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/

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

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

Sustainable architecture has become a trend in modern society. Universities include environment architecture as compulsory subjects to graduate. I have taken two courses about sustainable science in my Bachelor degree. For the public, solar panels are installed on nearly every rooftop of suburban houses. Sustainable strategies become so close to us that every new buildings has include certain minimum level of sustainable elements into their design.

This entry will share about the most common green building design elements in local society. Vinyl window is an obvious sustainable elements. It can be easily found out in most building’s louver system installed for ventilation. This material is resistant against rust, rot, blistering, corrosion, etc. More importantly, the manufacturing energy is lower than traditional materials, with the aestheticism and flexibility that it conveys; it provides buyers a new option to choose from. The low thermal conductivity reduce the energy for heating and cooling, and hence the cost linked, make it even more advantageous.

Insulation is another important component in green building. The importance of insulation is shown from the reason why we cannot live in a house constructed by glass totally, as it will be extremely cold in winter, and hot in summer. Same as window, plastic is the new option for us to choose. Appropriate use of blown foamed insulation, which is made of plastics, creates less greenhouse gas per application than traditional materials. Researches have shown that energy use can be reduced up to 30% with a careful use of insulating material.

References:

Green Building Design Elements

http://www.greenbuildingsolutions.org/Main-Menu/Design-Elements

Windows

http://www.greenbuildingsolutions.org/Main-Menu/Design-Elements/Windows

Insulation

http://www.greenbuildingsolutions.org/Main-Menu/Design-Elements/Insulation

Is timber a sustainable building material?

Is timber a sustainable building material?

Timber is of course a sustainable material as it is a natural and renewable resource. Not only that timber derived from trees that consumes carbon dioxide and releases oxygen in their life cycle, it consumes less energy than other most of other materials as it does not need many manufacturing processes.

Timber is also a renewable material considering it reusability. Comparing to other major building materials such as glass, aluminium and steel, timber is the only one that can be reused without whole broken down and remanufacture. In addition to this, timber products other than paper are usually recycled into a new building. After structural timber is weathered and wracked, they becomes a good source to recycle to be skirting boards, doors, window frames, floor claddings, etc..

In recent years, recycled and salvaged timber becomes a fashionable icon in building projects. The valuable texture promotes the natural feelings that other materials cannot deliver. The lantern pavilion in Norway shown below was constructed by sustainable timbers and glass panels. The use of materials with the design highlights the beauty of environmentally friendly architecture. Being an iconic meeting place, it performs to the public the possibility to combine traditional architecture with modern building styles.

References:

1. Timber Sustainability

http://www.boral.com.au/TimberFlooring/sustainability.asp

2. Timber as a sustainable building material

http://makeitwood.org/documents/doc-692-timber-as-a-sustainable-material.pdf

3. The Lantern Pavilion: Glowing Contemporary Architecture Made of Sustainable Timber
http://inhabitat.com/the-lantern-pavilion-glowing-contemporary-architecture-made-of-sustainable-timber/