AR2A015 Delft Lectures on Architectural SustainabilityReader Course year 2013-2014

2AR2A015 Delft Lectures on Architectural Sustainability

Reader Course year 2013-2014

Faculty of Architecture, Delft University of TechnologyChair of Climate Design and Sustainability

Room 01+.West.170

3Table of Contents

Introduction 5

Peter Teeuw 5

Architectural sustainability

Principles of sustainability 7

Anke van Hal 7

New ways of thinking, new ways of working

Ulf Hackauf 9

Beware of green washing!

Machiel van Dorst 13

Positions in sustainability

Christoph Grafe 16

A Dutch text will be made available on Blackboard.

Methods 17

Andy van den Dobbelsteen 17

Smart & bioclimatic design

Arjan van Timmeren 27

Sustainable Architecture

New builds 32

Caro van Dijk 32

Sustainability a building as a source of energy

Rudy Uytenhaak 34

Sustainability as design criterion

Kas Oosterhuis 37

Robustness

Kees Kaan 40

Architectural Sustainability: Rediscovering climate as a design fac-tor.

Michiel Riedijk 43

A text will be published on Blackboard as soon as it is available.

Pieter Weijnen 44

Upfrnt, Pieter Weijnen the cooperative for up-architecture

4Ruurd Roorda 46

Architecture in crisis

Reuse 48

Job Roos 48

Looking for balance The discovery of an integral approach

Duzan Doepel 50

HAKA recycle office, an alternative resource efficiency strategy

Marten de Jong 57

Context, beauty, meaning & the capacity to endure

Dick van Gameren 58

Villa 4.0

5Introduction

Peter Teeuw

Architectural sustainability

What is that? You may ask yourself that question. Lets put it this way, since it is really unwise to act un-sustainably (why should you want to do that?), it is logical to act sustainably as it is a natural way of doing things. So, if you are a competent architect, your buildings are by definition sustain-able. It depends on your skills as an architect whether you are able to make it Architecture too!

When we elaborate on sustainable architecture, we focus on these two words, Architecture and Sus-tainable. Architecture exposes beauty, it shows the right proportions. Its a kind of woooah.We acknowledge the fact that Sustainable development is defined as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (WCED, Our Common Future, 19871). Following this definition we may conclude that Sus-tainable Architecture is architecture that does not pass on environmental or social problems onto others. Neither in time to the next generations - nor in spatial dimensions to places elsewhere on the earth. The Dutch term for this is het voorkomen van afwenteling.

During the introduction lecture of the Delft Lectures on Architectural Sustainability students gave their opinion whether on the buildings shown were deemed sustainable and/or whether they were in their opinion Architecture. In this they were free to interpret what the definitions of these terms are. Its amazing to find that within half an hour many students completely changed their minds after some additional information about the buildings was given.For instance, given a very Architectural petrol station2 it was as a sort of logical result that it wasnt going to be very sustainable. Nevertheless knowing the petrol station is LEED certified3, and after a summary of the building characteristics was given, many students changed opinions.

Figure 1: Students response (n=184) on the first sight and after a short explanation.4

Sustainable architecture clearly isnt related to any special kind of design. Looking at Architecture as a layman you cant tell if a building is sustainable. As a professional you should at least be able to make an educated guess.

1 Our Common Future is also known as the Brundtland Report. The United Nations World Commission on Environ-ment and Development (WCED) published the report in 1987.

2 Helios House, Petrol Station in Los Angeles. Architect: Office dA. Source picture: Flickr.supergiball - Office dA - Helios House 1.

3 LEED or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is an internationally-recognized green building certifica-tion system. Developed by the US Green Building Council.

4 College with response cards on September 8, 2011. Number of students 184 (MSc2 faculty of Architecture Delft University of Technology).

6At Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Architecture we also refer to this as smart architec-ture. SMART Architecture is always sustainable, because it simply isnt smart to make architecture unsustainable. Nevertheless not all sustainable architecture is by definition smart. Smart in this concept equals innovative, inspiring, intelligent, optimistic and integral.

With the implementation of the Delft Lectures on Architectural Sustainability we want to state that sustainable design has priority in architecture. We hope the seminars will contribute to the debate, show the fast developments in this broad field and will be able to bring a focus on innovation. Students shouldnt only be taught intellectual knowledge, but they should be stimulated to develop their own vocabulary on sustainable architecture as well.

Peter G. Teeuw MSc PDEngSMART Architecture TU Delft, September 2011

7Principles of sustainability

Anke van Hal

New ways of thinking, new ways of working

The construction industry is changing. Much of what until recently has been considered as normal, is under discussion. The increasing demand for sustainability is an integral part of this change. We are not talking about a temporarily sustainability hype but about a fundamental change of thinking and doing with profound implications, for all parties involved.

Anke van Hal

The context of the construction industry is changing dramatically. Old and traditional ways of work seem increasingly insufficient to reflect the new questions that arise. For example; the rapidly in-creasing focus on existing buildings, -both offices and houses-, a shift of focus to infill areas, shrink-ing city phenomena in the border areas and the scarcity of energy and materials,. The feeling of vulnerability is increasing. Everything seems to be related. And there are more changes; There is a new call for transparency and an increased need for cooperation, a changing role of the client, an increasing demand for a service instead of a product, new procurement forms such as DBFMO and sustainable procurement, Europes influence and ambitions and the regulations of the countries around us,..

Those who agree with me that the context of the construction industry is changing radically and that an increasing demand for sustainability is part of this change, can only conclude that there is a strong need for new sustainable business models. Models that not only take into consideration the interests of people here and now but also those of people there and later and the interests of the environment in general. Sustainability is no longer only a case of feeling responsible (Corporate so-cial responsibility - CSR), but also a case of taking care of business interests. We seem to move to a situation in which taking care of the environment can enhance the benefits of businesses. Explicitly can, for bringing the win-win theory into practice is not easy. It requires a big change in the every-day way of working.

The word sustainable is in the building practice often equated with expensive. This is obvious; adding sustainable measures to what you always did results in extra costs. However, if sustainable measures help to solve problems or reach personal goals, then the situation is different. Then these measures become something people want which creates a totally different dynamic. Striving for a merger of interests, I call this way of working.

But as I said, this way of working is not easy. The procedure requires knowledge of human be-

haviour (what do people really want?). If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses., Henry Ford, the inventor of cars, once said.

However, knowledge of human behaviour alone is not enough. There is much more knowledge needed on the quality of sustainability measures (what existing needs do these measures meet?). And more economic knowledge too (how can we make sustainability measures affordable?). Work-ing from a merger of interests requires a lot of creativity. Finding other solutions than the standard ones is easier in cooperation with other people. Therefore, cooperation is also a crucial condition for who wants to work with this approach. There is also a lot of courage needed for bringing new ideas into practice. On paper there are many beautiful and creative plans. Bringing them into practice is a totally different story. But it happens. There are many parties active in the Netherlands who take up the challenge with finding creative solutions for complex problems and who are trying, in collabora-tion with others, to find new (and sustainable) ways to respond to urgent questions.

8The Wallis block in Rotterdam is a fine example of the merger of interests. The municipality gave away houses in an impoverished neighbourhood for free and also invested in the renovation of the foundation. The new residents, together with an architect, transformed these houses in a beautiful housing block that positively affects the whole neighbourhood and that also meet high-level sustain-able requirements. This is the story of a true win-win situation, but on forehand of course nobody knew if the approach would be a success.

And this is just one example. There are many more. As said, not everyone is suitable for this ap-proach. You need creative people who are capable of far-reaching cooperation and who dare to do unusual things (with all the risks it involves). However, there is an urgent need for sustainable responses to the new questions that arise. Whoever finds an answer first has a beautiful business model. This is a time of change.

This is a summary and translation of the article Anders denken, anders doen, Building Business, by Anke van Hal, March 2011

9Ulf Hackauf

Beware of green washing!

Paris Hilton at the music magazine BPMs green party at the Los Angeles Avalon nightclub, quoted from Paris becomes a bunny-hugger (Tonight, 2007)

We are all keen to participate, but we are not sure if we know what sustainability actually is.(Quote from a discussion on sustainability at the NAi)When the Bruntland commission presented their report in 1987, a general definition of the term sus-tainable was provided:Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromis-ing the ability of future generations to meet their own needs

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The concept is clear, but as soon as you start applying it, you may find yourself in a engaging but confusing debate. The definition is broad and can be applied to purely ecological as well as social and economic aspects and of course these three can easily contradict each other.

