Construction Ecology Module 10

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Construction EcologyModule 10

• Ecologic analogues and architecture
• Sim Van der Ryn and Rob Pena

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Chapter 10 Continued

• Analogues 1) One that bears an analogy to
  another. 2) An organ or structure similar in
  function to another kind of organism, but of
  dissimilar evolutionary origin. 3) A structural
  derivative of a parent compound.

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Architectural Metaphors

• Ruskin Architecture is Frozen Music
• Sullivan Form Follows Function
• Van der Ryn and Pena Architecture is Music, Form
  Follows Flow
• Everything we perceive as fixed is actually in a
  state of flow and change, including the built
  environment.
• Capra Increasingly, all forms of culture are
  being subordinated to technology, and
  technological innovation, rather than the
  increase in human well-being, has become
  synonymous with progress.

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Architecture Old and New

• Increasingly, all forms of culture are being
  subordinated to technology, and technological
  innovation, rather than the increase in human
  well-being, has become synonymous with progress.
• -Fritjof Capra, The Web of Life

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Old Architecture

• Adaptation to place, climate, and use was a more
  important criteria for design than in previous
  eras.

http//www.si.edu/resource/faq/nmai/naarch.htm
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Modern Architecture

• Building design becomes independent of its
  location
• Due to the availability of fossil fuels and rapid
  urbanization, creation of artificial environments
  was possible and deemed necessary.
• This, in turn, has contributed to environmental
  problems such as global climate change and
  unlimited use of natural resources.

http//home.wanadoo.nl/patriczik/chicago.htm
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Architecture

• Van der Ryn and Pena define architecture as a
  dynamic adaptation to place, people, and pulse.
• Authors feel that architecture currently does not
  respond effectively to these three important
  factors.

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Architecture / People

• Authors feel that building users should
  participate in the design and construction
  process from the very beginning, rather than just
  being given a finished product.
• Stakeholder involvement is key to successful
  design and commissioning.
• 92 of typical company costs are associated with
  its personnel. Only 8 of company costs are
  associated with its facilities construction and
  operation .

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Architecture / People

• Authors feel that poorly designed buildings not
  only threaten the health of the environment, the
  erode human health and happiness

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Natural Capital

• Analogous to Financial and Human capital, but not
  recognized or used extensively in the Building
  Industry.
• Defined as natural resources performing services
  such as purification of air and water during a
  natural process.
• Photosynthesis is a simple example of maintaining
  oxygen and carbon dioxide balance.

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Ecological Footprint

• An accounting of the resource flow and ecosystem
  services required to bring a particular designed
  product or system into being.
• A yard of carpeting requires heat energy in
  manufacture, water and hydrocarbon feed-stocks as
  raw materials and manufacturing produces waste
  heat, CO2, water and waste fiber.

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Ecological Footprint

• Computed per yard these various inputs and
  outputs equal the carpets metabolism or
  footprint.
• This is analogous to theEcological Rucksack
  principle as a measure of a materials impact.
• 300 tons of ore 1 gold ring

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Earth In Mind by David Orr

• Ecological design requires the ability to
  comprehend patterns that connect, which means
  getting beyond the boxes we call disciplines to
  see things in their ecological context.
• -David Orr, Earth in Mind Chapter 16, Designing
  Minds.

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Ecology

• Exploration of theories of spatial and temporal
  organizations of systems of humanity and nature.
• Exploration of quantitative impacts and analysis
  of relationships and emergent properties.

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Ecologic Design

• Not an Architectural style such as
  Post-Modernist, but a scientific approach to
  solving serious environmental problems facing the
  world of which the built environment is a large
  part.

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Ecological Goals

• The stated goal of ecologic design is to create
  buildings and environments that are Ecomorphic
• Ecomorphic building is defined as building where
  internal structure and systems mimic and
  integrate with the natural systems surrounding
  the building.

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Metabolism

• Defined here as the conversion of energy.
• Architectural design paradigm shift is necessary
  to incorporate sustainability.

