A habitat is much wider than simply the built environment, whether a house, a hospital, a school, or any urban facility. It includes the totality of the environment – not only the physical surrounding but also the social one, our neighbourhood. It takes into account a proper management of resources and development such as drainage and wastewater management systems, water and energy supply, transportation, appropriate building technologies, renewable energy sources such as sun and wind energy, use of locally available materials and skills, etc.

Sustainable habitat requires a holistic approach. This needs to integrate first the human aspect, which implies a different process, where people’s participation is essential for its success. Secondly, only a sustainable habitat needs to integrate various technical parameters, such as:
•    Appropriate urban planning – the population in its environment and technical means
•    Appropriate architecture design – adapted to the environment (physical, social and technical)
•    Renewable energy sources and appropriate building materials
•    Management of resources and use of environmentally sound building materials
•    Water management – drinking water supply, rainwater harvesting and wastewater treatment
•    Earth management when people are using earth extensively as a building material

One should not forget that materials and techniques are just tools to achieve sustainable habitats. It goes further than just structures and urban development, as it deals with social relations and patterns. Habitat and especially sustainable habitat cannot be understood just as a finished product. It is a constantly evolving system and the process to develop it is always essential.

Therefore, the matter is not only to create eco-friendly facilities for everyone’s wealth but also to imagine different relations among people – to create a synergy going towards respect on all levels and towards a different lifestyle based on harmony, friendship, disinterestedness and compassion rather than the usual egoistic behaviours of indifference, competition or strife.