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Earth buildings have always been ignored thus small number of studies have been carried out into the investigation of earth architecture and earth buildings in the world. Therefore, the overall aim of this study is to evaluate the requirements of earth architecture and earth buildings. In fact, the main objective of the current study is to expand application of national guidelines in construction of earth buildings all over the world. The current survey is an investigation into the role of national codes in development of earth architecture and earth buildings which is based on online questionnaires in six countries. Upon completion the 763 survey responses were compared, which approximated a confidence interval of 95% and a margin of error of 5%. The online questionnaires were completed based on various aspects of the existing research, literature review and discussion with several senior architects and researchers at ICOMOS. The responses obtained from ICOMOS members of USA, UK, Australia, Iran, India and Malaysia. A comparison has been made between the responses of ICOMOS members of the six surveyed countries. The results of current study indicate a lack of national codes and guidelines in each of these six countries. The assessment of contribution of national guidelines, presented in this survey, could be applied for the development of Earth architecture and Earth buildings in the six surveyed countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on developments in the design of the next-generation green buildings in the U.S., including information on the so-called radical sustainable construction. Provisions of the U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) building assessment system are examined. Key strategies of radical green buildings construction are discussed. They include integration with local ecosystems, closed-loop materials systems and optimized building hydrologic cycles. Information about other strategies and the evolution of ecological design is presented.

Applying the principles of sustainability to human activities ultimately must result in the scrutiny of all sectors of economic activity to assess the changes required to provide for a high quality of life for future generations. A high priority for evaluation, in the light of its impacts on environmental quality and resources, is industrial activity in general and the construction industry specifically. The construction sector consumes 40% of all extracted materials in the USA, and accounts for 30% of national energy consumption for its operation. The sustainability of this industrial sector is dependent on a fundamental shift in the way resources are used, from non-renewables to renewables, from high levels of waste to high levels of reuse and recycling, and from products based on lowest first cost to those based on life-cycle costs and full cost accounting, especially as applied to waste and emissions from the industrial processes that support construction activity. The emerging field of industrial ecology provides some insights into sustainability in the built environment or sustainable construction. Construction, like other industries, would benefit from observing the metabolic behaviour of natural systems where sustainability is built in. This paper describes a view of the construction industry based on natural systems and industrial ecology for the purpose of beginning the discovery of how to shift the construction industry and its supporting materials industries onto a path much closer to the ideals of sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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