Review of Strategy for Sustainable Construction launched

As part of the Progress Report on the Strategy for Sustainable Construction the Government and industry revealed the achievements made so far on their commitments to change radically the way the UK construction industry designs and builds.

There has been good progress since the launch of the Strategy for Sustainable Construction in June 2008 and this has been an excellent example of joint work between industry and Government.   The report shows that a number of significant achievements have been made in the last year, with the passing of the Climate Change Act, developments under New Industry New Jobs, publication of the Low Carbon Industrial Strategy, and the UK Low Carbon Transition Plan.

The Strategy is also supporting the work of the UK Low Carbon Transition Plan, which is on target to achieve a 34% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the UK by 2020.

Ian Lucas, Business Minister with responsibility for construction said: “This progress report demonstrates the Government’s commitment to put in place measures to drive forward the sustainability agenda and support industry with these aims.  I am pleased to see we are making steps towards reaching these targets, but there is further work to be done to build on these achievements and reach the overarching goals of the Strategy.”

Please click here to view the document in full.

^{Welcome to the Modern Built Environment KTN (MBE KTN)}

http://mbektn.globalwatchonline.com/epicentric_portal/site/mbektn/?mode=0

 

Solar Decathlon Europe 2010

An interdisciplinary team has won the chance to participate in an international competition to design and build the best solar-powered home.

A team of undergraduate and graduate students led by Michael Ramage, University Lecturer in the Department of Architecture, and Dr Allan McRobie, Reader in the Department of Engineering, has started the countdown to unveiling a solar-powered home in Madrid in 2010.

Cambridge is one of 20 teams chosen to compete in this international competition, winning €100,000 towards the project from the sponsors, the Spanish government. Although this is the first competition of its kind in Europe, it builds on almost a decade of competitions in the US sponsored by the US Department of Energy.

The team’s innovative proposal is the Integrated Design for Engineered Architecture (IDEA) Home – a modular system that can adapt to changing needs and climates. The prefabricated design can be assembled in different permutations and number, horizontally and vertically, giving maximum versatility. Modularity permeates the entire design, requiring the team to develop modular systems of energy production and consumption.

The project is being supported by ongoing research in the Departments of Architecture and Engineering, and will use innovative approaches developed across the University, such as photovoltaic cells, natural ventilation, energy-efficient design and computer-based monitoring. ‘The truly excellent designs are those that combine cutting-edge technology with first-rate architecture,’ explained Michael Ramage. ‘Our ambition is to create a home with outstanding performance on energy efficiency, architectural and engineering design, sustainability and marketability.’

In June 2010, the team will take the IDEA Home to Madrid, where it will be judged by international experts and visited by tens of thousands of visitors. ‘This is a remarkable opportunity to combine teaching with hands-on learning, basic research with applied practice, and novel insight with experience,’ said Dr McRobie. ‘Following the competition we will set up the home in Cambridge to monitor its performance over three years so that it can continue to serve educational and research purposes.’

For more information, please contact Michael Ramage (mhr29@cam.ac.uk). Additional funding is being sought for this project.

Story at http://www.research-horizons.cam.ac.uk/researchnews/solar-decathlon-europe-2010.aspx

Solar Decathlon Europe http://www.sdeurope.org/index.php/eng/

University of Florida http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gainesville-FL/Solar-Decathlon-Europe-2010-UF-Team-Re-Focus/105061853322

 

What is an Architect?

Su Butcher

Last week I asked the Question,

“When I say the word Architect, what comes to mind?”

and posted the question here on the blog, on linkedin and via my twitter account to as many people as possible, asking them to post up their responses via the seedkeywords website. All 166 results can be viewed in public here and you can play with the wordle image here.

Looking at the results in detail there are a number of themes.

The Results

The group of famous architects and characters playing architects includes Frank Lloyd Wright, le Corbusier, Tom Hanks (Sleepless in Seattle), Mike Brady of the Brady Bunch, David Childs, Frank Gehry, George Clarke (Build a new Life in the Country) Jim Belushi, Howard Roarke (The Fountainhead) and most popular of all, George Costanza from Seinfeld.

