Bes… Glenn Murcutt– part c

Bes… Glenn Murcutt– part c

Alright, this has become the Glenn Murcutt series. Glenn himself is already a sustainable man considering his age of 78. He is still monitoring the graduation studio for the third year architectural studies and is a man worth respecting. This entry will talk about the significances of his houses.

Taking Walsh house built in 2005 as an example. This house has an elongated floor plan along the east-west line, minimising the annoying western light in the evening and maximising the northern light. He done this by putting the garage on the west and living room to the north east. This elongated feature is seen in nearly every houses by Glenn. Houses such as Berowra Waters Inn, Magney house, Simpson-Lee House, etc., all have this elongated floor plan to maximise the northern sunlight for winter. On the other hand, this long shape facilitate cross ventilation to every part of the house, providing an effective cooling effect.

Glenn tends to use adjustable louvers in his houses. The Walsh House does include this common feature. The interior space is conceived as a series of connected spaces, each clearly identified from outside with the adjustable louvers system. The louver system allows inhabitants to adjust the daylight penetrating through the building according to different services. This flexibility promotes the sustainable feeling of the house due to its ability to adapt change.

References:

Modern House: Walsh House

http://www.modernhouse.co/listings/walsh-house/

Best Sustainable Architecture – part b

Best Sustainable Architecture – part b

I just cannot stop talking about Glenn Murcutt once I started. And in fact he is really an innovator of sustainable architecture. Therefore, just keep talking about him. Glenn restated that his architecture is nothing about style, it is site relevant piece of enclosure that provides the best living condition utilising the existing values on specific location. Sun light, wind, rainwater, trees are all elements to support his works other and concrete and steel.

In his houses, the interior temperature is always around 25 degree no matter it is 42 degree outside without a need of air conditioning. And the whole house can be opened at night time without a fear of dramatic temperature drop as the thermal capacity of materials has done the heating work for us. This cannot be done by just combining discrete elements in a building; it is achieved by a careful study and combination of site condition such as sun orientation and cool wind direction. This makes the houses from Glenn more of functionality and less vivid compared to other Pritzker Prize winners. The style is not much complicated and the value that such architecture conveys is effective. When we, as a architecture student, studies his building or taught by him, we will know and understand his way of thinking and convey them to next generations.

When I was camping with Glenn in last year to the South West Rocks, the thing I learnt from him is more than what I read from books or from the internet. He understand the tidal change totally through the colours of oyster shell, read the prevailing wind through the grass declining direction, the tree types and the significance of the local ecosystem. This is mainly because his childhood. Before four, he lived in a natural place that does not have any people within 15km. This raise his ability to harness and care about the environment. Therefore, protecting our green space is important to breed another “Glenn Murcutt”.

References:

Glenn Murcutt

http://www.ecocitizenaustralia.com.au/glenn-murcutt/

Best Sustainable Architecture – part a

Best Sustainable Architecture – part a

Although it is sad to say this, it is so hard to find a new topic to talk about, hence I will go back to architecture that I am most familiar with. The upcoming few episodes will be all about the most recent and best sustainable design on earth now.

With the substantially increase concern on our environment, sustainable architecture needs to be more than just installing solar panel or green roof, it has to work as a whole integrated approach to sustainability and has special quality that is unique to others so as to pose as a exclamation mark in viewers’ heads.

The first quality that a building should have is the site awareness. Glenn Murcutt, who is the best Australian architect and won the Pritzker Architecture Prize for Australia, was my third year studio’s lecturer. I am glad that he is once my teacher. The first thing that he taught me is the importance of passion in architecture, and the second thing is the site awareness. Maybe this is his style of design, his claim is somehow reasonable. If a building that does not relate to the site, people will not feel resonances when they walk into the building. They won’t have a sense of what the site is about, what material is unique in the site, what view is valuable to have a look at, they are just in a piece of artwork, a box if worse. This isolated architecture can just stand without using the existing qualities found in the site, in other words, wasting all the good values. Therefore, a separated architecture can never be a sustainable architecture as it does not utilise local qualities and does not teach the future generation to use such quality.

References

The Top 10 Most Innovative Sustainable Buildings of 2014

http://www.fastcoexist.com/3029434/the-top-10-most-innovative-sustainable-buildings-of-2014

More and More and More Green Elements in Buildings – part c

More and More and More Green Elements in Buildings – part c

Rainwater harvesting is another fairly convenient green element in a building that is affordable by the local. Such system recycles water for irrigation or toilet flushing. In fact, such strategy is not an innovative thinking and has been used 4000 years ago in Greece.

But of course, the current system that most people use is much advance than the one used in ancient Greece. There are two main techniques of rainwater harvesting. The first one Is storing rainwater on surface for future use and the other is recharging them to ground water. The first scheme of collecting rainwater through gutter and pipe to the rainwater tank is widely used by public. And the later one that recharge water to the ground is a new concept that need further components such as trenches, dug wells, hand pumps, etc.

The benefits by rainwater harvesting are wide spread, ranges from the community, local councils to the developers. It reduces mains water consumption, water supply infrastructure costs and the requirements for new or bigger dams. Also, it improve water security of supply, asset protection such as lawns, gardens and motor vehicles, and storm water quality.

I don’t know how much water can be saved through such system, however, it works more than just a system that recycles water, but also a mind to protect and sustain our environment. With more and more green elements installed in a buildings, public show their care on sustainability.

References:

Elements of Green Building

http://theconstructor.org/building/buildings/elements-of-green-building/5375/

Rainwater Harvesting

http://www.bluescopesteel.com.au/building-products/rainwater-harvesting

More and More and More Green Elements in Buildings – part b

More and More and More Green Elements in Buildings – part b

Passive solar design benefits Australian houses due to the large temperature difference climate. This kind of design uses sunshine to heat and light up the interior space so that the use of electrical devices can be minimised. The building orientation, placement of windows and certain materials can achieve this.

For Australia, the orientation is best for solar gain when elongated on an east-west axis. The building’s northern face should receive sunlight between the hours from 9a.m. to 3p.m. Interior spaces that requires the most light and heating such as living room, dining area should face the north, less used space should face the south. Placement of window should follow the orientation to maximise the northern sun gain. This is becaus heating is needed for nighttime when it is in winter, which has a large temperature difference from morning to evening.

The use of materials should have large thermal capacity. This benefits building both in summer and winter. Thermal capacity is the amount of energy required to heat up a degree in certain material. Therefore, if such material has high thermal capacity, it slows down the heat gain in summer afternoon, therefore cool the building interior. On the other hand, it reduces the heat loss in winter evening due to its large thermal capacity.

The proper design for passive solar gain can be done through a careful spatial management and massing. However, accounting on other issues such as site dimension and security reasons, the passive solar gain cannot be maximised in every individual building’s design. To averagely increase the family benefits from this, a collaborate building agreement from neighbours maybe a way out.

References:

Elements of Green Building

http://theconstructor.org/building/buildings/elements-of-green-building/5375/