Sustainable aquaculture in Spain

A very inspiring example of sustainable fish production in Spain by biologist Miguel Medialdea told by a American cook: Dan Barber in the TED talk how I fell in love with a fish. Start at 05.00

A portable multi-purpose dwelling

The Yeta Log cabin designed by Lab Zero is a portable multi-purpose dwelling that can be set in any location where a shelter is needed.

Solar machine mimics plants

Plants use sunlight to create food for themselves. Researchers now find a way to copy this process: the solar machine

Eatable green walls

After green roofs also green walls are becoming more popular. The advantages they claim are not all proofed yet, but this eathouse with eatable green walls and a structure that can be dismantled, might be a good and attractive alternative for the usual greenhouses.

Clean solar panels

Self-cleaning technology for solar panels based on technology designed for Mars and lunar missions: developed by professor Malay Mazumder

The Designer's Atlas for Sustainability

The Designer's Atlas for Sustainability: a book by Ann Thorpe for designers on sustainable design: both background information and information on how to teach sustainable design.
In addition, an online discussion group SUSDESIGNTEACH has been started on how to teach sustainable design. Subscription is needed.

The Designer Accord

The Designers Accord is a global coalition of designers, educators and bussiness leaders, working together to create positive environmental and social impact.

Sustainability in Higher Education

AASHE, Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, is an association of colleges and universities that are working together for a sustainable future.
A publication of Campus Green Builder is 'Advancing education for Sustainability: Teaching the concepts of Sustainable building to all students'

Design for Sustainability Guide

EDF, the Australian EcoDesign Foundation made a Design for Sustainability Guide: a 10 steps introduction guide to sustainable design for all design disciplines, but mostly product design

D4S Design for sustainability

D4S is a joint publication of the UNEP and Delft University of Technology with a practical approach for sustainable design. Mainly focused on product innovation and on developing countries

Cars of the future: body panels serving as battery

  

Source: Volvo

A current problem in hybrid and electrical cars is the battery: too large, too heavy and too expensive.
European researchers of Imperial College, London, and Volvo Cars work together to develop a car that charges energy in its body panels. Basis for this solution is an innovative composite material that charges more and faster than normal batteries.

Enhancing the efficiency of solar panels

An optics-based surface technology to increase the conversion efficiency of existing and new solar panels: that is what SolOptics does with its Fusion Surface Efficiency Technology.

Solutions for tomorrow: sustainable product innovation

In november 2010 werden in alle Vlaamse provincies presentaties gegeven over duurzame product- en service-innovatie. Op de website van Solutions for tomorrow zijn alle presentaties terug te vinden.
Verschillende manieren voor ecodesign zijn te vinden in de eerste presentatie.

De Groene Offerte: leidraad voor duurzaam ontwerpen

De Groene Offerte geeft je een leidraad voor duurzaam ontwerpen: van een checklist over beschrijving van cases tot een kennisdatabank. Vooral gericht op productdesign, maar kan ook van nut zijn voor het duurzaam ontwerpen van gebouwen

Creative houses from reclaimed stuff

Interesting TED talk by Dan Philips: his houses may not be architecture, but his vision on our building industry and our way of living certainly is inspiring.

Strange creatures walking on the beach driven by the wind

Theo Jansen is a Dutch artist who creates Strandbeests, structures made out of plastic tubes and old lemonade bottles that are able to walk on the beach, driven by the wind.
I wonder if this still can be called lowtech. At least, he uses low tech materials, but he combines it with very hightech thinking. And he ends up with very poetic creatures. An intriguing and sometimes funny talk by Theo Jansen at TED, but I still don't get how this works.

Alternative building materials

In some cases people need to look for alternative construction materials due to lack of common materials or lack of money to buy these materials. But these examples can also be inspiring for us, to think out of the box even when we have the opportunity or the money for common materials. A slide show, by Studio H, with many examples of use of alternative building materials. Unfortunately without oral explanation, but the short text below the slide show is informative, as it points out some of the pros and cons of reuse of unusual materials as building materials.

