GREEN BUILDING TECHNOLOGIESV R SIDDHARTHA ENGINEERING COLLEGEVijayawada(AP)31 January 2012Prof. Dr.A.JagadeeshVice Chancellor(Scientific Communications)Australian Institute of High Energetic MaterialsClayton,VictoriaAustralia

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DirectorNayudamma Centre for Development

AlternativesNellore(AP)

E-mail: anumakonda.jagadeesh@gmail.com

Human dwellings developed in relation to the surrounding environment, taking advantage of materials at hand and creating as much comfort as feasible. From caves to tents to huts to igloos, humans creatively used and adapted their natural surroundings. Through the centuries and millennia, technology became more sophisticated, yet the basic principles remained the same, until the advent of heating and air conditioning in the 20th century. Once this happened, humans were able to use energy, originally from the sun, stored in the earth for millennia, in the form of non-renewable resources such as coal. It became relatively easy to alter the internal environment, rather than adapting the external, to suit our needs. Modern buildings hence became self-contained units isolated from the immediate environment. As green building pioneer William McDonough put it, "Most conventional practitioners of modern design and construction find it easier to make buildings as if nature and place did not exist. In Rangoon or Racine, their work is the same."

New Parliamentary Building, 2000 (London, England), Features a ventilation system that is historically referential and provides an environmentally sensitive form of air-conditioning. A series of towers, recall the site's Gothic architecture

Source: Michael Hopkins and Partners.

Yet large buildings employing such green strategies as natural ventilation and passive solar energy, have been around for centuries. Pueblo Indians, for instance, used a southern exposure plus overhanging cliffs to cool their adobes in winter, while sunlight struck less directly during the hot summer. The ancient Romans similarly employed southern facing houses to trap heat inside during the cold winter months, employing "clear materials like mica or glass," which, "act as solar heat traps: they readily admit sunlight into a room but hold in the heat that accumulates inside."

The creative application of green principles continued in the United States. The National Building Museum, housed in a Civil War era building, is considered an architectural marvel and precursor of contemporary green ideas. The museum's website describes it as possessing, "an ingenious system of windows, vents, and open archways allows the Great Hall to function as a reservoir of light and air.” Museum curator Howard Decker explains that the design acts as "a natural form of air conditioning" in which cool air is sucked in at the bottom vents and then drawn upward, as though through an enormous chimney.

The Great Hall of the Meigs Building, now home to the National Building Museum

Use of natural heating and cooling flows has not been limited to esoteric structures. Architect Richard Rogers compares traditional structures to today's: "The oldest masonry buildings work much better, really. They mediate between inside and outside, cool off at night, and then keep the cool inside during the day."

Green buildings, then, represent at least in part a return to ancient architectural principles and a reaction against recent practices. Indeed, current architecture is able to draw on green structures that precede human history; one contemporary Zimbabwe building uses a natural form of air conditioning-in which hot air creates suction to draw in cool air-derived from studying termite mounds. According to environmental engineer Guy Battle, "the future of engineering environments lies in a new generation of buildings that use free energy to drive environmental systems, rather than functioning as hermetically sealed, artificial internal climates."

Japan is ranked as the most energy-efficient economy in the world. According to a recent Forbes Magazine report, Japan consumes only 4500 BTUs for every one US dollar of GDP.1 The measurement used to evaluate was an index of "energy intensity," that compares GDP to BTUs consumed. In other words, how much output a country produces as a whole versus the amount of energy used. European countries ranked closely behind Japan with the UK coming in at 6,100 BTUs per dollar and Germany at 7,400 BTUs. The US came in double that of Japan at 9,000 BTUs per dollar and China at a whopping 35,000 BTUs

GREEN BUILDING TECHNOLOGIES

Renewable EnergyAdding renewable energy to a building reduces the amount of electricity demanded from the grid. Solar and wind technology are not unique to Japan; there are many US and European countries in this industry. However, Japan has developed some interesting advancements in this area.

SolarSanyo Corporation has developed dual-sided (or bi-facial) solar panels that allow for capture of sunlight on both sides of a panel. When installed in pathways or other settings that allow for the capture of reflected light from below, 30% more power can be generated and efficiency of a module can increase to 17%. More power and more efficiency are always good, but this also opens up new possibilities for architectural design and inventive ways to incorporate solar to the built environment.

Wind

Zephyr small-scale wind, Airdolphin model

Small-scale wind cannot generate enough electricity to power an entire building, but it can offset electricity demand. Again, wind turbines are not unique to Japan, but a Japanese company Zephyr has developed a swing rudder technology that allows for instant response to wind direction changes and more efficient power generation.

Lighting

There have also been advances unique to Japan that may appeal to US households. Hitachi Lighting released a dimmer LED light bulb in December 2009. This is remarkable as traditional dimmer switch cannot control LEDs, making it difficult to convert some inefficient lighting. The new design by Hitachi that allows for dimming uses 82% less power. Lighting uses 11% of electricity in a residential home and 26% in commercial buildings. These advancements in new technology allow for significant savings in a buildings energy use.

