Living Sustained?

by Seann Ringwall
I’m not going to push a bunch of consumer products during this commentary and I’m not trying to add tiny little things for people to add to
their already busy schedules as ways to go green. I would however like to mention great strategies and technologies that are actually capable of
having a noticeable impact on your wallets and the environment. I’m referring more towards those shelter type things we occupy almost entirely
during the day, you know, buildings. I would like to mention that those ‘little’ products I mentioned earlier are great in their own right, but I just
don’t want to add to the already growing problem of green fatigue (Greenberg, 2008). Green fatigue is happening as a result of all the products
being pushed on to consumers these days that are being labeled as environmentally conscious or ‘green’. There is nothing wrong with these
products and many of them do as they advertise. The fact is that there is so many of them (not necessarily a bad thing) that for people that
have been following this green trend (even though it is here to stay) it’s beginning to be a bit much on the consumers. Or so it would seem,
Hightower (2008) makes the argument that it has shifted from one generation to the next and the new recruits are more energetic at getting
their message out.
The replaced generation’s loss of interest
in living sustainably is a big hurt to the
building sectors sustainability, as more often
than not they will be the people responsible
for funding building projects. They have
become so bombarded with ‘green’ they
begin to get bored with it, care less and
think it’s not their problem anymore, nothing
is ever getting done is what it seems like.
That is just the wrong attitude to have which
in turn is hurting the chances that people
will take the next step by building green or
moving into green communities like BedZED
which I’ll discuss later. Since I’ve related the
building sector to consumerism a little here,
I feel that the generally higher price people
are paying for general household green items
leads to the misconception that green cost
grows exponentially with normal products
cost. More often than not the green product
does have a higher upfront cost in buildings,
but over the course of ownership it will have
more than payed for itself. With the waning
interest of potential builders happening on
what would seem like a daily basis and
the misconception about the cost of green
technologies staying at a price that will make
you think twice about if you really want to
live sustainably, it’s time to introduce things
that can be done whether its almost free or
at the NASA can’t afford this range.
Now there are certain ‘low tech’ things being done right now that a lot of people don’t maybe know about and
there are some things that are sort of flooding the market. Several of the products out there now causing green
fatigue in some people are also some of the starting ways in which new greenies start living in a sustainable way,
so it’s hard to reinvent some of the classics as they say. For the people that have already made the rounds of
the consumer products and tired of not seeing any difference made, there are still some beginner steps for you
as well. I’ll be primarily focusing on the building sector since it is responsible for 48% of the pollution out there
(Lechner 2009). So maybe you’re looking at relocating apartments, houses, doing some remodeling, or maybe you
are building a house from scratch, there are plenty of options available that won’t scream the fact that you’re
living sustainably but they’ll make all the difference to later technologies. Now that the excitements building as to
what this magical feature is, that can have such an effect on sustainability, and prepare to be let down, it’s the
orientation. Not quite technological advance like Low-e glazing or photovoltaic’s, but more important in the long
run. Understanding orientation is pretty simple, the sun rises in the east and sets in the west is pretty much what
will determine so much of a buildings passive and active systems. Utilizing the suns natural and constant heating
and lighting during the day will drastically cut down on costs to the owner of a building. Now there is more
to understanding solar that just east and west. There is a whole bunch of mumbo jumbo that would bore even
Stephen Hawking, (I find it quite interesting however) to get at this information you would either have to find a
library and a lot of spare time or perhaps hire the architect you’re going to need anyways. But I must bore you
a little bit by saying make sure you know where the sun hits a particular building or lot that is for sale. The all
too often problem I see when driving around is houses that have a large portion of glazing on the west façade
with venetian blinds covering every window (cutting corners is really paying for itself with that amazing view
right?). I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if I didn’t tell people to think twice before picking a house out of a
cul-de-sac, as there frequently of north-south orientation leaving lots of harsh sun to be dealt with. Getting back
on topic with orientation and solar access brings us to the beauty of the suns power, we can use it or not, the
choice ours (I would strongly recommend using it). So with just a little bit of that architecture magic there will be
plenty of energy savings and the potential to add on later technologies all for the price you were going to pay
regardless, so this one is essentially free and arguably has the most benefits.
