Prefabricated Bathroom and

Kitchen
These bathroom and Kitchen pods
are prefabricated in a factory
environment. These units take care of
sound attenuation, fire properties, local
water bylaws, accessibility, future
refurbishment, and are ready to install.
Can be completely tailored to any
particular development. Can offer a
wide range of finishes to ensure
variety and practicality and low
maintenance worries.
Each unit is designed by a trained
professional to ensure aesthetic
quality and functionality,

Partial Unit, Prefab Bathroom and Kitchen

Source: http://www.pod-modules.co.uk/

Building Type / Structure : Materials

104

SUSTAINABLE RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT HANDBOOK

Shared Walls and Foundations

140

The cooling and heating Energy

requirements of smaller housing
Typologies such as villas, increases as
the amount of exterior wall area is
increased.
Row houses which share walls save
operational energy, materials, and land
area. Hybrid house/row house
typologies have a feeling of the
detached home, while allowing for the
combination of ground floor access and
site work.
Sharing foundation and site work
conserves site green space, facilitates
the distribution of site utilities.

Rowhouses

Cooling and heating

Energy
Requirements in
Kilowatt hours per
square meter of floor
area per annum

Hybrid Rowhouse/villa Typologies

Verheijden,Verkoren Arch
Almere, Netherlands

53

Duplex Villas

Source: MIT Building energy

calculator

Building Type / Structure : Energy

building systems

105

Higher Not Necessarily More

Efficient
Cooling and heating energy
requirements of housing typologies
are a function of solar exposure,
exterior wall exposure.

Heating and cooling energy required

Given building shape in Kwh per year per square meter
Per annum

55

53

65
50

Estimated
Stand- by
Power

12 story

6 story
-Elevators

Building Type / Structure : Energy

106

12 story
-Elevators
-Water pumps
-Exhaust fans

16 story
-Elevators
-Water pumps
-Exhaust fans
-Fire command
center

SUSTAINABLE RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT HANDBOOK

Natural Ventilation
An envelope that allows effective natural
ventilation Orienting fenestration on the
southeast for wind ventilation in summer
and shelter in winter. Integration with
green facades and circulation is ideal.
Allowing operable windows and exhaust
fans are operated by building
management at common areas can
reduce cooling energy use.
Window systems can allow stack driven
ventilation while decreasing cooling
loads through double leaf enclosures.
In addition to wind driven

Closed core area

Allows cross
Ventilation in only
2 apartments

Open core area

Allows cross
Ventilation in all
4 apartments

No natural
ventilation

Greater in cooling
energy required
Vulnerability to
mold and indoor
contaminants

Wind Driven Cross

ventilation
Possible to save
5-10
kwh/year/square
meter and flush
contaminants

Cross ventilation
And fan assisted
stack ventilation

Ideal. Allows most

savings and
flexibility.

Envelope: Flexibility

Shanghai wind rose data:

MIT Sustainable development in China website

building systems

107

Green Facades and roofs

Plants and buildings are ideally
combined. Plants can cool, via
transpiration and produce oxygen
via photosynthesis. Plant friendly
facades create defensible green
spaces for residents. Plants provide
natural shading in the summer and
residents enjoy maintaining
gardens.
A Green roof systems lowers
amount of storm water, provides
recreational space, and extra
insulation from summer heat gain.
Paint and stucco degrades quickly in
a wet climate. Ventilated facades,
help to extend the lifetimes of
cladding materials, prevent the
penetration of water, and excessive
solar gains. Ideal vented facades
materials are wood, terra cotta, cast
stone, or metal panels.
Solar thermal and photovoltaic
installation should be encouraged
on South facing roof tops with
steeper slopes or into facades
themselves.

Envelope: Energy
108

Photovoltaic power generation

On roof tops, Hoek Van Holland, NL
Photo: ER

Ventilated wood fa ade

Photo: ER

Garden Fa ade concept

Building floor plan manual

Green roof on steep slope, Delft, NL

Photo: ER

SUSTAINABLE RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT HANDBOOK

Insulation and Air barrier

Heating and cooling

Cellulose insulation is made from recycled

newspaper and treated with fire retardants
and insect protection. Agricultural fiber
insulation is available in the form of cotton
insulation made with mill waste, low grade,
and recycled cotton.
CFC and HCFC insulation refers to the
blowing agents that contain
chlorofluorocarbons used in making many
rigid insulating sheathing products. Extruded
polystyrene and polyisocyanurate foam
insulation boards are currently made with
CFC or HCFC blowing agents.

