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SUSTAINABLE BUILT ENVIRONMENT-BIOPHILIC RESIDENTIAL

DESIGN: EMBODYING CLIMATE-ADAPTIVE ARCHITECTURE



Caryll Bern Buenaluz 2116116,
Eugene Ryan Badere 2110759,
Mary Claire Therese Mendoza 2116156,
Oriel Baloran 2116362
Undergraduates, B.S Architecture 5, School of Engineering and Architecture, Saint Louis University,
Baguio City, Benguet, Philippines

Keywords: green building, energy efficiency, biophilic, passive and active strategies, climate-
adaptive architecture, renewable resources, sense-of-place

RATIONALE

Global warming has been the most critical issue of today's generation, sea-level rise, excessive
energy consumption, popular dependency on fossil fuels and devastation of our natural resources
have been a challenge and accounted as the major problems around the world. Researches shows
significant environmental and financial benefits on sustainable building designs: several studies
concluded 15 to 20 % return of investment based on energy efficiency, up to 50% sickness
reduction, reduced greenhouse emissions, 10% productivity can be brought by green buildings.
Thus, mitigating the adverse effect of modernization and global change would bring impacts on
energy consumption, human satisfaction and environmental awareness towards socio-economic
development.

How are we going to address the current situation of today's society? What are we supposed to
do as designers? Sustainability has been overrated for decades, adaptation from other countries'
design (faulty development models developed in the west) do not apply in some situations. But,
what we really need is to look back on what we once had when everything is just simple. Tracing
the history, our ancestors had their own way on how to plan and design their habitats; it's very
basic and traditional but so far has been proven to be effective and sustainable. Once upon a time
there were no air conditioners, no other developments that affected the energy dependency of
buildings, no sick buildings and the buildings doesn't emit excessive carbons. Problem is-some
designers of today keeps on repeating the mistakes that may lead us to the current scenario.
Reflection shows that we have marginalized what was once ours, energy efficiency, passive
techniques, effective use of our natural resources and climate-adaptive design strategies.
According to Alexander Tzonis, "One of the fundamental principles is to design buildings 'low-
tech', where passive strategies are employed before active ones. Traditional buildings are great
source as they frequently achieve "more with less", high comfort for building occupants, good
indoor quality combined with low energy requirements.

The primary goal to an environmentally sensitive design is to reconnect with nature in such a
way that we are upgrading our culture without compromising with the natural world.
Sustainability features would basically approach environmental concerns such as flood, climate
change, drastic energy consumption, fossil fuel dependency, solar radiation, urban heat island
effect, vermin, greenhouse effect and high carbon footprints. It is always the building that would
adapt to the environment and not the environment that would ever adapt to the man-made
change. The possibility of developing zero-energy buildings in today's world brought significant
change in the chronicles of architecture and engineering. On-house generation of renewable
energy through solar and wind energy generators or biomass reduced environmental impact on
buildings.

A. Low Tech Passive Design
B. Building Envelope
C. Energy Efficient Strategies
D. Climate-Adaptability
E. Renewable Building Materials
F. Healthy Home

Organizational Analysis


The northeastern profile shows the building faade as well as the right side which is adjacent to
the main road. This part features the wind wall which directs the filtered prevailing wind into the
interior. The inclined building component is a set of windows where the air would enter. The
pool on the ground serves 2 purposes: one is for evaporative cooling and the other one is for
indirect lighting. The house is in stilts to minimize the ground excavations and the construction.
This is also for flooding, vermin infestations and earthquake impacts. The stilts features lead
rubber base isolation for seismic loads. The floor may be raised in case of high flood level and
has the capacity to float. It is made composed of distinct building components based on organic
floating device behaviours (banana stem, bamboo, light wood) when exposed to water.
The southwestern profile of the building features evaporative cooling boasted by the pool area,
the aljibe for solar water heating and rain water collector, the double wall system of the west
walls, the vertical garden, ivy wall which serves as radiant barrier against the solar sun, the light
shelf which reflects light towards the interior (kitchen and dining) through the service porch.



CLIMATIC DATA

The following images are taken from simulation software named Climate Consultant 5.5
powered by Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy of US Department of Energy. They have
developed software that would be a powerful tool for energy analysis and thermal load
simulation program. Based on a user's description of a building from the perspective of the
building's physical make-up and associated mechanical and other systems, EnergyPlus calculates
heating and cooling loads necessary to maintain thermal control setpoints, conditions throughout
a secondary HVAC system and coil loads, and the energy consumption of primary plant
equipment. Simultaneous integration of theseand many otherdetails verify that the
EnergyPlus simulation performs as would the real building.

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