Creating change by teaching design

A TED talk on teaching design in a rural community in the US in order to create change. A very inspiring approach by Emily Pilloton. She and her team of Project H Design uses design for humanity, habitats, health and happiness. More information on the website of Project H Design.
How could we integrate this approach in the education of our students?

How complexity leads to simplicity

How to deal with the fact that everything is connected to everything?
Eric Berlow: How complexity leads to simplicity Video on TED.com
Eric Berlow presents an interesting approach in this TED talk, but in 3 minutes he can only give a start to his concept. Might be applicable to sustainability problems.


More in depth information can be found on Eric Berlow's website. By the way a visually nice website.

Get Zero: Metropolis's Next Generation Design Competition

How can forward thinking-design transform backwards-looking buildings? The starting point for an interesting architectural competition to transform a typical 1960s office building in LA. More information on Worldchanging: Bright Green.

Why not import this idea to Belgium? So many backwards-looking buildings. 

Green roofs in Antwerp

Just decided: from February 2011 on in the city of Antwerp, Belgium, all flat roofs, new or renovated (with building permission) will have to be green roofs. A good way to buffer rain water and to reduce the urban heat island effect.

Playpumps: kid energy

Kid energy might sound like child labor, but this is completely different. Seen at Worldchanging.com: harnessing the energy of playing kids to pump up water: that is what the Southafrican merry-go-round of Roundabout does. Such a simple, but nice example of a lowtech, sustainable and beautiful technique.

Worldchanging: news service for the unimaginable future

TED talks are talks by bright and often eloquent people about ideas worth spreading.
An interesting TED talk by Alex Steffen, the founder of Worldchanging.com on the unthinkable and unimaginable future, the sustainable future. Most interesting part at the end, from 13:50 on.
Interesting quote of Alex Steffen: the tools to be used to save the world should be beautiful in themselves.

Search engine Ecosia

Nice idea: contribute to the protection of the rain forest by searching on the internet with Ecosia. Unfortunately the performance of this search engine is not yet comparable with Google.

Underground buildings

Source:Swiss Mountain House Trendir - Modern House Designs

Mankind has always built houses under ground for many reasons. Examples can be found in China, Spain, France and so many other countries. But also today architects experiment with underground houses, earth-sheltered houses or houses in caves, often for environmental reasons.

The building physics of underground spaces are not that simple, especially the ventilation of the spaces and the hygric behaviour of the underground wall, but it might be an interesting way of land use.

Some nice examples can be found on the blog Webecoist where they are called Hobbit houses.
An extensive photo report of the Swiss Mountain House by the Dutch SeARCH architects and Christian Muller architects can be found here.
Also Home Quotient shows 12 examples of modern and less modern underground or earth-sheltered houses.
A concept that is presented as a concept for sustainable green buildings is the Earthship. All information and links on this can be found on Earthship Biotecture.
More information and extra links for underground houses can be found on the website of Underground Buildings: Architecture and Environment.

Several videos with examples of underground houses can be found on Youtube, such as houses in the outback of Australia to escape from the heat, the Swiss Mountain House, examples of Earthships and so many others.

What is exergy?

Energy is not only about quantity. Also the quality of energy matters. This is expressed through the concept of exergy, which is mainly based on thermodynamics.
Exergy is commonly used in scientific meetings, but still quite unknown outside these meetings. And apparently not so easy to explain. Last week at a conference on sustainable building during a presentation on exergy, someone from the public asked what exergy stands for. Two persons started trying to explain it, but at the end, nobody could follow.

Therefore this minute lecture 'There's more about energy than joules' : a short, funny, visual and very clear explanation of the meaning of exergy.

Much more useful information about all aspects of energy can be found on the website of Leonardo Energy, the global community for sustainable energy professionals.

Sustainable social houses

The leader in sustainable social housing projects in Flanders is the social housing company Zonnige Kempen in Westerlo, in the north of Flanders. It is the youngest, but most active social housing company concerning sustainable social houses. They have both new building and renovation projects.

