Sustainable Buildings from the Perspective Environmental Bioethics

*Nesrin Çobanoğlu*

#### **Abstract**

Today, modern cities are one of the main reasons for current environmental problems. For the solution of these problems, it appears as a necessity to transform the buildings, which are the building blocks of cities, into sustainable structures and also to assign environmental bioethical responsibilities on both individual and society levels. In terms of sustainability, it is important to understand that only a human-centered perspective will not be sufficient; therefore, while constructing and using sustainable buildings, the designing should be based on an environmental bioethics value system. Thus, while constructing sustainable buildings, the environmental bioethics value system should be taken as basis, as well as conservation of energy and human needs. For a sustainable life, sustainable buildings are required within the scope of biopolitics created by adopting environmental bioethical values. Sustainability generally refers to the dynamic situations where systematic needs can be fulfilled in the long term. However, in the ecological context, sustainability can be used to define healthy, self-renewable, no waste-generating, durable, and flexible ecosystems. A sustainable socio-ecological system must include acceptable norms in terms of ethics in addition to these characteristics.

**Keywords:** environmental bioethics, sustainable building, ethics, future generations, sustainability

#### **1. Introduction**

 In general, environmental bioethics is the systematic study of moral relations between people and their natural environment. The theory of environmental ethics has to explain what these rules are, to whom and to what people have responsibilities, and to demonstrate how these responsibilities are justified. These buildings have ecological responsibility and resource productivity throughout their life cycle from design to construction, operation to maintenance, and renewal to destruction. Those buildings which are designed on the principle of minimizing the solid, liquid, and gas wastes as well as the renewable consumption of resources such as energy, water, and building materials can be regarded as sustainable buildings. When constructing sustainable buildings, it is important to design them within the framework of environmental bioethical values.

#### **2. Environmental bioethics**

While trying to find answers to open-ended questions in human-to-human relations, the ethics makes assessments based on "good" and "bad," limiting the responsibility aspect, which is an important component of it, only to human beings. Based on the bioethical concept, the scope of human responsibility covers all living beings such as animals and plants, whereas in terms of environmental ethics, this scope is extended to the relationship with the ecosystem with all its components such as air and water [1].

 In the past, the philosophy of values was used to examine the dilemmas in a narrow space and a narrow period of time, whereas, today, with the reflection of unlimited, fast, and apparent developments in technology, future generations and universal concepts have also appeared as the determinants of those dilemmas. Environmental bioethics should be closely related to social policies, environmental problems, and bioethical concepts.

 There are two main approaches in the environmental ethics. The humancentered "anthropocentric" perspective values the ecosystem as a means of human benefit; on the other hand, the environmental ethics, with an "ecocentric" point of view that adopts the ecosystem as an objective and considers it as the central fact, places the responsibility on human beings while subjectivating the environment due to its own value. They used to defend that the value system was only valid for humans as living beings who think and who are responsible for their behaviors and the subject of values could not be anything other than humans; therefore, living beings other than humans (environment, animals, air, ecosystem as a whole, etc.) could not exist within our world of values due to their values resulting from their own existence and adopted as an objective. Within the scope of environmental ethics, it is defended that, as a result of intellectual developments, the ecosystem is the subject of ethics, not only because of human benefit but also because of its inherent value. Accordingly, the concept of environmental bioethics examines the ethical issues that arise in the network of relations between all living beings and the ecosystem [1–3].

 As in other areas, in environmental terms, the right action is the result of knowledge that follows the interest. "Sliding on ice," which is a bioethical term, should also be considered in terms of environmental ethics. (Sliding on ice is a concept of bioethics that expresses the possibility that the steps we take in good faith toward the right action may lead to catastrophic consequences for the humanity and future generations in cases where we cannot predict all the consequences of the action.) Lack of knowledge or interest results in environmental disasters. The birth of environmental ethics, in fact, is a result of human beings' efforts to survive.