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Adaptive Strategies

• Nature often makes the most efficient use of
  available resources.
• Natural systems adapt to changing needs by
  reorganizing, altering the internal cycles of the
  system, with or without changing the entire
  systems main function.
• Van der Ryn and Pena argue that we need to do the
  same with the Built Environment.
• Refer to Kays 4 design principles in Chapter 3,
  Box 3.3

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Adaptation Innovation and Change

• Adaptation to place is a good starting point.
• Use the natural assets that are present and
  incorporate them into the design.
• Adaptive Design, as Nature demonstrates.
• Designers can vary the location, orientation,
  juxtaposition, shape and surface treatment to
  minimize the amount of energy need to make the
  building fit our needs

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Adaptation Example

• Desert plants maximize their surface area to
  maximize the conversion of sunlight energy to
  useful energy and their waxy leaves protect them
  from excessive water loss.
• Pueblo people in the desert South-west oriented
  their structures to optimize their exposure to
  winter sun while minimizing summer heat gain
  through insulated roofs

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Buildings Organizing as they Adapt

• Buildings are designed as fixed systems but the
  occupants will provide the most inputs that can
  adapt a building to fit their changing needs or
  wants
• Energy
• Materials
• Information
• Context

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Metabolism of Resources Classic Succession
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The Self-Organization Process in SOHO Systems
according to James Kay

• SOHO (Self Organizing Hierarchical Open Systems)
• Captures increasing resources (exergy and
  material)
• Makes evermore effective use of the resources
• Builds more structure
• Enhances survivability (adaptive strategies)
• Exhibit chaotic and catastrophic behavior
• Similar to the pulsing stability discussed by Odum

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Odums The Strategy of Ecosystem Development

• Pulse Stability
• A more or less regular but acute physical
  perturbation imposed from without can maintain an
  ecosystem at some intermediate point in the
  developmental sequence, resulting in , so to
  speak, a compromise between youth and maturity.
• E.P. Odum
• Tidal Estuaries or periodic forest fires are
  examples of this type of pulsing.

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Pulsing System
Perturbations such as tides or fires
Biomass
Time
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Cities as Pulsing Systems

• The historical pattern of cities has been a
  period of prosperity and growth followed by
  decline and eventual urban renewal

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Building Metabolism

• According to Frank Duffy, Modern buildings have
  5-layered systems.
• Site, The location of the building.
• Structure, The framework of the building.
• Services, Utilities such as water and
  electricity.
• Skin, The interface between the building and the
  environment.
• Stuff, Interior furnishings.

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Building Metabolism

• Duffy asserts that the systems wear out at
  differing rates. This means that improved
  building design would allow for dismantling and
  replacement or refurbishment of any single system
  without destroying any of the other systems.
• DfE-Design for Environment.

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EPA Initiative DfE

• Design for Environment incorporates modular
  design, allowing for replacement of worn or
  obsolete portions of the system, again without
  destroying other parts of the system or building.

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Maximum Power Principle

• Self-organization tends to develop network
  connections that use energies in feedback actions
  to aid the process of getting more resources or
  using them more efficiently.
• See self-organization as defined by Odum in
  Chapter 2 page 60
• See SOHO by Kay in Chapter 3 page 75

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Examples of Superior Ecologic Design

• Real Goods Solar Living Center, Hopeland,
  California
• Building uses only on-site resources for
  lighting.
• Construction was accomplished using locally
  available, environmentally benign materials.
• Recycling of wastes generated by occupants is
  accomplished on-site.

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Sawmill Neighborhood

• Suburb of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
• Community activism and participation helped this
  area return to its agrarian roots, and provided
  stewardship opportunities for the community.
• Industrial waste remediation was accomplished in
  part by the new gardens and orchards.

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De Anza Community College

• Silicon Valley, California institution.
• Design incorporated a high level user
  participation, in the form of several design
  charrettes.
• Design was an ongoing effort with Architects and
  building occupants in regular contact.
• Result was a building that satisfied a vast
  majority of the occupants.

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Conclusions

• With the building and construction sector using
  more energy, materials, and land than any other
  sector of human activity, it is imperative that
  we streamline the process and make it much more
  efficient.
• The most powerful and necessary tool at present
  seems to be the inclusion of sustainability in
  the core curriculum of Architects and Engineers.