Supper trees:
Supper trees are located in Garden by the Bay in Singapore. Apart from different planting on these trees,they help to make the garden more environmentally sustainable. Some functions of these trees are like real trees. Real trees have a process called photosynthesise. In this process trees absorb sunlight,water and carbon dioxide and produce carbohydrate and oxygen ( NSTA 2014). Supper trees absorb sunlight by photovoltaic cells to produce electricity for lighting and also gather the rain water for plants in garden. Furthermore it can moderate the temperature by absorbing and releasing air. They also provide shadow for visitors (CNN 2012). These structures are the good examples of  imitating the nature to provide sustainable environment. They act like trees which are effective to alleviate air pollution and global warming.

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1643309&page=2

http://designlike.com/2012/08/02/incredible-futuristic-gardens-by-the-bay-in-singapore/

http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0775714.html

Source:
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/06/08/world/asia/singapore-supertrees-gardens-bay/
http://biology.clc.uc.edu/courses/bio104/photosyn.htm

Natural ventilation for buildings:
Wind catcher is an structure that could be built on the roof of the buildings in order to provide natural ventilation and make inside of  the building cooler with out using energy. In the past people in arid areas did not have electricity and they used wind catchers to make their house cooler. Today,in order to reduce global warming and cost of electricity wind catchers are used in buildings. The general structure of modern and old wind catchers are same. Both of them catch wind from opening. Inside the wind catcher will be divided to 4 sections . According to Ji and Su and Khan (2012)wind catchers catch wind from different sides and one section that is in the wind side,brings it inside the building and other one on the opposite side releases stale air because of the pressure.They also claim that modern wind catchers usually have a manual or automatic window inside the building in order to control air volume and to close the wind catcher in winter. Old wind catchers bring wind inside a room that usually have small pool to make water cooler with evaporation.These rooms usually have several doors to different part of building. When one part needs cool air the door will be opened (Kazemi and Dehghan 2012).  Old wind catchers have made from mud and brick but modern ones are mostly made from metal and could be designed in order to be set with building appearance.

httpghoolabad.com

http://www.esi.info

httpwww.iasdm.org

http://www.bse.polyu.edu.hk

Sources:
- Ji,Z   Su,Y   Khan,N  2012.Performance Evaluation and Energy Saving Potential of

Windcatcher Natural Ventilation Systems in China,International Journal of Architecture, Engineering and Construction ,Vol.1, No. 2, pp.84-95

- Kazemi,m Dehghan,A 2012,Visualized flow structure around and inside of one-sided wind-catchers,Energy and BuildingsVolume 55, Pages 545–552.

Sustainable Agriculture:

http://www.digmnl.com/health-and-beauty/grow-your-own-food-a-quick-guide-to-urban-farming

Soil-less agriculture is a method that plants grow with out soil. Instead of soil the rout of plants are located in water with enough nutrient or in gravel or sand that use same water. This kind of cultivating is sustainable because it uses low amount of water to compare with cultivating in soil. Furthermore the water stayes in this system and it can be used over and over. The light, humidity and temperature can be controlled in indoor spaces. This could be effective especially in areas that the condition for cultivate is not suitable. This system also have some problems.Plants can catch some sort of disease because of water.Furthermore to provide this kind of cultivate in large scale the cost will not be efficient. However this method have some problems because it could help to grow different plants in different climate with low amount of water. Also it could be more efficient if farmer use sunlight instead of artificial lights.

http://www.greenprophet.com/2010/05/aerofarms-vertical-farming/

 



 Source:
 Benton,J 2012,Hydroponics: A Practical Guide for the Soilless Grower, CRC press.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSS5mFjwLtI

http://www.allianceforamericanquilts.org/support/QTM2014.php

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/united-states/high-line-gets-20-million-gift-63404.html

Walking as sustainable mode of transportation:High park is an unusual structure because it was a high rail line in the past which remained unused and after many years city decided to rebuilt it instead of destroy it. Today most part of the park have been constructed.The length of the park is about 1 mile.According to video 1 mile is about 20 blocks which people prefer to use other kind of transport to travel this distance rather than walking.When people walk on it, they experience different spaces. The variety of spaces and view of the park attract large amount of people every day. Walking in this park is enjoyable and these kind of structures can encourage people to walk more. 



