Environmental architecture is the totality of solutions for city planning and building design that directly determine the climate of constructed interior and exterior spaces and which directly influence our natural environment as well as the global climate. A pleasant and healthy environment can be created for the spaces people use both outside and especially inside of buildings. This can be achieved with particular attention to light, moisture, air, and sound. The architectural methods employed in construction and layout should be sustainable and should not cause harm to the environment or a climatic change so as to maintain planet earth (or, according to Buckminster Fuller, "Starship Earth") as the habitable environment for humankind. This applies to the whole life cycle of a building, from its construction to its use and renovation, as well as its deposition or reuse. To be taken into particular account are the construction and maintenance expenditures of energy or mass as they relate to the life span of the building and which are dependent on building technology and materials. Also to be taken into account are the pollutants admitted from the building in the course of its operation, e.g. greenhouse gases produced by heating, cooling, ventilation, and lighting of the building. The creation of a comfortable climate for people which does not have lasting negative impact on the environment requires solutions which are compatible with the building's use and especially its surrounding environment, as the archaic structural forms of the igloo or the tent impressively demonstrate. Environmental architecture requires, on the one hand, the knowledge of appropriate and specific solutions that take the current standards of technology and the newest scientific findings into consideration, but requires moreover the integration of design solutions that lead to an optimal whole.
* R. Buckminster Fuller
"Bedienungsanleitung für das Raumschiff Erde und andere Schriften"
Verlag der Kunst, Dresden, 1998