Premises for development of sustainable architecture in urban environment

Tendencies of urban territory expansion, the ideas of adaptive re-use of buildings and territories as well as the conception of a compact city demonstrate that the management of urban sprawl and improvement of the quality of life in urban areas will be still important questions in future. Possibilities to create environmentally friendly architecture of a good quality in internal territories of cities are very important in search for means of harmonizing urban development. The aim of the work is to determine the possibilities of creating sustainable architecture in the urban environment. In order to reach this aim, the notion of sustainable architecture is developed, possibilities of its creation in urbanized areas are analysed and a hypothesis for its creation in the urban environment is proposed. The hypothesis encompasses external and internal factors: sustainable design, sustainable construction and creation of preconditions favourable for developing sustainable architecture by means of management of the urban environment. Sustainable design is perceived as a process which determines the level of sustainability of architecture and means of environmental protection for the whole life cycle of a building. Sustainable construction in urban territories should search for ways to construct buildings and arrange territories using environmentally friendly materials and to integrate an environmentalistic attitude into all the stages of the construction cycle. The management of the urban environment should be oriented towards the creation and maintenance of local identity, social cohesion, economic viability as well as efficient use of resources and improvement of ecological situation in order to stimulate creation of sustainable architecture.