ARC6770 Climate Sensitive

Environmental Design

Case Studies

Autonomous Urban House

Southwell, UK

Family house in a town centre

Numerous site/planning constraints
Traditional appearance
Aims for self sufficiency
Living area on upper floor
Deep roof construction for insulation

Main Design Features 1

Main Design Features 2

Very high levels of insulation (250mm in

walls, 500mm in roof)
High thermal mass
Local materials used
Double height conservatory
Mechanical heat recovery ventilation
Space heating mainly from internal gains

Rainwater collection from roof - stored in

basement
Composting toilet (with heat pump to
heat hot water)
2.2kW photovoltaic array mounted in
garden (grid connected)
Building costs similar to conventional
design

Hockerton Housing Scheme

Main Design Features

Five houses in South facing terrace row

Built at Hockerton in North
Nottinghamshire
Designed with input from Brenda and
Robert Vale
Self-build co-operative
Permission to build depended on a
number of conditions being met that
dealt with environmental issues and
concerns

Built using earth covered construction with very high

insulation and thermal mass (300mm concrete, 300mm
insulation, 400mm earth covering
No space heating has been installed though there is heat
recovery ventilation
Less than 25% of conventional house energy use
Electricity generated from photovoltaic arrays and
wind turbine
Heat pump for hot water
On-site water collection for use in houses
Reed-bed sewage and waste water treatment

BedZED Beddington Zero

Energy Development
Collaboration between architect Bill
Dunster, The Peabody Trust,
BioRegional Consultants and the local
council (London Borough of Sutton)
Combines social housing with housing for
sale at reasonable cost
Mixed use development with 82 houses,
maisonettes and flats plus workspaces

Main Design Features 2

High insulation standards

Energy and water efficient appliances
On-site combined heat and power system
Photovoltaic arrays on roof and facades
Water collection and treatment on-site
Ventilation cowls on roof move with wind
and act to recover heat from outgoing air

Main Design Features 1

High density of development to
encourage sustainability
Restricted private car use
Scheme consists of a series of terraces of
houses
Roof and spacing designed so that all
properties have south facing solar access
All properties have sunspace and private
outdoor space

Self-sufficient Solar House

Freiburg, Germany
Experimental house at Fraunhofer
Institute
Shape defined by technologies
Building uses a range of novel
technologies including a fuel cell
Occupied and monitored by family from
the Institute

Main Design Features

Analysis

Curved southerly wall made of acrylic

Transparent Insulation Material (TIM)
Photovoltaic panels on roof can be used
to drive fuel cell to generate hydrogen or
store energy in batteries
Roof mounted collector for hot water
heating

TIM generates about 100-200 kWh/m2

per heating season
Sophisticated building (probably with
high embodied energy)
During very cold spells (-10C) heating
system is insufficient
Passive systems worked well
Some initial problems with fuel cell

Elizabeth Fry Building

U.E.A. Norwich, UK
University building housing staff offices,
seminar rooms, lecture theatres, etc.
University had already commissioned
several other low energy designs
4-storey rectangular block (3,250m2)
In-situ concrete frame construction

Main Design Features 2

Ventilation, heating and cooling carried
out using Termodeck system
Heat recovery system also incorporated
Airflow depends on temperatures and
requirements
Controls intially stand-alone
Variable speed drives used for fans

Main Design Features 1

Insulated heavyweight concrete fabric
(typically 200mm insulation)
Low emissivity argon filled triple glazing
Blinds for most windows, walkway
shading to ground floor
Airtight with controlled ventilation

Commerzbank Headquarters
Frankfurt, Germany

Headquarters of International Bank

60 storey office block
Basic triangular plan
Core services at corners
Full height segmented atrium
Worlds first Ecological Tower ?

Main Design Features 1

Main Design Features 2

Atrium divded into 12 storey segments

In each segment, 4 storey sky garden
rotatated through each faade
Sky garden can be opened to outside to
allow light and ventilation to atrium
Each segement independently controlled
Internal offices open into atrium

Mixed mode ventilation operation

Building Management System controls
openings in faade
Allows natural ventilation to be used
65% of year
Double skin Klimafassade developed to
control air flow and sunlight/shading