ARTEL31, CHIPPENHAM CLIMBING CENTRE, NORTH WILTSHIRE, UK
This might be the first UK building featured, but the Chippenham Climbing Centre is a standout. It’s a delightful demonstration of aesthetics benefiting from the functions of the building. We don’t have details of the PV system, but is elegantly mounted and allowance has been made for future battery storage. In addition, an EV owning climber can charge up while working out on the wall.
POWERHOUSE BRATTØRKAIA
“To keep 1.5 alive and prevent the worst impacts of the climate crisis, the world
must act in this decade,” he said. “The good news is that the lifeline is right in front of us. Transforming energy systems is low-hanging fruit.”
United Nations chief Antуnio Guterres
Powerhouse Brattørkaia states its purpose with conviction. Good design maximises its capacity to generate solar power in a climate that would seem to make this an all but impossible challenge. It smoothly combines this incredible capacity with superb architecture, fulfilling all the functions of a modern office building. The eight-story office building in Trondheim, Norway generates 485,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) annually. Powerhouse Brattørkaia is, in effect, a small power plant that will supply excess electricity to Norway’s publicly owned grid. It does this in climate where average sunshine per day is just 2.5 hours, or 1011 hour annually, and an average 168 sunny days per year. Compare this to Perth, Western Australia with 8.8 hours of sunshine per day, or 3200 hour per year where the same building would generate 1,455,000 kilowatt hours annually.
A consortium in Oslo made up of architects, engineers, environmentalists, and designers is creating energy-positive buildings in a country with some of the coldest and darkest winters on Earth. “If you can make it in Norway, you can make it anywhere,” says Peter Bernhard, a consultant with Asplan Viak, one of the Powerhouse alliance members.
Bernhard says Powerhouse began in 2010 with a question: Is it possible to not only eliminate the carbon footprint of buildings, but to also use them as a climate-crisis solution? It was a lofty goal. According to the European Commission, buildings account for 40 percent of energy usage and 36 percent of carbon-dioxide emissions in the EU.
repp + mclain Design and Construction, repp + mclain Office, Tucson, Arizona, USA
Photographer: Bill Timmerman
Photographer: Bill Timmerman
Photographer: Bill Timmerman
repp + mclain:
Arguably one of the most difficult challenges for a group of designers is to create their own work environment. Our challenge was to create an environment that fosters and encourages high thought, creativity, innovation & meticulous attention to detail. We created an open studio, filled with natural light that flows to a private courtyard desert garden shaded by solar panels. A large steel and concrete screen wall blocks the harsh western sun and noise of 1st Avenue from entering the studio. Visitors are directed from the parking area through a careful procession to a shaded and quiet desert courtyard before entering the space.
The design of the building has no aesthetic agenda. Its form is created solely from the crafted experience tailored for occupants at different spaces throughout the building. Rain water is captured and distributed throughout the site to accentuate the natural vegetation and solar panels offset summer energy use. Cross ventilation enhanced with ceiling fans allow us to minimize dependence on air conditioning during the late spring & early fall months while abundant day lighting eliminates our need for artificial light during the day.
We invite you to stop by and visit us at our office at anytime.
repp+mclain office
4500 square feet | tucson, arizona
architect: repp + mclain design and construction
general contractor: repp + mclain design and construction
materials: exposed concrete, powder coated steel, butt glazed glass
awards: honor award AIA western mountain region
honor award AIA state of arizona
honor award AIA southern arizona
building of the year award, remodelling magazine
Architecture BRIO, powerHYDE Solar Prototype House For Commubity of 170 Homes, Mathjalgaon, Maharashtra State, India
©Photographix | Sebastian Zachariah
Mumbai firm, Architecture BRIO has designed a low cost, zero plus, rooftop solar house and a prototype was constructed in 2019 in Maharashtra State, India.
This house is to be the forerunner of a proposal to provide low cost housing that generates power with a large rooftop array, sells the excess to a local grid, contributing to the power driving local small industries. It is intended that it will be a self funding model for the ongoing construction of affordable village homes.
https://www.architecturebrio.com/projects-item/billionbricks-homes-self-financing-home/
“BillionBricks Homes / powerHYDE is the world’s first carbon negative, self financing home for the homeless. Designed for the 200 million rural homeless in India, powerHYDE ensures that when these homes are built, they do not add negatively to the environment. Therefore they do not become a burden for other infrastructure provisions such as electricity, water and waste.
