Vitruvio
International 
journal of 
Architecture 
Technology and 
Sustainability
Volume 4 Is 1

VII

EDITORIAL

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT PAST AND 
FUTURE

Throughout most of human history, societies have 
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environment was the place from which they harvested 
or collected their basic needs. They drew water from 
streams, grew food, used timber to keep warm, cook, 
and build shelters, and wool from domesticated 
animals to make garments. The inhabitants took from 
the land only what was required for their existence. In 
fact, the available natural resources often determined 
population size. It was a simple existence, where 
resources were consumed in measure and the needs 
of future generation was never at risk. This took place 
when most communities where rural and agrarian.   
The industrial revolution changed all that. When 
people abandoned farms in search of employment, 
cities swelled. Those vastly expanded urban hubs 
could no longer rely on their surroundings to provide 
their daily supplies, which now had to come from 
afar. When electricity began to light up cities, the 
urban population grew dependent on it to power 
factories and dwellings on their many newly invented 
appliances. A system and an organization had to be 
put into place to meet the daily requirements of all 
the inhabitants—be they food, sanitation or energy. 
Gradually homes were linked to utilities like fresh water 
supply and drainage. Food had to be trucked in from 
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for the growing mountains of industrial and domestic 
waste generated. The dependence of humans on their 
surroundings grew to be utterly critical. Severing all 
supply links became impossible to imagine. Perhaps 
the greatest manifestation of this dependency was the 
post-Second World War urban sprawl in the periphery 
of established cities. Build away from the center, a 
typical sub-division and its single-family detached 
dwellings consumed valuable resources during 
construction and after occupancy. Buildings were built 
with disregard to the site’s natural conditions and the 
chosen planning and construction practices had very 
little to do with vernacular paradigms. The community 

was dependent on external sources for its entire 
existence and function.
Things have changed since the mid-twentieth century. 
It takes, at times, cataclysmic events and ominous 
signs to remind us that human existence is at the mercy 
of nature. Phenomena like global warming and climate 
change, prolonged periods of drought in one part of 
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caps, the depletion of fossil fuel and the sharp rise 
in energy costs, the increase in the cost of food and 
the depletion of many natural resources and minerals 
which were once abundant are some of these aspects. 
Socio-economic transformations have also brought to 
the forefront other issues: the widening gap between 
rich and poor nations, the ongoing global economic 
downturn, rapid population growth in some places and 
the aging of society in others. 
These natural and social phenomena have forced us 
to rethink how development should take place. We 
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marginal – making them of global concern. They have 
prompted a search for alternatives to the way we 
currently dwell ourselves and use buildings. 
The term sustainable development has become 
synonymous with a search for a new mindset. 
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commissioned report called “Our Common Future,” 
regards the needs of future generations as we conduct 
our present actions. In its simplest interpretations 
the report called on society to consume only what is 
needed and minimize its environmental footprint. 
But is this possible? Have we passed a tipping point 
beyond which we can no longer reverse a course of 
action that was charted several decades ago? One 
can argue that it is possible. New technologies, 
contemporary designs and advanced means of 
production enable us to put in place an accelerated 
process that will see the establishment of new 
paradigms where building consume fewer resources 
and to some degree even contribute to improving the 
environment such as net-zero building and those with 
green roofs.
On a more detailed level design for sustainability may 

https://doi.org/10.4995/vitruvio-ijats.2019.11866



VIII

also be achieved by observing several principles. The 
path of least negative impact is a course of action that 
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of the process. To ease the effort and ongoing 
contributions by all parties involved, a self-sustaining 
system should be sought. Any method that improves 
the environment and contributes to social equity would 
be sought after.  If the relationship between the sub-
elements is supportive, it will likely reduce costs and 
improves performance of them all. Finally, a lifecycle 
approach sees the built environment subjected to an 
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able to easily adapt to various realities
If society is to attain a sustainable existence, one hopes 
that ideas that are manifested in a single building or 
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construction. This is in fact, as history demonstrates, 
the course of evolution. People tend to follow a 
lead. The cost of products is reduced when more 
people consume them, and educational institutions 
incorporate knowledge about them into their curricula. 
One needs to hope that the process will be swift. 

Avi Friedman