European research project Precis : assessing the potential of renewable energy in cities

The key objective of Precis was to evaluate the potential of renewable energies, including natural ventilation, in cities by exploring the relationships between urban form and energy/environmental performance.

The energy design process for designing and constructing high-performance buildings.

States that the design team must set goals in order to successfully achieve high-performance, low energy buildings. The energy design process can help to achieve the desired effect, beginning in the predesign phase and continuing through to commissioning and occupation. A good understanding of various strategies, the setting of aggressive energy targets and employing computer simulations all contribute to the process. After the building envelope has been optimised, the mechanical/electrical/control systems can be designed.

Multicriteria interactive tool to sketch the building envelope during first stages of architectural design.

Illustrates a procedure to optimise the building envelope during the early design stages, in respect to costs, construction and use and energy performance improvements. The tool is aimed at project authors and client. Of the tool's two linked modules, the first manages parameters for the project requirements, and the second, a graphics module, enables sketches and calculations for input to the first module.

Achieving a cleaner environment by ecological design - a natural approach towards sustainability.

Apart from Government's legislations and regulations, standards and guidelines, administration and publicity, ecological design [1-3] is a necessary approach to a clean environment. The fundamental rationale is to minimize the detrimental impact on our ecological environment. The study illustrates urban design and city planning are one of the "tools" and approaches to achieving the goal of a cleaner air quality, energy conservation and good, natural ventilation.

Architectonische interpretatie ventilatieconcepten. Architectural interpretation of ventilation concepts.

From the moment that people first settle somewhere, they have been looking for ways to protect themselves from the climate in order to create a pleasant indoor environment. In fact this is still the essential requirement and point of design and construction. In our culture components have been added to the process, the parameters and the possibilities, as a consequence of which the ultimate goal - a comfortable building or building for people - is becoming progressively more difficult.

Moving into modular homes.

Compares the energy efficiency of modular and standard homes and finds little difference.

The miracle of the sun dried brick in Zavareh. The principles of a desert architecture.

This article talks about the solutions that the vernacular architecture of desert areas in Iran has used to survive against undesirable climatic conditions. It is a partial result of a research that has been done by the author in 1994 in Shahid Beheshti University in Iran. It discusses and assesses climatic problems and living discomfort of the Zavareh, a small historical city in Esfahan province.

The effectiveness of ventilation stacks in enhancing natural ventilation in non-domestic buildings.

In recent years, natural ventilation has been gaining credibility as a suitable passive design strategy for non domestic UK buildings. Many of the recently built naturally ventilated buildings in the UK incorporate ventilation stacks in various forms with the purpose of increasing ventilation during the summer months so that some cooling is provided during the day or by utilising night ventilation. This paper first describes briefly the stack ventilation strategies employed in a number of recently completed buildings in the UK.

The application of sustainable design principles. Case study: New operations Centre for Wessex Water, Bath, UK.

The paper describes the sustainable design issues addressed in the briefing, design, procurement and construction of the building, set in the context of previous low energy office designs by the practice. It details the approaches taken to minimising the energy consumption and environmental impact of the building in use, and its construction. The impact of the completed building on the environment, landscape, local amenity and habitats is discussed. Comparisons are made with three recently completed office buildings.

Environmental design for an urban church complex in Hong Kong SAR. Process and methodology.

This paper outlines an environmental design research program on an urban high-rise church complex in Hong Kong. The main focus is on the methodology and process of the integrated design effort of the research team and the project architect during the schematic design and the on-going design development stage. Environmental design concepts and subsequent simulation/evaluation study on the daylighting and ventilation of the main church assembly hall and the progression route are documented.

Pages