Maintaining Environmental Sustainability through Existing Environment’s Vegetations

Abstract

Demands for building in urban areas have been increasing lately, especially educational buildings as support for the human development index. Unfortunately, only a few educational buildings can support green buildings as pilots and educational materials for their users. One of the initiators in becoming educational materials and examples of green buildings is the i-cell multipurpose educational building at the Universitas Indonesia. This study aims to find evidence of how reliable and sustainable planning of an educational building in Depok, Indonesia, can accommodate the needs of its users while being environmentally friendly for its surroundings. It observes the influences of vegetation in the surrounding building, one of which is by maximizing the function of vegetation around the building. The research methods include collecting data from the weather archive, vegetation literature, observing the subject, and analyzing the vegetation’s effect. This study shows that vegetation has an important role in generating a sound environment for humans and buildings, including healing and providing calmness. This study concludes that vegetation plays a role in generating a good environment by decreasing temperature, sound pollution, sun glare and providing shading areas for people. Those conditions lead to the sustainability of the environment surrounding the building.