− Labour-based processes are to be preferred over machine processes. Costs cannot be     taken at face value, as they need to be assessed according to labour vs. machine-         based processes.

− Enhance the transfer of skills thereby providing for local self-reliance and the                   development of local human resources.

− Support locally manufactured products over imported products.