Lecture 1

Defining an Ecology of
Construction
 Overview
• Introduction to concepts
• Environmental systems
• Industrial ecology
• Political and economic environment
• Green design
• Summary and Conclusions
 Sustainable Construction
“Creating a healthy built environment
based on ecologically sound principles”
• Built Environment
– Life cycle (planning, design, construction, operation,
renovation/retrofit, demolition/deconstruction)
– Resources (materials, land, energy, water)
– Principles: Reduce, reuse, recycle, protect nature,
eliminate toxics, life cycle costing
• Principles of Ecology
– Ecosystems are: cyclic, resilient, diversified, efficient,
complex
– Function and interdependence at multiple scales
Applications of the Ecological Metaphor to
Human Systems

Urban Ecology

Social Ecology

Political Ecology

Industrial Ecology
 Industrial Ecology
• Material Basis: choice of material, product
design, product recovery
• Institutional Forces: market structure,
financial considerations, regulatory
environment
• Regional Strategies: geographic, economic
and political issues; “industrial symbiosis”
 Construction Ecology
Can be viewed as a subset of industrial
ecology, but with characteristics that link it
back to social, political, urban systems.

Major subset: 8% of GDP, 40% of materials

consumption and 30% of energy resources.

Potential “Factor 10” reduction

 Construction Ecology
Goals:

• Closed-loop material system

• Dependence on renewable resources
• Preservation of / integration with natural
systems
• Accomplishment of these goals at all scales
 Construction Ecology
Would Create a Built Environment That:
• Is deconstructable
• Has easily replaceable components
• Uses recycled products
• Uses recyclable products
• Has a very slow metabolism
• Promotes the health of occupants / users
• Promotes a symbiotic relationship with the natural
environment
 Forging a New View
• Some ancient societies have persevered
for many centuries by living in
equilibrium, and in a sense of harmony,
with the environment.
• More technologically advanced societies
have committed ecological suicide.
• Technology may not offer the best
answers.
• We may wish to pursue an
understanding of:
 Ecosystem Components:
• Inorganic substances (carbon, nitrogen)
• Organic compounds (proteins, etc…)
• Climate regime (temperature, rainfall)
• Autotrophic organisms (producers)
• Heterotrophic organisms (consumers)
• Herbivores (primary consumers)
• Carnivores (secondary consumers)
• Tertiary consumers
• Decomposers
(Yeang 7,8)
Lessons From Natural Systems:
Ecosystems maintain resilience through diversified
functions. Separate niches provide non-competitive
lifestyles among different species.

•Fundamental Niche-that
which is available to a
species

•Realized Niche-that
which is being used by a
species
Lessons From Natural Systems:

• Mature ecosystems are efficient by using a

cooperative web.
• Mature ecosystems are complex enough to
change with the external environment.
• Mature ecosystems are cyclic and operate
with solar flux and organic storage
(Odum and Brown).
 Lessons From Natural Systems:

• Natural systems are not sustainable over long

periods of time.
• Constant change shapes their existence, and
their existence begins and ends as a part of a
larger system.
• By studying natural systems we can expect to
improve the effectiveness of our design process and
products.
A brief history of life on earth:

• Stage one: fermentation based, anabolic, carbon dioxide producing, and anaerobic

• Stage two: photosynthetic, carbon consuming, and oxygen producing (oxygen as toxic substance)

• Stage three: oxygen consuming, and capable of metabolizing multiple molecules

Industrial System:

• Our current industrial systems are equivalent to

Stage One of life on Earth-- Carbon consuming
and carbon dioxide emitting.

• Our current industrial systems are consuming

solar produced resources (fossil fuels) at 10,000
times the rate of regeneration.
Industrial System:

• The creation of the built environment generates

0.4 to 0.5 tons of waste per capita per year. (Based
on projections of 2000 census data, this is
somewhere between 120 million tons and 150
million tons per year in U.S.).
• Construction industry provides 8% of GDP while
using 40% of materials and 30% of energy
resources in U.S.
• Our built environment currently stores as much as
90% of extracted materials
 The Ecology of Systems
• H.T. Odum’s “Systems Ecology” deals with the
transformation of energy as it moves through
various systems.
• It all begins with sunlight.
• The energy in sunlight is transformed by natural
processes (e.g. photosynthesis, tidal flows),
building biomass or yielding energy in other
forms.
• ALL other forms of energy are quantifiable in
terms of sunlight – thus a “common currency” for
evaluating the impacts and efficiency of systems.
Five General Building Components of
Built Environment:
1. Manufactured, site installed components
(windows, doors, etc…)
Five General Building Components of
Built Environment:

