Can an environmentally sustainable construction be affordable?

Abstract

The development strategy based on unlimited economic growth has been increasing extraction and consumption of natural resources and is responsible for pollutant emissions and wastes, on such a way that we risk of rapidly depleting planet earth. And although there is an awareness on optimizing available economic resources and an effort to reduce the environmental impact of production, what is certain is that pollutant emissions have not been reduced at a global level, quite the opposite. The construction industry is one of the sectors with great responsibility for greenhouse effect gas emissions. This work intends to demonstrate that, by avoiding the use of new and industrialized materials, replacing them as much as possible with reused, natural and locally available ones, such as adobe and wood is possible to reduce the environmental impact, but still being economically feasible. As a case study, a single-family housing project developed according to these principles is presented.