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Innovative Techniques for Green Building Design

Cheitali Shroff 1 and Dr. J.E.M.Macwan 2 1 Student of M.Tech, Urban planning, ,C.E.D, SVNIT, Surat.email- shroffc2@yahoo.com 2 Professor, P.G.Incharge, Urban Planning, C.E.D, SVNIT, Surat. email - jemm@svnit.ac.in

Abstract: Green building technology applications are maximum found in Corporate, Technical, Administrative, Educational & Public Buildings. Major population lives, sustains their life in their homes, habitats. The need is to invent or use the acceptable green technologies in innovative ways to habitable spaces, say Residential areas or units. This paper describes the innovative applications of successful sustainable techniques to residential unit forms which are found in massive scale. The paper stresses on how to minimize the consumption of electrical & water energy within single residential unit. It also describes management technique of organic waste with in unit/building. It appeals for increasing green vegetation within residential built forms through green roof techniques at smaller scale.

INTRODUCTION In India the human settlement has varied types of building forms for their habitation in the form of shelter. They are found in the form of Low-Rise- High rise Apartments, Row Houses, Duplexes., Tenaments,Katcha & pacca Houses, Bungalows etc. The humans are more active at their habitable space then at their work or educational place. The most needed energy is at their habitable areas than any other places. The common man founds himself unbalanced between its earning & increasing demand for Luxury & comfort at its homes. Common man spends nearly 75 to 90% of his earning in maintaining his daily life with continuous problems of power cut, irregular water supply, improper cleaning services with garbages next to door & at end of street with many more daily problems. The Green building techniques are most needed in residential sectors as the land use of any city consumes the maximum coverage say about 60% to 70% as Residential built form.

Objective & Scope To reduce the energy demand for individual residential unit by means of individual solar Photovoltaic panels. To Reduce the water demand by reusing the grey water at unit level To provide the space for vegetation at individual units/apartment level. To reduce the solid waste management by utilizing organic wastes at unit levels.

Indian Building industry One of the survey shows that India would have about 100,000 million sqft of built space by 2030 as against the 20000 million sq.ft in 2005 out of which commercial & residential market is major. With growing population the need for housing is increasing tremendously. The rapid urbanisation has transformed the rural mud houses & thatch roofs to concrete cube towers everywhere without any environmental concerns & extensive use of natural resources. Green building Concepts are friendly to the environment& they have been adopted in India at various places. By end of 2010 about 1000 buildings are registered as Green Buildings in India. Green Building is one which uses less water, optimizes energy efficiency, conserves natural resources, generates less waste and provides healthier spaces for occupants, as compared to a conventional building. Green Building is only 2-15% costlier than conventional building but in turn it gives energy saving from 20-30 percent and water saving from 30-40 percent and a better environment for inhabitants. Innovative techniques Solar Energy All activity rooms are planned with ventilations through windows & they are protected with overhangs known as Chhajjas. These Chhajjas are usually 1 -6 to 20 wide as per the elevational treatment of the building. They are designed as protectors i.e. to protect the room from hot noon sun & heavy rain fall from south west directions .They are maximum placed in South & west directions. Chhajjas can be used to accommodate smaller size solar photovoltaic panels to generate the power & can be connected with the batteries inside the house. These batteries will store the energy generated during the daytime. All the chhajjas of the house are provided with SPVC & connected to main battery. At night these batteries will light up the entire electricity needs of the House. As at night the active areas are mainly Living rooms & Bed rooms. The power consumption needed will be limited, hence can be supplied via such stored batteries. As the system will be designed for single residential unit , the safety& flexibility will make it economical. Thus if single unit becomes independent for its Lighting requirement, definitely it will reduce the burden on city electric supply. If multiplied by no. of apartments in a city , these will help in solving major power problems throughout the country.

Fig. 1 Chhajjas as Solar photovoltaic cells.

