CH2

The Council House 2 building in Melbourne was designed in part of a politic of zero emission for the municipality by 2020, which aims to reduce the consumption of commercial buildings in 50%. The design is from Mick Pearce the architecture firm Designinc and it is based on biomimicry, with its elements based on the 'laws of nature'.

It was awarded with six-star by the Green Building Council of Australia. Its mains design innovation  is to provide a hundred percent of fresh air to its users and also contributes significantly to reduce energy consumption. It has also solar panels, abundant natural light, window mullions that reduce city glare, vertical planting on the facade to improve air quality and internal ambient quality, water collection, reuse and plant treatment, timber shutters to regulate sunlight in internal spaces, and other systems.

If we spend one third of our lives sleeping and, let's say, another one third working it would be really nice if we had fresh air in our work spaces. The innovative approach of this project in bringing fresh air to its user it is for me the most valid aspect of this project. It would be great if we had this solution in all our commercial buildings!

Image Source: Snape, D, 2013, CH2 Melbourne City Council House 2 / DesignInc. Accessed 27 April 2014 < http://www.archdaily.com/395131/ch2-melbourne-city-council-house-2-designinc/>

Source: City of Melbourne, 2014, CH2 Council House 2. Accessed 27 April 2014 <http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/sustainability/ch2/aboutch2/Pages/AboutCH2.aspx/>

The Make It Right Foundation

Founded by the architect William McDonough and the actor Brad Pitt, this project aimed to rebuild 150 houses after the hurricane Katrina, in 2005. The intention was to rebuild this houses in a sustainable way applying the McDonough's "Cradle to Cradle" principles. The houses were designed by worldwide famous architects such Shigeru Ban and Frank Gehry and have LEED Platinum certification.

Initially the homes were designed for people who had lost their homes from the hurricane but after the green homes are also available for other people in the community.

A nice initiative for an urgent cause.

More about the project -Make it Right website

Source: Make it Right, 2014, How We Build. Accessed 25 April 2014 <http://makeitright.org/how-we-build/>

Via Verde

This video talks about the concept of Biophilia, "a hypothesis that describes humans as emotionally connected to all other living systems" and explain the reasons people still want to live in the suburbs, with more contact with the nature.

It discuss the environmental impacts of urban sprawl - that happens in cities around the world - and its demand for infrastructure, pollution by cars and other transportation systems, extra demand for energy, and other many issues.

Obviously, the intention for choosing density - the compact city - is economically viable. However, the compact city is still less sustainable due to the poor design solutions that we find today in almost every urban centre around the world.

The project "Via Verde", designed by Jonathan Rose intends to show that affordable houses can also be sustainable and bring people back to the City without losing the contact with nature that they can find in the suburbs.

Source: PBS, 2009, Affordable Green Houses. Accessed 25 April 2014 <http://vimeo.com/3283424>

Sustainability of Australian Cities

This report shows some significant data about the Australian cities:

- Water - consumption decreased 7% between 2000/01 and 2004/05 in houses, and in Adelaide 40% of households have rainwater tank, while only 7% have it in Sydney.

- Energy - Australia has one of the higher averages of energy consumption per capita in the world and 97% of the energy produced comes from non renewable sources. 35% of the energy consumed in households is used for heating/cooling.

- Climate Change - stationary energy is responsible for 50% of greenhouse gas emissions, agriculture is responsible for 15%, and transport is responsible for 14%. Greenhouse emissions increased 6.5% since 1990. It affects the climate and consequently rainfall patterns, sea levels, and also can aggravate health issues such as respiratory problems and heat stress.

- Air Pollution - the air quality is getting better. However the pollutant levels - carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, volatile organic compounds, ozone, lead, particles - are still on or above standard levels.

- Waste - solid wastes are produced at higher levels if compared to other countries. Construction is the main responsible for wastes - 38%. Landfills were 6% of total wastes in 1992 and in 2005 it reached the mark of 52% of total wastes. Also, from 2002 to 2006 the population grew 5.6% while the waste generation increased 31%.

It is all related to education and consume. If our lifestyle does not change things will not get any better soon or later.

Source:  Australia Dept. of Infrastructure and Transport, Major Cities Unit. 2012. Sustainability of Australian Cities. SKIM the rest.

Masoro Village

Sustainability is not only environmental, but also economic and social. The capacity of a society to  maintain itself economically and socially with equality is as important as to maintain its natural environment's potential to absorb wastes and reproduce itself over the time.

A lot of countries are far from achieve this goal in all this aspects, and moreover, despite of some exceptions, the mankind itself is clearly quite distant from  being environmental, economical and socially sustainable.

One interesting project that intends to improve - or implement - these principles is the 'Earth Bag Projects', by GAC, in Rwanda. The architects team offered their work to help local people to build their homes, in a place where almost everything is imported. So, working with local materials - soil from the site - and applying some simple building techniques with local workforce they are helping the Rwanda people - especially the low-income ones - and helping to improve sustainability in all aspects.

More about the project here.

Sources:

Survant, T, 2014, Support GA Collaborative’s Earthbag Projects in Rwanda: Building Community Through Creative Construction, accessed 14 April 2014 < http://www.archdaily.com/493914/support-ga-collaborative-s-earthbag-projects-in-rwanda-building-community-through-creative-construction/>

Survant, T, 2013, Masoro Village Project. accessed 14 April 2014 < http://www.archdaily.com/430409/masoro-village-project-ga-collaborative/>

ShapedEarth

One interesting new tool for measuring not 'green' buildings, but carbon emissions in materials and processes.

Check it on Archdaily!