Energy required in typical 10x60 meter

6-story Building with no natural ventilation.
KWh/ m2/ year:
' 2005 Xella International GmbH

Aerated autoclaved
insulating concrete

90+

Wall materials
50-60

Cementitious foam insulation is made from

magnesium from sea water and blown in
place with air. Perlite insulation is made
from a natural occurring volcanic mineral
and is often used as loose fill insulation in
concrete block cavities.

20-30

Poor quality
construction

Add insulation

Add tight
construction
and insulation

Sources: The HOK guidebook

to sustainable design

MIT design advisor

Envelope: Materials
building systems

109

Heating and Cooling

Apartments with individual, through
wall, units is not efficient, and typically
are not carefully installed. Energy
inefficiency is compounded by air
infiltration through unsealed condensate
and electric lines. Air leakage may
present a long-term energy loss, and
cause maintenance issue near these
interruptions in the fa ad e. And
aesthetics.
Peak demand for electricity usually
occurs in the hot summer temperatures.

Electricity for
Heat and AC

Coal
Burning
Electrical

Occupant
operated air
conditioners

Building Services: Flexibility

110

Plant

SUSTAINABLE RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT HANDBOOK

Heating and Cooling Alternatives

Alternative systems allow various fuel
sources. High efficiency water source
systems allow individual units to take
responsibility for power usage (tenant
metering) while avoiding fa ade
penetrations, allowing user-selected
capacity.
Building plant could be centralized and
geothermal or ice slurry stores could be
centralized load shifting strategies for
development. Cooling towers could be
substituted for cooling ponds, solar
thermal could assist boilers.

Future
alternatives
Cooling Pond

Ice Storage

Stacked water source heat pumps

Solar Thermal

Source: TRANE air conditioning

systems
Present
Development
Mechanical
Plant

Hot water

Oil

Cool water

Occupant

Bio-Gas

Owned/operated
heat pumps

Natural Gas

Building Services: Flexibility

building systems

111

Water conservation
Shanghai is currently experiencing a
shortage of potable drinking water.
Toilet flushing is the largest
opportunity for savings. A grey
water toilet flushing system is most
advantageous in a large
development due to the volume of
grey water production and range of
building types to work with.
It is also very possible to treat grey
water within building systems, green
roofs or settling ponds. In all cases
stagnation is best avoided with grey
water.

Grey Water
Production
Misc

2
3
4
5
6

Grey water
Recirculation
system

Rainwater
collection
zones
(provides
Potable
water)

Grey water
Treatment
(reduces
outflow)

WC Flushing

Domestic consumption
breakdown: Source:
Ecohouse: Sue Roaf

Rain water
collection

Grey water
Treatment

Grey water
Pressure tanks situated in
high volume

Building Services: Flexibility

112

Speculative roof zoning

SUSTAINABLE RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT HANDBOOK

Vertical movement

Past:

Future:
High speed traction
6 and above

Elevators must be used for buildings

higher than 10 stories for good power
efficiency. If possible, combined freight
and residential lifts if possible.
A cab-based magnet can save up to
40% on a mid rise and requires no
equipment rooms and can be installed
in lighter construction. Avoiding
hydraulic elevators will help save
energy.

Stair as facade

Building Services: Energy

Otto Steilde, Documenta Urbana,

Kassel

Magnetic lift
-No overrun/
machine rooms
-quieter
-40% power
savings
-Lighter hoistway
framing

Source: Kone Ecodisc

Bike to storage unit

Housing, Delft NL Photo: ER
building systems

113

Design Approach
An integrated design approach
considers building energy early. A
design team should identify key local
ssues and integrate technical input
early in the design process. Experts
who understand priorities in Shanghai
(ie: fresh water supply, electrical power
shortages) should evaluate the
environmental impacts, resource
efficiency, and performance of
proposed building materials over the full
ife cycle of the building.

Critical path approach

Planning

Civil
engineering

Architectural
engineering

Integrated approach

Planning

Civil
Architectural
engineering engineering

114