Passive Town Kurobe Model is conceptualised to be a sustainable community project in Kurobe City, Japan with a population of about 42000, and home to several international industries. This housing complex with 36 units will be rented to the employees’ families and other citizens. The construction is scheduled to be completed in March 2016. As a possible model of Sustainable Community for the near future, the project aims social, economic, and environment solutions through the use of high natural potentials of the region, low-energy passive design techniques in the building and landscape towards reducing high energy consumption, symbiotic and responsive living with the social and natural environment milieu to activate the local community. “Advanced Passive Climate Charts” and other design tools are utilized to discuss design strategies with relevant details. Natural comfort is expected to be accounted for by utilizing the local climate potentials, such as: warmness, coolness according to the varied seasons while envisaging new lifestyles open to nature as well as the social environment. Energy consumption in the apartment is expected to be reduce through the use of passive design techniques, renewable bio-energy and solar panels, and active mechanical systems. The project is envisaged to be a possible local solution for global issues to respond to social-lifestyle changes and peoples’ needs, and supplementing economic necessities through reduce energy and water consumption, and a possible alternative solution to the nature-human dichotomy in some modern habitats milieu.
Passive Town Kurobe Model – A sustainable community project in Kurobe
Changes in Culture and Architecture from Vernacular to Modern: M.P., India
India is known for its rich cultural heritage. The culture plays an important role in defining the architecture of a place or people with time. Madhya Pradesh is one of the states of India. The objective of the paper is to study the changes in culture and architecture from vernacular to modern of Madhya Pradesh. Vernacular architecture has been evolved through a process of trial and error for ages. In Methodology the vernacular and urban dwellings are documented and analyzed on various parameters of culture and architecture. The dwelling of potters and bamboo workers are selected from vernacular and urban settlement. The two typical dwelling from BHEL, Bhopal is selected from an urban settlement. The result focuses on influences of urbanization and globalization which brought threat to cultural identity. The urban settlements are designed according to the economic status of the residents without considering their culture. The analysis is to adapt the appropriate technology using locally available material and construction techniques for a sustainable development. It requires an innovative and creative approach to integrate vernacular into the modern architecture. The paper concludes by learning and appreciating the principles of vernacular architecture and integrating them with the contemporary knowledge and technology.
A quiet revolution: Mapping energy use in low carbon communities
Recent Government funding in the UK has enabled 22 low carbon community organisations to work with the private and academic sector to understand and reduce energy consumption in domestic and non-domestic buildings. This has helped communities prepare for policy mechanisms such as the national Green Deal programme which aims to improve existing housing and non-domestic buildings by offering up-front loans to be repaid by energy savings. This paper presents the role and application of a
unique carbon mapping approach, which has enabled five of these low carbon communities to rapidly assess on a house-by-house level, the potential for improving the energy efficiency of their housing stock. DECoRuM, an award-winning GIS-based carbon counting model is used to measure, model, map and manage energy use and CO2 emission reductions from approximately 1,300 houses across five communities, displaying estimates of energy use and carbon emissions before and after community action. Incremental packages of energy saving measures and low carbon technologies are assessed for their impact on CO2 emissions to reveal further potential for large-scale refurbishment in the local area. Eligibility for the Green Deal is tested to show that on average 72 per cent of homes over all communities are suitable for finance. Through community events, results are visualised and fed back to the householders using colour-coded spatial maps along with thermal imaging. Findings from this study are relevant for policy-making and practitioners engaged in area-based carbon reductions.
The Catalyst Role of School Architecture in Enhancing Children’s Environmental Behavior
The interrelationships between school design and children learning are well established. Less evident is the relationship between sustainable school design and the level of environmental behaviour of the children in attendance. Newly erected primary schools in Australia have been broadly graded as either sustainable or conventional. This paper evaluates the impact of both sustainable and conventional school design on children’s environmental behaviour, and examines the correlation between school design and children’s environmental behaviour.
624 children, aged 10-12 years old, completed a survey. This sample, from seven selected primary schools in Victoria (Australia), includes four conventional schools and three sustainable ones. The survey was developed according to GEB (General Ecological Behavior) scale and a few more school specific variables.
The outcome of the survey was analyzed using an independent sample t-test and two-way between groups ANOVA in order to assess environmental behavior differences of children in both sustainable and conventional schools taking into account factors that either explicitly and/or implicitly impact on their behavior such as sustainable school design, teachers’ environmental behavior and parents’ environmental behavior.
The results show statistically significant differences in environmental behavior of children in sustainable schools and those in conventional schools. Comparing the means of children’s environmental behavior indicates that children in sustainable schools posses higher levels of pro-environmental behavior than children in conventional schools.
The paper highlights the strong relationships between school design and children’s environmental behavior, and expands recognition of the role of environmentally sensitive school design not only to improve learning environments but more specifically to engage children ecologically with their immediate built environment.