In case you were looking to drop a little
extra money and I let you down with that
last strategy, we’ll now look at some ways to
get better use of the sun. To get the best
use of the sun, the building has to be able
to retain some of the heat that it puts out,
called thermal massing. Thermal massing uses
thick walls and floors that can directly collect
in sun’s rays. These walls and floors will cool
during the day and when the sun goes down
at night they begin to release some of the
heat that they have been storing, resulting
in smaller diurnal temperature swings. Now
don’t be thinking you need 8’ thick walls and
floors or anything like that craziness. With
today’s technology these processes can be
done without anyone even noticing. Often the
materials that are capable of thermal mass
are of a better quality than normal dry walled
homes. There are numerous other possibilities
that look to capitalize on our daily dose of
sunshine, but diving further into trombe walls,
direct gain systems and sunspaces teeters on
the realm most people really don’t care to
know about. Just trust me when I say there
good, but any architect should know that. One
of the best ways to show the importance of all
these passive solar systems is a quote from the
foremost passive solar scientist Doug Balcomb,
“Orientation is 80 percent of passive solar
design”. Simply if any of the above mentioned
strategies sounded interesting to anyone, the
best and pretty much only way to go about
achieving their effects is to make sure you
have a house with one of the longer facades
facing south.
Now that I’ve discussed the amazing potential the sun is
capable of providing, which is essentially free (if you are
paying someone for it, you should stop). However too
much sun can result in a pretty wicked sunburn, the same
can go for buildings. However in a building it is generally
just the discomfort of the occupants at stake, and rather
than running expensive and noisy cooling machines (I can
only assume they run on magic) shading devices can be a
relatively cheap alternative. There are many ways to address
shading, first is deciding if you want fixed or moveable
shading. Fixed shading is just that, fixed in place, where
as moveable shading can be as simple or complex as
you want it to be. Now here again I have the option to
bore a cow with no grass to eat, or I can spare you the
gruesome details of shading by just providing a quick run
through. To put it simply, window shading is accomplished
best when horizontal planes are installed above the view
plane on the exterior of a window. However, this can come
at a cost if not in the initial design so are more common
suggestion would be to use one of the greatest inventions
ever (Lechner 2009), the venetian blind. These blinds can
be open or shut and everything in between and can be
fairly inexpensive. Another great way to shade naturally
is the planting of trees, planters, or trellises. Often times
the leaves of these plants, provided deciduous is chosen,
will fall off around the time the sun is desired resulting
in great shading during the summer and solar access
during the winter. Although care should be taken as a tree
without leaves can still block plenty of sun. The trellises
and planters will also more than likely need to be taken
down by the occupant, as well as kept up and cleaned
up creating a little more work. I really support the use
of vegetation as shading because it is a natural element
capable of doing more than one thing, always a plus in
my book.
There is also the option of actually having your glazing
do the shading for you. The glazing that is utilized for
the project can be tinted, blocking radiation, or it could
have a reflective surface, blocking even more radiation.
These are fairly attractive options as they preserve the
view that windows are often put into buildings for, but
like most perfect choices, getting the selective glazing
desired can come at a price (it is lowering though),
but another pro in this feature is that windows can
be replaced after the design is complete so go ahead
and buy that house on the hill with all the shattered
windows. If you thought basic selective coat glazing
was to generic, the great glass manufactures have been
developing several different types of glazing capable of
self tinting in different levels of radiation or lighting,
currents can also be applied to glazing to realign crystals
creating shade at desired times. And you thought glass
just sat there getting dirty, tsk tsk.
