Sustainable Wooden Doors: 3 Principles for Long Term Use - Essay Sample

Introduction

Sustainability means being able to be maintained into certain levels or rates. Sustainable woods are woods that does not affect the environment and does not exhaust the natural resources (Kuhlman, and Farrington, 2010, p. 3436). They are woods that can be used for a long time without getting spoil, getting weak, or being eaten by pests. There are three principles that make a substance or material sustainable. For the case of wooden doors, they should meet all the required needs but do not affect or compromise the ability of incoming generations to meet theirs. Sustainable woods that make sustainable wooden doors are timber that comes from hardwood trees (Paton, Curtis, McDonald, and Woods, 2004, p. 259). Most wood comes from trees such as Oak, Beech, which are hardwoods or from Pine and Fir that are classified under softwood. The most sustainable woods are pine and Fir because they don't take long to grow and mature like the hardwoods, and they can be replaced (Paton et al, 2004, p. 259).

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As an interior architecture, my work is to explore everyday environments, which generally includes residential and commercial spaces. How these spaces are formed, how they are constructed, and how they get revised continuously in line with the world changes (Jones, 2008). As a design practitioner, I also use tools that are necessary to construct design mediums required. The type of tools that I use as a design practitioner are photo editing, photocopying, graphic design, fond end development, among others. Being a practitioner means that I design most of the works and also direct on their accomplishments. Having this big role that entails our day to day lifestyles and the environment, I should make a beautiful living and working spaces for people but also conserve the environment as well as not exhausting the natural materials in my line of duty (Jones, 2008).

Sustainability in the built environment is a corporate process that is achieved by the later in extraordinary levels of eco-friendly balance at a profit and through new construction that is targeted to have long-term growth or activity and harmonization of architecture (Quaddus, and Siddique, 2011). Centering on the environmental surroundings designs that are sustainable joins forces with the natural, least resources, determining solutions that are previous such as natural ventilation, solar heat and daylight with the introduction of new methods, upgrading the old as well as employing creative thinking that are developed into becoming into consolidated systems that aid personal command with negotiations from experts to have responsiveness towards resources (Quaddus, and Siddique, 2011). Through sustainable designs, we are able to find lost and forgotten environmental, social, mixed-use societies, practical pedestrian morals by the usage of the existing infrastructure fully, that entails the main streets, and the planning principles of little towns as well as recollecting the indoor and outdoor connections. By using sustainable wood, there is less diminishing of land use and displaced positioning of buildings (Quaddus, and Siddique, 2011).

As an interior architecture and design practitioner, I employ strategies and actions that make the activities of building more sustainable by using sustainable wood that does not harm the environment, that can last long and from trees that can be replaced, which does not take long to grow like the pine. The building industry is very crucial to the environment, but it still has a very big impact on the environment. Trees are very crucial in determining the weather, so I try as much as possible to make sure that I am very conservative and only apply action that is of no harm to the environment as well as creating a healthy living environment for people.

Fire-rated doors are properly installed doors that do not burn during a definite lapse of time in the standard fire (Gleason, Minnick, Dempsey, and Chadderdon, Lydall, 2001). These types of doors are mostly used in commercial buildings compared to residential ones. For a door to be sustainable, it should make use of the finest weather stripping technologies. As an interior designer, I should be able to create doors that meet this requirement (Gleason et al., 2001). The perfect sustainable doors are created from wood-clad steel, fiberglass, or painted steel that is filled with a principle of polyurethane foam. Fire-rated doors are required for sustainable doors because they are friendly to the environment as they can be recycled and does not exhaust the natural resources, they use little energy in extraction, they also replace the material that is made from harmful chemical hence creating a healthy living space for habitants (Gleason et al., 2001).

A case study done on the green building shows that after the rise of the green building, there were many queries directed towards it as people thought it was a fashion or a trend. There were critics who signaled occasions of greenwashing, which is a way of making misguiding statements about the advantages of a product to the environment (Wong, and Zhou, 2015, p. 159). The claims were that there was misleading information about the green building materials acquiring certificates from the United States Green Building Council that was used to get LEED and its environmental impact. After the time, it has been confirmed that it was neither a fashion nor a trend because the revolution has been fundamental in the change of building designs, constructions, and maintenance of operations across the world (Wong, and Zhou, 2015, p. 159). The LEED certification in the last seventeen years has emerged to be the most rated used material in building across the world. Adding to the acceptability of the green building concept is the improvement of the quality over time. LEED platinum certification has been thought to be the highest level of sustainable designs and discharge for several years, making the fire-rated doors a requirement for sustainable doors. Architects are working towards passing the platinum sustainability level by designing net-zero energy buildings that will be able to renew energy that can meet all the needs of consumption. Architects, interior designers, and other specialists in this line engage in benchmarks for sustainability to expand their knowledge about the best products that can be used to attain quality. Hardware and doors sum up to only the percent of the building materials that are used. Still, they make notable benefits to net-zero environments because they supply notable energy saving that is required for sustainability (Wong, and Zhou, 2015, p. 159).

