Applications of Sustainable Architecture

Applications of sustainable ArchitectureSustainability What it right smart for ArchitectureAbstractThis thesis considers what sustainability doer to computer interior designerure, and how architects rump utilise their know leadge to non besides check into a greener future(a) for constructions, but to stir a better understanding of sustainability on a far wider scale. The atomic number 18as under study include an idea of the technical, social, and financial and zipper-saving aspects of sustainable teaching. Research proposes that systematic look and study into what sustainability fuddleds jackpot help the fancy to be to a greater extent fully mum and better implemented in industry. Research is secondary, and engagements three field studies which I accept selected for their relevance to my digit interests and which I believe represent a unique and innovative approach to the concept and rendering of sustainability in architecture.IntroductionContemporary defini tions of sustainability suggest that it is a generic line which encompasses many aras of society and industry, including creates, transport, and public put. Sustainable architecture has been defined as a cultural edifice in that it is a label for a revised conceptualization of architecture A sustainable design is a creative adaptation to ecological, sociocultural and built contexts (in that order of priority), supported by credible viscous arguments.1 This dissertation hears to address and discuss the varied ways in which sustainability relates to architecture, including physical constraints, impaction of sustainable design, policy- qualification and social trends and ineluctably, and the availability of resources with which to build sustainable architecture. For architects sustainability and its implications have become of great value and importance fin all(prenominal)y changing the direction of architecture as a discipline and practical science. I believe that the ve rge sustainability is a term thrown around real often without much thought as to what it means often beca delectation it is a concept of such great depth with potentially world-changing consequences and that the concept accepts far much(prenominal) question if it is to be fully implemented on a mass scale.Throughout this thesis, I seek to define my own professional and creative interpretation of sustainable architecture by examining and take careing from the wee of others. In my structuring of the thesis I have narrowed down these interests to focus on three break areas as represented by three chosen case studies. These are to includeChapter One. Technical sustainability Werner SobekThis chapter examines how German engineer and architect Werner Sobek has integrated sustainable technical features into the design of his ecological nucleotide. The social housing bottom of the inning zed labour in London is also examined for its contributions to exploitation a clearer u nderstanding of how architects might mix sustainable technology into their designs.Chapter Two. Social Sustainability Seattle program program library OMA. This chapter considers the impact and fly the coop of the public building for the immediate neighbourhood, and why the development is socially important.Chapter Three. Economical and Energetic Sustainability at seatdington.This chapter examines the key features of the Bed Zed pop out and what energy-saving and sparing incentives the project offers to the wider biotic association. Now one of the nigh well-known sustainable social housing developments, designed by Bill Dunster Architects, Bed Zed provides a usable and insightful point of comparison for the other studies. This allows me to prize the changes and improvements which sustainable development has undergone over the last decade.Chapter One Technical Sustainability Werner SobekAs outlined by Stevenson and Williams the important documentals of sustainability inc lude significantly reducing greenho physical exercise gas emissions, conserving resources, creating well-structured and gummy communities, and maintaining a consistent and successful economy2. For architecture these concepts have opened up a spic-and-span industry involving use of alternative often re-usable materials, which offers the architect space to experiment with sweet designs. A considerable body of research exists into the best use of tress materials, offering guidance to architects and construction companies. For subject, in 2000 The Building Research Establishment published a opus called a green guide to construction materials which presents Life Cycle Assessment studies of various materials and their surroundingsal impacts3. Whereas zip Efficiency Best Practice in Housing have already established through research that at that place is global pressure to ensure that construction materials are sustainable.4Sobeks design of his own sustainable home has been describ ed as an ecological show house of precise minimalism.5 Its principal design is of a cube wrapped in a glass shield, where all components are recyclable. The nearly obviously sustainable technical feature is the buildings modular design glass panels and a steel sick, which forms a lightweight structure. Sorbeks work illustrates a high degree of thought behind the architects conceptual understanding of sustainability. Sorbek has obviously thought about what sustainability means and has implemented his knowledge to create an example from which future practitioners ordain learn. In Sobeks work we see the high degree to which he has embraced new technology and make sophisticated use of new materials, while also maximising user easiness by incorporating sensor and controlling technology. Further much, the use of arbitrarily convertible ducts makes the use of traditional composites un needed. Thus, Sorbek is progressing the discipline of sustainable architecture, branching out into bo lder, and stranger designs, which displace the functionality and detract saleability from traditional designs.In contemporary sustainable designs there needs to be a regularity and