Moving on to ways to cool down passively isn’t that far off from everything covered thus far. The best ways is already
using what is there. Indigenous people knew this well when they would carve into sides of cliffs, getting both sun and
shade, and using that large mass there next to, to cool during the day and heat at night. There were also the earth
lodges and adobe houses that yet again use the materials off the earth to provide a thick protection from the elements
and maintaining a comfortable temperature swing between day and night (I wonder if they googled this). The common
theme here (as if it wasn’t obvious) is that the earth does more than its fair share for providing protection for us, while
we humans in all our glory insist on digging giant holes and cutting down forests to help create shelters that were already
provided for us in some way or another. The lessons learned from the past can help to place openings and buildings in
better locations (orientation? You bet) to take full advantage of the earth’s systems.
Before you go and freak out for not realizing that such basic and almost primitive steps could be done to create an
occupant and future technology friendly building, humans have done a pretty decent job and coming up with add-ons if
you will that can bring any building up to the 21st century. Now I can move to some of the celebrity green pieces. I’ll first
start with wind energy. Most of you have probably seen at least once, a giant windmill spinning effortlessly on the horizon.
As a kid I never knew what they were used for, I actually thought they were just for show (not the smartest guess I’ve
ever had, but I’m still learning). The problem with some of the wind turbines is the amount of space they must occupy,
and that they must be placed in certain areas with constant wind of a certain velocity so that they are always doing work.
However the land they are placed on is still capable of being used as farmland. Today they are actually capable of being
building integrated. As mentioned earlier where wind can create positive and negative spaces in flow, usually cause by how
a building is placed, allows for harnessing of that wind. On a flat roof when the wind becomes directed just over the edge
of because of the pressure areas, they is the possibility to put small wind turbines on that edge capturing the high velocity
wind generated. These aren’t exactly the wind mills your parents might know, and they are frequently getting better to look
at as well as more practical for everyday people to integrate them into their buildings.
Wind doesn’t get to have all the fun however; probably
the most infamous of all the sustainable technologies
out there are those oh so tacked on solar panels. These
panels can be broken down into photovoltaic panels and
active solar panels. With the two different systems, one
can heat water and provide warmth, the other can provide
electricity, which in our increasingly advancing lifestyle
we can’t get enough of. One of the hidden gems of
solar panels is the ability to make money right off the
bat with them, by selling excess electricity back to the
provider you once paid for such power. Much like the
wind power blades, PV’s have actually become quite good
at hiding on buildings, becoming ever more integrated.
Building integrated photovoltaics or BIPV is when parts
on a building are either the base of PV panels or are
replaced with the panels. These can be seen in many
ways where BIPV’s have replaced things such as roofing,
siding, curtain walls, glazing, or elements like overhangs
used for shading (we call this one a twofer). This is the
approach that outweighs the separate installment next to
houses or simply tacked onto roofs. With the advances
coming a long way with PV’s, they are becoming easier
to integrate and in very hidden ways as well. They are
capable of coming in several different colors to match
just about anything, different sizes and shapes, as well
certain thin panels can now be applied to curved surfaces
like tensile roof structures. In many cases the spots that
are being developed now for PV panels are places like
windows and roofs where nothing goes on, but plenty of
sun is attainable. That is why they now have PV shingles
that look almost identical to current shingles, for the
people that just can’t live with panels on the roof they
never use. There is also the potential to use PV’s within
glazing, either as a semitransparent, opaque cell, or in
development, the clear glazing. This would become the
ideal façade of high rises and buildings alike with there
seemingly endless curtain walls of glass.
Can all of these features be put together in one building? Can it still look beautiful in the process or is it going to look
like a Transformer that chose the shape of a house? I will present a building I feel meets all the needs of the occupants
in a healthy way as well as puts as little impact on the environment using everything I’ve mention here(everything?). The
building is the Beddington Zero Energy Development or BedZED (Sommerhoff, 2003) as it’s come to be known. The facilities
were designed by Bill Dunster as a carbon-neutral complex. The buildings are super insulated structures that utilized thermal
mass as well as other passive systems. They start with green roofs that help insulate and provide passive cooling of the
interiors below. They are also oriented just off of true south which allows for the use of PV panels and a south façade
of glazing, insulated glazing, allowing for ample day lighting and the collection of solar radiation for thermal mass. Most
noticeable about the building is the large wind driven heat recovery units on the roof. These exchange the air in the inside
with fresh air that is preheated from the outgoing stale air. These products are an example of an architect designing a
solution to meet the needs of the building. These allow these products to assist passive systems and do the job even
better, creating a greater efficiency.