As this gives space to a lot of different focuses, the discussion is often held with almost religious passion. Green actually seems to have all the key ingredients of religion. There are saints and evil sinners. There are believers and non-believers. There are crimes, confessions and absolution. And there are multiple streams, sects and movements. Eating beef is a green sin, as is driving an SUV or taking long haul flights. But the ancient system of buying absolution works here too: you can buy yourself out of your sins with carbon offsets. Green leaders like Al Gore attract large crowds with their speeches, not unlike religious conventions.This is disconcerting. We need an un-dogmatic debate, progressive innovation and rational politics. And instead of belief, we need evidence.

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A s this gives space to a lot of different focuses , the discuss ion is often held w ith almost religious pass ion. G reen actually seems to have all the key ingredients of religion. T here are saints and evil s inners . T here are believers and non-believers . T here are crimes , confess ions and absolution. A nd there are multiple s treams, sects and movements . E ating beef is a green s in, as is driving an SUV or taking long haul ights . B ut the ancient system of buying absolution w orks here too: you can buy yourself out of your s ins w ith carbon offsets . G reen leaders like A l G ore attract large crow ds w ith their speeches , not unlike religious conventions . T his is disconcer ting. W e need an undogmatic debate, progress ive innovation and rational politics . A nd instead of belief, w e need evidence.

G reen is a complex topic and it seems difcult to deter mine w hat really matters in the green debate. A s a consequence, G reen is in danger to become pure marketing, G reen-w ashing that makes use of the cur rent interest in G reen for selling products . W e see the results all around us : w hatever you can do, there seems to be a greener w ay of doing it. T here are green skates , sustainable pizzas and environmentally friendly toothbr ushes . You can even buy eco friendly vodka and help saving the planet one glass at a time. In 2006 T he Sunday T imes repor ted that even B ritish arms manufacturer B A E systems saw the necess ity to promote themselves as G reen by introducing environmentally friendly w eapons including reduced lead bullets and rockets w ith few er toxins . T his may not have been the brightest moment of company PR , but it show s that if G reen remains vague, it is in danger of turning into a temporar y hype, w hich becomes arbitrar y in the future.

Green is a complex topic and it seems difficult to determine what really matters in the green debate. As a consequence, Green is in danger of becoming pure marketing, Green-washing that makes use of the current interest in Green for selling products. We see the results all around us: whatever you can do, there seems to be a greener way of doing it. There are green skates, sus-tainable pizzas and environmentally friendly toothbrushes. You can even buy eco friendly vodka and help saving the planet one glass at a time. In 2006 The Sunday Times reported that even British arms manufacturer BAE systems saw the necessity to promote themselves as Green by introducing environmentally friendly weapons including reduced lead bullets and rockets with fewer toxins. This may not have been the brightest moment of company PR, but it shows that if Green remains vague, it is in danger of turning into a temporary hype, which becomes arbitrary in the future.

To escape this green vagueness and abuse, we make a plea for a more rational, quantifiable and measurable approach to Green. As one step in that direction, we describe the concept of the Green City Calculator, a software tool that can be used for the evaluation and design of sustainable cities or regions. The focus is less on newly built eco-cities but on extending and adjusting existing cities. Once installed, the tool could evaluate the impact of a projected urban development and compare this to alternative designs. It could compare the environmental benefits of an investment in public transport to one in the insulation of the existing building stock and thus support decision making on an urban level. It would allow shifting the focus from sustainable building design to sustainable urban planning on a large scale. Teaming up with the engineering firms Arup and DGMR and the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), The Why Factory recently started working on a pilot version of this software tool.

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This rational calculator approach could lead to new, different proposals and green designs. It could lead to less visible but effective strategies as energy networks and other ways to make use of synergetic effects in the city. It should leave space for experiments and support research in new technologies of energy generation, waste management and food production. It would result into a different scale in Green, away from an emphasis of reduction towards new, larger structures. And it could lead to a new aesthetic in Green design that goes beyond bio-mimicry and dares to compete with the beauty of nature.

Ulf Hackauf The Why FactoryOctober 2011

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Machiel van Dorst

Positions in sustainability

Sustainable development is at the centre of research at the TU Delft. The urgency has been there for decades and the appeal came from all directions (society, the former rector of this university1 and from students). All support sustainable development (is there an alternative?), but it is not priority to all. My experience from planning Poptahof in 1998 up to the quality team of IJburg today: sustainability is the common ground in a multi-actor process, but at the end of the day it isnt per-ceived as urgent [Dorst & Duijvestein, 2004]. Our society isnt sustainable and there is a long way to go. My vision on what is going wrong starts with the by far most quoted citation for sustainable development: a development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs [Brundtland, 1987]. In itself societally so correct, but scientifically insufficient. It is political definition that cannot be operationalized. Sustainable de-velopment is a wicked concept with a multi-dimensional complexity that cant be explained unam-biguously [Du Plessis, 2009]. So the definition leads to the badly needed common ground in a multi actor process, but interpretations are diverse and are simplifications of reality. As an example here is a quote from an alderman of Rotterdam: If you look at the definition of Bundtland, a lot of things can be translated into energy and raw materials, and you can translate energy into carbon dioxide emissions.2 This is a shocking simplification, and on the other hand it is the empirical way of de-constructing reality into comprehensible (measurable) bits and pieces. Another alderman may come up with another interpretation. So in fact: sustainable development as a concept involves different worldviews. This can be explained through the history of sustainable development in which differ-ent fields of science have added different elements over time. Therefore these different movements have developed a range of problematic statements that are all included in the goals of sustainable development. This is a logical development because of the fact that the combination of disciplines prevents negative side effects of any specific intervention that should bring us closer to a sustain-able future. There are many relevant disciplines - for this paper I will name three important ones:

The Ecological disciplineAccording to Rousseau (his confessions at the end of the 18th century), unspoilt nature disappeared because man began to see himself as the owner of the land and its natural resources [Riley, 2001]. It would be another 150 years before this relationship between man and his habitat would be de-scribed as an ecological construct [Boardman, 1978]. And as long as 50 years ago, in 1962, a wider public realized that this impaired relationship would result in an environmental crisis [Carson, 1962]. According to this world view, the biggest threat is the rapid decline of biodiversity. This philosophy is included in the tradition of the section Urban Landscapes. Van Leeuwens rela-tional theory was an inspiration for Prof De Jong, Prof Duijvestein and Prof Sijmons. The approach has a historical link (through cybernetics and systems thinking) with the work of todays visiting professor of the chair, Juval Portugali.

1 An engineer should know the basic principles and implications of sustainable development and should be able to incorporate this in their work. It is a new element of the qualification profile of our graduates. - 2004Prof. dr. ir. J.T.F. Fokkema, Rector Magnificus2 According to Rik Grashoff (Alderman Participation, Culture and Environment and civil engeneer) 12 -1-2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKdSI5SD3hs.

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The Environmental disciplineClimate change due to human activity is a discovery from the 19th century1. Resource depletion has been a constraint for every city development in history. However the total impact of the (mis)behaviour of humankind became world news with the Club of Rome report The Limits to Growth [Meadows et al 1972]. The focus here is on the process (or flow) components of urbanisation such as energy, water, traffic, materials, and food.2 By taking climate change and one flow at a time, sustainable development becomes measurable and explainable (the Al Gore view). Clear goals make this a well-used philosophy for engineers and designers3. Here climate change is the biggest threat.Just as in the first type of discipline this is an approach that has its history in our faculty starting with ecodevice (Van Wirdum and Van Leeuwen) and driestappenstrategie (Duijvestein e.a.) until REAP (van den Dobbelsteen e.a.). For this chair the urban metabolism will be one of the fundamen-tal principles.

The Anthropocentric disciplineWithin sustainable development the UN conference in Rio de Janeiro1992 shifted attention from technological issues to the well-being of people: Human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable development. They are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature [UN, 1992]. This concept made man both a means and an end, since his commitment is crucial for achieving sustainable development. This approach is more subjective and qualitative than its predecessors. It presents us with problems that cannot be solved using engineering alone, as appears to be the case with efforts to reduce CO2 emissions by x per cent over y number of years. And only part of this idea is related to the built up environment. The primary goal here is health. In recent years this goal has been modified into happiness4.From the second half of the 19th century on, the welfare of people has been a driver of urbanism. Taeke de Jong emphasised health as the goal of environmental technology.

