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

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

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

Assessment of CO2 emissions reduction in a distribution warehouse

Building energy use accounts for almost 50% of the total CO2 emissions in the UK. Most of the research has focused on reducing the operational impact of buildings, however in recent years many studies have indicated the significance of embodied energy in different building types. This paper primarily focuses on illustrating the relative importance of operational and embodied energy in a flexible use light distribution warehouse. The building is chosen for the study as it is relatively easy to model and represents many distribution centres and industrial warehouses in Europe. A carbon footprinting study was carried out by conducting an inventory of the major installed materials with potentially significant carbon impact and material substitutions covering the building structure. Ecotect computer simulation program was used to determine the energy consumption for the 25 years design life of the building. This paper evaluates alternative design strategies for the envelope of the building and their effects on the whole life emissions by investigating both embodied and operational implications of changing the envelope characteristics. The results provide an insight to quantify the total amount of CO2 emissions saved through design optimisation by modelling embodied and operational energy

Evaluation of Anteroposterior Lip Positions in the Most-Favored Iranian Facial Profiles Using Silhouette

Objective: One of the most important goals of orthodontic treatment is to create an esthetic, well balanced facial profile. However, the components of a wellbalanced Iranian facial profile have not yet been established. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the anteroposterior lip position of the Iranian population and to compare the perception of orthodontists, dental students and orthodontic patients using a series of silhouettes with varying anteroposterior lip positions. Materials and Methods: Average female and male silhouette profiles were constructed from the profiles of 30 Iranian men and women with a normal skeletal relationship. The lips in each average profile were protruded or retruded in 2-mm increments and the 7 images were arranged randomly. Thirty orthodontists, 30 dental students and 30 orthodontic patients were asked to score each silhouette from 1 (very bad) to 5 (very good). Results: Both the orthodontists and the students preferred the average profile for men and slightly more retruded lip position for women. Orthodontic patients had a wide range of preference for men and selected more retruded lip positions for women. The least-favored profile was the most protrusive in the 3 groups. Conclusion: These findings suggest that Iranian orthodontists, dental students and orthodontic patients prefer an average profile for men and slightly retruded profiles for women

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

PREDICTION OF SOFT TISSUE PROFILE CHANGES FOLLOWING ORTHODONTIC RETRACTION OF INCISORS IN IRANIAN GIRLS

To study the relationship between incisor retraction and soft tissue profile alterations and to identify and quantify the parameters that influence it. Methods: Pre-and posttreatment lateral cephalograms of 37 Class I and Class II Division 1 Iranian females in whom at least one maxillary premolar was bilaterally extracted were analyzed and compared. Results: Significant positive correlations were found between retraction of the maxillary and mandibular incisors and posterior movement of the upper lip (r= 0.53, P <. ..