Clearly most people think of people who design buildings, and some have views about the use of the word ‘architect’ for other professions such as web architects, naval architects etc……………

Complete post at http://www.justpractising.com/whatgoodarchitectsdo/poll-results-architect/

 

A LEED Platinum green jobs training ground

 

 

A Platinum Green Jobs Training Ground

 

Written by Frank Robbins | October 5, 2009 | read more: Alt Energy, Frank, LEED

Hocking College — a two-year technical college in Nelsonville, Ohio — has trained its students for jobs in Ohio’s manufacturing sector since 1968.  As these jobs began leaving the state, Hocking College saw the potential for growth in alternative energy jobs.  The school launched the Energy Institute in 2002, with just three students to offer training in advanced energy and fuel cells.  Enrollment has since increased to 125 students and the curriculum has also expanded to include hybrid and plug-in vehicle courses, as well as courses about wind and solar power. 

The school’s newly completed building, located in Hocking County, reflects Hocking College’s commitment to participating in the new green economy.  The 12,200 square-foot building is on track to become the first higher education building in Ohio to receive LEED Platinum certification.  

Some of the building’s green features include the following:

• 26 geothermal wells for heating and cooling;
• A 21 kW roof-integrated photovoltaic system;
• An expansive vegetated roof;
• North-South orientation to maximize natural light;
• CNG filling station and plug-in hybrid charging stations;
• A solar hot water heater; and
• Durable, low-maintenance concrete floors. 

Building and designing this structure to LEED Platinum specs involved the collaborative efforts of several parties, including the Energy Institute, Robertson Construction, and architectural firm Design Group of Columbus, Ohio.  Once up and running, HCEI will use half as much energy as a similar building.  It’s estimated to save the college about $10,000 a year. 

Full story at http://www.jetsongreen.com/2009/10/hocking-college-energy-institute-leed-platinum.html

LEED http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CategoryID=19

 

All buildings should display DEC’s says RIBA’s sustainable futures chair

Alan Shingler of Sheppard Robson recently took on the chair of the RIBA’s Sustainable Futures Group after Gething’s six year stint (two three year terms).

The approximately 16-member group meets quarterly and also includes  20 ‘corresponding members’. Shingler observes that the committee has an impressive depth and array of specialist expertise in different aspects of sustainability. Members include Bill Bordass, Chris Twinn and Bill Watts. There’s no formal process for joining. Shingler stresses that the group is ‘not a closed network; people who are passionate and knowledgeable about the topic should speak to us and potentially join.’

Shingler outlined to me three areas of focus for the first few months of his tenure:

• collaboration with non-architects: (engineers, RICS and BPF) and other existing sustainability organizations (UK-GBC, Zero Carbon Hub)
• post occupancy evaluation: Not just energy, but post occupancy generally. ‘Architects are in the unique position to influence carbon reduction through influencing behavoiur’. This is music to my ears, as I’ve been banging on about POE in the AJ for some time.
• RIBA Knowledge Communities: raise awareness of this new tool and use it to communicate activities of Sustainable Futures Group.

Continued at http://blog.emap.com/footprint/2009/10/06/we-need-decs-on-all-buildings-not-just-public-buildings-says-new-riba-sustainable-futures-chair/

 

CIOB: reward high quality construction

For ten years we have been continuously reinventing the wheel when we should have been concentrating on construction quality and integrating all other potential sources of failure, economic, social and economic into process control.

We have confused ourselves and made what we need to achieve, the continual reduction in the resource intensity of the built environment, invisible.

My article from Building Services Journal explains this and can be downloaded here Double Headed Coin – unformatted – BS

dd

 

CIOB: Reward high quality construction through lower Building Control fees

Monday, 06, Jul 2009 12:00

In response to the Government’s consultation for changes to the Local Authority Building Control charging regime, the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) has called for a payment system that rewards good builders with lower Building Control fees and penalises poor quality and building control non-compliance.