Source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W2Yq1zzxAc

Lahijan traditional houses:
Lahijan is located in the north of Iran near Caspian Sea. High humidity ,large amount of rain and temperature stability play important role to shape the houses there. high humidity could bring mould to building,therefore proper ventilation is required. Traditional houses in lahijan have special design  in order to use low amount of energy and  to adjust the building to region climate. According to Ghorbani Nia (2013) because daily temperature usually do not have fluctuation, walls are made of light materials such as wood which is local material and are covered with plaster or clay in order to increase ventilation. Furthermore these walls do not have high thermal capacity in order to save heat for night.White colour of walls usually helps to reflect the sunlight in summers . There is gap between houses and ground to increase the ventilation from floor for buildings. furthermore porches are located in four side of building to provide more ventilation. Roofs in these houses are made with rice stalk that is local material. furthermore because of large amount of rain in this region the slop of roofs are high. For these reasons these kind of houses could be considered as sustainable structures. 

http://fouman.com/Y/Picture_View-Gilan_Roodbaneh_Traditional_House.htm

Source:

Source:
Ghorbani Nia,E (2013) Architectural Structure and Environmental Performance of Sustainable Lahijan Vernacular Settlements, N Iran , International Journal of Environmental Protection,Vol. 3 Iss. 1, PP. 15-2.

Solar water heater system with recyclable materials:

http://www.solar-energy-for-homes.com

Solar water heater is a system that use sun heat as renewable energy source. As it can be seen in the picture, cold water is pumped to the sun collector. when it gets warm, because of the feature of water with out pumping it goes to the tank above solar collector( Chong,K 2012). Then it can be used for different purposes in the building. In order to make this system more environmental friendly and more efficient from economic point of view this system can be made by empty and used bottles or soda cans. The bottles are filled with water and are used as solar collector. This is a home made structure that can decrease the cost of electricity and help to environment by using recyclable materials and renewable energy.

http://b1ke.wordpress.com

Source:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148111004459
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehDgXrpRlTU

Geo Exchange Heating and Cooling System:

http://www.vredevoogd.com

  

http://www.nuenergygroup.com

 
Earth has a feature than can absorb the heat of sunlight and save it. The temperature of the underground is usually stable . These features of earth can be use in order to warm building in winter and cool it in summer .This system consisted of the pips which are located underground and filled with water, heat pipe inside the building and a system to scatter the heat or cool inside the building ( Florides,G 2007). As it can be seen in the pictures in winter  cool water from building will  be delivered to warmer underground to became warm and in summer warm water from building will be delivered to become cold and go back to the building. This system is efficient and use small amount of energy for heat pump. Therefore it can reduce the cost of cooling and warming of the building.
Source:
 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148107000092

Earthbag house:
Today the choise of materials for building construction play an important roll in order to reduce resource depletion and global warming. Earthbag housing is a speedy and inexpensive method of construction which uses the local material ( Barnes,B etal 2009). Materials to construct an earthbag house are include sacks, proper soil or gravel to fill sack, barbed wire which will be located between the layers and makes walls more stable and plaster which covers inside and outside the walls and make them stronger (Daigle,B etal 2011). Soil and gravel are like insulation for buildings because of their features and decrease the temperature fluctuating inside the buildings. Because of reasons that were mentioned above this kind of structures can be considered as an sustainable building.The officiant usage of these structures could be after natural disasters because they can be built quickly and easily.

http://www.rainharvest.co.za

Sourses:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPz61MWn8xw
http://www.thescipub.com/abstract/?doi=ajessp.2009.137.144
http://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/content/article/10.1680/ensu.2011.164.4.261

Bike sharing as s sustainable transport:

Today bike sharing and e-bike sharing, which works with solar power, become one of the options as sustainable mode of transport.According to Cherry (2013) this mode of transportation is already in use in more than 100 city in the world and it is suitable for short distances.. People who use bike sharing system have no concern about the maintenance and parking for bikes. They can find out about bike sharing stations and also find out how many bicycles and parking are available from the mapping apps. Cities with bike sharing system should provide proper routs that is suitable for bikes and make people feel safe to use these bikes. Melbourne is one of the cities that recently start to use this system. But the amount of people who use these bikes are few. This could happen because the cost of usage is high compare to public transportation, and most of the stations are located in CBD. According to The Victoria Age (2010) beginner bike riders are not familiar how to drive bike in the city and therefore do not feel safe.

