Green Building is defined as a special building type, using reneweable energy sources as efficiently as possible in their processes. The design of green building follows up a sustainable process starting from the first stage of design to the use of building as well as the first phase of operation of the structure. The features of green building completing the conceptual base of this definition are; effective water management, energy use, efficient heating and cooling, design with natural resources, artificial heating and cooling systems by maximizing natural resources and the minimizing the cost of the building stemmed from these operational systems. Regarding this, Avcı Architects builds this process by considering the social and physical effects of it on human and built environment. On this basis, the studio considers those parameters as basic principles of green building design, focusing on maximizing the performance of buildings, the production of healthy and livable spaces, low cost structures, the long-term use of the building and space quality- without considering the notion of green building as a measurable process.  In this regard, every project designed by Avcı Architects becomes a natural consequence of the concept of green building.

image © Avcı Architects

The idea completely starts with the acceptance of  an order ranging from ‘egocentric’ to the ‘ecocentric’ world.

It is well known that the human-being is not positioned in the center of the nature and this shows that all living organisms have the same rights in the life.  Avcı Architects believes that each intervention (construction, to feed the nature with man-made environment etc.)  in nature should be ‘ecocentric’ and support the natural ecosystem by using natural inputs. In today’s design phenomenon, Avcı Architects interprets each data in an innovative and creative way with cutting-edge solutions in the design of green building. Apart from that, the studio tackles each design of building as a ‘new condition’ that does not destroy the integrity of nature. The basic approach of the office starts from  the masterplan scale with conceptual process, testing, procurement, materials, research and observation in order to function as a green building.  Thus, heavy rains in the project area, the migration of routes of animals, under-ground and above-ground values, all natural datas are processed in masterplan scale and all the infrastructural in-depth analyses are examined in the building scale within the scope of green building design. This reveals the ‘ecocentric’ approach of Avcı Architects’ in green building designs to minimize the harmful effects in the nature and environment.

Avcı Architects always defends a particular architectural practice that sustainable architecture in green buildings can be achieved only through the maximization of use of natural datas derived from the context. Therefore, the studio tackles the concept of biomimicry and its theoretical study as a fundamental principle of its practice. Starting from this, Avcı Architects sees sustainable solutions as transformative evidence that tests itself in consequence of their natural cycle and exists itself in nature with its potential. This actually demonstrates that how these formations evolves into sustainable architecture during a specific time. According to the studio’s design approach,  the designs called as ‘sustainable architecture’, ‘green building’, ‘eco-building’ can produce sustainable solutions by learning from nature and observing the movement patterns of nature, that is, those instinctive formations do not disrupt the balance of nature and produce its own eco-system. Considering historical datas and old examples, there can be seen improved design solutions that are self-producing in nature and adapted to very well in its own environment. The concept of biomimicry shows that how we can produce smart and practical solutions to have more livable, healthier, sustainable, innovative spaces –or to create more livable world on a global scale. Ultimately, we evaluate sustainable architecture as an innovative approach learning from history and its natural basis and we consider that we can only solve all human’s problems with biomimicry realized in nature.

Image: Biomimicry Institue