Environmental ethics can be addressed at the universal, professional, and individual levels as the activities of states and countries. In this era, people are unable to fully utilize the life potential due to malnutrition, pollution, and diseases resulting from the deterioration of the ecosystem and social services. In addition to the deterioration of the social services, the ecosystem contains important threats to this integrity and health. Although it is increasingly accepted that the social system and ecosystem cannot function fully and properly, there are very few attempts for the sustainability of both systems. Within the framework of ethical approaches for assuring sustainability, applied ethics is in the nature of guiding ideas for establishing a sustainable society that will enable people to reintegrate with the ecosystem and human health.

As a general definition, the subject of bioethics is life, not only human life, which is the main subject of medical ethics, but also the life of all organisms that exist in the nature. The subject of environmental ethics is the nature with all its living and

#### *Sustainable Buildings from the Perspective Environmental Bioethics DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.87836*

 nonliving elements. Perhaps the subtle distinction between bioethics and ecocentric ethics, or shortly environmental ethics, can be understood by defining the distinction between life and nature. When we examine the concepts in terms of content, nature has a meaning that also involves life. Nature is a habitat that ensures the continuation of life, nurtures it, protects it, transforms it, and enables it to reproduce itself on its own. A nature without life can exist, whereas a life without nature is out of question. What gives birth to life is nature. At this point, in terms of meaning, it would not be wrong to say that many thoughts are within the bioethical environmental ethics, as also believed by human beings. However, from a practical point of view, life has to recognize and cover all elements of nature, for it cannot sustain itself without preserving nature. A view which places life in the center cannot isolate itself from its nature. In other words, bioethics is a wide area that includes environmental ethics.

The future of the bioenvironment endangered by human actions is an important issue of our time. This issue has also an ethical dimension. The existence of humanity is closely related to and dependent on all life on earth. In that case, how can we reconcile the rapid destruction of life (or bios) with our existence? At this very point, it becomes necessary to shift to the bio-centered, in other words lifecentered, perspective. This transition, as mentioned earlier, has to take place in every aspect of life. People should not put themselves in the heart of every decision they take or every policy they apply, but they must put life, which they are part of themselves, in the center.

Bioethics is a concept that has emerged as a result of such a requirement. Nevertheless, as we cannot think of a life that is without any environment, the environmental bioethics appears as a concept in the intersection of environmental ethics and bioethics. In the solution of the current global ethical problem sets that we encounter during the formation of social policies, we must create a sustainable future with the biopolitics based on the concept of "environmental bioethics."

 In order to create sustainable living spaces, ecological cities, and sustainable buildings of the future, first it is important that the structural elements which constitute the management systems of societies adopt this concept. So as to have an ecological city model, environmental bioethical values and political culture of the urban society must be formed. Lack of environmental bioethical value and inadequate level of organization of democratic elements can be mentioned among the most dominant reasons for the gap between what is known to be best for the environment in human actions and what is actually applied [4–6].

#### **3. Sustainable buildings as an environmental bioethical value**

Sustainable buildings are the product of the biopolitics, which are primarily formed by a holistic environmental bioethical approach. Based on the fact that the idea sets the action, sustainable buildings can be accepted as the practical reflection of environmental bioethics and biopolitics. While trying to find answers to openended questions in humans to human relations, ethics used to make assessments based on "good" and "bad," limiting the responsibility aspect, which is an important component of it, only to human beings.

With the concept of bioethics, the scope of human responsibility has been extended to their relationship with the ecosystem together with all its components such as animals, plants, air, and water. Mankind is part of the nature, not the center of it. But they are responsible against the whole. In each decision taken, bioethics requires that minimum harm be given to the other life forms; the ecological cycles not be broken, to the extent it is possible; and the interference be at the minimum level. The first step is to internalize the respect for other life forms [1–3].

Sustainable buildings will destroy the environment much less than today's urbanization models. Reducing the destruction can also be considered within the scope of protection. Sustainable buildings that protect and improve the environment indirectly can thus be considered a bioethical value.

Urban life is the search of a heterogeneous society, which must live together, for ways to live in the best and most harmonious way. What is best is relative. The values generated and shared by urban people also generate the system of values of urban people. Urban social values and individual values are in mutual interaction [5–8].

