Category Archives: architecture

Regenerative Design

Leave a reply

The transition to a Regenerative Economy is about seeing the world in a different way: a shift to an ecological world view in which nature is the model.

The third publication in the ‘Regenerative Sustainability series from COST Restore is now available (free download from the CostRestore webpages)

Design can no longer be only concerned with reducing environmental impacts within the threshold of greenhouse gas emissions. Buildings today must be developed to reverse the effects of climate change, enhance natural systems, the built environment and habitants health.

“Regenerative Design in the Digital Practice” explores how the regenerative concept is now being applied to the regenerative design of cities and buildings. A series of digital design approaches are exemplified via a series of examples drawn from leading international practitioners and researchers.

This inspiring and comprehensive publication, stretching to over 400 pages is a huge achievement by editors Emanuele Naboni and Lisanne Havinga,working with Co-Editors: Martin Brown, Dr.Angela Loder,  Sergio Altomonte, Terri Peters, Luca Finocchiaro, Ata Chokhachian, Clarice Bleil de Souza, Catherine De Wolf and Antonino Marvuglia  it contains over 100 contributors.

“Regenerative Design in the Digital Practice” fills a gap in the existing literature by introducing fundamental design principles of regenerative design practice whilst acknowledging the potential and imperative of integrating science, big data and multi-discipline digital tools in the design process.

This book offers those involved within the built environment a wide range of insights into regenerative design from international design practitioners and researchers in the field. As well as theoretical insights into the historical, cultural and philosophical development of regenerative design, practical insights are framed in a set of key regenerative design principles, methods and performance simulation tools. Finally, the ability to create regenerative designs and the positive impacts they bring are demonstrated through a series of built examples.

Pillars of Regenerative Design

CONTENTS:

REGENERATIVE DEFINITIONS FOR DESIGNERS
The Pillars of Regenerative Design
Edited Martin Brown, Emanuele Naboni, Lisanne Havinga
TOOLS AND DATA FOR HOLISTIC MODELLING
Simulating Regenerative Futures
Edited Emanuele Naboni, Clarice Bleil de Souza, Terri Peters, Lisanne Havinga
CLIMATE AND ENERGY FOR REGENERATIVE URBAN DESIGN
Local Context, Adaptation, Resilience
Edited Emanuele Naboni, Ata Chokhachian, Luca Finnochiaro, Lisanne Havinga
CARBON AND ECOLOGY WITHIN THE DESIGN PROCESS
Environmental Impact Assessment
Edited Lisanne Havinga, Catherine De Wolf, Antonino Marvuglia, Emanuele Naboni
HUMAN WELL-BEING VIA CERTIFICATION AND TOOLS
Comfort, Health, Satisfaction, Well-being
Edited Angela Loder, Sergio Altomonte, Emanuele Naboni, Lisanne Havinga
CASE STUDIES SHOWCASING REGENERATIVE DESIGN 346
From Theory to Realisation
Edited by Emanuele Naboni, Lisanne Having

The other COST Restore Publications, also free to download, include:

Sustainability, Restorative to Regenerative

An exploration in progressing a paradigm shift in built environment thinking, from sustainability to restorative sustainability and on to regenerative sustainability.

Regenerative Construction and Operation

Bridging the gap between design and construction, following a Life Cycle Approach consisting of practical approaches for procurement, construction, operation and future life.

Future titles will include Regenerative Technologies, Scale Jumping and Atlas of Solutions.

A different Saturday that will change your minds.

Leave a reply

Delighted to be involved in the second edition of REGENERATION Design Competition in the Trento region of Italy next week and the Conference on Saturday 16th April.

The following is a re-blog from Carlo Battisti’s blog

2016_03_24-06 Centrale Fies

It’s time to imagine a “Living Future” made of “living buildings.” Living Building Challenge is a building certification program, advocacy tool and philosophy, suitable  for projects that want to go beyond being simply “less harmful”, to truly become “regenerative”. The Challenge defines the most advanced measure of sustainability in the built environment possible today and acts to rapidly diminish the gap between current limits and the end-game positive solutions we seek.

