Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
inhabitants, solar energy admitted by the windows, and by heating the supply of
fresh air. The first prototype passive houses were built in Kranichstein in the city
of Darmstadt in 1991, with the emphasis on thermal insulation and heat recovery
ventilation. Since then, design improvements have been made, and by 2006 over
6,000 of these very comfortable, ecologically sound and warm houses had been built
in Germany alone. As Lockward (2006: 130) writes in the Harvard Business Review ,
building green is 'no longer a pricey experiment'. It is now the sensible option for
businesses and communities. Environmental design and construction may also aim
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through energy-efficient buildings, combined heat
and power systems, water recycling and waste minimization. Large household gardens,
trees and turf roofs all reduce high temperatures as well as increasing the potential
for domestic food production and composting. Parks and gardens, the city's 'urban
lungs', provide healthy recreational areas. The acquisition of land for nature reserves,
town trails, community gardens, urban farms, allotments, widespread tree planting
and urban agriculture (a tool for transforming urban organic wastes into food and
jobs, improving public health and land, and saving water and other natural resources)
offers ways in which urban dwellers can build mutually supportive social relationships
and reconnect to the larger ecosystems.
Urban environments have hitherto been shaped by economic rather than social
and environmental goals. Hough (1995), McLennan (2004) and Low et al . (2005)
argue that designers must ensure that urban developments positively influence the
environments they change. Stefanovic (2000) remarks that the ways in which we
spatially and operationally structure and construct our human settlements, inform
how we envision social and community relationships and our relationships with the
natural world. Architecture can help us articulate and find our place in the world.
And being rooted in a place provides a sense of belonging, nurtures an ethic of care,
and perhaps promotes a more efficient and ecologically meaningful use of resources
than would a more mobile and transient habitation. Natural processes need to become
incorporated into human activities through the creation of multifunctional, productive
and working spaces that integrate people, economic activity and the environment,
and where design is more intimately connected to the changing nature of our climate.
For Low et al ., the key to good green urban design is the ability to bring people
back into contact with nature, whether it is in the home, work environment or local
neighbourhood. It is important to make transparent the processes by which nature
is turned into the goods and services we use for our convenience, our lifestyle and
our homes, and there are general green design principles that can, and should, be
applied to the construction, maintenance or refitting of our homes, apartments and
housing developments. These include:
design for local climate;
orientating the house so the main windows face the sun (north in the southern
hemisphere and south in the northern hemisphere);
optimizing the use of thermal mass; providing good insulation;
design for good ventilation, minimizing leakage of heat and air;
good water management;
using localized energy systems with the national grid as back-up; and
aiming at zero greenhouse gas emission for everyday use of the dwelling.
(Low et al ., 2005: 53)
 
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