Basis for their approach is the Trias Energetica, but they added 3 more steps in order to develop their Six Steps Approach. Quite interesting is the last step: communicate both positive and negative findings

They participate in several European research projects and European research networks and developed several demonstration projects.

Lowtech solutions (2)

A second group of lowtech solutions is based on the physical phenomenon of reflection of solar radiation. Many solutions make use of radiative reflection:

1) solar shading: obviously well known as a measure to avoid summery overheating, but in fact a simple example of using radiative reflection to avoid solar radiation to enter the building. Most effective when applied at the outside of the building, because when the solar radiation has entered the building, it transforms into longwave radiation and glass is mainly opaque for longwave radiation. An interesting and neutral publication is Shading systems - Solar shading for the European climates. 

2) white and green roofs: traditionally flat roofs are black; they highly absorb the solar radiation, resulting in high surface temperatures up to 80-90°C. This causes higher conductive heat transfer to the inside of the building and contributes also to the urban heat island effect. White roofs reflect more (and thus absorb less) solar radiation, thus reducing the conductive heat transfer to the inside. Green roofs don't reflect so much the solar radiation, but the absorption of solar radiation causes extra evaporation of the water buffered in the green roof. An attempt to put the the impact of white roofs in the right perspective can be found here. An economic study of the environmental benefits of green roofs can be found here.

Guidance of daylight into a cave (Source: unknown)

3) daylight applications:
some of the most beautiful examples of use of radiative reflection can be found in some simple, but innovative daylight applications, such as cave lighting with daylight. A large database of daylight design examples can be found in the online Daylight Design Variations Book developed by TNO and TUE. They are all based on radiative reflection.

Source: Steven Holl

The most beautiful example of daylight application I know is the design by architect Steven Holl for the D.E. Shaw office building in New York. Although it looks like artificial coloured lighting, it is purely daylight. The 'secret' of this concept is explained here. It is worth analysing.

Examples of sustainable buildings (1)

Sometimes, real examples say much more than checklists for sustainability. Therefore hereby some links to examples of sustainable buildings. I only mentioned projects for which more detailed information on different sustainability aspects is available.

Every year since 1997 the American Institute of Architects AIA selects the ten best green (American) projects for its Top Ten Award. The selection is based on a ten measures metrics. One of the interesting items in the detailed project profiles is 'lessons learned'.

The EULEB project, partly funded by the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme of the European Commission, provides detailed information about 25 European high quality low energy public buildings (information available in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian).

RELECS - An alternative for electric cars

RELECS stands for Real Electric Solutions and offers an alternative for the electric car. As they say 'the objective is to explore new concepts for advanced sustainable mobility'. Worth reading.

They've participated in the GE Ecomagination Challenge, a $200 million call for new ideas on renewable energy, grid efficiency and ecobuildings.

Environmental assessment of buildings

To assess the sustainability or environmental impact of buildings, different assessment methods have been developed during the last decade.

Internationally well known are the British method BREEAM and the American method LEED.

BREEAM is the Environmental Assessment Method of BRE. After registration, you can freely download the BREEAM checklists for offices, homes, industrial buildings, etc., but in order to become an official certified BREEAM assessor, you need to follow the BREEAM trainings.

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and is developed by the US. Green Building Council. It should be flexible enough to assess all kinds of buildings, both commercial and residential buildings.

In Flanders, the government developed its own guide (in Dutch) 'Waardering van kantoorgebouwen - op weg naar een duurzame huisvesting voor de Vlaamse overheid'.
Apart from a brochure, the website gives also an Excel checklist and presentations of model buildings and of the Vlaams Administratief Centrum (VAC) in Leuven, the first 4-stars building of the Flemish government.
A pro of this method is that it is adapted to the Flemish context and can easily be applied to other Flemish office buildings.

Op bezoek bij ...

De komende weken kan je verschillende bedrijven en gebouwen bezoeken die op de ene of andere manier met energie bezig zijn.

