Name: Minh Tu, Nguyen

SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE

Introduction

Sustainable architecture is a term describe the friendly environmental desgin techniques in the field of
architecture. The term of sustainable building is equated with ecological building, green building , energy
efficient building or bioclimatic architecture. Sustainable architect is up for discussion, i.e. sustainability,
economic, ecological and social aspect and political issues of our world.

Building services

The most effective way to reduce the carbon footprint is reducing the energy use for the building.
Heating, ventillation and cooling system are the most important functions in building services, create an
interior climate. A whole system is called HVAC system (heating, ventillation and air conditioning). The
heating system helps to maintain the warmth for the building at an acceptable temperature. The most
common way is combusting fossil fuel in a furnace or boiler. However, if the building is well insulated
and requires less heat generating, it may require more ventillation and air conditioning to expell the
polluted indoor air and the heat in the summer. There are many different methods to minimize the amout
of energy usage such as solar chimneys, green roofs, thermal mass walls, etc.

Passive solar energy is not a new term nowadays. If you are sitting in the car with the window closed in a
sunny day, you can feel how hot it is inside. Using that concept, they try to design the building that can
optimise the amout of sun energy going directly to the building, by planning carefully the location, the
direction and the materials of the building to collect the sun heat. The passive solar building is designed to
get almost the sun heat going into the building during the winter time but block out the sun heat in the
summer.

Direct Gain system is one of the simplest passive solar design. When the sun heat is coming into the
building, it will be collected, stored in the thermal mass such as stone, concrete, mansonry walls and then
radited back into the living space, even the sun has gone down. The thermal mass is usually made from
dense and heavy materials.On the other hand, passive solar cooling is used to get the natural wind. It
helps to cool down the interior heat and provides fresh air.

Lighting is also another important aspect of human life. Our eyes need it to find the direction and
maintain the daily activities, and our bodies need it to create vitamin D. Lighting affects us not only
psychologically but also physiologically. Thus, it’s really important to bring natural light into the
building. The glare and UV from reflected or direct sun light can cause headache, skin cancer and also
annoy people living in that space. Day light can be absorbed, transmitted, reflected, refracted. Natural
light can be from many different sources and from all directions outdoors. However, windows and
glassroofs are like the holes on the building envelope. So that we need to consider about the personal
policies, especially for the residential buildings. Besides glass, polycarbonate is also common nowdays. It
is cheaper, lighter, can insulate better and the light tranmission is also lower than glass.

Renewable energy generation

In contrast to the passive solar system, the active solar collector system is made to attatch to the structure
such as roof and water pump. The quantity of electrical output from a solar panel depends on the climate
of that area. The solar collectors are usually applied on the roof top to heat up the water, then the hot
water will be delivered into a storage tank by a pipe channel. The roof is uually sloped perpendicularly to
the angle of the sun beam to collect the maximum efficiency.

Living in a big city, it’s hardly to see a wind turbine because it requires a consideration of many factors
such as the cost, the site, the wind,etc. Wind turbines are usually used for industry rather than for home
use. Generally, the cost for a small one is more expensive than the big one , relates to the amout of energy
that it can produce. In considering the site, a small turbine is normally 250 feet high and need to be
installed in a large empty space. The size of the turbine decides the low-wind site of a high wind size to
be placed. A small wind turbine begins to operate in the wind of 8mp speed, while the larger one may
start at the speed of 32-37mph and shut off to avoid the damage when the wind reach to 55mph. The wind
turbine efficiency is depent much up on the wind condition at the building site. Thus, it is usually place at
the location that has a constant speed of wind. A small turbine can be installed on the roof top of a
building. It can provides 15-20% of the electricity required for a domestic house. A small scale for
residential use is about 7-25ft high and it produce 900-1000wt, depends on the wind speed.
Waste management

Waste management is the collection, transport, processing, recycling or disposal, and monitoring of waste
materials, which is produced in our daily life.The term usually relates to materials produced by human
activity, and is generally undertaken to reduce their effect on health, the environment or aesthetics. These
are collected and sorted into some types so that the raw materials from each item can be reprocessed into
new products.
Material for recycling may be collected separately from general waste using dedicated bins and collection
vehicles, or sorted directly from mixed waste streams.The most common consumer products recycled
include aluminum beverage cans, steel food cans, plastic bottles, glass bottles and jars, paperboard
cartons, newspapers, magazines, and corrugated fiberboard boxes.These items are usually composed of a
single type of material, making them relatively easy to recycle into new products. An important method of
waste management is the prevention of waste material being created, also known as waste
reduction. Methods of avoidance include reuse of second-hand products, repairing broken items instead of
buying new, designing products to replace. Some sustainable architecture incorporates the use of recycled
or second hand materials.

