Upgrading of Housing
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Norbert Pintsch, Ghayyoor Obaid, Njini Victor, Ndu-Ricardo Coslez - Institute for Planning and Consulting
The departure from tested construction principles (e.g. local construction materials, traditional construction methods) in the last decade has resulted in our forgetting, that construction units have a "life" of their own.
Does this fact remain unconsidered, even the best design features cannot to conceal the wrongful investment : scrap remains scrap !
In the current understanding of economics, construction objects get an image of positive Return on Investment, because the consequences of Technolgy Inputs have either not at all or only formally been evaluated.
This means in the practice, that even after a lapse of decades, the erroneousness of the development has not been recognized.
A building leads to Return on Investment for the owner, without however the resultant costs being a burden on the investor or bringing relief to the general public.
The resultant costs are carried unknowingly by the general public!
Were the building units developed future-oriented, not in the sense of modernistic designing, the costs would be enormous and the projects would not be justified under the western economic theories. Instead of finding solutions, these are simply passed on to the next generation.
In order not to further waste the enormous resources already spent on erroneous measures regarding the energy efficiency of an object, the object should not be dismantled, rather it is to be checked for a possibility of Up gradation!
Up gradation here means the technical enhancement as well as functional adjustment of a construction unit!
Preparatory Measures and Possibilities of Improvement
An analysis of different construction systems is to be carried out on a construction object and the local factors determined. A projection is to be made, in which form and scope different measures for preservation are to be carried out.
An important aspect will be the Covering of buildings or one building, in order to stabilize or reduce the energy consumption.
A construction and material analysis will probably reveal, how much sense extensive measures still make.
As a short term measure, the Orientation of a buildings complex can reduce energy consumption through photo-voltaic systems.
Such solutions are generally as well as individually possible for apartments.
To what extent the traditional elements of Wall openings (doors, windows) are feasible as energy brakes, will also depend upon offers of alternative technology and materials from the industry.
The covering of the facade with solar collectors and panels is already considered here.
Loss of Design-Ideas
Through the extensive use of CAD-Software almost everywhere and its excessive use, we are able to make interesting construction diagrams, which are able to be constructed with modern methods, but which will be registered by our successors with a mixture of surprise and disgust, as these concepts make combined use of poly-crystalline and bio-molecular structures.
In order not to eliminate the possibility of designing innovation, it is important to deal with the wall coverings with special care.
Similar as today, in future also one will want to retain a feeling of homeliness in buildings for psychological and social reasons and further, to retain buildings and living colonies for the purpose of historical preservation.
Here, the Individual characteristics of a region play a role.
Dealing with technical infra-structure
All technical systems, which correspond to the positive industrial examples from the past, are to be put to test.
These include the functioins Cleaning, Cooking, Arranging and disposing, which have led to the development of kitchens, house work rooms, toilets and wash rooms.
Living beings function with an exchange mechanism of foodstuffs and fluids while utilizing the energy required for processing, this not being a classic scientific definition but intended rather to represent in a simple manner, what we do not practice directly in our kitchens. We should proceed by analyzing an individual intake of food, its digestion process and its quantification.
The intake and outflow are measurable in systems and for that reason able to be stored in reusable containers, which requires the construction of certain rooms and limits the design options. The system of Body cleaning changes itself in a similar manner.
The required fluid stands at our disposal for utilization and after the consumption cleaned in a permanent cycle as long as computer-supported analysis do not require a complete exchange.
The mentioned changes have a substantial affect on the structural changes, which are therefore not able to be considerted separately.
Special attention must be paid to room temperature. Central solutions are extremely sensitive because central installations have deficiencies, which can lead to various contaminations. This danger is present basically only in central infra-structure.
Economic reasons are oftenm cited as pro argument for central infra-structure, but it does not justify itself in a closer examination.
De-central installations are described as exclusive and un-economic; under security aspects and even long-term economic considerations however, these have proven themselves to be more suitable. The already very advanced glass technology has not played an important role in the facade designing uptill now, which makes air-conditioning possible only through expensive systems, in which amortization is not possible. Available exits (e.g. Balconies and terraces) are to be given a new area of utility. The facade are to be used, just as the exits, for the purpose of water re-cycling. This is already being practiced since quite some time. The grey water of a residential unit is processed in a flower pot like unit on the facade. One can describe it as a transitional stage between centralized and de-centralized technology.
Individual solutions should also be possioble for large housing complexes,- showing how well the future-oriented alternative industry can perform. A special problem in the high-rise buildings are the vertical transport systems.
Development of a new concept here will become unavoidable, whereby the vacating of higher storeys of a building will be required, in order to use the wind for replacing and regulating the usual but very intensive wastage of energy.
Summary:
Basic changes in construction take place through replacement of fixed units Bath-Kitchen-WC by Recyclable containerunits. The supply and disposal mechanism works on individual basis and decentralized. The users are intregrated into the energy conservation system, for example through the facade openings. The facade designing is subject to the techniocal systems; openings in the facade are determined by the individual requirement of temperature adjustment, e.g. heating pumps..
The building or the building complexes are energetically for main wind doirection and physical experiments in the wind canal. They function as autonomous energy producers.
Their energy production defines the vertical transport system.
Labels: Mud Architecture
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 12:36 PM,
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