Clarifying the new interpretations of the concept of sustainable building

A review of definitions of sustainable building shows that the terminology needs clarification as many difficulties exist in identifying sustainability in the built environment. The study starts by examining the recent evolution of the concept of sustainable development. Latest interpretations of this terminology are considered, before analysing what sustainability means in the built environment. This paper focuses on constrains which prevent a simple definition and identification of what is a sustainable building. Systems for sustainability assessments are often insufficient to recognize sustainability of buildings given the strong environmental and technological approach of these systems. In particular, the dependence of the concept of sustainability on time, scale, domain and social uncertainties is discussed. Some requirements for a better definition of a sustainable building are indicated. This paper shows that a greater attention should be given to social and economic aspects. The importance of the cross-scale relationships between a building and its surroundings, together with the ever changing flows between them, limits the possibility to define the sustainability at the level of single building, and it encourages looking at larger and crossing scales. Finally, this paper shows that a building is sustainable if it contributes to the sustainability through its metabolism and by doing this it favours a regenerative resilience of the built environment among all the domains of sustainability. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.