Bedrijven zetten op zondag 3 oktober hun deuren open voor geïnteresseerden tijdens de  'Open Bedrijvendag'. Het thema voor 2010 is 'hernieuwbare energie': meer dan 40 bedrijven verspreid over heel Vlaanderen die bezig zijn met energie uit wind, zon, biomassa, bodem,... kunnen bezocht worden.

Energiezuinige woningen en kantoorgebouwen kan je bezoeken in november. Wat vroeger 'Open Klimaathuizen' heette en 1 weekend duurde, is vanaf nu 'Ecobouwers Open Deur' en duurt een hele week, van 6 - 14 november.
Meer dan 100 lage-energie en passiefwoningen kunnen bezocht worden op 6, 7, 13 en 14 november. Voor iedereen toegankelijk, maar vooraf inschrijven is noodzakelijk.
25 energiezuinige kantoorgebouwen zijn te bezichtigen op 8, 9 en 10 november, maar wel enkel door een professioneel publiek.

Environmental impact of materials

Not only use of energy and water has an important impact on the sustainability of buildings, also the materials contribute to the sustainability. Their impact traditionally is assessed through LCA or life cycle assessment. According to the ISO 14040 a good LCA consists of 4 subsequent steps:

1. definition of the goal and scope of the LCA: of what specifically are you determining the environmental impact?
2. a life cycle inventory (LCI): an inventory of 'all' in and outcoming fluxes: which natural resources are used, how much water or land is used, which gases are emitted, etc.
3. a translation of the inventory into impacts on environment, health, biodiversity,... 
4. finally, an interpretation of the results

For the European context, different databases with LCA data of (building) materials are available:
ECOINVENT: a large, well documented and transparent LCI database from the Swiss ecoinvent Competence Centre. The LCI data are online available for a fee, but all documentation reports are accessible free of charge (for some, registration as guest is needed).
GEMIS: a large German database, available in German and English, completely available free of charge
A tool, especially made for eco-design, is the Ecolizer 2.0, available in Dutch and English. The tool is online available free of charge. An easy-to-use paper version can be ordered for a small fee at OVAM

Over bloemetjes en bijtjes

Source: Ecologie appliquée

Gezien langs de snelweg in Frankrijk op weg naar Spanje: akkers afgewisseld met hectares vol bloemen.



Blijkt onderdeel te zijn van een grootschaliger Frans project "Jachères Apicoles": op braakliggende gronden wordt een welgekozen mengeling van bloemen uitgezaaid. Deze bloemen zorgen voor voldoende stuifmeel van goede kwaliteit om lokaal de populatie van bijen en andere insecten op peil te houden. Via hun rol in de bestuiving van planten zijn deze beestjes zeer belangrijk voor het behoud van biodiversiteit.

Een ecoproject dat alvast zeer mooi oogt.

Achieving Net-Zero-Energy Buildings - ASHRAE

Youtube is not only about funny videos and music clips. Also ASHRAE, the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Engineers, posts videos on Youtube.

The ASHRAE video on how to achieve a net zero energy building shows in a short, but very clear way the subsequent steps you should follow to turn a typical office building into a net zero energy building. Also very clear and useful to keep in mind when designing low energy buildings. In fact, it is a video representation of the principle of the trias energetica.

Engineering for the ecological age

As some of you might know already, iTunes U gives you free online access to some of the most excellent lectures from highly reputable institutes such as MIT, Stanford, Oxford,... It is worth to browse in their offerings.

One of my favourite lectures is from John Ochsendorf from MIT. In his video lecture, entitled 'Engineering for the ecological age: lessons from history' he shows very interesting cases where lowtech materials are combined with hightech engineering. And positively he is a very gifted speaker. Look in iTunes U > MIT World > Engineering to find the lecture.
Skip the extremely boring introduction and start at 10:50.

Air Infiltration and Ventilation

A well designed and well performing ventilation system is crucial for a low energy building in order to combine low energy consumption with good indoor air quality.

