SUSTAINABLE DESIGN PRACTICES IN ARCHITECTURE: LESSONS FROM HERITAGE STRUCTURES AND SITES OF INDIA

Review of the heritage buildings reveal that they were very environment friendly and depended on the natural systems. The buildings also reveal many sustainable practices. Some of such practices are relevant even today and can be adopted in most of the buildings. The ancient India actually encouraged the basic principle of sustainability now being propagated by the developed world. In fact many of the yardsticks set up by the developed world encourage consumerism such as the electrical consumption and waste production. Higher these factors, higher are the developmental status. On the contrary, India had been encouraging the basic principles of reduced consumption, recycling and re-use of the material. Out ancestors understood the environment very well and adopted the same in their life cycles and in all of their activities including buildings. All our buildings have followed these basics. The examples discussed in this paper clearly exemplify these facts.