 As defined in the Cultural Dictionary, "Through values, people become aware of their social relationships, goals and historical roles. With the help of values, they find a place within the community; they form their own interests, norms, life styles, world views, etc. individually. Values act as the active driving force of human actions in the process of social life" [9]. In this case, urban values are the material and mental driving force of the facilities of individuals in the urban life and ultimately of the society to realize themselves toward the best. "The best," which is represented by the values in the ecological city, is expected to include the decisions that respect the ecological balances and life in the world, namely, the practice of environmental bioethics.

 The system of values functions through the transformation of the good behavioral rules within that society into normative rules and supervision of these rules via a system of sanctions, and these values are respected. These two mechanisms, namely, the expectation of roles and sanctions, are adopted by the institutions that ensure the order of the society. If there is an established bioethical point of view in the value system, the society, and the individual, self-sacrificing efforts for the ecological city can be continuously developed [9].

It can be said that such a society that has adopted the idea of environmental bioethics represents the ideal of ecological society. According to Aykut N. Çoban [10], the political project of environmentalism is the establishment of an ecological/sustainable society: However, the problem with transition to such society is the assumption that the material structures such as the economy can be transformed by changing ethics/beliefs, which is an exaggeration of the change of individuals' ideas. Other dynamics which affect the development of cities, such as globalization, economy, and politics, are inevitably important. Nevertheless, there are many good and bad examples in the history that show how ideas are directing societies [8, 10].

Considering sustainable buildings as a purpose; taking all kinds of legal, political, and technical decisions for this purpose; and, consequently, the realization and expansion of the ecological city are closely related with the system of individual and social values. Most of the time, the reason for the gap between knowing and applying the truth is the lack of knowledge of ethical values. Tekeli expresses as follows the necessity for integrating theories of education and democracy: "Every theory of democracy that does not relate the theory of education to itself is incomplete." The desired education is an education nourished by philosophy and art, where especially children and young people will learn how to think, question, and learn [2].

 According to Arvanitis, the aim and responsibility of bio-education is "to revive the spirit of humanity to reverse the established value judgments that lead to significant environmental destruction." Bio-education strengthens the idea of integrating environmental concerns to each human effort and enables us to become aware of the interdisciplinary nature of environmental protection [11].

Especially in the sustainable buildings to be constructed in cities, it should be considered as a bridge of communication between pets, urban people, and other bios. The value that children should gain through pets is to respect the unique worlds and needs of animals [12].

*Sustainable Buildings from the Perspective Environmental Bioethics DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.87836* 

 It is important that sustainable buildings be addressed in terms of environmental bioethics, instead of a human-centered perspective. This is critical so that the urban environmental problems can be comprehended deeply and widely and can be overcome rather than achieving superficial successes. Thus, besides the future of human beings, sustainable buildings should be defended as a requirement of environmental bioethical consciousness and responsibility. If a human-centric view is adopted while designing an ecological city constructed with sustainable buildings, even if physical arrangements are realized, it will not be possible to understand and resolve the mental, economic, and political relations which are the source of environmental problems. The difference between preserving other lives by seeing them as means and respecting their essential value in terms of ecological balance is important. It is especially important when it comes to interests, because it will determine our decisions, preferences, and priorities. While taking a decision to destruct a wildlife area, whose material value cannot be measured, for the sake of urban income as a measurable instrumental value, it can simply be sacrificed by attributing a purely instrumental value to it. However, our point of view will differ when we attribute an essential value [6–8, 12–14].

#### **4. Conclusion and evaluation**

 Considering the fact that right to life is valid for all living beings all over the world, all practices that threaten this right can be characterized as being against the bioethical values. Today, the main reason behind the environmental problems is the erosion of global bioethical values. Therefore, the environmental damages caused by today's construction practices concern not only the cities they are in but the whole world. Sustainable buildings, by definition, are compatible with ecosystem, sustainable and self-sufficient in terms of resource utilization, and are compatible with environmental bioethical values.

 Building construction, which has been seen as the source and symbol of civilization throughout the history, is controversial today with the existing risks of destructing the civilization. Today, in the world and in Turkey, the root of urban and environmental problems is based on rapid and unplanned industrialization, the fact of continual profit, and not using the technology for the benefit of humans and nature. In this regard, the cities where the majority of human population resides have turned into places that are alienated to the humans as a result of consumption society, "developments" based on continual profit, and raid and plunder. The most important urban problems of our time, namely, poverty, immigration, housing problem, infrastructural deficiencies, and environmental pollution, are the products of a system, which is based on capital needs, not on human life and needs. An understanding based on environmental bioethical values will ensure sustainability of life.

