Category Archives: architecture

are green buildings usable?

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It seems we are becoming awash with green buildings, eco homes and eco towns.

There are some great sites out there with green architecture eye candy (check out Mad Architecture for example).

We have some major and significant conferences and events on the horizon – from the international Eco City 2008, Green Build 2008 and West Coast Green, here in the UK Think 08, and more locally the Elevate Exemplar event in September and the Lancs Best Practice Club July event.  All very different and important to their target audiences.

Even in Second Life there are great green and sustainable ‘built environment’ demonstration and education projects

And yet in all the design, conferences, events and working groups I see very little about the usability of green buildings – what is it like to work, live and play in them?  What does the comfort level  within (and around) green building do for health, for productivity and for well being?  What is it really like to be a citizen of a eco-city such as Auroville?

Once again I am convinced its not the building – green or other wise – but the way we use buildings that is paramount importance on the sustainability agenda – as Prof Keith Alexander down at the Center for Facilities Management comments – its about building consumption – not production. 

Time to turn the telescope around?  Is the green / sustainability movement in the built environment stuck in the building production with eye candy design, at the expense of the usability of the buildings?

As a Friday comment – I am throwing down a challenge for comments and evidence – are  Green Buildings usable?

I invite guest posts here and links to sites that discuss this issue.

Eco City 2008

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The Eco City 2008 blog continues to profile Eco City projects and urban architects and other leading thinkers in its build up to the Eco City World Summit conference at the end of the month.  The posts, links and articles make fine background reading to urban futures and the whole concept of eco, whether its eco-cities, eco-towns or eco-villages world wide.

Low impact eco village

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From the eco cities of the world to plans for a low impact eco-village in Wales.

Lammas, in its bid to get planning permission has put together a comprehensive and absorbing website. Well worth checking out.

from the Lammas website: 

The Houses

Low-impact architecture uses a combination of recycled and natural materials. The project is essentially a self-build affair. The first phase will see the construction of five detached dwellings and one terrace of four dwellings. There will be a combination of building styles including straw bale, earth sheltered, timber frame and cob. The houses will feature the latest environmental technologies and design techniques. The dwellings will blend into the landscape. Indeed they will be largely made from elements of the landscape (for example turf roofs, cob walls, timber cladding).

 

Urban revolution

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Continuing the theme of Eco Cities …

Jaime Lerner‘s ‘urban revolution’ successfully transformed a congested, grimy, crime-ridden city into a world-renowned model of green living and social innovation. London can do it too, reports  Tom Phillips in an excellent and inspiring article.

Jaime Lerner will be speaking in London next Monday, one of a series of Exemplar Talks at Somerset House. For details email exemplartalks@somersethouse.org.uk

Worlds greenest city and eco home?

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Is the German city of Freiburg, the  worlds greenest Eco City? Is the Passiv Haus the most effective and efficient Eco-Home? If so why are we not learning for eco-homes and eco-towns in the UK ?

Also, more on Eco Cities at Eco City 2008

a real school for the future – without eco-bling

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Education Guardian reports today on the development of Acharacle School on the Ardnamurchan peninsula in Scotland.  The report by Tariq Tahir, should make ‘essential ‘ reading for those involved in school design, construction and in community assets. In addition the school childrens blog ‘they are building outside our class‘ illustrates how construction can be a real educational benefit.  One to RSS and watch develop.

And with no eco-bling, no greenwash, this is sustainable development…

The design, illustrating a sustainable future, for two or three generations is based on the use of mass-timber.  Architect Howard Liddel from Gaia comments … “the modern school does what it says on the tin but what it has on the tin is a skull and crossbones, and these are toxic fumes. Modern buildings have huge amounts of formaldehyde coming out of the floor coverings, seat coverings, the walls run with condensation.”

“What this project is doing is ticking a lot of boxes in a very subtle manner. There’s no covering the building in ‘eco-bling’ – the gimmicks people put on to make buildings green. It’s really quite liberating for an architect.”

He promised that the new building would provide a much healthier working environment for the staff and 50-odd pupils. “We have an immense problem with toxic materials in buildings – we have 55,000 chemicals we use in building and only 3% of them have been tested for their effects on humans.