2. Engineered, off-site fabricated, site assembled

(Structural trusses, etc…)
Five General Building Components of
Built Environment:

3. Off-site processed, site finished products

(Concrete, asphalt, etc…)
Five General Building Components of
Built Environment:

4. Manufactured, site processed

(Lumber, drywall, wiring, etc…)
Five General Building Components of
Built Environment:

5. Manufactured, site-installed, low mass

Products (Paints, glues, etc…)
Managing the Five Components of the
Built Environment

• Designing for cyclical patterns of use

• Dematerialization
• Closed loop material cycles
 Designing For Cyclical Pattern of Use:

• The energy and material cost of recovery

• The ecosystem impacts of dismantling and
recovery
• The emissions and outputs of recovery process
• The form, type, and mass of materials used in the
built system
 Designing For Cyclical Pattern of Use:

• The forms of construction

• The manner of demolition or dismantling
• The existence of a use or a need for the
recovered product
• Choice of servicing system
Dematerialization:

• Definition: The reduction of quantities of materials

needed to serve economic functions or the decline
over time in the weight of materials used in
industrial end-products.
• Dematerialization serves to reduce resource
consumption and reduce weight of the built
environment.
• Dematerialization and a cyclic pattern of use can
help close material cycles
Closed Loop Material Cycles:

• Buildings are not currently designed or built

to be disassembled
• Products constituting the built environment
are not designed for disassembly
• The material constituting building products
are often composite and difficult to recycle
• These difficulties increase resource
consumption, cost, and waste
Difficulties with Dematerialization:
• Does not take into consideration the by-products of
materials extraction and processing
• Encourages use of light weight composite materials that
are difficult if not impossible to recycle
• Currently struggles against free market system that
promotes diversity and availability
• Lacks emphasis on recycling and reuse, detoxification,
decarbonization, and deenergization
• Lack of coordination between economic, industrial, and
governmental systems to encourage or enforce
dematerialization
 Green Design
• Ecological Design
• Historical Advocates
• Goals of Green Design
• Sustainable Example: Thurgoona Campus
• Green Home Improvement
 Ecological Design
• Also termed Green Design
• Definition: (as stated by Van der Ryn and Cowen, 1996)
– Any form of design that minimizes environmentally
destructive impacts by integrating itself with living
processes.
• Sustainable construction: (as stated by Kibert, 1994)
– The creation and maintenance of a healthy built
environment using ecologically sound principles.
– Specifically materials that are natural, renewable and
native, with low embodied E. Is this true?
Malcolm Wells, Architect
• Believes that man should leave
nature alone.
• Build underground on ruined
sites and allow nature to
eventually return
• Laments that time is running out
for land-killing projects, and he
happily awaits their certain
demise
 Lewis Mumford, Urban Planner

• Lived 1895 - 1990

• Stringent opponent to large-scale public works in
New York City
• “I would die happy if I knew that on my tombstone
could be written these words, ‘This man was an
absolute fool. None of the disastrous things that he
reluctantly predicted ever came to pass!’”
 Lewis Mumford, Urban Planner
• In 1964, The City in History. Documentaries
concerning his concerns with a technological city:
– The role of the city in magnifying the opposing creative
and destructive potentials of Man
– Technology breeds boredom
– Commercial values and factory regimentation
undermined human values and variety
– Urges that suburban areas be provided with more points
of pedestrian scale for vital human congregation, as
found in city centers, and that the urban centers be
given some of the spaciousness found in suburbia
 Lewis Mumford, Urban Planner
• Believed in Ecotechnics: An early form of
bioregionalism and biourbanism. Promotes
technologies that rely on local sources of
energy and indigenous materials
• Noted that infrastructure should be built to
maximize the ‘free work’ that nature
provides.
 John Tillman Lyle, Landscape
Architect / Urban Planner
• Began career around the 1980s, which was
cut short in 1998 due to an untimely death.
• One of the most renowned ecological
designers of our time.
• Regenerative Design for Sustainable
Development
• Proven regenerative practices for water use,
land use, energy use and building design.
Ecological Building
 Ecological Building

• What can be learnt from history?

