Sustainable architecture and food production: impact of modernity on the traditional urban form

Architecture in any period has often been a reflection of the sociological, cultural, economic and technological aspects of its development. Though it has been argued that Africa has no recorded history in the written form, but evidences persist of the rich culture of the different tribes that makes up the constituent of its inhabitants. This paper examines some of these socio-cultural factors that impinge on the historical traditional forms and architectural system in sub-Saharan Africa, by considering the pattern of food production and consumption. It also examines in particular existing relationship between architecture and food consumption that affect the sustainable built form found in south west Nigeria. The paper is thus an endeavor to discuss the connections, interrelationships and benefits of these concepts in the evolving modern socio-cultural views on Africa. The paper report a recent field survey carried out in the study area, based on quantitative and qualitative methodology. Sizeable numbers of questionnaire are administered to the target population, using stratified random sampling method in order to elicit primary data; with 76 percent response rate from the respondent. The survey and interview conducted highlights a number of observations and conclusion of the relationship between food production activities and its role in city development or formation

Design for sustainable architecture and environments

This paper describes some of the research outcomes of a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) project partly funded by Department of Trade and Industry, UK. One of the aims of the project was to plan and develop designs for a range of autonomous eco-buildings through research into autonomous eco-building systems and techniques in order to identify best practice and the most appropriate systems for low-carbon buildings. The design of the Community Hall offering accommodations for a multi functional hall, café and exhibition, and offices, has been developed through partnership with mainstream design and construction companies in the region. Following a successful planning application and external fund raising exercise, the construction of the building is due to start shortly. The structure will be constructed using locally sourced materials and is designed to be ‘renewable’ whilst exceeding all the requirements of the current Building Regulations. It examines the potential of non traditional construction techniques and materials. The total environmental impact of the design as the result of environmental loads occurring during the life span of the building is estimated and compared with conventional practice. The building incorporates rain water collection, waste treatment, composting toilets and photovoltaics

Strategies for regeneration of urban villages in hometown of oversea-Chinese

Hometown of Oversea-Chinese is a special phenomenon in the history of Chinese near-modern development, mainly in the east and south coast of China. At the beginning of last century, a large number of coastal residents moved overseas for living. After decades of efforts, they invested back hometown to build houses. These residence layouts consist both local traditional culture and foreign features, forming a special landscape. In recent years, economic globalization has promoted rapid urbanization, which leads massive population flowing from rural to urban areas. Cities eroded the countryside field and evacuated the rural labor force, leading to a large number of abandoned deteriorated urban villages, including the hometown of Oversea-Chinese. This paper focuses on the regeneration of urban villages in hometown of Oversea-Chinese. With the influence of global industrialization and rapid urbanization in recent decades in China, a large number of Oversea-Chinese residence groups have become empty and decayed urban villages gradually. However, they are different from urban villages in other parts of China, as they have unique cultural features and historical value, therefore research on the regeneration of this type of urban villages not only contribute to local economic development but also is closely related to the hot topic of how to maintain cultural differences under the process of globalization. We surveyed their formation process, historical and cultural characteristics and put forward some strategies of regeneration from the three aspects of society, economy and environment: explore history culture to strengthen the bond with Oversea-Chinese, develop cultural and creative industries and appropriate tourism to promote economic activities and improve the environment by government-led plannin

An investigation into the thermal performance of housing in the hot dry climate of Iran

PhDThis study is concerned with the identification and utilisation of design solutions for improving the thermal environment of residential buildings in hot dry climates in general and the hot arid zone of Iran in particular. The influence of various energy conservation options on energy use in a prototype house has been analysed using the ESP dynamic computer simulation program. The research was aimed at providing a range of design guidelines for use in the process of building design by builders, architects and engineers. It also suggests programs relying on occupancy behaviour such as; thermostat settings or operating windows. The recommended design solutions are among those which can be obtained economically through the architectural application of commonly available construction materials and skills whilst also being appropriate in the socio-economic context in which the design and use of buildings take place. The effect of parameters such as; thermal mass and insulation, surface characteristics, orientation, window design, shading and environmental control strategies on the thermal performance of the prototype house has been investigated. Energy and comfort have been used as indicators of performance