Design, Development and Construction of an Outdoor Testing Facility for STPV Modules
Building-integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) is one of the most promising technologies enabling buildings to generate on-site part of their electricity needs while performing architectural functionalities. A clear example of BIPV products consists of semi-transparent photovoltaic modules (STPV), designed to replace the conventional glazing solutions in building façades. Accordingly, the active building envelope is required to perform multiple requirements such as provide solar shading to avoid overheating, supply solar gains and thermal insulation to reduce heat loads and improve daylight utilization. To date, various studies into STPV systems have focused on their energy performance based on existing simulation programs, or on the modelling, normally validated by limited experimental data, of the STPV modules thermal behaviour. Taking into account that very limited experimental research has been conducted on the energy performance of STPV elements and that the characterization in real operation conditions is necessary to promote an energetically efficient integration of this technology in the building envelope, an outdoor testing facility has been designed, developed and built at the Solar Energy Institute of the Technical University of Madrid. In this work, the methodology used in the definition of the testing facility, its capability and limitations are presented and discussed.
Ideahaus: A Comfortable Home for the UK’S Future Climate
This paper describes the result of a project to develop climate adaptation design strategies funded by the UK’s Technology Strategy Board. The aim of the project was to look at the threats and opportunities presented by industrialised and lightweight housebuilding techniques in the light of predicted increases in flooding and overheating. This case study presents detailed concept designs for a future systemised housing product which can be Industrialised, Delightful, Efficient and Adaptable; an IDEAhaus.
How Do Occupants Perceive the Building Performance of Award-Winning Schools in the UK
School design can contribute to reducing carbon emissions and raising environmental awareness among the next generation. A good school environment can have positive effects on occupant behaviour, mood and working productivity, etc. This paper selected three RIBA award-winning schools as research examples in order to investigate how the occupants perceive the actual building performance of their school, and its impact on their use of the building. Post-occupancy evaluation (POE) based on occupant surveys and interview was linked to internal environmental performance and energy use. Generally, the feedback was satisfactory. However, some aspects of the buildings’ environmental performance, such as air quality, lighting environment and thermal comfort, were considered unsatisfactory by school staff at certain times. This study indicated that there are gaps between design intent and actual building performance, and also highlighted the importance of the relationship between school design and school users. Design suggestions to achieve a better school environment are identified in the conclusion.
Exploring the first European residential project receiving the ‘outstanding’ BREEAM certificate
The importance of demonstration projects in the process towards more sustainable building is endorsed. It is noticed that performances on sustainability of these projects are rarely proven by leading and widely used multi criteria assessment and rating tools. This research focuses on a project for sustainable grouped housing intended to act as a demonstration project and awarded with the BREEAM ‘outstanding’ certificate.
The main objective of this paper is to explore and position this assessed and rated project between renowned European demonstration and best practice projects. First, implemented design measures are unveiled which led to the ‘outstanding’ pre-design certificate. Second, detected design measures are compared with prevailing sustainability measures in a ‘real-life’ cross case confrontation. Third, a SWOT analysis is made concerning innovative, deviant or exceptional measures within the context of Flanders/Europe.
It is concluded that, pending the completion of the construction phase, the assessed and rated project cannot be designated as ‘demonstration or best practice project’. Intended and/or actual measures are insufficient regarding the full scope of sustainability.
From zero-energy building to zero-energy neighbourhood: urban form and mobility matter
“Zero-Energy” Building (ZEB) is arousing more and more interest internationally, both in policies aiming at a more sustainable built environment (such as the European Directive PEB that will require, for example, all new buildings to be “nearly Zero-Energy” Buildings (nZEB) by 2020) and in the scientific literature. Although Zero-Energy can be considered at different scales, this approach only adopts the perspective of the individual building and neglects phenomena linked to larger scales. Therefore, this paper aims at investigating the “Zero-Energy Neighbourhood” concept. It proposes a calculation method that takes into account three main topics: the energy consumption of buildings, the impact of the location on the energy consumption for daily mobility and the use of renewable energies. An application of this calculation method to two representative case studies (one urban neighbourhood and one suburban neighbourhood) is proposed. Main parameters that act upon the energy balance are highlighted and combined to propose concrete results to improve our built environment and move towards more sustainability. Hourly and monthly balances, the potential of “energy
mutualisation” and smart grids are keys challenges that are of crucial importance in the scope of a Zero-Energy objective at the neighbourhood scale.
Totora: A sustainable Insulation Material for the Andean Parts of Peru
In the Andean areas of Peru (above 12,000 feet 3,657 meters) altitude) rural communities are characterized by extreme poverty, precarious roads, and dwellings without heating systems nor the most common types of conventional construction materials that might provide thermal protection. In 2002, the weather in the Andes changed, generating temperatures as low as -16 degrees Fahrenheit (-26 degrees Celsius), creating major heating deficits in the majority of the adobe houses. “Totora” (Schoenoplectus Tatora), an aquatic plant that grows in Lake Titicaca at 12,500 ft (3,810 meters) above sea level, available in most rural areas in Puno, is sold as an inexpensive mattress. Samples of woven mats of Totora were exported from Peru and tested in a laboratory at the University of Minnesota following the ASTM Standard C1155 to find its R-value. The results indicate that the Totora ‘mattress’ has an R-value that is approximately eight times higher than adobe of the same thickness. Additionally, the findings show that Totora can be used as a sustainable insulation on walls, windows and doors by applying it as an external layer to new or existing houses. This solution could improve the interior comfort of the houses and the quality of life in the rural Andean communities of Peru.