However the energy savings alone do not qualify the building as green, simply energy efficient. To get a LEED rating and
be a ‘green’ building there is a points system that must be met that is regulated by the United States Green Building
Council, USGBC, which runs the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, LEED. They have their own set of guides
that an architect must design to, which Dunster did with BedZED; in order achieve a green status. The LEED ratings deal
with location of materials used, percent of recycled materials used, construction waste recycled, use of energy efficient
appliances, utilization of the passive principals mentioned during this paper, and relation to amenities and mass transit
systems. Essentially LEED looks through the entire process of site, construction, and building use to make sure everything is
being done in a green manner to result in a certificate from them.
I’ll sum this all up here now in case anyone dozed off during this read (I’ll admit it can get into some pretty specific stuff,
but if you’re a technology nerd like me, you’ll understand). Basically, if you plan on any remodeling or construction, consult
with an architect. They have the experience and professional knowledge to achieve all of the above. It is the architect’s
responsibility to see sustainable design through and budget restrictions as many people are worried about only makes the
architect more creative in ways to implement these strategies. Such a case was presented with several elementary schools in
Colorado (Bradley, 2009) where a firm designed several schools over the course of a few years, and every design beat out
the previous one in environmental friendliness, without adding cost to the buildings. Another case is made where something
entirely new or redesigned might have to be utilized such that more than one function can be achieved, as was the case
with the wind vanes at BedZED. I’d like to finish this paper by readapting the fifteen points that were raised in Norbert
Lechner’s book, Heating, cooling, lighting sustainable design methods for architects. These points are what almost every
technology being working on now is striving for and will create many technological advances in the field of architecture;
some are already on their way in the near future. I’ve cut them down into recognizable phrase that is easy to remember:
sustainable architecture needs to be lean, mean, friendly machine. In other words it cuts wasted materials, pollution, noise,
elements doing more than one thing, and above all doesn’t harm the environment.
Image references
bedzed
http://www.urbanocreativo.it/PAGES/cms_rc/uploads_1/editoriale/BedZED2.jpg
http://u3asust.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/bio-bedzed-001254_credit-marcus-lyon.jpg
http://greenlineblog.com/wp-content/photos/SVGallery_BedZED/BedZED_Image%2002.jpg
wind turbine
http://prairieroots.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/mojave-wind-farm.jpg
go green
http://www.southernct.edu/wellness/uploads/textWidget/wysiwyg/documents/Go_Green_calendar.jpg
http://www.bargainbetty.net/go%20green.jpg
pollution
http://todaysseniorsnetwork.com/Smoke%20stacks,%20pollution.jpg
http://globalwarming1.net/Effects_of_Global_Warming.jpg
sun
http://johnstodderinexile.files.wordpress.com/2006/07/bandana-sun-for-blog.jpg
solar panels
http://usgreenenergycenter.com/upload/image/energy-photovoltaic.jpg
http://www.uwsp.edu/cnr/gem/SustainableEnergy/SolarWindow/DSC00947.JPG
http://img.diytrade.com/cdimg/110301/1096362/0/1144158012/Photovoltaic_solar_curtain_wall_for_BIPV.jpg
shading
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Phoenix_Central_Library_-_North_East_Corner_-_2008-12-27.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2252/2372890558_6b108e4dfb_o.jpg
world
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/image/earth_night.jpg
trombe wall
http://multiwallsystems.com/Princeton%20Trombe%20Wall.jpg
clerestory
http://www.ephblog.com/archives/images/PICT5084.JPG
cliff dwelling
http://www.edupic.net/Images/SocialStudies/cliff_dwelling4a.jpg
suburbia
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/Markham-suburbs.id.jpg.jpg
Bradley, C. (2009, March). Practice makes perfect making strides in high-performance elementary schools. Environmental Design & Construction, pp. 18-
