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Simple & Sustainable Ways To Transform Your Home Into A ‘Green’ Home
Ar. Sumit Dhawan, Founder & Principal Architect at Cityspace’82 Architects
With the world becoming increasingly green, the trends in residential architecture and design have also significantly transformed. Going green isn’t simply a fashion trend in homes anymore; instead, it has become a way of living. Creating a sustainable home ensures energy efficiency, improves indoor air quality, and mitigates the global climate impact, among many other benefits. The trend of green homes is expanding as everyone is getting conscious about improving the quality of their home, reducing energy consumption, and decreasing negative impacts on the environment. Ar. Sumit Dhawan, Founder and Principal Architect of Cityspace’ 82 Architects, shares some simple and sustainable ways to transform your home into a ‘green’ home.
Passive Design
Implementing passive design techniques is the most effective way to enhance the energy and cost efficiency of your home, which augments the factor of sustainability in a green home. By taking advantage of the orientation of the home, an architect could passively promote solar gain through the placement of windows and other openings. The passive solar design employs the sun’s direction and ventilation to foster a comfortable atmosphere indoors throughout the year. Building facades also play a vital role in employing passive design strategies in a home. Emerging trends like kinetic facades and perforated steel panels in residential exteriors aid in creating sustainable homes.
Sustainable Lighting
LED lighting, a sustainable and energy-efficient choice of lighting, is already seen all over Indian homes. However, more significance has now shifted towards bringing in natural light, which effortlessly manifests in design through large glazings and skylights. Embracing natural light in homes can make living spaces more comfortable and might even improve our mood and energy levels. Also, modern lighting options such as cluster lighting and pendants seek sustainability, resulting in mood lighting, motion-sensor lighting, and many other similar choices.
Greenery
One of the effective ways to design a green home is to literally “go green”- incorporating greenery. Greenery also adds vibrancy, colour, and texture while providing a soothing connection to the outdoor environment. Adding greenery to an interior is a terrific way to exercise a greener practice while also improving the air quality of the home. From a holistic vertical green facade to simple solutions like adding mosses, cacti, or any other indoor plants have proven to impact the sustainability and wellness of homes.
Renewable Energy Sources
Compared to traditional energy, renewable energy sources are a sustainable alternative energy source. Sustainable energy generation is possible through renewable technologies that produce electricity, like wind or photovoltaic "solar" panels. Solar panels don’t produce greenhouse gases and help combat the adverse effects of climate change. By installing solar panels, homeowners can become energy independent and environmentally responsible. For example, solar panels mounted on the roof help absorb and convert sunlight into usable electricity for homes. Renewable power generation is thus the most reliable solution to transform your home into a green home.
Not only are these green design strategies good for the environment, but they also foster a smarter, healthier built environment beneficial for human well-being. With the use of smart & sustainable technologies, architects & designers are set to build a responsive built environment that helps people adapt to the age of global climate change and evolving human needs.
Ar. Sumit Dhawan has established his name extensively in the design industry. Known for transforming homes into heaven, his aesthetic sensibility has found its way to renowned celebrity homes of cricketer Yuvraj Singh and Gautam Gambhir. His eclectic facade style has made him a favourite amongst numerous practising architects.
Born and brought up in an architectural household, Ar. Sumit Dhawan had a prolonged affinity for architecture since childhood. Looking at his father, Ar. Satish Dhawan working on his drawings with fancy architecture equipment always fascinated Sumit to pursue this field and he enticed a passion for the profession.
Starting with Architecture in the year 2000, Ar. Sumit did his internship from Auroville, Pondicherry under Suhasini Ayer. He went to Auroville for one of the college case studies where he was enthralled by the nature of work and decided to perpetrate an internship with Auroville there and then. The office granted a lot of exposure and opportunities for the budding architect where he learned the fundamentals from numerous local and international architects like Dominic Dube, Anupama Kundoo, Piero and Gloria Cicionesi, Satprem Maini etc. Post completing his internship at Auroville, he got an opportunity to work with commercial architecture firm Tevatia Chauhan & Sharma Architects known as Design Forum International today, where he amalgamated the internship knowledge with the practical fieldwork.
He got his first project immediately after the completion of internship while he was in the last year of college. The project was a 500 sq. yd. residence in Gurugram assigned to him by a friend’s father Mr. Bhutani, who he still considers to be the foundation of his career. The residence was planned with a sustainable approach using earth blocks, solar passive strategies and cavity walls and therefore, the residence got overwhelming appreciation.
The next turning point in his career was Lawyer Dang’s residence, which is amongst one of the most appreciated projects he conferred onto, after which there has never been a looking back situation. His niche clientele includes DLF, Ansal, Orchid, MGF and many more. Sumit started a solitary practice directly after completing B.Arch in the year 2005 and founded Cityspace’82 Architects. The childhood passion for architecture manifested the perseverance and belief which lead Sumit to practice unconditional hard work. Initially, during his college years, Sumit took inspiration from multiple international architects like Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid, Santiago Calatrava and Le Corbusier. Soo K. Chan, Principal-SCDA Architects has been a major influence for his work as he believes that his thought process resonates with the renowned designer, giving him immense confidence in his work.
Having an experience of almost two decades today, Sumit experiments and innovates his projects with numerous design styles fusing one into another and delivers impeccable intricate spectacles. Firmly believing a perfect balance between functionality and form adopting a too and fro methodology for the same, Sumit ensures to rationalise both, the aesthetics and functional regime of every endeavour he outlines. He also believes that a building must speak for itself with its concept, rather than having theoretical philosophy to it.
Sumit Dhawan has been a part of various discourse and an avid speaker at various design-driven platforms including Windows & Facades, Casamia, Designworx, FOAID etc. He is also an advisory board member for World of Fenestration 2020 by Acetech. Our projects have also been published in multiple magazines and publishing houses including Good Homes, Elle Decor, Architect & Interiors India, India Design ID, Hotelier India, FOAID, Economic Times, Design Detail, India Today Home and many more. Our project The Centaurus has recently been awarded by World Architecture Community in the 35th cycle and Estrade Award 2020 in the category Interior Design- Private Residence. We are also honoured with Estrade Awards 2020 in the category Architect of The Year- Residential for the project The Illuminati.
With this empirical & multifaceted design philosophy, Sumit starts every project with a comprehensive understanding of client’s requirements, kinaesthetic and research. His idea is to subsume the lifestyle and necessities of a client, getting into his shoes and designing the space like it’s his own, invoking the client’s identity through the space. The goal is to continue designing veritable projects and be known for the quality of work in the fraternity and outside.