Connected to REGENERATION, the 64 hours non-stop design competition organized by Macro Design Studio  together with the International Living Future Institute, the Conference will return on Saturday, April 16, 2016morning at Centrale Fies – Dro (Trento). The Conference is the premier annual event of the Living Building Challenge Collaborative: Italy, a community born with the aim of sharing LBC knowledge and principles and create the local conditions for the development of “living” buildings, territories and communities.

The program (the event will be in English)
Saturday April 16th, 2016, h 10-13

  • 10:00 – 10.50: Registration
  • 10:50 – 11:00: INTRODUCTION |Macro Design Studio
  • 11.00 – 11.40: NOW IT IS THE TIME FOR A WORLD OF LIVING BUILDINGS AND COMMUNITIES |Amanda Sturgeon, The International Living Future Institute – CEO
  • 11.40 – 12:00: CHALLENGING UK CONSTRUCTION. THE UK FIRST LIVING BUILDING PROJECT |Martin Brown, Fairsnape – Founder
  • 12.00 – 12:20: THE EXPERIMENTAL UNDERSTANDING OF COMPLEX ENVIRONMENTS FOR THEIR REGENERATION | Emanuele Naboni, Royal Danish Academy Copenhagen, School of Architecture – Associate professor
  • 12.20 – 12:40: REGENERATION 2015. PROUD TO BE ZERO. |  The YELLOW Team, REGENERATION 2015
  • 12:40 – 13:00: Questions and answers

2016_03_22-02 Amanda SturgeonThe international speakers are experts who have long been working to introduce the principles of LBC in Europe, including a special guest: Amanda Sturgeon was appointed by former Secretary of State and First Lady Hillary Clinton as one of the “10 most important women in sustainability.” FAIA, LEED Fellow, Amanda is from this year President and CEO of the International Living Future Institute after having been Executive Director. She sponsored also the first edition of REGENERATION.

2016_03_22-01 Martin Brown

Martin Brown is the founder of Fairsnape, active since 2005 as a consulting company, providing a wide range of support services to organizations in the built environment. He deals with innovative sustainability, social media and business improvement, with over 40 years of experience. He is a Living Building Challenge Ambassador, with a passion for the promotion of LBC and regenerative sustainability concepts in the UK.

2016_03_22-03 Emanuele NaboniEmanuele Naboni
(BArch, Dip. Arch., MPhil, PhD in Science, LEED AP, Licensed Architect) He is since 2010 an associate professor at the Institute of Technology of the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen, Faculty of Architecture. He teaches and researches in the field of technology and sustainable environmental design.

2016_03_22-04 Team YellowThe YELLOW team is the winning team of the 1st edition of REGENERATION (15-18 Apr 2015) and it is composed of (from left in the picture) Emanuele Mondin (architect, Vicenza), Guido Zanzottera(energy engineer, Turin), Luigi Greco (urban planner, Agrigento), Bernardette Soust Verdaguer (architect, Sevilla) and Maija Krizmane (civil engineer, Riga).

Further information about the event:

When: Saturday April 16th, 2016, h 10-13
Where: Centrale Fies, Dro (TN) | Coordinates 45.986691, 10.926922
Contact: +39 0464 443418 | eventi@macrodesignstudio.it
Registration: partecipation is free but seats are limited. Deadline for registration: Thursday April 15th, 2016. Registration through Eventbrite here.
Language: the conference will be in English (with simultaneous translation).
Educational credits: 3 educational credits for architects will be provided in agreement with Ordine degli Architetti Pianificatori Paesaggisti e Conservatori di Trento. This conference has been approved for 3 LFA (Living Future Accredited professional) CEU hours.

We are waiting for you:-)

64 hour Living Building Challenge European Competition

I am delighted to have been asked to support and tutor the 64 hours European Competition and design workshop based on the Living Building Challenge to be held in Trento, Italy, April 2015.