Each of these worldviews is a way of looking at reality5 and can help us on the path to a sustainable built up environment. But if a researcher is trapped within one vision there may be a negative effect on others. High density as the sustainable city form is an example of this. Of course there are more approaches, like prosperity or permanence6.

We should not disqualify any one discipline, because they all have different relations in time and space. An ecosystem based approach7 starts at a specific scale and looks for resilience (time based). And an environmental approach starts with the global problems of the future, and gives context to the present-day by extrapolating backwards. Social sustainability (the anthropocentric approach) starts in the here and now and looks for durable needs in relation to elsewhere and the future. Sus-tainable design is a combination of disciplines - a necessary package deal to prevent us from trade off effects8.

1 Svante Arrhenius discovered in 1896 the relation between carbon dioxide emissions and global warming [Masling, 2004].2 This goes back to Patrick Geddes (19 century) and Abel Wolman, 1965.3 Winy Maas: I am a child of the Club of Rome (Indesem workshop 2007).4 The 2nd of April this year there was a UN conference on Happiness and Well Being: Defining a New Economic Paradigm. This shift has a Dutch origin in the work of Prof. Veenhoven [1997].5 Foucault would relate the so called discourse to different realities, but I dont follow a post-modern line of rea-soning and believe in a Platonic way in the existence of one reality.6 Permanence or durability is an urbanism approach based on the historical layers of the city and the fact that intervention are long-lasting.7 The ecosystem as an object becomes a designers concept.8 In Dutch: afwenteling

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References: Boardman, P. (1978) The Worlds of Patrick Geddes: Biologist, Town Planner, Re-educator,

Peace-warrior. London/Boston: Routledge. Brundtland, G.H. (1987). Our Common Future The world commission on Environment and

Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Carson, R. (1962) Silent Spring. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Dorst, M.J. van & Duijvestein, C.A.J. (2004). Concepts of sustainable development - The

2004 International Sustainable Development research conference Conference proceedings 29-30 march University of Manchester, UK.

Du Plessis, C (2009) Urban Sustainability science as a new paradigm for planning in Dob-belsteen, A. Van den, M.J. van Dorst, A. Van Timmeren (eds). Smart Building in a Changing Climate. Amsterdam: Techne Press.

Maslin, M. (2004) Global Warming, a very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Meadows, D.H. et al. (1972) The Limits to Growth. New York: Universe books. Riley, P.T. (ed. 2001) The Cambridge Companion to Rousseau. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-

versity Press. Rittel, H.W.J. and Webber, M.M. (1973) Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning in Policy

Sciences, 4, pp. 155-169. United Nations (1972) Report of the United Nations conference on environment and develop-

ment, Rio de Janeiro. New York: United Nations department of Economic and Social Affairs. Veenhoven, R. (1997) Advances in understanding happiness in Revue Qu b coise Psycholo-

gie, vol 18, pp.29-74.

dr.ir. Machiel van Dorst, 16th of April 2012

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Christoph Grafe

A Dutch text will be made available on Blackboard.This text will not be required reading for the exam.

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Methods

Andy van den Dobbelsteen

Smart & bioclimatic design

A methodological approach to designSo far, the solutions I presented apply for a large scale, from region to the neighbourhood. In this chapter I will return to the core focus of our Section of Climate Design buildings and show how the methods and approaches presented until now are also functional for the design process of build-ings.

Definitions- Smart: intelligent, related to natural intelligence (natural generic cognitive ability to reason pro-

cesses) or artificial intelligence (perfect imitation of behaviour by a computer) [Timmeren 2001]- Smart architecture: sustainable design intelligently interacting with the environment [Hinte et al.

2003]- Bioclimatic design: the passive low-energy design approach that makes use of the ambient

energies of the climate of locality (incl. the latitude and the ecosystem) to create conditions for comfort for the users of the building [Yeang 1999]

- Smart & bioclimatic design: a design approach that deploys local characteristics intelligently into the sustainable design of buildings and urban plans [my own definition]

A key term in the academic material of Climate Design & Sustainability, with the basis formed by Building Physics and the innovative technology of Building Services, is smart & bioclimatic design. This is a design approach taught to students of the Faculty of Architecture, which combines the common sense of bioclimatic design with the smart use of technology in architecture.

Veg.itecture, Ken Yeangs plan for an urban structure based on vegetation [Llewelyn Davies Yeang].

Bioclimatics is a traditional architectural stream from an era when people experienced the limits to materials, water and energy and acted accordingly, making full use of the available opportunities on site. Every region in the world used to design according to bioclimatics, for another approach would mean complete squandering of resources. Ken Yeang has personally reintroduced and popularised bioclimatic architecture, and he is still unsurpassed in his bioclimatic and ecological approach to skyscrapers in particular [e.g. Yeang 2006].

Backyard management or global stewardshipTrade and globalism have detached human beings from any sense of constraints, which may have been acceptable in the past two hundred years of abundance. However, with the disappearance of rainforests, the depletion of fossil fuel and certain metals, as well as the uncontrolled production and shift of hazardous waste to developing countries or the environment, it is time to take control

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again. This could be done in two ways. First way: solve as much as possible in our own backyard. Not that I oppose global trade, on

the contrary, but thrown back to our own possibilities and limitations, we will learn better to become sustainable. Moreover, if we manage to resolve our own problems at home, we can help others who have little means to do so.

Second way: take shared responsibility for all countries in the world where we draw resourc-es from. This would come down to global stewardship. If we translated most of the ethics and social, economical and environmental quality regulations at home to these countries of resource origins, it would be a much better world already. That this is possible is demon-strated by the successful Fair Trade and Max Havelaar brands for food and Forest Stew-ardship Council for timber. Quintessential however is the uncompromised choice for these products only.

Smart & bioclimatic design as we teach it not only I but also my valued colleague Arjan van Tim-meren, for instance follows a clear line of reasoning:

1. Starting-points2. Local characteristics3. Boundary conditions4. Smart design

I will explain the steps below.

Adaptive thermal comfort: people accept higher temperatures indoors (Tbin) when outdoor temperatures are high (Te). The purple line follows the most energy-efficient climate settings

[Linden et al. 2006].

Formulating starting-pointsSmart & bioclimatic design commences with desired conditions, quality requirements or (energy) performance scores. This comes down to the people element of sustainability essential needs of humans and added quality to their lives: safety, human health, comfort, convenience, happiness, beauty and fun. Specifically for the area of climate design it relates to comfort (light, heat, humid-ity, acoustics and air quality) and the acknowledgement of individual control on it. An example of this is the model of adaptive thermal comfort by Linden et al. [2006], which gives the acceptance margins of a comfortable indoor climate in relationship with the outdoor temperature. This model is very suited for energy-saving when we design our climate systems close to the lower boundaries in

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winter and higher boundaries in summer, instead of holding the middle, as a result of which still a lot of users feel too cold in summer and too warm in winter.

Studying the local characteristicsThis step you have already encountered in the previous chapters, for instance as part of the method of energy potential mapping. In our field, local characteristics relate to features that can influence the climate design or energy use of a building: the local climate, seasonal and diurnal differences, weather conditions, the underground and surroundings, either natural or anthropogenic interven-tions: no building stands alone.

Defining boundary conditionsThis step needs to lead to an underlayment plan or a set of boundaries for the design. These are based on the local characteristics studied in the previous step. They may be translated to rules of thumb for the orientation, rough shape of the building, roof type or faade detailing, to give a few examples.

Smart designThis is the creative and fun part of smart & bioclimatic design, using the preparative work as the toolbox and playing field for the real stuff: architectural design and architectural engineering.

Case study of the Dutch chancellery

To demonstrate the approach of smart & bioclimatic design I will show some outcomes of a prepar-ative study we did for the new Dutch chancellery in Canberra some years ago, about which we pub-lished an international paper [Dobbelsteen et al. 2008]. This was an interesting case for us, because it concerned a different climate zone and the findings would be used by the architect who was to be selected to make the design. I will discuss a few issues.

A first issue we raised with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was about the starting-points of the build-ing design, not just the brief yet also wishes related to the use of energy, water and material. It was here that we could discuss the adaptive thermal comfort idea to reduce the energy demand in summer and winter even before we started.