simplicity of form as this seems best to reflect the sustainable philosophy of the architect. As Papenek said of the designs of ecologically sensitive projects common sensation must(prenominal) prevail when a design is planned.6 Considering the example of Sobek it is clear that sustainable building although fairly simple can neverthe little view from a range of theoretical models in its designs. For example, the influence of traditional, even classical traditions will never be entirely absent from contemporary design more thanover contemporary sustainable designs require a re-assessment of architectural theory and practice. As Williamson et al phrases itgreen, ecological, and environmental are labels that embody the notion that the design of buildings should primally bewilder account of their re lationship with and impact on the natural environment .. labels refer to a particular dodge employed to achieve the conceptual outcome, and the strategies that occur in a handling must be understood as instances from a range of theoretical possibilities. The promotion of a restricted range of strategic options regulates the discourse and the ways of practising the discipline .. Overall, practitioners modify their concept of their discipline to embrace these new themes, concerns and ways of practice.7Ways in which these theoretical influences might be expressed include experiments in symmetry, and regularity of form. Very often, as shown by Sobeks work, the sustainable features require certain areas of space which can be unified under the more common purpose of working collaboratively. At Bed Zed in London any artistic compromises are more than compensated for by the provision of its own renewable energy. Forms, although not ambitious or ornamental do adhere to the Vitruvian princi ples of symmetry, where symmetry is defined as A proper agreement amid the members of the work itself, and relation among the diverse parts and the whole general scheme, in accordance with a certain part selected as standard.8In the BedZed project the regular layout, consisting of the assimilation of many component parts, reflects the sense of collaboration amongst the different companies which joined forces to create BedZed, and also the partnership feel amongst the hoi polloi who live there. at that place is for certain a sense of completeness, deriving from the presence of many different units, fortified by sustainable features, where vents of varying colours detract from the strict regularity of forms, creating a light-hearted and sunny aspect. Order and symmetry are integral to the design, as without these principles the amalgamation of materials and technological apparatus has the potential to look untidy. In both Sorbeks project and at Beddington the presence of many turnows, and solar panelled roofs, will come to symbolise not a lost tradition of architecture, but the securing of conceptual ideologies which aim to combine practicality with ecological sound principles and materials.Chapter Two. Social Sustainability Seattle Library OMA.The Seattle Central Library, that opened in 2004, offers a unique blend of technical and social sustainability where multi-functional spaces are unite with the most recent and effective orders of construction. An important feature of the librarys placement is that it occupied the aforesaid(prenominal) site as the previous library. All too often new developments such as the saucily proposed re-building of the Thomas Cooper Library at USC, Columbia involve purchasing a bigger site, often removed from the original location. This changing of location alters the layout of the city or town and then changes the social self-propelling of the area as well as the ways in which the public use the building. Designed by OMA Architects (Rem Koolhaas) and LMN Architects, the Seattle library has become one of the most famous buildings in North America9. Athens attributes this rise to fame to the buildings daring form, soaring spaces, and unique interpretation of library functionality, as well as organism a primarily green building with a LEED certification.The building is an irregular shape this is necessary in order to maximise the exposure of the high performance glazing system to the light. A triple-layered glass wall allows for people at bottom to have a shaded view out, while having plenty of daylight in the interior. One of the most sustainable features of contemporary projects should be to maximise daylight in spite of appearance the building and make best use of the energy that the sun affords. This not only means a greener ethic behind the buildings construction but also encourages people to make more use of the building as a public space, eg for conferences, functions etc. The Seattle Libr ary seeks to mark out a new definition of what public space means to the public, and how such a space can be multi-functional and dynamic in nature and design. Furthermore, the function of the building is not entirely contained to the immediate area or immediate society. For instance, the library has a rainwater collection system that is combined with a storm water detention store. This means that the 40,000 gallon tank makes use of the required stormwater detention tank and increases its size by about 50% offering supererogatory storage capacity for landscape irrigation, thus both conserving natural resources and benefiting the topical anesthetic farming and economic community. This library project is of particular relevance to the subject of this dissertation as it made use of LEED NC points an assessment method for the sustainable points of a building as it is created. The Seattle library LEED NC points check highlighted social credits as existence 28%This project is a go od example of how sustainable development can benefit the community and promote social engagement within the design process. As expressed by Athens,10 by its very nature, design process can represent the social side of sustainability because it is all about the people problematictheir vision, creativity, and collaborative skills. Because the library project