Water

Water is the most important resources. We need water from the day when it starts till it ends. The water we use is usually drained off & then collected through drainage system & reaches to treatment plant & then treated water is disposed of in river basins which is the source of water. The idea is to develop a short water recycle technique at individual unit , which can save lots of time, energy & material. The water drain off from the areas of shower, Basin & Kitchen sinks can be termed as Grey water which is without solid residues & less harmful. It can be collected separately in a tank with filtration system. The tank shall also have the automatic system for Chemicals which can be added to this water to remove the impurities & make it hygienic for cleaning ,washing & gardening purpose. Such Water tanks shall be provided in individual residential units or at apartment level. Such water can be used for Gardening in society, Vehicle washing & cleaning of society areas etc. These will lead to minimize the water demand at city level & will solve time ,energy & material for draining & treatment of the water at city level.

Vegetation

The concept of green roof is not new in 21st century. The Idea is to convert this green roof system in to vegetation panels. The suitable vegetables as per the climate can be adopted & grown either at apartments roof top level or the open spaces available in the societies at ground level. These will generate the employment for people related to farming technologies & will also serve the society with good qualitative vegetables within their vicinity throughout the year at economic & affordable prices. The wash areas in the form of balconies are found vey common in typical residential apartments of Gujarat state. They are usually provided adjacent to kitchen in varied sizes of 4x 7 etc. Similar kind of vegetable /agricultural/green balconies shall be allowed, created in apartments.They shall be built with green roof top
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techniques. Can be planned alternately to allow better light & ventilation for vegetation floor wise. Shall be planned with vertical water supply & drainage system. Can become Unique architectural feature of the Apartment.

Fig. 2 Vegetable Balconies

Fig. 3 Green roof at parking

Parking Lot The High rise apartments are usually provided with sheltered parking spaces towards the road margin sides. These Sheltered roofs are usually in the form of polycarbonate or G.I. sheets. These shelters can be converted in to green roof tops with Punctures in the slab in the form of sky lights. These will give additional green areas with cooling effect adding green beauty to the surrounding.

Dead wall of Lifts. The Shear wall of Lifts are usually concrete made & they are placed on internal courtyards of apartments creating dead volumes. These walls can be treated as vertical green living wall with plantation of varied green species which can bring life to the dead internal courtyards of apartments. These will also help down in reducing the temperature.

COP ( Common Open Plot) In Surat GDCR for residential & commercial development for building unit of 2000 sq.mts. or more in area shall be provided with C.O.P. i.e. Common Open Plot with ratio of 10% of plot area. These COPS are usually left untreated & becomes no mans land in many cases & gets converted in small scale dumping sites.

Such areas shall be converted in to small agricultural panels for growing vegetables or green species giving cool& breezy effect. In Surat GDCR provision for vegetations in such areas shall be encouraged, to have some agricultural green space within the societies. These will automatically increase the green & open space areas at micro level planning in day to day life of human being. Waste (Organic) The food left out at each & every individuals houses are usually thrown out in Dust bins. They are collected & treated at Waste Disposal site which is far off from the city. If every individual unit is to be provided with organic waste bins & such wastes are collected separately , shall be used in Societys garden or Vegetable area in COP or in green balconies as a compost/manure for vegetation at small scale. These will reduce the burden on citys solid waste management services at the same time it will provide manure to green balconies or AGRI COP of the societies.

Conclusion Innovation is the key to create new ideas. Hence the need is to innovate the techniques to minimise the energy which are needed for humans daily activity at their habitables,i.e. at their residential spaces which will help individuals to save their time, energy & money with adding beauty , health & convenience to their daily life. The people shall be made aware & the techniques shall be popularized in terms of money saving, which can hit the masses rather than classes. The Techniques shall be evolved with simple adoptable efforts at mass level which will certainly gain benefits to Green revolution & Green development at Unit level.

References Thuring Christine, Green Buildings in India/http/www.green roofs.com Philine Gaffron, G Huismans, Franz Skala (2005)- Eco city How to make it happen Lunawat Vipin and Khanwalkar Deepti (2011)Building The Green Way-ICE Sustainable Urban Enviornment-Ensure2012,Guwahati Nilesh Jain (2011) High-Performance Green Building Delivery System: Construction Principles- ICE Sustainable Urban Enviornment-Ensure2012,Guwahati Indian Green Building Council,(2010-11),Annual Review, http://www.igbc.in/site/igbc/index.jsp
General Development Control Regulations - Surat Urban Development Authority, Suart.

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