Week 1 : Sustainable Design

Our groups have divided work for each of the group members, and i was given a task to do an intensive research on sustainable design.

The first thing that i did was to go on Wikipedia, just to give me an idea on what sustainable architecture is.

From what i understand, the term Sustainable Architecture is also associated with the term 'The Green Building'. It is a term that describes architecture that is designed to keep the environment safe, in other words; an environmentally-conscious design.

After that,I went and research for the key elements that build these environmentally friendly architecture. From Wikipedia, i found out that Heating,Ventilation,Cooling as well as windows and the materials that are used are all important in keeping the building sustainable.

For Heating,Ventilation and Cooling System, it has to be sufficient enough so that one could produce a well insulated building. A more efficient building requires less heat generating, or dissipating power but may require more ventilation capacity to expel polluted indoor air.

Windows are placed to maximize the input of heat creating light. At the same time, it also has to minimize the loss of heat through glass ,which is a poor insulator.

For Sustainable materials, the use of Harvested wood, panels made from paper flakes, backed earth,rammed earth,clay ,wood fibre plates ,sand stone and bamboo are always encouraged.

There is an example of a K2 sustainable apartment in Windsor Victoria Australia that has passive solar design,recycled and sustainable materials, photovoltaic cells,wastewater treatment, rainwater collection and solar hot water.

(taken from Wikipedia- K2 Sustainable Aparments in Windsor,Vic).

There is also an exceptionally well explained website at Greenbean which features a lot of architecture that 'embodies' the sustainable design element.

One of my favourite is the Greenworks design.What attracts me to this article is the design of the architecture. You could see it here that the solar panels are a part of the architecture of the building. When Mark Luther said in the lecture last week that he didnt not like the idea of just placing the air conditioner generator at the side, i figured that this design does incorporate the solar panels within the design of this building. Hence its not a 'two' separate entity where one is considered as a sustainable design element and the other is just for the architecture of the building.


Ill update more when i find more!