was aiming to provide a bombastic community of people with an important service, and because the project needed to ensure a high level of longevity for the building, an extra three months was taken onwards the actual project design in order to research and map out the future of libraries their evolution, functionality and use of technology. Athens explains that this process served to question assumptions computeing the core purpose of the project, and assess fundamental concepts for how needs could be met.11The Bed Zed project in London although a social housing development provides a useful point of contrast to the Seattl e project. For example, Bed Zed is a good example of how topical anaesthetic government can work with topical anaesthetic society, in a community-based project. While Athens expresses, social aspects are harder to define as value propositions within the triple bottom line, and are often thought of as externalities,12 it was the primary objective of the Bed Zed project to ensure that all parties were represented and consulted throughout the course of the project. In this way the social sustainability of the project is best achieved as once completed, the residents of the 82 homes have expressed their enthusiasm for the project, play up its convenience, its thoughtfulness in design, and its energy-efficiency. As Buckingham said of the social cohesion that went into the Bed Zed project, and which the project itself precipitatedthither is a synergy from building on these links so that capacity building is achieved through confederation in delivering topical anesthetic environmenta l sustainability projects and policies. Greater capacity as the sum of the collective work make in various initiatives is greater than the respective(prenominal) parts or partners, and, overall, individual projects and initiatives have a cocksure impact locally regarding environmental sustainability..The design provides a carefully researched balance between the needs of residents, businesses and community activities the need for sunlight and daylight an economic construction system and high levels of insulation without losing contact with the orthogonal world.13As designers Bill Dunster Associates have noted, the true value of any site is determined by the list of accommodation the local planning area sub-committee will allow to be built on it-empowering local communities to promote zero emissions developments, without relying on large central government grants, or asking the developer to pay for the increase building costs of super efficient urban fabric.14 Thus, in the desig n and implementation of sustainable projects it is necessary for architects to work closely and liaise with the local planning committee, stakeholders, and potential residents.Chapter Three Energetic and Economic SustainabilityIn this chapter I seek to define the nature and importance of low-energy expenditure in construction and how to lower the buildings eventual energy output through new and innovative designs. Bed ZED Project, or Beddington Zero Energy Development, is the UKs largest carbon-neutral eco-community in the UK. It was built in 2002 in Wallington, within the London Borough of Sutton, and offers 82 residential homes. The Project was developed by the Peabody Trust, a social housing initiative in London, that aims to fight distress within the capital. The aim of this project was to build in partnership with both an architect and an environmental consultancy firm, in order to create a housing project that incorporates new approaches to energy conservation and sustainabil ity, and to develop a thriving community to live within it15.The BedZed design is unique for having incorporated a zero energy policy, where the energy that the buildings inhabitants need is produced by renewable sources generated on site.16 Reclaimed materials were employ, including appalboards, bollards, and timber.17 It is a large site, including a sports field, offering 50 dwelling spaces per hectare, 120 workspaces per hectare, and over 4000m2 of green open space per hectare.18 role of space is a key component of the design the roofs of workspaces are use as gardens, where in comparable circumstances, most densities might only have room for a balcony.19 According to the designers of BedZED, the combination of super-insulation, a wind driven ventilation system incorporating heat recovery, and passive solar gain stored within each plain by thermally massive floors and walls, reduces the need for both electricity and heat to the point where a one hundred thirty-five kW wood fuelled combined heat and power plant (chp) can meet the energy requirements for a community of around 240 residents and 200 workers.20 The community treats all its black and grey water on site, and collects rainwater to minimise mains water consumption. A photovoltaic installation provides enough solar electricity to power 40 electric cars and the community has the capability to lead a carbon neutral lifestyle-with all energy for buildings and local transport organism supplied by renewable energy sources. Other environmentally sensitive practices include community composting and plans for urban gardening on part of the adjoining Metropolitan Open Land, subject to local imprimatur approval. Using the Bio-Regional principles of local material and labour sourcing stimulating the local economy, and minimising pollution from transportation, the team is now developing a site based prefabrication technique. Buckingham records that on-site workshops took second hand materials directly fr om demolition sites, cleaning up both timber and steel, and using simple jigs to build structural frames. Materials for this development such as new hardwoods, including oak and chestnut were sourced from local WWF Forest Stewardship Council approved woodland. Whereas local brick, concrete aggregate and precast floor planks were all sourced within 35 miles of the site, thus ensuring that all bulky materials have a reduced corporeal energy.21It is important for architecture to embrace and promote new sustainable housing as