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.
dinsdag 26 oktober 2010
maandag 25 oktober 2010
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.
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.
zaterdag 23 oktober 2010
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.
woensdag 20 oktober 2010
Underground buildings
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| 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.
maandag 18 oktober 2010
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.
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.
zaterdag 16 oktober 2010
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.
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.
dinsdag 5 oktober 2010
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.
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.
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.
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.
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| Guidance of daylight into a cave (Source: unknown) |
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.
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| Source: Steven Holl |
maandag 4 oktober 2010
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).
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).
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