Below is abridged flyer info from organisers Macro Design Studio.

REGENERATION_BANNER

Macro Design Studio in collaboration with ILFI is proud to organize REGENERATION, a design competition in Europe entirely based on the Living Building Challenge protocol.

REGENERATION as the first “generation” of young professionals (architects, engineers) that can “regenerate” with their own ideas the built environment, getting the best possible performances for the building.

REGENERATION is the first design competition in Europe entirely based on the Living Building Challenge protocol.

The Living Building Challenge™ (LBC) is a building certification program, advocacy tool and philosophy that defines the most advanced measure of sustainability in the built environment possible today and acts to rapidly diminish the gap between current limits and the end-game positive solutions we seek. LBC is a Visionary Path to a Regenerative Future.

REGENERATION is a design workshop in which teams composed of young professionals are called to develop a project of sustainable requalification of an existing public building for the local community.

Every team should respond to specific requirements defined in the announcement Integrative design, synergistic development of the project and sharing of expertise are necessary prerogatives to tackle this challenge.

The purpose of the competition is to show the best sustainable regeneration project for the existing building in terms of architecture, energy efficiency, livability and relationship with social, urban and natural context

REGENERATION will take place at Centrale Fies, Dro (Trento – Italy), on April 15th to 18th, 2015.

Selection of 15 young participants is open via the Application Form with a deadline of January 30th 2015.

Official language: English.

For more information on the purpose and how to participate, see

Related:

Fairsnape Blog Living Building Challenge posts

UCLan LBC Design Competition: House of the Rising Sun 

justpractising – new blog on the block

3 Replies

Great to see new blogs being created that address issues relating to the built environment and web 2.0 ‘stuff’

Fellow twitter Su Butcher has joined the blogosphere with justpractising:

So here it is. A blog about architects.

There are three things I want to do with this blog, things I have been doing elsewhere on the internet for some years but in a pretty unco-ordinated way it must be said.

Firstly, I want to help explain what it is that architects can do, what they are good at (and not so good at), how you can use them to get where you want to be with your property, and of course, what they should be doing differently.

Secondly, I’m a bit of a networking nut and very keen on using the internet for networking, so I’m taking the opportunity to investigate how the construction industry is and is not using the internet, so there will be plenty of opinionated posts about that too.

Lastly, I’d like to ask the people who read this for your suggestions on what I should blog about. If you know me already you might have some ideas, and if you don’t, take a look at what I’ve got to say and let me know what’s missing. In good networking parlance, if I don’t know myself, I can find out who does.

 

building codes wanted for better future

Leave a reply

Received the following from Architecture for Humanity …. a great opportunity to share knowledge and skills collaboratively on line for the greater good.

We love to build. Therefore we are obsessed with global and local building codes. A few years ago, 1760 BC to be exact, the Code of Hammurabi was the first set of written codes with a focus on the built environment. Luckily for architects, builders (and their sons) building codes have evolved. But smarter, more sustainable building is needed more than ever.

Know an interesting building code, send it our way. If you love building, get involved. We’ve got plenty of design opportunities this month for people with a range of experience all over the world. Be forewarned: These are green collar jobs without the collar.

There are plenty of other ways express your support for the right to shelter. In fact we’ve created a handy-dandy cheatsheet to help you get started.

a smart eco house that daydreams?

Leave a reply

Following recent communication with Adam Somlai-Fischer at Zuiprezi, who I hope can get to talk at the be2camp event in October, I took a look at the Reconfigurable House, a concept environment developed by Adam constructed from thousands of low tech components that can be “rewired” by visitors.

So far so good, but reconfigurations can be made endlessly as people change their minds, so that the House can take on completely new behaviours.

Smart homes actually aren’t very smart simply because they are pre-wired according to algorithms and decisions made by designers of the systems, rather than the people who occupy the houses.

so the user gets to configure the usability level, excellent, but:

if the House is left alone for too long, it gets bored, daydreams and reconfigures itself….

