Architectural Designs

What would make the ultimate eco friendly building? Design, parts, location, etc.?

Example: Warehouse like the obscenely large Wal-Mart DC near where I live with a green roof or brown roof. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_roof) Maybe even wind power turbines built on the roof too. Natural landscaping around it (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_landscaping). Solar panels built into the car ports in the parking lot with places to plug in electric cars. Water reclimation catacombs beneath the parking lot. re-use of grey water is a great idea too.

Public Comments

1. Buildings and development are designed with temperature considerations except they are completed in a calculator. I have inspected many geo thermal buildings in crisis as well as others using alternative fuels. The energy consumption of the buiding depends on design of the system working in conjunction with the building envelope. The building envelope is the exterior walls, roof and floor because they are designed to resist the flow of heat both ways so we can use less energy. Go to http://www.thermoguy.com/globalwarming-heatgain.html and see one function of a building pertaining to energy. Go to http://www.thermoguy.com/globalwarming-heatloss.html to see the heat loss function. At the Heat Gain page you will see the importance of functional landscaping and that means utilizing those professionals as you said. We do not want to generate atmospheric heat. The location of the building doesn't matter because buildings are designed specific to their region.
2. My grandfathers house is built into the side of a hill- 6 feet or so of dirt over the top with the front all windows. It keeps itself above freezing all winter even with no heat on. He wired it with large diameter copper wire, so saves as much as the extra thick wire cost every 7 months or so since there is less resistance in the wire. He uses rain water caught on a shed for all but drinking, and grey water from the shower for the toilet.