Without the need to travel we proceeded with the analysis of local circumstances. For Australia Can-berra has a relatively mild climate, almost continental and on average only 2 degrees warmer than the Netherlands, but with big differences between day and night as well as between summer and winter. So moderating the indoor temperature through deployment of building mass or the under-ground would be desirable. Located at a southern latitude relatively close to the Equator, in summer the sun reaches a height of approximately 82o (to the north!), so almost vertical. Therefore we studied all possible faade elevations and proposed rudimentary obstructive element positions to avoid irradiation, as well as a suspended tropical roof to keep the solar heat at bay and reflect most of it.

Different solutions for different faade elevations.

Another interesting typical feature was the predominant wind from the north-west, bringing in hot air from the desert during daytime and freezing cold at night. This wind therefore had to be ob-

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structed. The building site had no tree coverage in that direction, but the old chancellery building from the 1950s was exactly positioned against this wind direction. So we proposed to preserve the old building and use it as a windscreen and its cellar as rainwater storage. For, as you probably know, lack of water is Australias climate menace.All findings from the analysis we translated into a crude underlayment plan, with sketches present-ing alternative solutions to solve specific climate and energy problems.

old chancellery

old chancellery

Urban underlayment plan for the Dutch chancellery in Canberra.

From here on the architect, Rudy Uytenhaak, would have to finish the assignment, which he did, making a proper architectural expression a smart design of the local boundary condition sketch-es. His design of the new Dutch chancellery was round and therefore lacked the strictly different fa-cades we had sketched, proposing a beautiful gradient in the solar obstructive elements. Uytenhaak also did something we had strongly discouraged: design an atrium. He however provided it with a rotating sloped roof, which could keep out all undesired sunshine, generate power and which gave the building a stark architectural expression.

Design for the new Dutch chancellery [Rudy Uytenhaak Architectenbureau].

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Three types of roofs that should be compulsory from now onDutch roofs are stupid: if they are sloped they do not produce energy nor function as a rainwater collector; if they are flat they do neither and have black tar foil which heats up to 80oC in summer.As far as I am concerned, only three types of roofs are allowed from now on:

The Green Roof: rainwater buffer, temperature moderator, micro-climate improver, passive cooler and moisturiser, park landscape for people

The Energy Roof: power and/or heat generator, rainwater collector, solar reflector, active cooler

The Greenhouse Roof: power generator and heat collector, rainwater collector, passive cool-er, CO2 sequesterer, urban agricultivator, winter garden and home restaurant

Ill discuss the Greenhouse Roof further on.

We do not stand aloneRudy Uytenhaak is not the only Dutch architect who successfully integrates sustainability into his designs. I am glad to notice that the market is filling up with architects who dare to take the step to design sustainably, without the obsolete perception that this accent would only diminish the archi-tectural quality but rather seeing it as a necessity and extra challenge and potential for a new type of architecture. So, many follow this track now. I cannot mention all of these architects I regard, but I want to highlight a few of them who have always had sustainability on their banner.

Bjarne Mastenbroeks Villa Fals in Switzerland [SeARCH].

Last year SeARCH was elected Dutch architect of the year, and an important reason was the original vision of its main architect, Bjarne Mastenbroek, on sustainability and the passionate way he uses it

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in excellent architecture. In that sense he has much in common with Hiltrud Ptz and Pierre Bleuz of opMAAT.

Design of the carbon-neutral Zuidkas building [Architectenbureau Paul de Ruiter].

Two different architects with a ceaseless drive to design energy-neutral or even -delivering buildings are Thomas Rau and Paul de Ruiter. Paul de Ruiters architecture is far from what grumpy architects refer to as ecological buildings and he succeeds in combining a modern architectural expression with a top performance in sustainability.

The original design of Villa Flora [Kristinsson Architects & Engineers].

Among the older and wiser yet not less energetic architects is for me the godfather of sustainable architecture, Jn Kristinsson. Retired already nine years ago he is unstoppable in conceiving innova-tive techniques to be applied in holistic sustainable buildings. Jns design for the Villa Flora in Venlo would be I dare say the greenest modern building in the world, as it closes every cycle of ener-gy, water and materials. Except for two things: Dutch law does not allow drinking water decentrally made from precipitation, and the waste water treatment produces somewhat too much nitrogen. I suggest to him he add a nettle farm to his building and this too will be solved

The fun of exploring new directions for design

The exemplary architects mentioned above hopefully convey the fun of working on sustainable building design, while taking into account fundamental or even enhanced quality levels and using local circumstances optimally.

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At present I see several new areas for further development of urbanism and architecture into the di-rection of becoming fully sustainable. In the very first chapter, I already presented the four themes of our research programme of Green Building Innovation. I hope that the need for three of these is obvious after having read the booklet up till here: closing cycles, carbon neutrality and climate adaptation. Here I will explain the fourth one, E-novation, as well as other challenging topics for the area of Climate Design.

The greenhouse as an assetIn Kristinssons Villa Flora the greenhouse is an essential asset. In an earlier study he had found that one hectare of modern, smart greenhouse (using fine-wire heat exchangers and heat and cold storage in the underground) is a solar collector that could provide heating for 7 to 8 ha of new ultra-low-temperature-heated houses. This area is based on average Dutch urban plans, the Vinex density. If we were to combine greenhouses with apartment blocks, I calculated that every 3 to 4 stories of apartments could be served by one layer of modern greenhouse (presumably on top).

Sketch for a building solving four problems at once: water storage, housing development, food production and energy-neutrality (idea for the Dutch Westland).

This simple ratio based on heat supply and demand has additional advantages: the greenhouse could be used for locally grown food (urban agriculture) and these plants could absorb the CO2-filled exhaust from the apartments. Furthermore, the greenhouse roof would simplify rainwater collection for use by the plants or in the apartments. As you know, buffering rainwater becomes more urgent in cities.

Fossil-free developmentsThe importance of greenhouses became perfectly clear when I had to work on a region free of fossil fuel, together with planners, architects and technologists. Groningen was again one example to be elaborated, and we found that, with assumed energy savings of 50%, we had to create 250 km2 of photovoltaics (PV) and wind turbines together. The only spot where we could find sufficient land for this was the ecologically and economically depleted area of the Veenkolonin (peat colonies). Planning 250 km2 of modern horticulture that uses excessive carbon dioxide and has a closed heat balance, with PV on the south side of the shed roof and wind turbines between the greenhouses, we could solve the biggest part of the assignment. In addition, the facility would produce high-qual-ity food and organic material, making it very productive and viable.

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Groningen Fossil Free: the province as it provides its own energy by non-fossil sources. The yellow-green patches to the south-east consists of modern greenhouses providing most of the energy, in addition to food and material,

whereas it also serves as a carbon sink [image by Kasper Klap].

Technologies unlimitedAs part of the Delft University of Technology of course I want to contribute to the development of new technology for the built environment. The SREX and REAP cases urge for new techniques of heat and cold exchange without excessive use of infrastructure. Also on the building level in the area of energy and climate, new technical improvements can still be made for the building envelope or building services. In that respect I think the tendency toward adaptive and responsive techniques is promising and should be enhanced towards intelligent interaction of building and surroundings, for which the gentle art of biomimetic architecture as taught by Leeds professor Greg Keeffe [e.g. Keeffe 2010] provides a thorough basis.

Energy and comfort in buildings: theory, plan and realityMany plans are well-intended but turn out to perform worse than anticipated. Things go wrong during the design, construction and operation stage, which we need to understand in order to avoid:

How correct are energy calculations? What goes wrong in practice (the design, construction or operation stage)? What can we do about this? Do people behave differently than anticipated? What are the behavioural mechanisms behind this? How can we design sustainable buildings that forgive mistakes or that fit user behaviour?

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Sketch of the Breathing Window principle [Kristinsson Architects & Engineers] and folder page of its market introduction [Brink Climate Systems].

Forgive me for mentioning him again, but Jn Kristinsson is one of the very few architect-inven-tors who come up with new ideas and techniques every year. Among the latest are the Smart Skin and the Air Mover, an inventive passive ventilator he developed with his equally smart brother. The Breathing Window, which he invented in the late 1990s, is finally going to be launched on the market. The principle is simple: fresh air is let in through a fine-wire heat exchanger where exhaust air exchanges its waste heat by an efficiency of 90%, thus providing ventilation and basic heating simultaneously. It is a perfect solution for buildings with limited floor heights, where suspended ceilings are undesired and for renovation projects, which brings me to E-novation.