The Reconfigurable House is open source, registered through Creative Commons which seems to allow you to download the code and create your very own reconfigurable home, or upload your own configurable devices into the house suite.

Arguments as to who has control of the remote may take on a whole new dimension.

where is the service user innovation …

Leave a reply

I attended the SCRI event on Service User Innovation in Salford Uni’s new Lady Hale Building yesterday, listened to four influential speakers and participated in thoughtful discussions and break outs.

POE (post occupancy evaluations) were mentioned too often – I have an issue with POE  as a means to evaluate performance, and as they have been referred to before are the wrong tool for the wrong job.  Yes there needs to be post project evaluation, for as Ian Cooper notes, every building project without a feedback loop is a prototype. But to measure people performance through their relationship with the building is the wrong starting point. After all its about the service users ‘experience’

The four key speakers were Prof Peter Barratt at BuHu Salford University – key message here for me was his comment that all the successful projects were led by Facilities Management, his case studies included the Sydney Opera House and Wm McCormack Place in Cairns as part of the Australian Facilities Management Action Agenda, the Trondhiem Hospital where the construction team were selected by psychologists to ensure they understood health issues, and John Zeisel‘s work in Boston USA with Alzheimer’s centers

Neil Sachdev, Sainsburys Commerical Director, illustrated how they engage with their customers on store design,

John Lorimer from Manchester City Council on testing furniture with pupils against a background of how the school environment shapes and influences education , and

Nigel Oseland on POE’s who also . Nigel also introduced the Dunbar’s number concept of 150 and talked on biophilia kinship, of our history of camp fires and story telling, of seeking nature and space and waymarking, but now confined into office cubicles.  (We need to get out more, tell stories have camp fire meetings and connect with nature – not surprising then the increase in barcamps and benchmarkwalks)

The investment in really engaging with and empowering end users is impressive. Five years in the case of John Zeisel in understanding Alzheimer’s needs in the USA , a huge investment from Sainsbury’ s and the patient work in understanding pupil and teacher needs from Manchester City Council.  None of these three examples start with the building, but with the users.  Why then as an industry do we fool ourselves we can do the engagement stuff with one or two value management exercises and a POE?

I was not alone in noting an under theme of web 2.0 in the presentations and discussions.  There was the mention of pupils using second life to determine space and colour requirements, of the use of Web2 (twitter maybe, blogs, or facebook groups) in getting real, unsolicited, feedback from facilities users. I sensed though it was something to put on the wish list and get on with the business in hand.

It is a pity this was an under theme as to me as is where the real service user innovation lies. Service users make use of web2 technology outside of the work place, ie in second life, in twittering, in facebook, in myspace … etc etc etc.  The innovation is in using this in design and facilities management.  We seem to be blind to or just awakening to its potential. The potential to allow continuous dialogue between service users and service providers / designers   This is not rocket science – those using twitter can contact the government on issues (and get a response) and be kept in touch with the Prime Ministers actions, speeches and even thoughts.

And then where – consumers constantly in dialogue with a supermarket on store layouts, on colour, on products and costs – office users ditto with the fm’s on suggestions and wc complaints –  pupils on school design, residents on city facilities and urban design – on eco town developments,  and all in real time as it happens.

Definitely a topic to be discussed at the be2camp event in October

wikitecture wins international open source competition

Leave a reply

A web2 collaborative project I have been following through second life and wiki architecture has been the open source architecture design competition via Open Architecture Network.