http://inhabitat.com

sources:
- Cherry,R Han,L Jordan,D (2013) ,Electric bike sharing: simulation of user demand and system, availability,Journal of Cleaner Production.
- http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/bike-share-scheme-disappointing-20110531-1fdto.html

 Dome roofs in Iran:

https://www.flickr.com

 Yazd province in Iran have arid climate with low amount of rainfall. In order to adjust commercial and residential buildings to this climate, one of the structures are domes. This structure have been built on the roofs from local material such as mud and brick that transmit the heat slowly from the roof (  Ahmadkhani Maleki2011).Domes are usually in the way of intense wind in desert areas that makes them cool and therefore makes the building cooler. Furthermore domes decrease the intense sunlight in arid areas because sunlight is not equal in all direction of them (Keshavarz 2011). With all of these features these kind of roof could be considered as sustainable roof which can adjust building to harsh climate with out using energy for cooling which can increase carbon emission. These roofs have been structured in the past and but residences maintain them. Nowadays there are modern dome structures with same features and advantages. Queen Alla international airport in Amman is a good example of usage of domes in modern sstructures in desert.

http://aasarchitecture.com

http://aasarchitecture.com

SOURCE:
-Keshtkaran.P (2011)Harmonization between climate and architecture in vernacular,Procedia Engineering,Published by Elsevier Ltd.p 435
-http://www.iotpe.com/IJTPE/IJTPE-2011/IJTPE-Issue6-Vol3-No1-Mar2011/16-IJTPE-Issue6-Vol3-No1-Mar2011-pp84-91.pdf

Reverse vending machine:
In order to recycle house and street wast, Recycle bins are common things to use  in countries with recycling law. Although this is a good way to separate rubbish from recyclable materials, sometimes individuals do not bother themselves to separate all of the recyclable materials or just throw them in the street. Reverse vending machine is one of the ways which can alleviate this issue. According to World Intellectual Property Organization (2014) this is a device which accept recyclable materials that are used for beverages and return the cost of them to people. This organization also claims that reverse vending machine first was invented in Norway in 1970s because at that time supermarkets were responsible to get back empty bottles and return the cost of bottles to people. Therefore supermarkets became full of empty bottles. This machine was invented to make this problem easy for them. Today this machines are using in Norway and some other countries to encourage people to recycle and do not throw beverage containers in street. Other advantages of using this machine are to save more land fields and decrease the usage of more energy and material to produce beverage containers. In Norway 20% of annual carbon emission has been reduce by this action (WIPO 2014)

http://www.rheza.com

  

 Source:
http://www.wipo.int/ipadvantage/en/details.jsp?id=2589

Sustainable wood: 

http://inhabitat.com

Wood is one of the most popular materials which is used in building.Some part of houses such as floors need hard woods.According to DW-TV (2011) Hard woods are usually provided from tropical forests. In order to decrease the consumption of tropical woods, hard woods can be made by heat and pressure in a few days. Therefor the need to transport wood from tropical regions and the cost of wood could decrease. Decrease in transportation can alleviate the air pollution. However this kind of product can increase the usage of local wood and reduce the cost and air pollution and depletion of tropical forests, energy consumption for heat and pressure are demanded.

Source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLJHi1OGAKU

LED street lights:

http://fleetowner.com

I was interested about street lights and how they should be in urban areas and I found information about LED street lights which are environmentally and economically sustainable.According to Stroud (2010) LED lights are made from light points instead of wire in old lights which can make the light hot.This factor could considerably help to reduce energy usage.These lightes could last more than old lights. I also watched a video that showed before and after using lights in a certain streets. The light is white with better quality in order to see objects and distance at night. Furthermore because of the better quality the number of lights can be reduced to compare with old lights. These lights also could be used with solar batteries as second source of energy (Chen and Liu and Yau and Chun 2008).
sourses:
 -  Chen,P and  Liu,Y and Yau,Y and  Chun Lee,H 2008,Development of an Energy Efficient Street Light Driving System, Sustainable Energy Technologies,PP761 - 764.
 -IFI CLAIMS Patent Services 2012, Led street light, United State, Accessed 18 May,
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZbeDoE8488