Migration from rural areas to cities and cheap labor have always been encouraged in line with the needs of capital. Today, the urban living environment in our country is characterized by unplanned construction, illegal housing, and poor urban people. Turkey's urbanization level is found to be 55.4% in 1990. And today, 92.3% of Turkey's population live in cities and towns [15]. Environmental problems have increased to a non-negligible level through urbanization that has evolved mainly by this way. The increase in population and urbanization will also increase urban environmental problems. The ecological city model and sustainable buildings are the products of such a search. The international nature of the capital has become more important in recent years, and the need for capital restructuring with the economic crisis in the 1970s has brought up the capital accumulation and

the dimensions of this accumulation process in terms of social classes and space. Therefore, the city has gained a special importance as the focus of capital accumulation. In order to achieve the goal of transforming the modern cities that emerged in the Industrial Revolution into ecological cities, it should also be aimed to ensure the economic, political, social, and environmental justice. Because just like the rings of the chain in the ecological cycle, these are all interconnected.

It is obvious that the sustainable buildings are a requirement in the world and in Turkey. A system should be developed where renewable energy resources can be used easily in the buildings and the technology which enables that can be mounted to all kinds of buildings. Development of such system is technically possible and is a must in terms of environmental bioethics.

#### **Author details**

Nesrin Çobanoğlu Department of Medical Ethics and History, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey

\*Address all correspondence to: nesrinc@gazi.edu.tr

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

*Sustainable Buildings from the Perspective Environmental Bioethics DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.87836* 

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[5] Kuban. Istanbul an Urban History: Byzantion, Constantinopolis. Istanbul: Türkiye İşbankası Kültür Yay; 1996

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Longing for Another World (Compiled by Ayşegül Mengi), Imge Bookstore, Ankara; 2007. p. 294. (In Turkish)

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[13] Newman P, Jennings I. Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems. Washington, D.C., USA: Island Press; 2009. p. 15

[14] Bacaksız TS, Çobanoğlu N. Turkey's Biopolitical Policies within the scope of Ecological Buildings, International Sustainable Buildings Symposium (ISBS); 26-28 May 2010; Ankara, Turkey. (In Turkish)

[15] [Internet]. Available from: http://www.tuik.gov.tr/PreTablo. do?alt\_id=1059

**863**

formed:

**Chapter 70**

**Abstract**

design

**1. Introduction**

**2. Transformation**

*Hulki Cevizoğlu*

Urban Empires

Sustainable Urban Design and

In this chapter, structural changes (both building and human structures) in metropolises in our age, which is defined as late modernity, postmodernity, or fluid modernity, are discussed. Discriminatory growth between cities, primate city formations, growth, collapses, depressions, migration, marginalization, freedoms, gentrification studies, security, surveillance and sustainable urban design, and environmental policies are among the main research topics. In addition, a new

**Keywords:** urban empires, modernity, structural change, freedom, sustainable urban

Bauman argues that his sociology is "a way of thinking about human world." Mills places "sociological imagination" at the basis of sociological thought and analysis. When the developmental process of the modern society is taken into consideration, the place of the classics introduces the problematic of "how society

This presentation aims to discuss the realities experienced in the contemporary world with the sociological theories of the classical period by referring to the concepts such as "poverty, hunger, new colonialism, migration, technological changes, globalization, inequalities, polarization of economic sources, and human rights."

The title above does not include Kafka's "*Metamorphosis,*" it rather naturally includes social and urban sociological transformation. The world has evolved from the bipolar world of the "cold war" period to the unipolar world upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Later, the electronic and internet revolution has made the world a "global village." The geographical, physical, economic, and electronic borders are shattered. In the expressions of Hardt and Negri, the "*Empire*" has been

The hegemony has achieved a new form, and this form is composed of a series of national and supranational organs united under one type of governing logic. This

type of new global hegemony is the thing we call the empire [2].

concept is introduced to the literature as "Urban Empires."

needs to understand its historical origins" [1].

#### **Chapter 70**