Comparative analysis of environmental performance of an office building using BREEAM and GBL

With rapid economic growth and urban expansion in China, the Chinese building sector is now facing the huge challenge of balancing its energy demand and pollution. In order to minimize the environmental impact, the Ministry of Housing Urban-Rural Development (MOHURD) has set an ambitious energy reduction target requiring that 30% of all new constructions to be green by 2020. This paper presents comparative analysis of two environmental rating systems: the latest version of Chinese Green Building Label (GBL 2014) released by the MOHURD in order to promote the market transformation of green buildings and Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM 2014), the widely recognised environmental assessment methodology in the global construction industry. To compare the two environment assessment standards, a public office building currently under construction in Fujian (China) has been used as a case-study to rate its environmental credentials using both BREEAM and GBL. Results have shown that although both standards use a similar methodology, they require different levels of input data and may result in different ratings for the same building

Predicting the energy performance of buildings under present and future climate scenarios: lessons learnt

Predicting the energy performance of buildings is important to optimize the energy consumption. Building Energy Performance Simulation (BEPS) is a key tool that is used to predict the environmental performance of buildings. Much work has been done that conforms a gap between predicted and measured energy consumed in buildings due to a range of influencing factors. Understanding the causes of performance gap can help in reducing it between design targets and actual performance. On the other hand, there is a convincing evidence that climate is changing and that we will be facing different climatic scenarios in the future. Buildings should be designed to be able of dealing with future climatic changes using mitigation and adaptation measures. Building Energy Performance Simulation (BEPS) can be used to estimate the energy performance of buildings and their indoor environments based on future climatic scenarios and to assess the different design options. This paper explores the main aspects that need consideration when predicting the energy performance of buildings under future climatic conditions. The research conducts a critical literature review engaging with previous knowledge in the field. It also sheds light on the way of producing future weather files

Towards a low carbon construction practice

Towards a low carbon construction practic

The carbon-reduction potential of straw-bale housing

The role of straw bale as a construction material for reducing the whole-life impacts of housing is examined. The embodied and operational CO2 emissions in a recently completed UK social housing project are compared using alternative domestic external wall constructions and the effects on the resulting CO2 emissions. It is estimated that over 15 tonnes of CO2 may be stored in biotic materials of each of the semi-detached houses, of which around 6 tonnes are sequestered by straw and the remaining by wood and wood products. This suggests the carbon lock-up potential of renewable construction materials is capable of reducing the case study house's whole-life CO2 emissions of the house over its 60-year design life by 61% when compared with the case without sequestration. The practical implications of construction, detailing, maintenance, cost and self-build potentials of straw-bale construction are also considered. The potential for load-bearing straw-bale walls is examined through the whole-life performance of straw-bale construction with alternative conventional external walling systems

Mapping the pitfalls in the characterisation of the heat loss coefficient from on-board monitoring data using ARX models

Several studies have demonstrated the capability of data-driven modelling based on on-site measurements to characterise the thermal performance of building envelopes. Currently, such methods include steady-state and dynamic heating experiments and have mainly been applied to scale models and unoccupied test buildings. Nonetheless, it is proposed to upscale these concepts to characterise the thermal performance of in-use buildings based on on-board monitoring (OBM) devices which gather long-term operational data (e.g., room temperatures, gas and electricity consumption...). It remains, however, to be proven whether in-use data could be a cost-effective, practical and reliable alternative for the dedicated tests whose more intrusive measurements require on-site inspections. Furthermore, it is presently unclear what the optimal experimental design of the OBM would be and which data analysis methods would be adequate. This paper presents a first step in bridging this knowledge gap, by using on-board monitoring data to characterise the overall heat loss coefficient (HLC) [W/K] of an occupied, well-insulated single-family house in the UK. With the aid of a detailed building physical framework and specifically selected data subsets a sensitivity analysis is carried out to analyse the impact of the measurement set-up, the duration of the measurement campaign and the applied data analysis method. Although the exact HLC of the building is unknown and no absolute errors could hence be calculated, this paper provides a new understanding of the decisions that have to be made during the process from design of experiment to data analysis. It is demonstrated that such judgements can lead to differences in the mean HLC estimate of up to 89.5%