E-novation, the assignment of the coming decadesEducation at the Faculty of Architecture may predominantly concern new buildings and new urban developments but after the coming 15-20 years a decisive period for sustainable development 90% of the built environment will consist of exactly the same elements as we have now. So we may design brilliant sustainable buildings, which we can, but the real challenge lies in the improvement of the existing stock, where as discussed at least 50% of energy savings need to be accom-plished.

During my doctoral research I developed a model to compare decisions regarding renovation of an existing building versus demolition and reconstruction, taking into account the age of a building and its expected service life after intervention. For students I used the old faculty building of Architecture as a case. I had better not done that, because it turned out that the building should either be completely stripped and sustainably renovated, or demolished and replaced by a sustainable new one. Surprisingly for students, this case showed that preserv-ing old poor-quality buildings not always is the best solution. As you probably know this very building burned down in 2008, the year of comparison reference in class

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I use the term of E-novation to describe energy renovation innovation. It is an assignment much more complicated than designing a new building, as not all measures are possible, requiring inge-nuity to significantly improve the energy performance. Close as close can be, we will work on the sustainable renovation of the present building of the Faculty of Architecture, BK City. It is a perfect example of the complexity of an old majestic building where unlimited intervention is not possible or allowed. Within the coming years the BK City Slim project will have to make BK City the paragon of E-novation, probably presenting a collection of strategies instead of just one solution:

Standard solutions (post-insulation, replacing windows, upgrading building services) Technical approach (LTH/HTC floors and walls, heat recovery, heat pumps, heat and cold

storage) Local approach (cabins in large spaces, local heating/cooling, wrap up internally) Innovations (Breathing Windows, heat-radiating furniture, greenhouse over the building) No savings sustainable generation (PV and wind turbines here or elsewhere, green power,

geothermal heat)

Relevant research for E-novationE-novation will bring a myriad of issues to be studied for optimal results:

Comparing different types of renovation for different buildings Developing new solutions for roofs, facades and floors Developing new technology for climatisation Studying physical aspects of building renovation Measuring comfort before and after intervention Assessing energy performance before and after intervention Determining the sustainability performance achieved Surveying user behaviour and experience

References

Dobbelsteen A. van den, Gommans L. & Roggema R.; Smart Vernacular Planning - Sustain-able regional design based on local potentials and optimal deployment of the energy chain, in: Proceedings SB08; Melbourne, 2008

Hinte E. van, Neelen M., Vink J. & Vollaard P.; Smart Architecture; 010 Publishers, Rotter-dam, 2003

Keeffe G.P.; Means, Means, Means - Adventures in the Technoscape vol.1; MSA Press, Man-chester, 2008

Timmeren A. van; High-tech, low-tech, no-tech - Architectonische interpretaties van duur-zaam bouwen (versie 2.01) (in Dutch); Publikatieburo Bouwkunde, Delft, 1998

Yeang K.; Ecodesign: A Manual for Ecological Design; John Wiley & Sons, 2006 Yeang K.; The Green Skyscraper - The Basis for Designing Sustainable Intensive Buildings;

Prestel, Mnchen, Germany, 1999

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Arjan van Timmeren

Sustainable ArchitectureIncreased necessity of an integrated approach of Building Envelope + Installations

Strategies for Sustainable ArchitectureBuildings are like organisms, sucking in resources and emitting wastes. The larger and more com-plex they become, the greater the necessity of infrastructures and the greater their dependence on surrounding areas, and last but not least, the greater their vulnerability to change around them. With recent and coming perturbations of the weather as well as constantly increasing demand of energy, water and materials, this aspect of vulnerability and dependence is becoming essential for sustainability, as the world may be entering a period of scarcity. Therefore, a renewed look on the building metabolism is necessary. Within this metabolism several components are essential. As for sustainability and especially the potentials for climate integrated design, the building envelope, or better: the building skin is the most essential component. Critical to the implementation of a changed approach to the building skin in close coherence with integrated resource management in the urban living environment, are reciprocity between skin and surrounding influences respectively indoor comfort and behaviour related influences and climate change influences. Besides of that in-clusion of low exergy solutions together with strong feedback systems between the different physi-cal scales, and introduction of regenerative systems will be directive.

Strategy for sustainable architecture: focus on adaptive building envelopesThe building envelope is a major building component: external forces meet internal ideals at this point. The building and its site are a landscape of possibilities, with the building skin as the mediator between in-ness and out-ness. It concerns itself with climate (or perception of climate) as a ma-jor contextual generator, and with benign environments using minimal energy and materials as its target.When speaking of climate adaptive building envelope (or skin), most people will understand the general idea behind it: a building envelope that changes its characteristics under influence of the cli-mate. A possible interpretation problem rises with the exact definition of adaptive: different people with differing backgrounds and perspectives have a different view of the term adaptive. In general adaptive is referred to as to become adjusted to new conditions.While adaptive means the ability to adjust and adapt to changing circumstances by itself, adjust-able, similar to adaptable, means the ability to adjust by external interference, such as human hand. Shutters for example will therefore not be classified as adaptive, but as adjustable. Within this con-text responsive building elements, among which (parts of) faades are investigated as well. Respon-sive in this is addressed to as responding readily and positively while respond in this context means doing something as a reaction. Climate-responsive building elements are building construction elements in which building service functions (e.g. heating, ventilation, lighting) are integrated and which assist in providing a comfortable and healthy environment at low-energy use. With respect to faades, the difference between adaptive and responsive is that responsive does not actually mean the adjustment of specific characteristics to the environment, but merely responding to a change in climate by, for example, lowering blinds or opening windows. The result could be interpreted as a change in characteristics, but technically nothing has changed in the faade itself besides the orien-tation of certain building elements by a mechanical action.Before the research and design for a new building envelope concept starts, it is vital to realize what exactly the requirements for the building skin are. The term building skin to some extent already explains what it is about.A skin separates the inside from the outside, protecting its contents, which automatically implies that on the one hand there is a need for protection, meaning that inside the skin conditions are preferable above the outside conditions, i.e. inside is, or should be at least, more comfortable. On the other hand it implies interaction and a mediator of reciprocal relationships of inside and outside conditions.Originally a building envelope should perform all the tasks for which we seek shelter behind it. To-day however, no longer the building envelope simply has to act as a shelter against rain, wind and cold only, but more and more it is expected to act as a skin the same way as a human skin acts: as a vital part of our body, responsible for keeping the temperature of the body itself within comfort-

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able limits, but also harvesting water, electricity, clean air and treating or emitting waste sustain-ably. Depending on the location, nature of the building, architect and client, additional requirements such as solar control or acoustic damping can become part of a faade. To provide optimal comfort to the user, it is not possible to cater for every physical aspect: requirements for acoustic quality are different from those for avoiding PM10 emissions to enter the building, bounding and/or emission of harmful CO2 and ozone produced in the building or for thermal insulation, which in turn is differ-ent from the requirements for visibility or natural light admittance. However, there are some basic functions of a building skin that every faade needs to encompass: waterproofing; shelter from wind (not to be confused with ventilation); thermal insulation; and structural soundness. For determin-ing or testing the possible solutions with respect to these basic needs as to the sustainability of the building skins, it is of importance to determine more precise the preconditions or assessment criteria for arranging and preserving systems.

Elaborations of climate integrated design of building envelopesOur planet is changing, bringing new challenges to the way we live. Climate change already has a large impact on urban areas throughout the world. The effect will increase in the future, even if we would manage to keep emissions on todays level. The most recent developments and their require-ments with respect to hard to be defined, continuous transformation are at the centre. It has turned out that the ability to incorporate continuous change, preferably through regenerative design, is necessary to tune the complex structures of society, the flows considered (energy, materials, air/ventilations, water and even nutrients) nature (and the natural processes) to each other. The influence of the process of the transformation that was inspired by changes in the environment, its use, the technology applied, the market and the specific systems and technical infrastructure seems relevant. The issue is how building skins, integrated systems, infrastructure and most of all building inside conditions can be better prepared for the consequences of such changes. This could be ad-dressed to by use of kinetic structures and building envelopes, or by treating the built environment more as a living system; although it will always be a controlled system. Living complex systems do not develop into one ideal final state. An approach focused on design of processes is a good starting point: changes in the dynamic quality lead to techniques and systems, which may result in syner-gy effects. Present-day design principles particularly emphasize the extrinsic values. By changing these to intrinsic values, a better tuning to site-specific (ecological and comfort) conditions and regenerativeness may be achieved.Regenerative systems are coming into wider use. Often, the starting point is Lovelocks theory (1979) claiming that Gaia (the earth), as a single living organism, has some capacity of self-main-tenance and self-repair, which should be the basis for all (living) systems. These principles are often used as target values for the systems based on natural components. Management is an important phase in these kind of regenerative systems: as they continue to evolve after taking their initial form, management is necessarily a creative activity as well and differs dramatically from the main-tenance of industrial systems, the purpose of which is essentially to prevent change. In general this implies a need for decentralization of systems. This coincides with the fact that almost all sustain-able energy sources have a low energy density. This, together with their variable character, will contribute to the obvious choice (at first) for a decentralized implementation (Timmeren, 2008).