Building designs that are the sustainable need to grow with the increase of the global population. The place that can last through generations can be built with environmentally friendly materials.it will lead to longevity of the earth and also the quality of the material that is built (Lechner, 2014). As an architect, we choose materials like steel, which can be renewed to create sustainable doors and also they are friendly to the environment. The high rated doors are made from materials that can be reused like glass and steel, which is made of ninety-three percent recycled steel (Lechner, 2014). The materials that are reused are borrowed from nature and not consumed. The materials are easy to put together and put apart, and they have a long life. These materials make fire-rated doors help in preserving the scarce materials in the environment, reduce air pollution, and also save energy. They have strength; they are durable and are highly flexible. The fire-rated doors are made from materials that are relatively cheap, and they make a profit towards the economy. Most materials can be recycled without losing their original strength, and some materials like steel can save up to 80% of the emissions of CO2 (Lechner, 2014).

Wood is seen as sustainable material according to green building research because it grows naturally, as well as being a renewable material. There are modern ways that are used to harvest trees in a sustainable way that helps in preserving the forest environment (Wong, and Zhou, 2015, p. 159). Wood can be locally sourced in many places, which reduces transportation costs. Wood is referred to as sustainable when it comes from sustainable forests where the forest landscape is managed by the forest stewards who prevent the damaging of the ecosystem, wildlife, watershed as well as the trees (Wong, and Zhou, 2015, p. 159). Wood is classified as a historic, durable, and classic building material that is conversant with the natural style of houses, aesthetics, and longevity for very many years. The wood has been known to be environmentally friendly. The pressure is at the aspects of renewability and recycling of the products together with how the forest is being put into use. In the United States of America, there are over two hundred million acres of land covered by forest that has been certified as sustainable and are managed responsibly (Wong, and Zhou, 2015, p. 159). The research further shows that architects have several ways they can use wooden doors to improve sustainability. The first is to get the wood that is required to make the door. Wood can be gotten from timber that comes from outdated buildings, fallen and dead trees that come from suburban and urban properties, fallen trees that are extracted from rivers and lakes, trees that are unproductive and are cut for replacement, and by-products of wood that come from manufacturers among others. This will help in conserving the forest and cutting down the expenses of the acquired resources. The wood also has natural processes of aging in almost every condition of the weather. There is also the renewable wood that has been renewed that can act as a substitution like the beams, fiberboards, and plie woods. Some of these renewed wood products are even stronger than the original material, which is very sustainable as they will last longer. By the use of wood as architecture and an interior designer will have helped in the improvement of sustainability as the wooden doors will reduce the changes in climate by sucking carbon dioxide from the environment. Also, in terms of emissions of gases, pollution of air, greenhouse gases, and water wood is much better compared to all other materials of the building.

The acoustic doors assembly is doors that are engineered specifically to hinder an airborne amount of sound from penetrating through the opening of the door. These types of doors are popularly used in government offices, offices that are near airports, music studios, hotels, and meeting rooms, among others (Frontczak, Andersen, and Wargocki, 2012, p 56). A study was done by Danish Enterprise and Construction Authority (EBST) about "Indoor climate and quality of life" to occupants to see their comfortability in the workplaces and also at their homes due to acoustic doors and their understanding towards them. The survey was to determine which parameters of the indoor environment of the acoustic doors determined the overall comfort (Frontczak, Andersen, and Wargocki, 2012, p 56). Most of the people that were interviewed didn't have the acoustic doors but had an interest in having them, though of having them or wished they had them. Most people thought that they could be more comfortable with these doors as they would increase their privacy and personal space to execute their thoughts and talents (Frontczak, Andersen, and Wargocki, 2012, p 56).

These were the areas where the acoustic doors were popular. Some buildings surrounded areas with very high noise that might affect the working processes of other people, like near airports and mining factories (Frontczak, Andersen, and Wargocki, 2012, p 56). The acoustic doors are also used in the secretive building wh...