• In the past, human beings lived in harmony with
their environment
– Comfort requirements were different
– Small population meant ample space,
modest requirements, low energy needs and
emissions
– Waste products mostly recyclable & bio-
degradable
– Mobile communities
– Low threat to the environment

Nomadic life & sparse requirements

drove the architecture of the past and
made it sustainable
 Ecological Building

• Buildings in cold climates characterized by:

– Small windows that allowed little light into spaces resulting in minimal heat
gains/loss and cooling/heating loads
– Building mass with high thermal storage capacities
– Low standards for heating and sanitary systems

These castles in Europe use small fenestrations to minimize heat loss

 Ecological Building
• Buildings in temperate zones
characterized by:
– Tendency to locate living areas
underground to utilize coolness of the
earth and create ventilation through
buoyancy
– Small window & roof elements
minimizing heat transfer
– Use of narrow courtyards to promote
ventilation
– Fine grained cities that cause mutual
shading
– Use of water as an architectural element
 Ecological Building

• The Industrial Age is characterized by:

– Migration of ever increasing population from
rural to urban areas
– Extremely poor living conditions for most
people
– Industrialization & rapid advances in
technology
– Increased demands for energy met through use
of coal & gas
– Sharp increase in emissions; indiscriminate
dumping of wastes
– No efforts to protect environment, conserve
natural reserves
– BEGINNING OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL
CALAMITY

Alarming number of industries,

poor living conditions, deteriorating
environment mark the industrial
era
 Ecological Building

The early & mid 20th century is characterized

by:
– Urbanization, technological development,
industrialization, concentration of labor in
cities at a frantic pace
– Concentration of workplaces in small areas
– Shortening of distances for communication &
information
– Maximized utilization of available spaces
– An architecture & technology that pays no
respect to the environment & energy
consumption
– A false sense of ‘Man has overcome nature’
– Skyscrapers, fully automated climate control

New York the city of skyscrapers

 Ecological Building
 Late 20th century architecture
characterized by:
– Renewed search for elegant architectural
solution with respect to energy use,
environment & ventilation
– Facades designed for natural ventilation
– Creation of climate buffer zones (halls and
atria)
– Improved heat insulation & sun protection
– Implementation of energy recovery & waste
treatment systems
– Major energy crisis in 1973
– Architects, engineers & clients turn to
ECOLOGICAL BUILDING DESIGN

Commerzbank headquarters ‘Menara Mesiniaga’ by Ken Yeang

in Germany by Architect in Malaysia is a revolutionary high-
Norman Foster uses garden rise building design using
terraces every 12 floors sustainable principles
 Goals of Green Design

Methods to Achieve Sustainability

 Methods of Sustainability
• Reduce resource consumption
• Reuse of resources/use recycled materials
• Recycle built environment at end of life
• Switch to materials with low E processing
• Eliminate toxic materials and by-products
in all phases of the built environment
 Methods of Sustainability
• Protect natural systems and their function in
all activities
• Incorporate ‘full-cost’ accounting in all
economic decisions
• Incorporate Ecotechnics, Bioregionalism
and Biourbanism:
– local E sources, indigenous materials
– vary craftsmanship, beauty and aesthetics
 Methods of Sustainability
• Conservation, regeneration and stewardship
of the natural environment
• ‘Front-loaded’ design
• Disassembly and remanufacturing
• Increase of energy and material efficiency
• No such term as waste, return beneficial
nutrients back to environment
Use of Renewable Energy

                            
Design of Built Environment
• Building and road
locations follow the
contours of the hills to
minimize the loss of
soil due to erosion.
Building Materials and System
Designs
 Building Materials
• Buildings are

  
constructed of rammed
earth walls and concrete
                         floors
                            
• Large, shaded windows
with recycled timber
frames allow the sun to
provide 85% of total
lighting energy
 Building Materials Cont.
• Recycled timber, and • Wool roof insulation
plantation wood • Wool and linoleum
• Used/recycled library flooring
shelving from a donor
• Non toxic paints and
• Structural steel and
glass timber finishes
• Minimal use of PVC • Mesh guards on vents
piping in plumbing and provides protection
may use ‘plumbing from termites
seconds’
Heating and Cooling Systems

Through the methods and materials

used at Thurgoona Campus, energy
consumption is reduced by 61%
 Heating Systems
• Heating and cooling
system consists of
solar panels and water
pipes
• Wool insulation above
ceiling
• Rammed earth walls
Ventilation System

• Small and large vents

• Open windows and
ceiling fans that will
reverse in winter to
circulate heat
• Thermal chimneys
 Summary and Conclusions
• The construction industry (as an industrial
system) can and should be understood
through an analogy with natural systems –
thus, “Construction Ecology”
• Such a comparison can be used to rethink
and redesign the built environment to cause
less damage to and work in harmony with
the natural environment
 Summary and Conclusions
• Construction ecology deals with all aspects
of the construction process:
– Material cycles
– Energy use
– Water consumption
– Emissions
– Construction management
– Post-occupancy operations