Land use and sustainable buildings: design and construction in southern Brazil

In recent years several activities related to sustainability in the built environment have been carried out in the postgraduate civil engineering programme at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in southern Brazil. Some have been related to education and others to design and construction. This article presents the overall conceptual framework for projects that apply sustainability principles and key overall objectives. A recent project (a proposal for a technical school) illustrates how the framework and its objectives can be addressed in the context of a specific project. Other research and design activities are also briefly described. There is a short discussion of barriers to incorporating sustainability issues in land use planning and project design in developing countries.