Regarding the energy aspect of sustainable buildings, the limits of demand reduction can probably be found at the junction of maximising the use of available local resources in the built environment and fitting it closely to user needs, complemented with conserving and controlling strategies like energy recycling, recovery and storage as close to users. The building skin and integrated decen-tralized systems will be essential for this second step. In any case, the present-day competitive advantage of sunk costs for conventional solutions within this context should be avoided. Strategic niche management can be of help here. The strategic approach should focus on the higher dynamic efficiency of the decentralized systems: changed circumstances are easier to be anticipated with the help of decentralized systems. The general idea behind smaller systems is their relative simplicity and adaptability, and therefore their possibility to create extra (sustainable) capacities in situations where:

In existing buildings where centralized systems have not been built yet, are out-dated, or are difficult to integrate, due to lack of space;

In existing buildings systems have reached the limits of their capacity and new building parts, or higher user- or comfort related flows (ventilation, heat, cold, electricity, etc.) are

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desired (temporary back-up provision); Bioclimatic, geological or circumstantial characteristics make interventions (e.g., in existing

building structures or for instance subsoil) difficult or expensive; There is a desire for enhanced environmental performance, e.g., through interconnections

with use related control (possibly combined with other infra systems); There are existing or new niches, as occasions for new technology (chameleon facades,

cleaning facades); There is convergence of systems and belonging infrastructures, for the support of flexible

development and restructuring concepts (e.g. so-called dynamic offices); Ideologically oriented considerations, possibly as an educational principle.

Generally speaking, the two main problems in decentralized solutions are scepticism of the leading (often dominant) stakeholders involved and the larger influence of individual behavioural changes (larger total capacities needed). The former is particularly caused by maintenance, responsibility (certainty) and liability. This scepticism however might decrease because of the necessary transition of the market or markets from a supply of products to a supply of services. The second aspect with respect to the different flow sizes (in fact, the basis for the technical economies of scale) can be met locally by modern techniques of planning and tuning, the so-called Real Time Control (RTC), and possibly by subdivision into parallel facilities. Thus, the remaining main points of interest for im-proving the competitiveness of decentralized systems and actually achieving the advantages for the environment and the users are the organization and implementation of maintenance, exploitation, provision of services and inspection of the various systems, together with the availability of back-up provisions if necessary.

Figure 1: From left to right: Mach des Halles, Patrick Blanc, Avignon (France); Muse Du Quai Branly, Patrick Blanc, Paris (France); Quantas Lounge, Sydney Int. Airport (Australia) and : Living wall, Tokyo (Japan).

One means of adaptation with respect to the building envelope is increased use of urban vegeta-tion.

In present-day (compact) towns and cities, there is a growing need for green areas that make use of the specific qualities of their locations, typical for them and possibly protected, for recreational and especially climate adaptive reasons (so called climate robustness). There are also processes that cause the actual public nature of green areas to become more and more restricted. Compe-tition for urban space will make increased urban park areas unlikely, but cities can be greener by utilizing streets, rooftops, and walls. Large scale city greening, by e.g. greening rooftops, increasing the number of street trees and using climbing plants on walls (Figure 1), can significantly cool the local climate by evapotranspiration. The urban heat island effect and heavy storms caused by large temperature differences between cities and their surroundings are therefore reduced. Climbing plants can cool buildings during the green season through shading. Green roofs can cool buildings with poor insulation during the warm season due to evapotranspiration.

Urban vegetation will also reduce local flooding by its water uptake during the growing season. Using natures processes usually means using them on the site where they occur. Distribution routes are thus much shorter than those of most (conventional) industrial processes, which usually require transport of both energy and materials. Mostly for this reason an essential step is an inventory of on-site resources and processes. But it might also mean that we need to include more water based

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systems inside faades, in stead of trying to ventilate water(vapour) as soon as possible. Including open water based flows inside facades will imply an entirely new approach of material use, method-ology and structural layout of building skins.

Besides solutions that are based on a strategy of adaptation handling impact(s) , like the previous mentioned, an approach based on mitigation tackling cause(s) is even preferable. An example of the latter are energy generating faades, water treatment facades, or energy and/or CO2 stor-ing faades. A good example of the energy generating faades is the Redaktionsgebude by Axel Schlueter in Albstadt (Germany) in which sun-shading photovoltaic louvre-like elements are inte-grated in the faade (Figure 2). An interesting example of the energy storing faades is the Senior Citizens Apartment building by Dietrich Schwarz in Ebnat-Kappen (Switzerland), which uses prisms to reflect sunlight and PCM material to store energy. The charge state of this latent heat storing glass faade can be observed directly from its optical appearance, which is determined by the differ-ent phases of the salt hydrate.

Figure 2: The Senior Citizens Apartment building by Dietrich Schwarz (top right: uncharged, and top middle charged

state).

The faade of the planned EVA Centre by Atelier 2T in Culemborg (the Netherlands) is an exam-ple of the introduction of CO2 storage and water treatment inside a double layered faade (Figure 4). Here a sealed double skin faade contains the wastewater treatment of the EVA Centre and the heat recovery installations with seasonal storage in aquifer.

Three of the installations within this system component (the faade, the solar-cavity spaces with hanging gardens and the agricultural glasshouses on top of the building) are fully integrated in the design of the EVA Centre. Besides this faade, a so-called Sustainable Implant contains installa-tions for anaerobic treatment of organic waste and waste water of the residential district in which the building is situated (cf Figure 3). The double skin faade in this project in fact can better be defined as a vertical glasshouse (Timmeren, 2007). Cleaning faades are another innovation of the last decade. Mostly they address to the PM10 (and other related matter) problems sticking to faades at heights that are difficult to reach and thus costly to clean. There are two main applica-tions: elements that keep themselves clean and elements that filter the air. Best-known product here is self-cleaning glass, but also similar other self-cleaning materials exist. Relevant examples for this are the SmartWrap building by AN_Architects in Vienna (Austria), which concerns a pho-to catalytic self-cleaning ceramic faade, and the Garden Chapel by the Obayashi Corporation in Osaka (Japan), a self-cleaning membrane skin. As to elements that filter the air, e.g. the Naturaire system by Air Quality Solutions is exemplary. It consists of a hybridization of two technologies that are quickly gaining in usage as means of remediating contaminated soils, water and air in outdoor, industrial setting. These technologies are biofiltration, the use of biological systems of beneficial

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microbes to break organic pollutants down their benign constituents and phyto-remediation, the use of green plants to facilitate the remediation or reclamation of contaminated soils or water.

Figure 3: Impression of the sealed double skin faade of the hotel part within the EVA centre along with Sustainable Implant (SI).

References Kristinsson, J., Timmeren, A. van: Fine wire Heat Exchanger for heating and cooling Passive Houses,

Proceedings International Conference Passin Haus, Nrenberg, Germany (2008). Linden, A.C. van den, Boerstra, A.C., Raue, A.K., Kurvers, S.R., De Dear, R.J.: Adaptive temperature

limits: A new guideline in The Netherlands a new approach for the assessment of building perfor-mance with respect to thermal indoor climate. Energy and Buildings, vol. 38, (2006) 8-17.

Lovelock, J.: A new look at life on Earth (1979), in Dutch translation (1980): Gaia, de natuur als organisme, Bruna, Utrecht.

McDonough, W., Braungart, M. : Cradle to cradle. Remaking the way we make things, North Point Press, New York (2002).

Spoel, W.H. van der, Phillippa, R.A., Swieten, P.M.J. van: Passive cooling using adaptable insulation, SenterNovem research BSE-2005 NEO 0268-05-04-02-012 (2008).