 Light tubes:

http://www.solatube.com/

http://www.solatube.com/

Light tube is a structure in order to use renewable energy in commercial and residential areas. This structure has simple structure that could be easily installed on any kind of roof to catch sun light and bring it inside the building. Light tubes usually are used in part of the house that does not have window like kitchen,bathroom and laundry room. Furthermore they can be installed in warehouses . A light tube consisted of a dome on top of it,a tube with mirror inside of it for light reflection and a lens to make sun light softer. In my opinion his simple technology could be so efficient especially in big commercial buildings and warehouses. The cost of each light tube is not expensive and it does not take so long to pay itself . Furthermore it is a natural light that could be more pleasant for people.
Source: http://www.solatube.com/

The Cumbria under ground building:
 Cumbria is a county in England with beautiful nature. The weather in most days of the year is cold and rainy with an average of 20 snowy days (World Weather Online 2014). An under ground house has been built in this area that is self-sufficient. According to Ecology building society (2003) the advantages of underground buildings is to have stable temperature inside the building and to maintain more green spaces. However they have problems such as lack of air,light and  permeability to water that could be solve by proper design of building. In Cumbria building the only facade of the building is made of glass and the back of building is dark . Sun pip has been used in the back of the building
to provide natural light for day times. Furthermore photovoltaic tile and wind turbine have been installed to make the building off-grid (Ecology building society 2003). As I watched the video on you tube, I notice that many insulation layers have been used in this building to make it work. I have read about natural stone buildings and caves that do the same thing without using any insulation that cost a lot or damage the nature. In order to be sustainable this is a good structure,however, these kind of building could be built in another location like caves to be more efficient.

http://www.anglianhome.co.uk

  sources:
-Ecology building society 2003,Going underground A Cumbrian perspective, England,accessed 17 May 2014, <http://www.ingenia.org.uk>
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-O2ggn29fI
-World Weather Online 2014,Lake District Monthly Climate Average, United Kingdom,accessed 17 May 2014, <http://www.worldweatheronline.com>

Zero- energy building in California:
Today issues like global warming, air pollution, decreasing energy sources like fossil fuels and etc cause to build Zero-energy buildings. According to Afshari basir (2012) Zero-energy buildings have different definition in countries such as USA, Canada and England that these kind of buildings are constructed. He claims that one of the definitions is to make the on site production of energy and consumption equal. Another definition of Zero-energy building is to reduce the amount of carbon emission and also to reduce the total cost of using energy. I watch a video on you tube about a zero-energy house in California. This modern house consisted of  6 modules that were made in a factory in 3 months. Assembling of building took just one day. After that a few days were spent to complete the details. Despite the speed of construction,the building have solar panels, hydronic heating and the passive solar design that help reduce electric consumption noticeably. The total cost of the building not including the land become 500,000 American dollars that is not seems to be efficient. Although after years the owner will make profit of not to paying for energy in my opinion the construction cost of these buildings should be cheaper to attract more people to build zero-energy buildings in the first place.

source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ-70PnDKno
 Afshari basir,M 2012,Zero Energy Building,Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, pp 2075-2080.

Courtyard houses in Yazd
Yazd province is located in center part of Iran in a desert area.This area has hot and arid summer and cold winter,hot days and cold nights with low amount of rainfall.To adjusting to this condition courtyard houses have been constructed to protect residents from direct sunlight,heat, cold weather,dust and sand storms that are usual in desert areas like Yazd.
Courtyard houses have few windows to sidewalks.They have yard at center of them with more windows.Because of this features courtyard houses reduce the amount of direct sunlight,sand storm,dust,heat,cold and protect the building.Furthermore this houses have two main parts for different seasons especially summer and  winter.In summer residents move to summer area.This area receive the most shadow.The winter area catch the most sunlight in winter therefore it is warmer than other parts.Other parts of house around courtyard depending on owner budget could be construct that is called four-season houses.These parts connect summer areas to winter areas.

 These kind of houses have been constructed in the way to be efficient and use low amount of energy in different seasons.Therefore they could be consider as sustainable buildings.Most of this buildings are traditional and remained from the past but they could be use as a pattern in ecovillages.

