Why should we build sustainably?
A long time ago the Studio rejected the reasons offered up by the granola eating / Birkenstock wearing crowd (although we have been known to engage in both of those activities!?!) Their argument, which - to summarize unfairly - is that we should do penance, lash ourselves, and be ashamed of our technological prowess. We reject this argument partly because it does not work but mostly because it leads to the wrong solutions.
First, though, what is the problem? Summarized simply, it is the diminishing biodiversity, the relatively near-term exhaustion of the world's raw resources (oil, minerals such as copper, water), and everybody's favorite, global warming.
So what is the right solution to these problems? The Studio believes that the way out is by relying on our ingenuity. We must design and create our way to a sustainable future. We must use technology to solve our problems. We must look to sustainable practices from the past - ones that we have forgotten - and re-apply them.
Rather than think in terms of "green" design, the Studio prefers to focus on the creation of high-performance buildings. The aim is to build well from both an aesthetic and sustainable point of view. Maybe the most sustainable practice that we as clients and architects together can do is to build to last, to build beautifully, and to optimize what we build so that it seamlessly fits what it is required to do.
Through design, we can build a sustainble future.
THE TRUE COST OF SUSTAINABILITY
By almost every measure, sustainability costs less.
While this statement will seem outlandish to many, much of what makes a project sustainable is simply choosing to do so. If the many design decisions required to bring a building from paper to reality are seen through the lens of sustainabilty, then without adding a penny to the cost, the project will be sustainable. Site the building appropriately, use - rather than fight - the sun, use daylight and natural ventilation as a free energy input. Many of the basic - and most vital sustainable strategies are free for the taking.
As the European experience bares out, the challenge of building sustainably is more one of perceptions than reality. We are all used to doing things as we have done them in the past. To build sustainably we must relearn how to build.
The way to make sustainablity cost effective is to design it in from the start. If the building is super-insulated - thus maintaining the desired temperature - the building's heating and air conditioning systems can be downsized. If storm water is kept on site - rather than flushed away - then piping infrastructure is eliminated. These are but two of a host of savings that sustainability design mindset offers.
Once the project is occupied, the real savings begin as sustainability's hidden secret shows itself - substantial return on investment.
Which do you prefer to have in your pocket at the end of the day: a penny or a pound?
HOW TO BUILD SUSTAINABLY
Many sustainable building strategies cost no more than non-sustainable strategies. Sustainability is more of a design problem than it is an economic one. Free sustainable strategies include:
Know Where the Sun Is
- Taking advantage of the sun's benefits and minimizing its costs is the absolute basis for sustainable building.
- Reduce solar heat gain by controlling the sun on a building's east and west exposures. The early morning and late afternoon sun will - if not controlled - raise a building's internal temperature more than the midday sun [most of the midday sun hits a buildings roof]. This can be done by minimizing openings on those exposures, controlling the light on those exposures so that it does not directly reach the interior.
- Control the sun on the building's south exposure. Contrary to common opinion, the southern exposure is the easiest to control. The sun is hottest when it is highest in the sky (during the summer). Shallow overhangs and sunscreens easily limit the sun's direct access to the interior in this time of year. When the sun is coolest it is also the lowest (during the winter). At this time of year, allowing the sun to penetrate into the interior is desirable.
Daylighting
- Let the sun illuminate the inside of your building. While this statement may seem to be in conflict with the statement above, it is actually the other side of the sun control coin.
- Light bounced off of vertical or horizontal surfaces into a building can augment the need for artificial illumination.
- Particularly in commercial spaces, heat from artificial illumination is a major factor in heating up a building's interior. The more natural light in, the less lights on, the less heat added to the interior, the less work the building's HVAC system must do to keep the interior cool. By using the sun, energy [and money] is saved in two systems!
Natural Ventilation
- Let your building breath. Like other systems - a human body, a tree - a building works best when it breathes. In the case of a building, cool air is breathed in and hot air is breathed out in the summer, and vice versa in the winter.
- Utilize cross-ventilation when a building is proportioned not much more than 20 to 30 feet in one direction [and there are few interior interruptions].
- Utilize vertical ventilation with a solar chimney to create a free natural ventilation engine. The engine is turned on when the sun heats up the top of the chimney creating a draft - hot air rises and is vented out, cool air is drawn in low.
Thermal Lag / Building Mass
- Store the sun's energy for release in the night. Items of sufficient mass such as concrete, stone and even water, can be used to store sun energy during the day and radiate it out in the evening. By varying the thickness of the material with the climatic conditions and design requirements walls can be turned into free radiators.
Wear a Sweater
- Sustainable "clothing practices" allow for a greater range of acceptable temperatures - cooler in the winter and hotter in the summer. Wear a sweater in the winter, and short sleeves in the summer!
When financially feasible, sustainable strategies that cost marginally more than standard strategies include:
Water Management
- Don't pour your money [water] down the drain. What we once used with great care, we now waste with great abandon. As water, on a per capita basis, becomes more scare particularly in the Southwest we have no choice but to optimize our use of it. Several key strategies include: retaining storm water on site so that it may percolate down and replenish aquifers; recycle water from sink, shower and bath use ["grey" water] and use it to irrigate the landscape; use technological advances to minimize water demand for everything from office building cooling towers to waterless urinals and low flow toilets.
Superinsulate
- Overinsulate a building's walls and roofs, and the costs to heat and cool the building fall dramatically. By overinsulating, the building's envelope becomes more stingy; it lets less of the heat or cool energy that is being put into the building out, and conversely lets less atmospheric energy in. Superinsulating is also beneficial in that it greatly improves that acoustical properties of a building - less outside noise is heard inside and vice versa.
Generate Power
- Depending on the site, there are a variety of ways to produce all or part of the electricity needed to run a building. Some solutions are applicable to any scale of project [solar photovoltaic and solar thermal panels, and geothermal]. Some require a mid-size building and site to be considered feasible [wind power]. While there are technological and regulator challenges to generating electricity privately [from the high price of solar panels - relative to oil and gas, to the refusal of some municipal power agencies to allow their customers to "spin the meter backwards"], a sustainable future will include massively distributed power generation.
The strategies listed above are by no means comprehensive. They represent the basic set, brought to bear at the commencement of the design process. The beauty of the current moment is that there is a tremendous amount of research and effort being put into the development and implementation of sustainable building practices. The options available to clients and architects is only expanding.
SUSTAINABLE DESIGN SERVICES FROM STUDIO NOVA A
Studio Nova A is ready to help build in sustainability on a wide range of projects. The firm is a US Green Building Council member firm and Stuart Magruder is a LEED accredited professional. Three basic areas of focus are:
Pre-design Services
- Assessment of relevant sustainable strategies
- Site and climate evaluation
- Assembly of sustainability-focused design team (landscape architect, sustainability consultant, mechanical engineer)
- Regulatory implications of sustainable strategies
Design Service
- Implementation of sustainable strategies
- Site analysis and orientation studies
- 3D computer modeling to study interaction with the sun and to assess building energy inputs and outputs
- Integration of sustainable strategies into the soul of the building
- Cost / benefit analysis of sustainability strategies
- Materials / technology research
Construction Services
- Information sharing with construction team
- On-site construction coordination
- Implementation of building commissioning
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