Source - Fabrie G,  2014, What’s “Green” Anyway? ShapedEarth’s Accurate, Carbon-Based Alternative, accessed 14 April 2014, <http://www.archdaily.com/494433/shapedearth-a-more-accurate-way-to-measure-green/>

PVs and Wind Energy

Eighty per cent of worldwide CO₂ emissions are direct associated with fossil fuels - our primary source of energy. It also contributes with one third of the methane emissions. It is clear that we need to find or improve other ways of producing energy. The resources are everywhere - sunlight, wind - ready to be used.

Solar energy has been used and developed during the last century mainly through photovoltaic panels - PVs - which are low-polluting and reliable. It can be largely used on the rooftops of buildings and also in the facades. Its efficiency depends on the climate conditions and its position - orientation. Beyond that, PVs can transport energy to batteries, to other buildings, or even sold - as seen in the previous post - like in done in Germany, where the government pays around 0.5 Euro per kWh¹⁰. The disadvantage, once more, is the initial cost.

Wind is also been used as a source of energy for decades, especially in farmlands, with large turbines. However its visual and acoustic impact are two considerable disadvantages of its implementation in a large scale. And it could be implemented in urban areas in small scales, with smaller turbines. This way it could reduce the waste and cost in its transmission. Some factor must be considered, as wind availability in the urban area, its impact in the urban environment and the costs, what make this technology more appropriate for high rise buildings - but not excluding other possibilities. In fact some new building have implemented turbines in the design and despite the challenging of putting a turbine in the top of a building the system is quite efficient.

Together, PVs and wind turbines can help the energy efficiency of our buildings and our cities, and well designed it can also be aesthetically and architecturally very interesting.

 Castle House, London.

Image Source - Andrews, K 2007, Castle House Skyscraper, accessed 10 April 2014, <http://inhabitat.com/castle-house-eco-skyscraper/>.

Source - Ritchie, A; Thomas, R,  2009, Sustainable Urban Design - an environmental approach , Taylor and Francis, 2nd ed, London.

Energy Plus

Another example of sustainable development initiative occurs in Freiburg, Germany. The large use of solar energy by using solar panels at the roofs of the buildings has created the concept of 'energy plus' -  that means the building produces more energy than its use. Freiburg has a good weather and the amount of sunlight during the year is helpful for the energy production.

The negative point is the price - the houses have a relative high-cost initial investment and the residents expect that only after 10 years the exceeding investment will be converted in profit - once they sell the exceeding energy.

Source: ein haus fur die zukunft das plusenergiehaus, accessed 08 April 2014, <http://plusenergiehaus.de>

BedZED

Beddington Zero Energy Development is a housing project designed by Bill Dunster and BioRegional Development Group. It has 82 homes, 2,500m2 total, and was completed in 2002. The propose was to design a place to help people live more sustainably without sacrificing their modern lifestyle.

The main principles were: use energy from renewable sources available on site - mostly solar panels; facades are located to south in order to maximize solar heat; rain water is collected and used, and also wasted water is recycled and reused; materials are eco-friendly - recycled or from sources close to the site to minimize transport; vehicles are shared to reduce pollution and maximize its efficiency. The performance was significative good comparing to UK rates - which are not so good in saving energy.

However, there were several issues in the development of the project: the biomass gasifier did not work and so did not provide energy for the houses; the water recycle system was not working properly; the common farm was not used by the residents; the resident's footprints were reduced but not as expected; the common transport was not well succeeded - the residents still have their own cars and they complained a lot about the site location.

This shows that there was some issues with the design process and in the construction and its maintenance. However it is a great attempt of reducing the footprint by the building's design.

Source: BioRegional Development Group, 2009, BedZED seven years on: The impact of the UK’s best known eco-village and its residents, BioRegional Development Group.

My Ecological Footprint

This is my last year footprint, based on my travels, waste and consume, and lifestyle. A little bit less than my country's average - Brazil - but I'm sure I can still work on that, mainly by buying certified products. I also wish I could had used more my bike, specially to go to work, but the urban infrastructure didn't help me on that. Anyway, it is still a good score!

Source: The Center for Sustainable Economy, accessed 08 April 2014.

< http://myfootprint.org/en/>

ACCORD21

One good example of how we can use technology to reduce - not improve - our waste in building construction and maintenance is the building ACCORD 21, in Beijing.

It takes advantages of natural lighting and ventilation to reduce heat and cooling, uses reflectors, occupancy sensors, solar panels, green roof, and lots of other non-visible systems that helps its functionality and efficiency.

This was the first internationally certified green building in China. It is a 8-story and since its opening it has used 73% less energy and 60% less water than a conventional building!

Imagine this numbers in a large scale..

Source: Natural Resources Defense Council, accessed 31 March 2014. <http://www.nrdc.org/international/chinagbldg/intro.asp>

Like a Tree

One of the oldest and most interesting living organisms are trees. Trees are living examples of how to be integrated with the environment, being essentially part of it, using it to its benefits and at the same time contributing to its development.

Such inspiration on these organisms by some ancient people are not in vain. Behind its peaceful look and its beauty, trees serves as a shelter and home for many species. Not only on the ground but also in the ground, in the soil, where thousands of species get the benefits of trees.

Trees collects its own water and uses the sun and air to get its energy. Its leaves, fruits and flowers fall into the ground and feed it, contributing to its own survive.

Besides that, it freshes the air by diminishing the pollution, reduces the temperature and control humidity - contributing to microclimates - and prevent desertification.

Can we get some inspiration of it?

Source: Neuman, M 2012, ""Sticks and Stones will Make My Bones: Durability in Design", accessed 01 April 2014 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkGZKTjDTvs>