NAME OF THE COURSE: ENERGY EFFICIENT DESIGN AND GREEN ARCHITECTURE

INSTRUCTER: AR. SHILPA JENA COURSE CREDIT: 3

COURSE OBJECTIVES: To acquaint the students with fundamental knowledge of energy efficient design and green architecture.
LECTURE NO.- 02
SUMMARY: SUSTAINABLE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES
LECTURE OUTLINE: Principles of environmentally and ecologically sensitive architecture
Principles of environmentally:
1. Learning from natural systems
(Biomimicry Principle)

2. Respect for energy & natural resources

(Conservation Principle)

3. Respect for people

(Human Vitality Principle)

4. Respect for place

(Ecosystem Principle)

5. Respect for future

(“Seven Generations” Principle)

6. Systems thinking(Holistic Principle)

ECOLOGICALLY SENSITIVE ARCHITECTURE

NATURAL BUILDING

A natural building involves a range of building systems and materials that place major emphasis on
sustainability. Ways of achieving sustainability through natural building focus on :
1. Durability and the use of minimally processed
2. Plentiful or renewable resources
3. Recycled or salvaged
4. Healthy living environments and maintain indoor air quality.
5. Relying on human labor, more than technology.
6. It depends on "local ecology, geology and climate; on the character of the particular building site, and on
the needs and personalities of the builders and users .

The basis of natural building is the need to lessen the environmental impact of buildings and other supporting
systems, without sacrificing comfort or health. To be more sustainable, natural building uses primarily :
1. Abundantly available, renewable, reused or recycled materials.
2. In addition to relying on natural building materials, the emphasis on the architectural design is
heightened.
A. The orientation of a building
B. Utilization of local climate and site conditions
C. Emphasis on natural ventilation through design, fundamentally lessen operational costs and positively
impact the environmental.
D. Building compactly and minimizing the ecological footprint is common, as are on-site handling of
energy acquisition, on-site water capture, alternate sewage treatment and water reuse (Smith, 2002).

LIVING ARCHITECTURE

The environment like our bodies can metabolize nutrients and waste. Living Architecture focuses on these
processes, integrating ecological functions into the buildings to catch, store, and filter water, purify air, and
process other nutrients. Living Architecture also addresses biophilia, the documented health benefits
associated with being in touch with living systems in the built environment . Throughout history greening of
outside walls and roofs of buildings has taken place. Reasons for doing so were the increase of insulation
(keep cool in summer and keep cold out in winter), improved aesthetics, improved indoor and outdoor
climate, reduce the greenhouse gases such as Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Carbon Monoxide (CO) and Nitrogen
Dioxide (NO2) as well as increasing ecological values by creating habitats for birds and insects

ECOLOGICAL BUILDING

 Ecological Building is both a design process and the structure that is a result of such a design process.
An Ecological Building is a structure that is designed to create and sustain mutually beneficial
relationships with all of the elements of its local ecology. A building's local ecology, or environment, is
made up of particular physical and biological elements and their interactions.
 Eco-friendly, or ecological, construction is building a structure that is beneficial or non-harmful to the
environment, and resource efficient. This type of construction is efficient in its use of local and
renewable materials, and in the energy required to build it, and the energy generated while being
within it.
 Eco-friendly construction has developed in response to the knowledge that buildings have an often
negative impact upon our environment and our natural resources. This includes transporting materials
hundreds or thousands of miles, which has a negative impact in the energy required to transport them,
and also in emissions of hazardous chemicals from a poorly designed building that creates, and traps
them.

ECOLOGICAL BUILDING VS GREEN BUILDING

This concept is distinctly different from green building or sustainable architecture where the goal is to
"minimize the negative environmental impact of buildings". Ecological building is a positive design goal that
sets out to increase beneficial interactions, whereas green building is a negative design outlook that seeks
only the reduction of negative interactions. Green building is the assumption that any human interaction with
a site is unavoidably negative, and that mitigating these negative impacts is the best that is possible. With
Ecological Building, the designer acknowledges that humans can play an integral, beneficial role in improving
and sustaining the health and vitality of their local ecology.
CHARACTERISTICS
1. Creates and sustains mutually beneficial relationships with all of the elements of its local ecology.
2. Minimises negative environmental impact
3. Resource efficient
4. Maximises the energy efficiency of your home,
5. Reduces maintenance costs
6. Protects human health and the environment.

ECOLOGICAL CONCEPT IS BASED UPON

1. Study of vernacular architecture - can show us intuitive passive solutions for climatic problems of the
environment.
2. Bioclimatic architectural process & landscape studies - Utilization of climatic and vegetation elements
to optimize the relation between building and environment
3. Water efficiency & conservation - including biological waste water treatment, re-use, simple collection
and recycling of rainwater for garden use.
4. The use of renewable energy and natural resources energies available at the building site .
A. Active solar - The varied use of solar panels for domestic hot water heating.
5. Energy efficiency & conservation - Ideally, buildings should not utilize, for the needs of its
inhabitants, more energy that can collect from its environment. In the end, buildings and cities will
have to reach an ecological energy equilibrium with the environment, during the entire life – cycle.
Energy generated while being within it is energy required .
6. Resource efficiency - (use of local and renewable materials), and minimise use of non renewable
materials . Use of green , non toxic & ecological materials - Cellulose insulation (like the paper in the
above example) , Non-toxic or lead-free paints and wood preservatives. Locally-grown and harvested
timber from sustainably managed forests. Maximise utilisation efficiency. Using minimum natural and
artificial resources in combination with manual labor.
7. To protect its natural surroundings and not harm the environment by releasing harmful gasses or in
any other way.
8. Comfortable indoor working conditions

DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
1. Orientation: making best use of high summer sun angles and low winter sun angles on southern
exposures while minimising excessive solar gain on east and specifically west exposures from low year-
round sun angles.
2. Glazing: sizing, positioning and detailing windows to get the most benefit from the sun while avoiding
overheating in summer and heat loss in winter.
3. Thermal Mass: providing sufficiently exposed thermal mass to store heat from the sun in the winter and
act as a heat sink for cooling in the summer. The benefits of thermal mass are often lost through
excessive wall, ceiling and floor coverings.
4. Insulation: specifying high levels of insulation to reduce unwanted heat loss or heat gains through the
roof, walls, doors, windows and floors.
5. Natural Ventilation: designing clear and robustly controlled air flows through buildings for daytime and
night time cooling. Building air-tightness forms a critical component for achieving effective natural
ventilation.
6. Zoning: providing thoughtful zoning to allow different thermal requirements to be compartmentalised.
Substantial savings can be achieved
7. Air Permeability:The exfiltration of warm air can account for as much as 30% of the heat loss through a
building's envelope. As insulation standards improve, heat losses and gains as a result of air exfiltration
and infiltration willbecome more significant. Achieving good air tightness performance is also a good
indicator of good construction practice.
8. Drainage: All laboratory wastewater systems should be segregated from domestic wastewater systems.
Adequate facilities should be provided for the storage and collection of segregated recyclable wastes

THE RANGE OF ECOLOGICALLY BUILT STRUCTURES:

Many options are now available to those wishing to design and build an eco-friendly dwelling
1. Earth constructions Mud and clay
- The amount of each material used leads to different styles of buildings. The deciding factor is usually
connected with the quality of the soil being used. Larger amounts of clay usually mean using the
cob/adobe style, while low clay soil is usually associated with sod building. The other main ingredients
include more or less sand/gravel and straw grasses. Soil and especially clay is good thermal mass; it is very
good at keeping temperatures at a constant level. Homes built with earth tend to be naturally cool in the
summer heat and warm in cold weather. Clay holds heat or cold, releasing it over a period of time like
stone. Earthen walls change temperature slowly, so artificially raising or lowering the temperature can use
more resources than in say a wood built house, but the heat/coolness stays longer. Peoples building with
mostly dirt and clay, such as cob, sod, and adobe, resulted in homes that have been built for centuries in
western and northern Europe as well as the rest of the world, and continue to be built, though on a
smaller scale.
A. Cob houses - Cob
houses have been around for hundreds of years and still in good condition. Cob houses are built of a
mixture of clay, earth, sand, water, and fibers like straw that have been kneaded and stomped into a
tough mixture that can be used to erect homes in a variety of different shapes and sizes. A home made
of cob will usually have walls about 2-feet thick, which helps keep energy costs down by insulating the
home.Cob houses can be very labor intensive to put up, but are also extremely cheap to build.

B. Adobe- Adobe means

mud brick in Spanish & is referred to any kind of earth construction. It is among the earliest building
materials made from earth and other organic materials. Most adobe buildings are similar in
appearance to cob and rammed earth buildings. A mixture of sand, clay, and water is poured into a
mould and left in the sun to dry. When dried, it is exceptionally strong and heat-resistant thus
providing excellent insulation during the summer to reduce energy costs. But it is not very waterproof
and can be dangerous in earth-quake prone areas due to its tendency to crack easily. It is cheap, easy
to obtain, and ideal for hot environments.

C. Rammed earth - Walls that

have a similar feel to concrete can actually be created with nothing more than dirt tamped down very
tightly in wooden forms. Very little water is used during construction, so almost 3 m high walls can be
built in a day. Traditionally, rammed earth buildings are common in arid regions where wood is in
scarce supply. It has been used by human civilization from a very long time. Most of the Great Wall of
China is either rammed earth or has a large component of rammed earth as its base. Modern rammed
earth buildings can be made safer by use of rebar or bamboo, and mechanical tampers reduce the
amount of labor required to create sturdy walls. Rammed earth provides several advantages such as
superior thermal mass, temperature and noise control, strength and durability, low manufacturing
impacts , low maintenance, fire proofing, load bearing and pest deterrence. In terms of aesthetics,
rammed earth offers a natural and eco-friendly environmental ambience because of its natural color
made by aggregated earth substances.
D. Light Earth or Straw Clay - A
combination of cob and rammed earth, this involves coating loose straw or other fibrous material with
a clay slip that is rammed tightly in layers into a timber frame. The walls are allowed to dry before final
plastering takes place. It is lighter than cob and has a higher insulation value, but is not as strong and
must only be used as an infill with the timber frame. Light earth has also been used between rafters as
roof insulation, and as insulation underneath earthen floors.

E. Brush structures : Wattle & Daub - Brush

structures are built entirely from plant parts and were used in primitive cultures .These are built
mostly with branches, twigs and leaves, and bark, similar to a beaver's lodge. This gives the structure
more thermal mass and strength. Expanding on the natural green
building concept of brush construction, “WATTLE” is a method of weaving branches into lattice-like
walls or fences. “DAUB,” referring to mud, clay-bearing soil, or animal dung, is filled into and layered
over the brush or wattle. Wattle and daub may also be used for non-load bearing walls, filling in
between stronger structural branches or timbers. Daub provides more thermal mass and strength to
the brush structure and animal dung is especially appreciated by some native cultures for its
waterproofing quality. It does not have the super-insulation properties of straw-bale or clay-straw, but
provides good thermal mass.

F. Poured earth - Poured earth

is similar to ordinary concrete, in that it is mixed and formed like concrete and uses portland cement
as a binder. The main difference is that instead of the sand/gravel used as an aggregate in concrete,
poured earth uses ordinary soil (although this soil needs to meet certain specifications) and generally
uses less portland cement. Poured earth could be considered a “moderate strength concrete.” Little to
no maintenance is required of poured earth walls, since they have a high resistance to the
deteriorating effects of water and sun. When natural or
synthetic fly ash and lime is added to the poured earth mixture, the amount of Portland cement
required can be reduced by up to 50%.Magnesium oxide can also be used to help further reduce the
 use of Portland cement. Since poured earth is similar to concrete, local suppliers can provide the
product which can then be pumped using traditional concrete pump trucks. Standard concrete forms
can be used in preparation for the pour.
It is possible to incorporate rigid insulation within a poured earth wall, so that there is a thermal break
between the exterior and the interior, thus allowing the interior portion of the wall to serve as
appropriate thermal mass for the building. Generally, poured earth walls increase the overall cost of
construction by 10% – 20%, mainly because of the custom nature of the process. When more homes
are built, then the economy of scale should make this method competitive with traditional building.
G. Earthbag construction - Building with
earth bags (sometimes called sandbags) is both old and new. Sandbags have long been used,
particularly by the military for creating strong, protective barriers, or for flood control. The same
reasons that make them useful for these applications carry over to creating housing: the walls are
massive and substantial, they resist all kinds of severe weather (or even bullets and bombs), and they
can be erected simply and quickly with readily available components.
The technique requires sturdy sacks filled with organic material of enough internal stability usually
available on site. Either moist subsoil that contains enough clay to become cohesive when tamped, or
a water-resistant angular gravel or crushed volcanic rock is used. Walls are gradually built up by
laying the bags in courses—forming a staggered pattern similar to bricklaying. To improve friction
between bags and wall tensile strength barbed wire is usually placed between courses. Twine is also
sometimes wrapped around the bags to tie one course to the next, to hold in-progress structures
together and keep courses well-seated on barbed wire prongs. Rebar can be hammered into walls to
strengthen courses and opening edges and provide resistance against overturning. Burlap bags were
traditionally used for this purpose, and they work fine until they eventually rot. Newer polypropylene
bags have superior strength and durability, as long as they are kept away from too much sunlight. For
permanent housing the bags should be covered with some kind of plaster for protection.

H. Earth ships- Passive solar

houses, which use earth packed recycled car tyres as the buildings walls.Whatever temperature goes
into an Earthship, it will hold and since it is also a Passive Solar House, it is also very tight and interacts
only with the sun and the earth for heating and cooling, providing stable comfort year round in any
climate. This results in being able to provide a sustainable home that can be built in any part of the
world, in any climate (with a permit) and still provide electricity, potable water, contained sewage
treatment and sustainable food production.
 I. Earth sheltering- A building
can be described as earth-sheltered if its external envelope is in contact with a thermally significant
volume of soil or substrate (where “thermally significant” means making a functional contribution to
the thermal effectiveness of the building in question.) to reduce heat loss, and to easily maintain a
steady indoor air temperature.
Types
a) Earth berming: Earth is piled up against exterior walls and packed, sloping down away from the
house. The roof may or may not be fully earth covered, and windows/openings may occur on one
or more sides of the shelter. Due to the building being above ground, fewer moisture problems
are associated with earth berming in comparison to underground/fully recessed construction.
b) In-hill construction: The house is set into a slope or hillside facing towards the equator. There is
only one exposed wall in this type of earth sheltering, the wall facing out of the hill, all other
walls are embedded within the earth/hill.
c) Underground/fully recessed construction: The ground is excavated, and the house is set in
below grade. It can also be referred to as an Atrium style due to the common atrium/courtyard
constructed in the middle of the shelter to provide adequate light and ventilation.

EARTH BERMING IN-HILL FULLY RECESSED

2. Yurts or Gers - the semi-permanent nomadic tents of Inner Asia, that utilise local wood, wool and canvas,
to literally live on, with the land.
3. Bamboo - Bamboo has actually been a locally-sourced building material in some regions of the world for
millennia. What makes bamboo such a promising building material for modern buildings is its combination
of tensile strength, light weight, and fast-growing renewable nature. Used for framing buildings and
shelters, bamboo can replace expensive and heavy imported materials and provide an alternative to
concrete and rebar construction, especially in difficult-to reach areas, post-disaster rebuilding, and low-
income areas with access to natural locally-sourced bamboo. Bamboo produces more oxygen and absorbs
more carbon dioxide, which is very ideal in combating global climate change. Apart from that, Bamboo is
easily grown and harvested, making it one of the most cost-effective construction materials to date.

4. Wood - Wood is a product of trees and sometimes other fibrous plants, used for construction purposes
when cut or pressed into lumber and timber, such as boards, planks and similar materials. It is a generic
building material and is used in building just about any type of structure in most climates. Wood can be
very flexible under loads, keeping strength while bending and is incredibly strong when compressed
vertically. There are many differing qualities to the different types of wood, even among same tree
species. This means specific species are better for various uses than others. Growing conditions are
important for deciding quality. Historically, wood for building large structures was used in its unprocessed
form as logs. The trees were just cut to the needed length, sometimes stripped of bark and then notched
or lashed into place. In earlier times and in some parts of the world, many country homes or communities
had a personal wood-lot from which the family or community would grow and harvest trees to build with.
These lots would be tended to like a garden.
1. Cordwood construction - It is also
called "cordwood masonry", "stackwall construction", "stovewood construction" or "stackwood
construction" . It is a term used for a natural building method in which "cordwood" or short pieces of
debarked tree are laid up crosswise with masonry or cob mixtures to build a wall.
Cordwood is a combination of small remnants of firewood and other lumber that usually go to waste.
These small blocks of wood can easily be put together to make a structure that, like stone, has great
 insulation as well as thermal mass. Cordwood provides the rustic look of log cabins without the use of
tons of lumber. You can build an entire building with just cordwood or use stones to fill in the walls.

5. Straw bale - Straw is a renewable resource that acts as excellent insulation and is fairly easy to build with.
Care must be taken to assure that the straw is kept dry, or it will eventually rot. For this reason it is
generally best to allow a straw bale wall to remain breathable; any moisture barrier will invite
condensation to collect and undermine the structure. Other possible concerns with straw bale walls are
infestation of rodents or insects, so the skin on the straw should resist these critters. There are two major
categories of building with straw bales: load-bearing and non-load bearing. A post and beam framework
that supports the basic structure of the building, with the bales of straw used as infill, is the most common
non-load bearing approach. This is also the only way that many building authorities will allow.
While there are many load- bearing straw bale buildings that are standing just fine, care must be taken to
consider the possible settling of the straw bales as the weight of the roof, etc. compresses them. Erecting
bale walls can go amazingly quickly, and does not take a lot of skill, but then the rest of the creation of the
building is similar to any other wood framed house.
In fact straw bale houses typically only save about 15% of the wood used in a conventionally framed
house. The cost of finishing a straw bale house can often exceed that of standard construction, because of
the specialized work that goes into plastering both sides of the walls. The result is often worth it though,

because of the superior insulation and wall depth that is achieved.

7. Pulped recycled paper - commonly known as cellulose or newsprint insulation, made mainly from
shredded newsprint, treated with a borate additive that acts as a fire retardant, pest and mold
resistant and sound proof. Although not recommended for installation in damp basement conditions,
it is considered a good environmental option for attic and wall insulation. Installation is normally
performed using a blower where bales of cellulose are loaded into a hopper, then blown through a
hose into cavities made in walls of existing homes without removing the existing wall covering, such as
old plaster. After insulating, the holes are filled and sealed. These examples can be seen as
development that has a low impact upon the environment, which utilise and blend in with the local
environment.