The practice of architecture has seen a mushrooming growth in the past decade owing to the advent of marketing and PR services in the field. As a result, jargon runs rampant in the business of design. With great copy-writing comes great responsibility–of clarifying commonly misunderstood terms because the design must be communicated in a simple and clear language.
This blog aims at offering clarity about some of the commonly used terms, their meaning and their relevance in the architecture and design. It is often seen that design is miscommunicated to the audience and leaves them rather uninspired due to irresponsible language and placing words out of context. We hope we are able to help our readers obtain a clear understanding of some of these words.

Sustainable design is perhaps the most important word in the dictionary of architects and the most confusing too. Most firms misquote the word and use it almost everywhere. One needs to understand that sustainable design is one that aims to integrate social, ecological and economical values into the built environment. Sustainable design focuses mainly on three aspects–ecology, economy and equity. It doesn’t just focus on the optimum use of resources but also aims to utilize the human potential fully and responsibly.

It is interesting to note that all sustainable materials are green while the vice-versa may not necessarily be true. One of the most important factors that make a material sustainable is its local availability and the reduction in transportation costs. A material is considered completely sustainable when it accounts for all the three pillars of sustainability – planet, people and profit.