“The timber is very good at dealing with indoor moisture passively. In other words, you don’t need a ventilation system when you’ve actually got a material that’s dealing with the moisture. Continue reading →

on building school futures …

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school things on my radar this weekend…

In May the Lancashire Construction Best Practice Club will be held at Devonshire School, Blackpool an exemplar school that is a significant step forward in the design of learning environments for young children. Details of the event and site visit will be posted on the Events pages very soon

but … Building schools for the future is far too slow …. says the the NASUWT

Almost half of all teachers work in schools where water drips from the ceilings and windows do not fit properly, a study by the NASUWT concludes. A third complained of damp and slippery corridors, while one in five said lighting was poorly maintained. Most said they had to work in excessively hot or cold conditions and 30 per cent did not have easy access to drinking water.

Source: Scandal of Britain’s Crumbling Schools

What happened when Bright Green, an innovative green recruitment organisation brought together leaders from Britain’s top construction firms, sustainability consultancies, schools think-tanks with Kit Rogers, a teacher at Priestlands Secondary School, Hampshire, to discuss sustainability issues in schools?

Source: The Green School Dinner

…on coal, blue and earth day 2008

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Wear BLUE for Earth Day 2008 to VOTE for No Coal

This blog has commented through many posts on coal, on its significant contribution to carbon footprints, on the relationship with the built environment (coal – safe cigarettes for the built environment) and on the recently approved new coal power station in the UK.

But did you know that the UK Eon power station, the first for 20 years, will add 5% to the UK’s carbon footprint, and that the proposed magic cure of carbon capture, when viable, will take some 40% of the energy proposed just to drive the capture application. (source – Guardian Environmental weekly podcast 12/03/08).

isite has long supported Architecture 2030, a movement in the US that makes the link between design / buildings in use and energy production from coal.

isite is proud to have been asked to promote Architecture 2030’s rallying call to everyone to participate in the BYOBlue campaign by calling on everyone to wear BLUE during Earth Day 2008 to signify a vote for NO COAL. (April 20th)

More details can be found at www.byoblue.org and in Ed Mazria’s article posted at Grist (here).

Details on any UK BYOBlue activities will be posted here.

Zero carbon debate reignited?

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Has Prince Charles reignited debate on architecture, traditional construction, eco homes and zero-carbon? – isdefining zero-carbon is the key? – the original articles at BD website are well worth the read – as is the astute comments from Phil at zerochampion (sorry Phil cant get use to Sustainable Blog!)

Walking the walk – design resources

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The American Institute of Architects (AIA) recently launched  “Walk the Walk,” , a multi-faceted campaign to educate, promote and encourage sustainable design among consumers, business owners and architects. 

(It is a pity they don’t include builders, fm and end users in that list.  Sustainability is a collaboartive approach, across all project and facilities stakeholders.)

Walk the walk is rich in resource, including:

A sustainability resource center for practitioners. The Walk the Walk Toolkit 2030   highlighting green building issues and provides samples of effective ordinance language for communities, as well as examples of what others are already doing to pursue green building programs.  A 50to50  how-to resource intended to assist architects and the construction industry in moving toward the AIA’s public goal of a minimum 50 percent reduction of fossil fuel consumption in buildings by 2010 and carbon neutrality by 2030.

I found the Sustainability 2030 Green Meeting Guidelines , a resource to help reduce the environmental impact of meetings and events and the  Measures of Sustainability (PDF) overview of interest.

Most of the resources seems to be available to all, for which the AIA is to be commended.

A visit to the RIBA site brings up an equal wealth of resource at Climate Change including the useful Guide to Low Carbon Standards and Assessment Methods, an overview of recommended low carbon performance standards and associated assessment methods for new and existing buildings.

Of particualr note however is the RIBA’s adoption of Contraction and Convergence,  within its Climate Change Policy

(Contraction and Convergence is the science-based, global climate-policy framework, proposed to the United Nations since 1990 by the Global Commons Institute, itinvolves a globally balanced approach to the stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations at safe levels, consistent with the aspirations of different communities to development and quality of life.) 

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The RIBA has adopted Contraction and Convergence as the overarching policy to guide its targets for the reduction of GHG emissions associated with the use of energy in buildings.

So plenty of resources out there, all good stuff, but really does need that walk the walk, the changing of mindset, the rethinking and the collaboratives approach.  The AIA’s Walk the Walk is a step in the right direction – we need a similar ‘outreach’ programme here. How many architects here would be aware of C and C for example and how that can be applied to everyday design.
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