Smart Windows

A very interesting product is thermotropic glass that can self-respond to changes in heat. The glass pane will automatically change from a clear to white and can reduce solar radiation up to 80%.27 This can reduce cooling loads on a building and requires nothing to operate. It also creates amazing opportunities for architectural design.

Waterless Washing Machine

Another unique invention is a waterless washing machine created by Sanyo called the Aqua. Instead of water, it uses ozone to clean the clothes. Ozone has a strong oxidation action that eliminates bacteria, odors and organic matter (like dirt) from the clothes. The machine converts air into ozone, and then simply back to oxygen, saving water and releasing no toxins.

The Sanyo Aqua waterless washing machine

Green Roofs and Food Production

Rooftop garden in Tokyo (courtesy Masaki Envec)

Green roofs reduce a building's carbon footprint in three ways. First, it is one method for a cool roof and reduces the "heat-island effect”, which can increase local temperatures due to an urban environment. Second, it cuts roof heat gain, which increases the temperature of the building itself, helping to lower energy costs to cool a building. Third, green roofs add plants that absorb carbon. Green roofs are not new to the US, but most green space on the top of buildings has been decorative.

Japan has expanded the use of green roofs to green vegetable gardens. Except for one project in Brooklyn, NY, there have been virtually no rooftop vegetable gardens in the US. However, Japanese innovation has allowed for green roof development with the ability to grow vegetables in as little as four to six inches of soil. Masaki Envec, a leader in green roofing has developed technology that allows for rooftop farms with an extremely low- weight soil, which means very little additional infrastructure is required. Of course there is not enough rooftop space to feed a city, but there are several advantages, especially education on food production to urban dwellers.

For the food that can't be provided by a rooftop, another interesting development are "plant factories”, As a way to address food safety and food supply, the Ozu Corporation grows lettuce in sterile environments free from dirt, bugs and fresh air. Vegetables are grown 24 hours a day, seven days a week and can be cropped up to 20 times per year. The production process uses less water and the food is grown close to where it is consumer, reducing energy used in distribution. This type of food production may become necessary if the effects of climate change become more severe or unpredictable.

A picture from the Ozu Corporation plant factory

Conclusion

Japan is renowned for its new technology and has brought many new and interesting products to the market from Nintendo to the hybrid car. As shown here, Japan has also developed several unique policies in regards to green buildings and energy efficiency. CASBEE building standards and the Eco-Model Cities programs demonstrate a path to a sustainable community.

Bamboo houses

Laurie Baker Housing Technologies

Laurie Baker Housing Technologies

Mud Houses

Mud Houses

Biophilia LEARNING FROM TERMITES

Biophilia (coined by Harvard Biologist Edward O. Wilson in 1984) does what Biomimicry does not: it reaches into the human desire for an affinity with nature on both the meta- and individual levels. Biophilia is different from Biomimicry because it is based more in the appreciation of nature. To my mind it (-philia) is more on a spiritual/emotional plane rather than a quantitative/measured level.

The following quote is an extrapolation on this concept: “Nature, biology, offers profuse and luxuriant forms; with the same constructions, same tissues and same cellular structures it can produce millions and millions of combinations, each of which is a high level of form” –Alvar Alto, 1935

Though Alto's words are from long ago, we are now more widely accepting that we need to incorporate sustainable architecture, design, and daily choices into the fabric of cities. The status of a building is changing—it is a crucial participant in our uphill battle for sustainability and overall well-being. This natural model is the way to discuss and to design buildings in our milieu.

Indeed, termites must live in a constant temperature of exactly 87 degrees (F) to survive. The difficulty is that the temperature outside fluctuates greatly, from between 35 degrees at night to 104 degrees during the day. The solution they have devised is to dig a kind of breeze-catcher at the base of the structure that cools the air by means of chambers carved out of the wet mud below and sends the hot air up through a flue to the top according to a Baroque circuitous Venturi principle. They constantly alter the construction, opening up new tunnels and blocking others to regulate the heat and humidity.

Applying nature to architecture

Succinctly put, the principle Pearce has discovered in termite architecture is the use of the thermal mass of a building and the changing environmental conditions to cool it. It is at the heart of Eastgate. The outside is made of four massive masonry and concrete walls inspired by the stone walls to be found in Great Zimbabwe, a city 200 miles southeast of Harare and over 900 years old that was the capital until colonial times. (Zimbabwe means “stone house” in the Shona language.)

Inside, there is a seven-story-high, naturally lit atrium full of delicately detailed steel lattice girders, suspended walkways on tendons, bridges, and filigreed tiaras atop the main entrances to the complex. The hot air is pulled out through 48 brick funnels on the roof, modeled, according to Pearce, on the wind scoops from Hyderabad that he came across in Rudofsky’s book. The building takes advantage of the diurnal temperature swings outside. Normally, the high volume fans run at night to give 10 air changes per hour and low volume fans run during the day giving two air changes per hour.

Creativity in construction

WEST SPENDS MORE ENERGY FOR HEATING – EAST SPENDS MORE ENERGY FOR COOLING

Put the RENEWABLES to work : to get in exhaustible, pollution – free energy, which cannot be misused.

MODERNISE THE TRADITIONAL – TRADITIONALISE THE MODERN.

THANK YOU