Timmeren, A. van: Sustainable decentralized energy generation & sanitation: Case EVA Lanxmeer, Culemborg (the Netherlands), Journal of Green Building, Vol.2 nr. 4 (2007).

Timmeren, A. van : Reciprocity of Autonomy & Heteronomy. Decentralization vs. Centralization of essential services in the built environment. Research in Urbanism Series, IOS Press, Amsterdam (expected 2012).

Dr.ir. A. van Timmeren, TU Delft, Faculty of Architecture, Green Building Innovation & Product De-velopment

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New builds

Caro van Dijk

Sustainability a building as a source of energy

Architectenbureau Paul de Ruiter

In 1992 Paul de Ruiter started his PhD here in Delft at the department of Building Technology with his thesis The Chameleon Skin. In this thesis he first acknowledged the ambition for buildings as a source of energy. In 1994 he founded Architectenbureau Paul de Ruiter, and this notion has ever since been the guiding line in our work.

Buildings can literally be energy sources, as they can be the carriers of sustainable energy produc-tion. Solar panels, fermentation and bio mass power plants, long term earth storage for heating and cooling, and to a lesser extent wind energy these are all building based systems. Buildings start to act as both energy users and producers, exchanging energy through the electricity grid with other buildings and sustainable power plants. The grid starts acting as the YouTube for energy users are also producers.

But before we start thinking about alternative energy production, buildings are also the means to reduce the demand for energy significantly through their skin. We design faades according to their orientation, the way they face the sun, to the weather outside and to whats going on inside this means we are designing along with the climate and not against it. This is what we call climate design.

The energy a building uses is to a large extent the energy for cooling/heating and electricity. But also the materials that a building is made of cost a certain amount of energy when manufactured and assembled on site. The embodied energy of a building, as we could call it, has to be related to the buildings life cycle in terms of long-term flexibility (for instance the structure) and short-term renewability or recyclability (finishes and interior).

Finally, a building is made to enhance the quality of life. This means we should build healthy build-ings, with great indoor air quality, lots of daylight, vegetation, and well-organized orientation and circulation. But a building is not a standalone object- it has its place in the complex social network of a city. Buildings should create opportunities, be inclusive without being unguarded, and they should be well connected with and have a positive influence on their surroundings this is what we call human energy.

How these different aspects of energy end up being represented in the building depends also on the client and the project organisation. If a building is designed for the market by a developer, there can be a sustainable ambition, but this ambition is often translated into something short term and finance based. But as proven sustainable real estate generates more return on investment, ambitions now get enhanced by sustainability certificates such as LEED and BREEAM. These labels demand a minimum level of sustainability on all aspects of a building, from energy to water to materials to indoor environment quality and health. If this is combined with the scenario where the developer will also be the owner of the building after completion, the ambition of sustainability rises with the profit to be made over energy saving. And finally, if the owner has also in mind to offer a full service sustainable experience to his guests, then all is in the right place for designing some-thing special. We happened to be so lucky in this project: Hotel Amstelkwartier.

Hotel Amstelkwartier Amsterdam: Sustainable luxury Hotel Amstelkwartier will be a highly sustainable four-star-plus hotel on the Amstel riverbanks near Amstel Station. A new residential and working area will be developed here in the coming years. It is

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a project with many and diverse conditions, such as a strictly defined building envelope, its slightly odd position on a former brown field next to a railway track, the big ambition for energy-saving, sustainability and to obtain the LEED Platinum certificate (the highest possible LEED score), the demands of the hotel brand, and, especially, the high standard and unique experience that the hotel has to offer to its guests.

Part of this unique experience is the beautiful view over Amsterdam ideally combined with a dra-matic Dutch sky and light. So we decided to give all the hotel rooms big floor-to-ceiling windows. However, climate wise, hotels tend to overheat very easily on a sunny day, and at the same time they lose their warmth quickly overnight. In order to maintain the right indoor climate at all times, most hotels have their cooling or heating services running permanently, even if the hotel guest is out and the more glass in the faade, the more cooling and heating is required. We decided that we need the big windows and a precise climate system to be at the disposal of the hotel guest at any time, but that we dont need those when the hotel guest is out and most hotel guests are out during the larger part of the day. So ideally, we want to switch off the heating and cooling entirely when the guest is gone, and switch it back on just before he walks in again. There-fore we designed insulated sliding panels that move in front of the glass when the guest is out, so the indoor temperature of the room remains the same. The key card meanwhile keeps track of our guest, and when he gets into the elevator downstairs, his room wakes up from its hibernating state, and the sliding panels open up to present him with the view when he enters the room. This reduces the energy demand for heating with 65% and for cooling with 99%.

So in fact the faade has not been designed as a whole it has been designed for one room, based on an indoor experience, comfort and the reduction of energy demand. But the total appearance of it is rather special: as the shutters open and close in response to the circumstances, the faade changes constantly as well. In addition, we made sure that the faade as a whole keeps a notion of abstraction and verticality, with the opening and closing panels as variables in a consistent rhythm.

Apart from hotel room the hotel houses a number of public functions. The ground floor is entirely reserved for a restaurant/bar, the mezzanine houses the specialty restaurant and the hotel lobby, the first floor is a combination of conference and meeting concepts and on the top floor there will be a large multifunctional club space. Especially the lower floors will also be articulated as very wel-coming, transparent, lively areas that mark the hotels presence and attract people from the nearby housing areas as well as from the rest of Amsterdam.

Altogether, the hotel with its 24h liveliness will appear to the city as a dynamic volume with an ev-er-changing variety of lighting, transparency and colour under an overlay of an abstract consistent faade structure. The fact that the building first and foremost shows itself as a strongly shaped vol-ume, and secondly reveals the activity inside through variations in the faade, enhances the experi-ence of the approach of the hotel from the view from the high way all the way into the entrance hall. It will form a singular shape in the citys skyline, and a new pivoting point between the city centre, the river Amstel and the entrance of the city by car or railway.

Sustainable design requires a certain level of integral thinking. The traditional building process phases of sketch design, preliminary design and technical engineering merge into each other, as detailed technical questions become relevant already at the beginning for instance here the faade and services concept are so much interrelated that we had to be certain of its performance in detail already in the very beginning, or the design would have to change altogether as well. This way of working requires close interaction with the technical and structural engineers, and a certain willingness in the whole team to try out new ideas and innovations. The architect has, apart from his specific expertise in conceptual thinking and aesthetics, to take up the role of the coordinator and initiator in this team as the architect is the particular person to have the overview of all the different aspects of the building as well as their correspondence with the architectural concept and ambition.

Architectenbureau Paul de Ruiter ir. Caro van Dijk Hotel Amstelkwartier August 2011

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Rudy Uytenhaak

Sustainability as design criterion

The term sustainability is liable to inflation. The meaning must be renewed constantly. Most of the time sustainability is coupled with a low energy performance coefficient. This indeed is essential but the term should be reviewed more widely and include several components that cooperate integrally. Before the instructing party and the architect lay the task to find a balance in the various aspects on which an integral sustainable design can arise.

Components integral sustainability Social and psychological component (righteousness and lovable, satisfaction of all senses) Policy component (statement of requirement, basis for renewal) Energy component (Trias Energetica) Technical components and materialisation (industrial flexible building, locally available material,

with respect to the environment, CO 2 neutrally produced and transported, possibility of recy-cling, cradle to cradle)

Economic component (payback period, maintenance, flexibility, reuse)

Integral design proces

Sustainability = integrated quality and buildings without weakness

The main starting point for the new chancellery in Canberra is the realisation of a maximally sustain-able building. In order to realise this, a integrated design method (parallel) must be applied instead of the more traditional serial method. From the beginning the different consultants are involved at and have influence on the design decisions. The installationsadvisor, structural advisor and architect search for the integrated optimum. When this method is applied, where every party pays attention to the sustainable aspects within its field, the result will be a considered an integrated design. Within this integrated working method the architect must comply himself/herself in its role. Instead of the seemingly free role that he or she normally has at the beginning of the design process the design now is co designed with the consultants. This way the architect, beside his or her role as creative designer, acquires extra responsibility for managing the design group.