SOURCE:Keshtkaran.P (2011)Harmonization between climate and architecture in vernacular,Procedia Engineering,Published by Elsevier Ltd,pp 428-438

Ecovillage

  The Ecovillage at Currumbin ,source:http://theecovillage.com.au/
Today because of the climate change and global warming that caused by human activity some people gather together and organize community to decrease the climate change and pollution.Ecovillage is the name of the sattelment for these people.The aim to establish this place is to have a peaceful interaction with nature and to conserve the ingredients of the land like water,soil,air and etc.To achieve  this aim individuals who live in this village should live as sustainable as possible.For example they should plant vegetables and trees to have food and use local material to build buildings in village.The design of the buildings should be in the way that capture the most sunlight it winter to make it warm and also keep it cool in summer.For communication in village they could use bicycle and cars that use solar power.Wetlands and bushpounds could be used as source of water and recycled on-site.Every thing will be povided on-site and nothing wil be brought to the site.

http://www.greenlifestylemag.com.au

http://www.golfindustrycentral.com.au

Ecovillage at Currumbin is sout-east  Queensland is an example of ecovillage in Australia.It has over than 200 rasidence.In general these villages could be the future of human life not just in vilage scale,perhaps in city scale.

sources:Hu.d,Wang.R (1998) Exploring eco-construction for local sustainability: An eco-village case,Journal of  Ecological Engineering,Vol11,pages 167 to 176

Kandovan,a sustainable village in Iran
Kandovan  is a village in northwest of Iran,in Azarbayejan province.This village is located in mountains with cone shape rocks.People excavated  this rocks in the past and different generations have lived in these rocks for many years.These houses are sustainable because of some reasons.
firstly rocks are resistant to the climate factors such as rain,humidity,snow,wind and etc.They have remained for years and human usage. Secondly,the wall of the houses are thick (about 2 or 3 meters) and create insulation that could keep inside the rocks cool in summer and warm in winter. Actually the thickness of walls decrease the temperature oscillation inside the rocks.

                                         source:http://www.tourismontheedge.com
Although all of the buildings are not made in rocks,This village create th epractical and suitable way to built and use space therefore it could be consider as sustainable house to live.

source:Yahvai.s,shaghaghi.s (2012) Investigation of the structural characteristics of Kandovan village from sustainability perspective,Journal of Basic and Applied Scientific Research, TextRoad Publication,Iran

Sustainable structures in Iran (natural refrigerators)
Yazd province is located in desert area in Iran.It has hot and dry climate and the temperature oscillation in summer and winter even between day and night is high.Generally Yazd has 2 seasons, long summer and short winter.Because of hot climate,in the past, in some parts of Yazd ,people built Icehouses to store ice for summer.This Ice houses consist of the ice house,dome,main wall and little pool.The dome has been built on the pool.In winter the rain water fills the pool and at night water changes to ice.Wall helps to keep ice safe from sunlight.After that ices are brought to Ice house to store for summer.

                                          source:http://www.iras.ir

However these structures have been used in the past because there were no electricity,they could be use az sustainable structure now.Therefore few changes should be implement to make it practical for present situation.For example things like easy  accessibility and also the size of structure could be change.Therefore buildings in both rural and urban areas (mostly suburb) could have it as a sustainable structure.
source:www.itto.org

                                        source:www.Sydney media.com.au
Sustainability Apartments in Sydney

Most of the people in Sydney live in apartments.These apartments have been constructed in different time with different attitudes.Therefore they should be adjusted to present situation.Apartments in Sydney use about 40%  water of the city, produce 11% of it's waste and emit 10% greenhouse gas.
To reduce this amount of usage,the Smart Green Apartments program have been developed to help residents.This program make an apartment more cost efficient and more energy efficient.
The most energy in apartments is used in common areas like parking and lobby.Therefore owners and residents should focus on these areas most.
The increase of social interaction between residents could lead to better cooperation and make it easier.It is important to know how they use energy az a whole and where they can reduce it.For example they can reduce the amount of lights in the parking or make it smart.Furthermore residents can use roofs az an effective area.They can put solar power system or wind turbine and also they can built a garden on the roof to grow whatever they need as food.

                                          source:www.infoline.com
To decrease the amount of water usage residents can put small tanks on the roof to capture rainwater.Treatment of grey water on-site could be useful.

Resources:Sustainable water in the urban environment,2004 confrence-Brisbane
                  http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au