The CIOB response outlines why it feels this consultation will introduce a more flexible risk based approach to inspections. …………………

See full article at http://www.politics.co.uk/opinion-formers/press-releases/business-and-industry/ciob-reward-high-quality-construction-through-lower-building-control-fees-and-discourage-cowboy-builders–$1309247$366321.htm

 

Part L: a comprehensive guide to the major changes

Part L: a comprehensive guide to the major changes – can be found in building magazine at http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3143552

Wrapping up

The 2010 revision sees another major step to zero carbon buildings. Change always brings about unforeseen complications, the greater the change the greater the complication. A 25% reduction in allowable carbon dioxide emissions is a significant reduction, bringing the accumulated reduction in emissions to 58% compared with levels in eight years ago. The 2010 revisions are unlikely to be as painful as those in 2006. Those responsible for the revisions have listened to the industry and, whilst sticking to the target reductions in allowable carbon dioxide emissions, have made an effort to ensure that the costs of compliance are optimised and that there is time for industry to prepare for the changes.

Thanks to Geoff Wilkinson on Twitter www.twitter.com/GeoffWilkinson

 

2nd Life and resource intensity

 If we are to balance the ‘One Planet Equation’, we have to reduce the ‘resource intensity’ of the goods and services we consume by a factor of ten and perhaps a hundred by 2050.

Realistically we can only do this by reducing the ‘resource  intensity’ of most other than essential physical activities to zero. Resource Intensity being the resource use per unit of consumption per person.

If there is a way that many other processes can be transferred into a virtual world, this possibility exists, particularly with the ‘Resource Intensity of Mobility’, RIoM and the the ‘Resource Intensity of Knowledge’ RIoK

The Built Environment Group is exploring ways of achieving this at the link below.

dd 

Be2camp is a place for people interested in how the latest web applications and web design techniques (Web 2.0; eg: RSS, blogs, Twitter, Wikis, Google Maps) could help build a better, more sustainable built environment – from planning and design through construction to occupation and management of buildings, infrastructure, landscape, etc.

Be2camp 2008, the UK’s (and possibly the world’s) first unconference focused on Web 2.0 and the built environment, was held in London in October 2008, Be2camp North happened in Liverpool in May 2009. This site gives information about these, and future activities. Keep in touch: Follow @Be2camp on Twitter.

http://be2camp.ning.com/

See also

http://trailblazerbusinessfutures.wordpress.com/the-one-planet-equation/

 

New York’s High Line Park in the sky opens today!

Inhabitat

June 9, 2009

New York’s High Line Park in the Sky Opens Today!

by <!––>Yuka Yoneda and Jill Fehrenbacher <!––>

An elevated park in the sky built on top of the skeleton of an old rail system? It may have sounded impossible only five years ago, but today, the eagerly awaited High Line elevated urban park officially opens for thousands of New Yorkers looking to escape the hubbub of the city below!

Full story and more pictures at http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/06/09/new-yorks-high-line-park-in-the-sky-opens-today/

 

Plans for Eco-Cities now lie abandoned

The mirage of green jobs and green technologies blinds us to the reality, the need to attack waste and loss in what we do now, in the existing built environment and within the change capabilities of existing cultures.

I remember attending an ARUP presentation on Dongtan around three years ago and the most suprising fact that came out was that the development would have to be protected from rising sea level at great resource intensity.

As with all evolution, those cultures resistant to change will die and be replaced by others that can.

dd

 China’s Grand Plans for Eco-Cities Now Lie Abandoned

……………………..But there’s another side of the story. The most highly publicized eco-cities, including Dongtan and Huangbaiyu, drew upon expertise from some of the most vaunted international architectural and design firms. The vision for an eco-city on the outskirts of Shanghai was first hatched by the international consulting firm McKinsey & Company. The well-regarded UK-based design, engineering, planning, and business consulting firm, Arup, designed what its Web site describes as the “master plan” for Dongtan. In 2005, British Prime Minister Tony Blair even hailed collaboration on Dongtan as a sign of strong U.K.-China relations.

And William McDonough — a U.S. architect, author of Cradle to Cradle, and a celebrated figure in the American green architecture movement — worked on the design of Huangbaiyu, as well as “conceptual plans” for other eco-projects across China…………….

See full article at http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2138

see also

http://www.mcdonough.com/cradle_to_cradle.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dongtan