a feasible and prosperous alternative to renovating older style homes and installing sustainable features as to the potential home-owner an affordable, sustainable home is far more likely to be a more overpriced asset of the future, offering them more efficient use of energy and a better quality of life. As highlighted by Glasgow Housing Association22 the most toxic build up of emissions occurs within the home, rather than outside the home, which is why new developments have greater viability for meeting the needs of housing associations and potential inhabitants. As stated in The Architectural Review, BedZed is a theme of radical architectural design, and deserves to be seen within a wider context as a model for future volume housing.23 In terms of sustainability BedZed betters the Millennium Village as it includes photovoltaic cells and individual power units, and the estrus requirements of BedZED homes are around 10% of that of a typical home.24 On their design of BedZed, Bill Dunster Architects is quoted as say that it was a high profile housing development designed to be carbon neutral eco-housing with apparent(prenominal) eco styling25 one where the houses were designed around a heat and power unit that operates on heat and electricity from tree waste26.The project, did however, run over cypher and well over its timescale due to problems in implementing the design and generating a truly sustainable outcome.As discussed by Williamson et al, sustainable design can be problematic in decision processes being made throughout the design processIn practice an architect must make many decisions quickly and simply, on the basis of apparent fittingness with the right thing to do rather than deep analysis. Designers are also typically concerned with many decisions at the same time, transposition from one to another in an attempt to find a fit between them, and initially regard most decisions as provisional anyway. Moreover, design problems are notoriously difficult to manage, to the extent of being labelled wicked.Whereas traditional strategies for decision- make and overcoming problems might rely upon an architects experience and ability to identify key features of a new situation and apply their knowledge correctly, within the relatively new field of sustainable architecture, architects have to make decisions based on the work of others. As Williams and Radford suggestskilful practitioners learn to conduct frame experiments in which they impose a kind of coherence on messy situations and thereby discover consequences and implications of their chosen frames. Long webs of what if I try this? speculations are spun out in the process of making a design. In this way designers come to understand the possibilities and scope of a problem through a circle of making proposals and reflecting on their implications. From time to time, their efforts to give order to a situation provoke unexpected outcomes back bawl out that gives the situation a new meaning. They listen and reframe the problem.27It is this ability to problem frame to on-the-spot experiment, and detect the consequences and implications of sustainable designs that will allow architects to succeed in creating truly sustainable designs designs which do not overrun budget or time-frames, but which seek to make a compromise between the interests of all parties and the resources available. As suggested by a number of researchers inclu ding Buckingham and Healey, building local knowledge and building on local knowledge within civil society is key to the development of social capital and institutional capital.28 Healey comments on the importance of local knowledge within different areas of civil society, and suggests that there is a need for local government to learn about different social worlds from which stakeholder groups and organisations come.29AnalysisThe case studies under discussion have exhibited the varied considerations and implications that sustainable development involves. Contemporary projects require an interdisciplinary approach one that consolidates information and can be used as a resource for future projects and research. As expressed by Hinchcliffe et al calculations and projections for the economic viability of sustainable projects require making what springly might be held to be no expertise as a resource for possible innovation, and to think of a project whereby expertise is less about dis tant judgments and more about learning to gather together in innovative ways.30A thorough means of assessing to a specific degree the sustainability of projects can be achieved by measures such as the LEED NC, which should be a valuable and essential element of architectural practice. What the case studies have shown is that all sustainable projects need to be cohesive stakeholders, interested parties, need to be involved and to work with the architect, if the sustainable aims are to be achieved. What all the sustainable developments under study have shown is that sustainable development is concerned with creating a build that is durable, while being economically, energetically, and practically sustainable. The overriding principle as expressed by company Sustainable Build is that less is more, and it is easy for a design to run over its budget simply by onerous to include too much or be too clever. Thus, a professional architect will need to aim for simplicity and functionality , and aim to make optimum utilization of space, often by thinking dual-purposefully as shown by the water tank at Seattle Library. Peter Fawcett sums up the contemporary relationship between architecture and sustainability offering an explanation to the question posed at the beginning of this thesisPeople may ask what does sustainability mean for architecture? but perhaps the proper question is what does architecture mean for sustainability? The former question suggests a weak approach to sustainability, i.e. an implicit assumption that sustainability has implications (possibly serious) for our present ways of procuring the built environment but those ways are basically appropriate. The