If you search for up to date information about ventilation, the Air Infiltration and Ventilation Centre (AIVC) is a good starting point. AIVC is an initiative of IEA ECBCS Annex 5. It is a huge information source with thousands of papers on air infiltration and ventilation.

You need to register, but online access is free for Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, Norway and USA.

Lowtech solutions (1)

Way too often hightech solutions are percieved as the only solutions for the present energy problems. Still, often also a lowtech approach can offer a valuable solution for many problems. Lowtech means here using some simple phenomena from physics, such as evaporative heat, radiative reflection, thermal mass,... as the basis to generate heat, cold, light,... .

A first example: cooling based on the principle of evaporative heat:

source: Weston Mill Pottery

1) A wine cooler made of ceramic only needs to be wetted with water to chill the bottle of wine. Every summer, the simplicity of this technique amazes me.










2) Sprinkling water mist in the streets can create a local temperature drop in a hot climate: I experienced myself the positive effect at the World Expo in 1992 in Sevilla, Spain and at the World Expo in 2010 in Shanghai

3) Green roofs: they have many functions, but the evaporation of the rain water, buffered in the green roof has a positive cooling effect on the urban heat island effect, often observed in an urban environment.

To be continued...

Regenwater

Goed waterbeheer in en om gebouwen is inherent aan duurzaam bouwen. 
Het infopunt voor duurzaam omgaan met water in Vlaanderen is het Waterloket. Hier vind je o.a. de handleiding Waterwijzer bouwen en verbouwen met alle basisinformatie voor de architect, bouwheer, aannemer, etc.

Maar met (regen)water kan nog zoveel meer gedaan worden dan het wegstoppen in de grond. Enkele voorbeelden:

Bron: Kamp C

Groendaken zijn decoratief en kunnen bijdragen tot een beter microklimaat, maar hun voornaamste rol is die van regenwaterbuffer.









Regenwater kan als element gebruikt worden in het tuinontwerp of in het landschap, zoals door deze landschapsarchitect.

Regenwater kan geïntegreerd worden in het gebouwontwerp, tot zelfs bij wolkenkrabbers, zoals in het ontwerp van Poolse architectuurstudenten  

Myths in sustainable building (1)

As in all domains, also the field of sustainable construction has its persistent myths. Here already 1 link to 10 green building myths that have been disproved.

To be continued...

Bomen ipv verkeersdrempels?

The Independent berichtte onlangs over een experiment in Norfolk County waarbij bomen worden ingezet om automobilisten te doen vertragen als ze een dorp binnen rijden. Eigenlijk zijn het niet de bomen, maar is het de optische illusie die men creëert door de bomen steeds korter bij elkaar te zetten. Hierdoor krijgen automobilisten de indruk dat ze versnellen en dit doet hen hun snelheid minderen met 3-5km/h.
Een mooi voorbeeld van een lowtech oplossing voor een probleem.
Dat deze oplossing ook minder positieve neveneffecten zou kunnen hebben, blijkt uit de discussies die ontstaan op de website van The Independent of op andere fora over verkeersveiligheid.

Duurzame bedrijventerreinen

Het is een positieve evolutie dat bij duurzaam bouwen de focus steeds meer verschuift van energiezuinige gebouwen naar een duurzame gebouwde omgeving.

People, planet, profit: de duurzaamheidsdriehoek met de 3P's houdt in dat naast energie ook andere milieuaspecten zoals materialen, watergebruik, landgebruik,... en ook sociale aspecten en economische aspecten worden beschouwd.
Bovendien wordt het gebouw niet meer als losstaand element gezien, maar als een onderdeel van een ruimere gebouwde omgeving.

De ontwikkeling van duurzame bedrijventerreinen is een begrip in Denemarken, Frankrijk, Engeland en Nederland. Zo informeert het Nederlandse kennisplatform DBT over het concept van duurzame bedrijventerreinen en presenteert het verschillende praktijkvoorbeelden.