Integral sustainableWe build to achieve optimally durable environments, with a vision on the balance between in-vestments in energy and material and their output in use, comfort and management concerning the aimed life cycles. We make spaces to provide appropriate (micro-) climate, where the sensual (physical) qualities of the space, with regard to air, acoustics, temperature and lighting are comfort-able and therefore well measured and regulated.It is unfortunately still inevitable that building burdens the (macro)environment. But how can the architect ensure that the environmental tax of a design is restricted to a minimum or the building even helps the environment?Possibly integrated quality is a more precise term than sustainable building. Integration indicates a dynamic combination of the different aspects that influences the complete design and construction process. An optimal cooperation of the situation, climate control and installation, with respect to the required raw materials in all its aspects (material, energy and the factor time/economy), and the value and sustainability over the short and long term.

SituationThe location and the shape of a building have a direct influence on the mobility and accessibility for users and visitors. The construction mass is a vital fact when it comes to construction (costs), management and demolition of a building. Buildings with a favourable factor offer, beside functional immediacy, short course lines and a limited seizure on the ground an important thermal advantage. Per m3 build volume the building has a small facade surface. Location and building shape influence

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internal climate, the demands for heating and cooling and their mutual relation. Also the orientation of facade and roof towards the sun and wind directions and their open/dense proportion influence the internal climate, the installations and on the eventual energy usage substantially.

Climate control by designIntegral architecture creates an optimal physical climate. To all requirements stated are answered, but above all it is a climate that optimises possibilities to cooperate, communicate and concentrate. This becomes visible in the quality of the lighting, audible in the quality of the acoustics of the spaces, tangibly in the control of the temperature and quality of air (humidity and air speed). We strive thereby for the maximum restriction of the energy usage and subsequently an installation low building, with maximum usage of the natural sources.

DaylightOptimum use of daylight limits the use of electricity and will increase the comfort of the user. The variety in quality of daylight works stimulating. It is important to prevent heating as a result of insolation. Comfort, installations and building design must be coordinated optimally by applying for example presence detection in combination with daylight regulation.

AcousticsThe quantity and nature of sound strongly influence the perception and the comfort of the space. Too much sound leads to stress by the users accompanied by fatigue and concentration loss. Sound absorption, reflection and echo time are optimized by the space proportions and shape in consisten-cy with the interior (furnishing and material choice).

TemperatureThe comfortableness of a space can be influenced positively by means of a good regulation of radiation. This can be realised by the primary use of natural heat, using the absorption and deliv-ery of heat by the building. This can be extended by an artificial system of thermal mass combined with thermal storage underground where heat or coolness can be retrieved. This ensures a constant comfort with low external energy use and therefore restriction of CO2 expel.

VentilationComfort asks for a good regulation of air humidity, speed and the prevention of cold air down-draught nearby windows, preferably with natural, self-regulating ventilation and application of night ventilation. Where the climate and/or the occupancy demand mechanical ventilation it will be equipped with a heat recovery system.

Raw materials and materializationInnovation and creativity, but also tradition are vital here. Natural, smart and self-evident materials are most appropriate. Assessments are for example if natural building materials are available and how much energy is used with production, transport and processing. Was by requiring or producing these materials the natural environment damaged and if so, was this damage repaired? On what period maintenance gets a role? Does the appearance of the materials change nicely in time? What is the lifespan of a material and what is its value after use. Can they still function in some way for something else (cradle to cradle)? Can the construction process be accelerated? Is it possible to apply the method of industrial, flexible deconstruct able building (IFD building)? Can we work with prefabricated elements and dry assembly instead of the more traditional wet building methods? How do we create chances to anticipate on the dynamic demands of the users? The building could possibly be created and demolished by using the same assembly techniques.

TimeHow much building, ground and raw materials (energy + material) are required and what life cycle is therefore the perspective? Sustainable building represents a way of constructing in which the negative consequences for the environment and health as a result of building and the built

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surroundings are restricted to minimum. You can also wonder whether you should build or build temporary structures. The multi-purpose nature and intensity of use can also result in a lower performance of the building. It is possible to construct a building that is flexible in use and after use remains flexible, deconstructable en represents a residual value. With a capital-extensive investment it is reusable, or possible to renovate or adapt existing construction. Sustainable building assumes that unexpected weak links in the quality of the building dont occur so that the projected lifespan is ensured.

ir. Rudy Uytenhaak

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Kas Oosterhuis

Robustness

Self-analysing the works of ONL and Hyperbody there are a number of strategies that all are rele-vant in the context of the discussion on sustainable architecture. Most of these strategies are relat-ed to innovative design concepts, digital design methods, digital production methods, construction methods and new concepts for a continuous operation. Generally speaking all our innovations are based on swarm behaviour, based on simple rules leading to a pleasantly rich complexity that is by definition robust. The innovations cover the complete DBFMO [Design Build Finance Maintain Oper-ate] spectrum.

DesignMultiple use of the earth. In the design concept all the most important gains are achieved. we start by combining different functions in one location, as opposed to modernist function division. The Cockpit is both acoustic barrier and a commercial building. The combination was proposed by the designer, not by the authorities. The authorities accepted the view of the architect.

Building body. We consider buildings as integrated bodies with logic body plans. The body plan is by definition three dimensional, not evolved from plans and sections. Plans and section are derivatives from the 3d model. No modifications may be made in the plans, only in the 3d BIM.

Compact shapes. Our designs are usually very compact, that is maximizing the m3 proportional to their enveloping surface, therewith saving on operational energy costs, and leaving more budget to the facade structures. Compact shapes have rounded corners that streamline the climate, leading to less wind acceleration, and less cooling / heat losses.

Networked structures. Our designs are based on robust structural concepts, where the structure and the cladding are synchronized in diagrid tessellations. Diagrid structures are more efficient in distrib-uting gravity forces and use less kilos for the same performance. Diagrid structures are very rigid and stable in themselves. When one or more nodes of the structures fail the forces are led effective-ly around the problematic area, the structure does not collapse.

No secondary structures. A typical ONL innovation is the merge of the primary structure and the cladding system. Structure and skin are fully synchronized, there is no such thing as a second-ary structure. This innovative design concept features a denser structure combined with generally speaking larger cladding components. Leaving out the secondary structure has proven to be very cost-effective, less material, less details, less work on site.

Local climates. Just like the structure and the skin are fully parameterized into one single design system, also the climatic conditions are ideally synchronized in the same fine-grained robust con-cept, meaning that the user can customize their local climates based on a mild generic climate. In essence this means that apart from the central devices also the skin is active in many ways, taking advantage from changing sun and wind conditions. Integration of experts. In the design process ONL has developed a method of linking the experts together in a actuating swarm of experts. They exchange data almost in real time as to inform the other party about their knowledge. The experts are linked in such way that they can contribute to the best of their knowledge. They use their own software, and exchange only those data that are strictly necessary to inform the other parties.

protoBIMThe protocols how to link the experts in the early design stage is described in the protoBIM strat-egy, which is further developed in fall 2011 in a BIR practice project. Basically it comes down to a distributed robust BIM, which is different from a standardized central BIM server a is promoted by Autodesk Revit for example or other proprietary software systems. The ideal set-up is to link all players inBIM evolves to an exact model as controlled by the architect from which exact data can

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be extracted for the CNC production. This requires that the designer [ONL, Hyperbody] incorporates the file to factory strategy in the early design concept, it can not be added later without redesigning the complete design, leading to loss of energy and essential concepts getting lost in translation. De-sign embedded file to factory production is highly efficient, since no data get lost, all data are trans-mitted as integer correct data. File to factory design is not an illusion as traditional design methods are, nor a shadow reality, it is the building.

Just there, then, that and thus. There must be an unbroken and evolving digital chain from ear-ly design concept to the usage phase of the built structure. In all phases the team effort must be directed towards the extended just in time paradigm. This can only be realized when the informa-tion transfer is maintained on its most elementary level, based on simple rules and minimal data exchange, and only true and integer data.

No waste on building site. Having prepared the design into the parametric specifications, in the as-sembly phase there will be no waste at the building site. A dry montage system guarantees that no waste material pollutes the built environment.

No scaffolding. File to factory customization and dry montage systems are erected without scaffold-ing, the connected pieces form the stabile structure in all phases of the montage.

Build only once. Design as to avoid building twice or three times to get to your result. Avoid moulds that are thrown away, moulds are only acceptable if they are programmable, and used many times. Design as to refrain from scaffolding. The structure must be designed such as to be strong and sta-bile in all phases of the building process.

FinanceFunction overlap. Combining functions into one structure is a key factor for evolutionary success. Robustness builds on mixed, which is the converse of the monofunctionality.

BIM. At the later part of the unb