latter question recognizes sustainability as the overarching concern, in terms of which all social disciplines and conduct must be reinterpreted and reformulated.31As mentioned above, sustainable development is about keeping within the means of a realistic and attainable budget and within the a ims and scope of the people involved. It is not only about installing energy efficient and environmentally friendly appliances, some of which can be expensive and where the paybacks may not materialise for some time but also about recycling and making the most use out of natural materials and other materials which may have been discarded or dismissed.32 antithetical people have different environmental goals that they wish to achieve, and each sustainable development will thus reflect these goals. Benefits to the community and to the individual can be huge, and often simultaneous. however more than this, sustainable development is more of an umbrella term that affects (or should affect) the ways in which people live and build within their environments, and how these attitudes and practices can evolve and make best use of these environments.In an article for the Guardian, architect Bill Dunster expresses his concerns that green-living should not mean dull livingI find the checklist -orientated green movement very dull. I am in a bad way(p) about eco-fascism and a distinct loss of joie de vivre33 With respect to the designs studied in this thesis there is certainly a lively, contemporary feel to the design of the Seattle project, combined with an optimum utilisation of space. Again, in the Bed Zed project, the symmetry of design and the colours used in the materials created a fun, individual look, that could not easily be replicated. Taking all the above into consideration my own research into what sustainable development means has led me to the conclusion that sustainable architecture does not mean dull or simple living for buildings inhabitants. Rather, the use of sophisticated technology as exemplified by the work of Sorbek can mean a wholly different form of living to traditionally constructed buildings which are not sustainable. This new way of living where space is used differently and more efficiently, and the impact of a persons existence is immedia tely reduced and made to feel sustainable offers a unique and more wholesome existence for the occupier.ConclusionIn conclusion, research for this project has highlighted the term sustainable to relate both directly and indirectly to architecture. While depending upon the social, technical, and financial structure of a project and its outcomes, sustainable development necessitates a flexible and dynamic understanding of energy, its potential, and its conservation. Sustainable development is all too often restricted by the options available, whereby practitioners modify their concept of their sustainability to suit individual projects. Although a degree of flexibility is required in order to modify design projects to suit the needs of all parties involved, it is essential for a professional architect to keep a clear focus on his or her definition of sustainability and what sustainability brings to the discipline and to their working life. In this way architects such as Sorbek can e nsure that they create examples of truly sustainable architecture that can be used to teach younger architects entree into the profession.As explained by Williamson et al, the practice of the discipline of sustainable architecture is necessarily subject to concepts and strategies based on common themes or concerns where the continuation, small shifts, fundamental transformations, or replacement of issues can be affected by institutional settings such as political events, changes in technologies, scientific discoveries, calamities (actual or imagined) or economic practices and processes.34 Seen in this way, says Williamson et al, green, ecological, and environmental are labels that embody the notion that the design of buildings should fundamentally take account of their relationship with and impact on the natural environment, but the practice of implementing these concepts into physical realities requires a much deeper and more inherent understanding of what sustainability means f or design, operation, and budget of a project. Designs of longevity thus require an intelligent assimilation and interpretation of cultural trends and the ability to envision how a design might be embraced by future generations. Designs for the BedZed project might appear to have compromised some aesthetic elements in favour of cost and time efficient means of production. Yet these principles are essential to the future of housing design if the demands of the housing market are going to be met. Design thus involves incorporating aspects of the traditional, and the classical, in a new and dynamic housing solution, whereby the traditional principles of an architecture will never disappear from design, but will necessarily adopt a more subtle position in the ideologies of contemporary architects.The potential remains for further research into the construction of more gracious buildings than the BedZed project, but perhaps less expensive than the Seattle library. Sustainability is about finding middle ground between sustainable objectives and availability of resources and the type of budget available. Research has shown that it is possible to construct buildings which can incorporate the fundamental technologies to propitiate sustainability, but remain aesthetically impressive or even monumental in their design. Yet it is important to remember that building with sustainability in mind is still a recent trend, and one that has not yet overridden the non-ecological techniques of mass housing developments which are all too often seen as the easier, cheaper option for local governments. Therefore, sustainable designs remain very much in their infancy and future research will require sustained interest and financial support from both architects and from Governments alike if they are to be incorporated into mainstream architectural