Water management

Asorbing rainwater is one of the reasons causing the pollution to the rivers nearby and also cause flood in
the city. Harvesting grey water to reuse is one of the possibilities to reduce the water demand. Rain water
can be possibly used for flushing, watering the garden or washing the cars.

Sustainable Building materials

As Nikki stated “What makes reuse a powerful conversation strategy is that, in addition to promoting a
healthier environment, it supports a comfortable lifestyle and a productive economy. It is unique in
coupling environmental activity with social needs. Many examples illustrate how in relationship to
ecological, economic and humanitarian concerns, reuse is more effective and rewarding than recycling”.
Sustainable building materials are more than recycled or reused materials and components. In order to be
sustainable, the material must be checked from collecting time as a raw material
to the time it need to be disposed of. In general, construction can produce a lot of waste. Sustainable
construction materials can be recycled, or reused, often reincorporating the waste and scraps into the
building at hand or another building. Materials can be remixed, and reused. The materials you useshould
be able to be recycled, reused or possibly easy to decompose when throwing away.

When older buildings are demolished, good wood will be reclaimed, renewed, and sold as flooring. Any
good dimension stone is similarly reclaimed. Many other parts can be reused as well, such as doors,
windows, mantels, and hardware, thus reducing the consumption of new goods. When new materials are
employed, green designers look for materials that are rapidly replenished, such as bamboo, which can be
harvested for use after only 6 years of growth or wheat straw, both of them are waste materials that can be
compressed into panels, or cork oak, the outer bark is removed for use.

Glues, sealants, and paints can release harmful emissions. Kitchen cabinets and counters are one of the
biggest contributors to poor indoor air quality. The glues and spray coatings that go into and onto these
cabinets and counters often contain known carcinogens. Steel or other metals make good alternatives to
the wood cabinets, especially when the metal is recycled. Using low VOC glues and sealants will also
help make your kitchen healthier.

Green architecture in Asia

Sustainable design in building has been a big topic in many Asian countries such as Singapore, Malaysia,
Hongkong and Japan for several years, since the clients, developers and the regulations tended to an “
international architecture”. However, the buildings need to have a vision of native Asian cultural roots. As
Ken Yeang, an ecologically friendly Malaysian architect stated “If we need to apply the ecosystem
concept to design, then the project site must at the outset be conceived hollistically by the designer as a
unit consisting of both biotic and abiotic (living and nonliving) components functioning together as a
whole to form an ecosystem, and before any human action can be inflicted on the project site, its features
and interactions must be identified and fully understood”. Ian McHarg, another architect also noted on his
siminar design work with nature that “each project site needs to be individually evaluated with
consideration given to the ecosystem’s own natural values, its processes, its constraints and its inherent
array of natural opportunities, all of which differ with different locations”
Before designing a building, the architects need to consider the site and the environment of the
construction area. Asian people usually bring the nature into their house as a wish of health, luck and
happiness. It is considered as a science subject called Feng Shui. Thus, green building and green roof
were popular from thousands years ago.

In Singapore, the skyline has been getting greener with a new trend from the world’s most famous
architects and becomes well-known as the island nation’s most eco-friendly skyscreaper. The design
Fusionopolis of architect Ken Yeang below is the lastest design in Singapore. The building is 1400m high
with 14 floors. The garden terrace is like a continuous vertical stretch around the building.

Acros Fukuoka was design by architects Emilio Ambasz & Associates, refers on the structure of Babylon
haging garden. The building is located in the middle of Fuluoka city, Japan with over 35000 plants sitting
floor by floor. The green roof creates a large horizontal and vertical agriculture field spreading. The green
buiding is standing out of the grey buildings surrounding