Delighted then to receive the following good news alert from Ryan at Wikitecture:


Wikitecture Wins International Competition: 3D-Wiki Used to Compose an Open-Source Entry

Chicago, IL, June 09, 2008 – Out of 566 registered entries from 57 countries, Studio Wikitecture won the overall ‘Founder’s Award’ for their open-source entry to a competition hosted by Architecture for Humanity on the Open Architecture Network. In keeping with the collaborative spirit of the Open Architecture Network, their entry for a tele-medicine facility in Western Nepal was chosen “for embracing a truly collaborative way of working using online crowdsourcing and Second Life as a way to create a highly participatory design approach.” Source


Having conducted a number of experiments over the last year into the feasibility of applying an open-source paradigm to the practice of architecture, the Studio Wikitecture group developed a 3D-Wiki plug-in on the virtual reality platform, Second Life, that they used to help build consensus among the numerous contributors in this open-source project.

The ‘Wiki-Tree’ as it was called, acted as a version tracking system that worked very much like a conventional Wiki, but instead of tracking text documents in a linear history as you see in Wikipedia, the ‘Wiki-Tree’ tracked versions of 3-dimensional models and saved them within a continually evolving 3-dimensional digital tree ‘canopy’. Similar to Wikipedia, this 3D-Wiki allowed this loose, self-organized group of contributors to share ideas, edit the contributions of others, and vote on which design iterations should be considered for further refinement.

Over and above the actual building design, Studio Wikitecture’s entry proposed that the wiki-tree and virtual model live on pass the competition and be used to help incorporate feedback from the Nepalese community and end-users into evolving design.

In addition, they proposed that the virtual platform would allow individuals from around the world to experience the local site and conditions as the project evolves over time, further expanding the outreach, awareness and support for this project to a global audience.

The winning entry was the result of Studio Wikitecture’s 3rd Wikitecture experiment to explore the procedures and protocols necessary to practice a more open and distributed approach to architectural design. Of those, the group explored prediction market voting procedures to assure consensus or ‘Crowd Wisdom’, as well as developed a contribution assessment system to divvy up fair ownership among all the contributors.

The Final Competition Boards: http://flickr.com/photos/studiowikitecture/sets/72157604038184909/show/

A time-lapse video of the evolving design:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=amCi90zH3VI

A video illustrating how the ‘Wiki-Tree’ works:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Z3eWKIJxzyc

A journal article outlining, in detail, the three Wikitecture experiments:

http://crescendodesign.com/103_chase.pdf

The accompanying website:

http://studiowikitecture.com/ (click on ‘go’ twice to enter anonymously)

The Blog:
http://studiowikitecture.wordpress.com/

Developers accused of pursuing gadgetry instead of saving planet

Leave a reply

The Guardian reported on Saturday on the CABE criticism of architects and developers who are, according to CABE ignoring the threat of climate change and failing to address concerns over sustainability, (Based on design reviews of more than 700 large construction projects over the last two years that concluded that fewer than 10 made sustainability a priority)

Thats less than 2% !! Why has it taken two years and 700 project reviews to highlight such failings?

“painfully slow, piecemeal approach to sustainability” and a focus on
superficial “green gadgets” is threatening efforts to build green towns
and cities.”There are some architects and developers who really get climate
change, but most don’t or choose not to. As a result we get a lot of
greenwash, such as green gadgets and microtechnology stuck on to
buildings, rather than a proper approach to sustainable design.”

I am intrigued as to the review criteria used by CABE and will report more here when I can track down and read the report.

zeroHouse

1 Reply

A search over a coffee, starting from Pam’s link (here) led me to zeroHouse.

Now this may be hitting a lot of boxes on the zero list, may be an architects vision or dream, but to call eco (as in ‘eco’ =’home’) and a place to live?

Does this primary school Lego construction have a soul – ie a spiritual dimension. Is it at all aligned to nature – it actually looks as though it has flown in to the location and cant wait to be off again. And just imagine a society, a neighbourhood or development of these. Or even, gulp, an eco-city.

And on the current theme here of usability – has anyone lived in one of these I wonder and feedback comments to designers, or indeed feedforward experiences to the next iterative design.

Saying all that this would be a good design to have within the Second Life International Eco Code Park so visitors can move around, experience its ‘feel’ if only virtually and leave comments on their ‘experience’ (click here to enter into the Park)