Maar ook in Vlaanderen worden er meer en meer inspanningen geleverd voor duurzame bedrijventerreinen, met publicaties van de Vlaamse overheid, de provincies Antwerpen, Limburg, Oost-Vlaanderen, West-Vlaanderen, het initiatief van Ecopolis Vlaanderen en het onderzoek aan de UGent. 

Energy Conservation

ECBCS, in full Energy Conservation in Buildings & Community Systems, is a research programme of the International Energy Agency (IEA) that started in the '70s and is still ongoing.

It is a series of international research projects (so called Annexes) on a wide range of subjects from energy efficient ventilation, environmental impact of buildings, building simulation tools, commissioning of HVAC systems, solar sustainable housing, net zero energy buildings, retrofitting educational buildings, electric lighting, etc.

It is a huge (mostly) open source of reliable, academic knowledge. A good starting point for any kind of research project, related to energy in the built environment.

Energieprijzen vroeger en nu

Hoe rendabel energiebesparingen zijn hangt sterk af van de toekomstige evolutie van de energieprijzen. Dat dit koffiedik kijken is, blijkt duidelijk uit de grafiek van de evolutie van de prijs voor ruwe aardolie sinds WOII. Boeiend hoe veel politieke en economische gebeurtenissen af te lezen zijn in deze grafiek. WTRG Economics bevat daarnaast nog meer interessante informatie over de (internationale) evolutie van olie-, gas- en energieprijzen.

Voor informatie over de evolutie van de stookolieprijzen in België van 2000 tot nu kan je terecht bij Informazout. Opgelet, de prijzen tot 2002 staan nog in BF.

Zoek je de goedkoopste energieleverancier van elektriciteit of gas, doe dan de V-test van de VREG.

Eerste hulp bij duurzame energie

Het kenniscentrum IDEG verleent steun en advies aan bedrijven i.v.m. de integratie van duurzame energietoepassingen in gebouwen. Maar daarnaast is het ook een kennisplatform dat op zijn website in de techniekenmatrix nuttige technische documentatie beschikbaar stelt over warmtepompen, zonneboiler, zonnecellen en ventilatie.

'Alles' over energie besparen

in je woning of je bedrijf (in Vlaanderen) vind je hier. Deze site van de Vlaamse overheid bevat massa's besparingstips, eenvoudige energiecalculators, uitleg over het energieprestatiecertificaat (EPC), over het K-peil en het E-peil, energie-audits, adressen van energiedeskundigen, informatie over duurzame energie, etc.
En niet alleen de particuliere bouwheer, maar ook bedrijven, architecten en organisaties kunnen hier terecht voor zeer nuttige informatie.

Wil je aan de slag, maar zou je toch ook graag wat financiële ondersteuning krijgen, neem dan een kijkje hier

(Un)happy Earth Overshoot Day

source: DS 19/08/2010

According to the Global Footprint calculation method, today we exceed nature's budget for this year. And what is worse, every year we reach this 'overshoot day' earlier.

Calculate your own footprint and learn what you can do to reduce your ecological impact on the earth.

Near zero energy buildings

Since the recast of the EPBD (Energy Performance of Buildings Directive) in May 2010, all new buildings in the EU member states will have to be near zero energy from December 31st 2020 on.


A huge challenge with a lot of remaining questions to which current IEA - ECBCS research (Annex 52 on Net zero energy solar buildings) and other sources (SB10 Towards 0-impact buildings and environment) try to find some of the answers.

Solar Decathlon

I hope to participate once with our students to the Solar Decathlon.

The Solar Decathlon challenges university teams to design, build and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient and attractive.

Check out some photo's of earlier designs.
Next Solar Decathlon US in 2011 in Washington with Ghent University as the only European team selected for this competition.
Next Solar Decathlon Europe in 2012 in Madrid

Trias Energetica

Such a simple principle, but so effective to create energy efficient buildings.

http://www.triasenergetica.com/

Creation of net zero energy buildings means maximising the first 2 steps to avoid step 3.