22. Retrieved from the Avery index.
Corky Bradley’s (2009) “Practice makes perfect, making strides in high-performance elementary schools” published in Environmental Design &
Construction, reviews the work of RB+B Architects out of Fort Collins, Colorado. Bradley covers the recent work of the firm in their prototypes for
sustainable elementary schools in the Colorado area. The points made in the article discuss the evolution of several designs throughout the years
RB+B has been in charge of designing these green schools, with an emphasis on going green without losing green. I feel this is a good article to
start my research with as it deals with several different case studies throughout several years. This article showed how one firm was able to refine
their design strategies to maximize sustainability without having to really on active systems.
Harmon, F. (2009, July). Practice beacon for sustainability. Environmental Design & Construction, pp. 58-59. Retrieved from the Avery index.
Frank Harmon’s (2009) “Beacon for sustainability” published in Environmental Design & Construction, talks about a building for the Duke campus
and what kind of sustainable strategies are used. The article reviews several of the design cues made and then hits on a little of the reasons why
its LEED rated. This article is fairly brief and to the point. The only thing I really like about the article was the way it mentioned how it meet the
LEED guidelines. Other than that it was a very quick intro of Duke, and the project.
Lechner, N. (2009). Heating, cooling, lighting sustainable design methods for architecture. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
Lechner does a very thorough job of laying down the basics for sustainable design. His book covers everything from orientation and layout of a
building all the way up to community and city design strategies. Along those paths, Lechner introduces the three tier approach to designing, which
goes: design, passive systems, and mechanical systems. The book then breaks up different aspects to be considered into one of those categories.
I found this book to be very informative for designing sustainably. It covers everything from the type of windows you would want and how much
they should be shaded or exposed to sun, or whether you want solar panels and what angles they should be at. Overall the book has just about
anything you would need to look up to determine where it sits sustainably wise. Lechner’s perspective deals widely with the use of passive systems,
which is the most sustainable way to go, and we are seeing that now with future technologies.
Sommerhoff, E. W. (2003, April). Carbon-neutral neighborhood. Architecture, pp. 87-89. Retrieved from http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/hww/results/
external_link_maincontentframe.jhtml?_DARGS=/hww/results/results_common.jhtml.42
This article from Architecture magazine, presents the Beddington Zero Energy Development, or BedZED. With a run through of what makes up the
project and what its reason for development was. It covers how the floor plans are laid out and what type of sustainable feature the units utilize.
I liked this article because I really like the BedZED project and was thinking of including it in my essay as a case study. This article gave plenty of
information about the sustainable aspects of it and how the people have reacted to it, which has been very positive.
Hightower, E. (2008, February). The thrill is gone. Outside Magazine.
Hightower’s (2008) article seems almost more journal like in the fact that it’s the authors account of a green conference/ protesting that occurred.
There is a lot of information presented as to what went down at the conferences and gatherings of students. Hightower makes the point that green
fatigue exists still, but he calls it a luxury. I thought that this article made a strong point in showing that the younger generation is taking over the
green talks and is quite passionate about it. I also thought that according to the author, at least some people don’t mind sort of passing the reigns
along.
Greenberg, S. H. (2008, July 7). Do Americans have green fatigue? Newsweek.
This article is about how the author is growing tired of being told to go green. Greenberg gives examples of this being a public thing as well with
the information on eco-anxiety and eco-psychology. Greenberg also provides several examples of how she went green but wonders what the point
of it all is. I thought this article was a fairly good representation of how people feel on green fatigue. As Greenberg mentions, we need to see
something get done or else people just kind of get bored with the idea, and I think that statement is quite true.