Each powerHYDE produces four times the amount of energy it needs for itself. A community of powerHYDE’s sells the additional energy to neighbouring industries and powers other communal facilities. This generates additional income for the inhabitants. A cluster of 75 powerHYDE homes is a mini power plant generating 1 MW of energy.
‘PowerHYDE’ combines through one solution:
1. the enormous demand for housing (40 million rural homes in India)
2. the increasing need of sustainable energy (300%) and
3. a sustainable financial model.
Financing
The daunting numbers and lack of financing have paralysed construction of homes for the poor. PowerHYDE is a self financing home conceived as a product. It is a product that produces more energy than its own usage and generates its own income. Since scaleability is essential for housing solutions, the house is designed in such a way that it is easy to assemble. Additionally the design is adaptable to different cultural, regional and climatic conditions.
PowerHYDE is modular. In order to meet the demand of growing families, the structural system of the house allows vertical and/or horizontal expansion. Moreover, passive and active sustainability measures meet the needs of fossil free energy production and zero impact water re-use and circulair waste treatment.
”
©Photographix | Sebastian Zachariah
©Photographix | Sebastian Zachariah
Unlike an average household, each BillionBricks home is designed to be self-sufficient and capable of being totally off grid. It removes itself from the greater system by producing renewable solar energy, harvesting rainwater, managing waste in septic tanks and supplementing food production with seasonal gardens. The benefits of this are exponential when these homes combine to form communities.
In order to optimise construction time and structural quality, BillionBricks is developing its own low cost
and hand-held pre-fabrication technology for structural and service systems. This will allow pre-fabricated components to be assembled on site without the use of specialised equipment or heavy machinery.
PowerHYDE is modular. In order to meet the demand of growing families, the structural system of the house allows vertical and/or horizontal expansion. Moreover, passive and active sustainability measures meet the needs of fossil free energy production and zero impact water re-use and circulair waste treatment.
2014-2020. The Neat selection: 7 Buildings from the past 7 years.
I started the Neat blog in November 2014 motivated by a perception that so few of those involved in shaping the built environment had any interest in the evolving role of distributed generation in the transition to a zero carbon electricity grid.
Here in Western Australia the contribution of home rooftop solar and small (less than 100kW) solar generators already exceeds 60% of the total South West Interconnected System (SWIS) grid at times. This is phenomenal when compared to large-scale solar currently supplying a maximum of 4% of demand at any given time. The role of this democratised, two-way electricity renewable ecosystem has belatedly been acknowledged by the state owned grid operator Western Power, and Synergy, the states largest energy retailer and generator. A 100MW big battery to be commissioned late in 2022 will be the first of many strategies to buy, store and on sell peak PV and wind power. In the short term, various battery storage strategies will have an impact, and in the longer term low cost solar power produced hydrogen combined with grid scale fuel cells will provide long term storage.
So as policy catches up, it simply makes good economic and social sense for building owners and designers to be part of the distributed power evolution.
Seven projects of varying scale and purpose, selected from the past seven years demonstrate this re-thinking of building design. These buildings, three from the US, one from Denmark, one from Germany and two designed by Austrian architects bring a new aesthetic to incorporating mostly, off the shelf PV panels in PV façades and PV canopies. The Danish school uses a unique blue/green PV cladding.
Designed with clean, cheap power generation as a starting point, the zero-plus, net-zero, powerhouse architecture might shape the way we build in the 21st Century.
2014
Koning Eizenberg, 28th Street Apartments, Los Angeles, California.
In the 28th Street Apartments, Koning Eizenberg have cleverly attached standard, off the shelf PV panels onto the apartment building façade adding to its overall aesthetic quality and turning what might have been an ugly intrusion into a stylish, black on white, framed feature. As well as contributing cheaper power to the residents, the PV panels shading the south wall would substantially reduce summer heat load on the building
2015
Miller Hull Partnership, Bullitt Centre, Seattle, Washington.
Designed for the Bullitt Foundation in Seattle it was hoped that this ambitious building would be the forerunner of a new generation of buildings that would progress the ideas and engineering of net-zero/zero-plus buildings to the point of standardisation. They also hoped to show potential developers a way forward in navigating the financing and regulatory requirements and then demonstrate what could be achieved with architects, engineers and builders working as a collaborative team.
The 1300m2 PV array protruding well beyond the walls is the most visible feature of the building. In 2019 the grid optimised system generated 249,014 kWh and the building consumed 225,990kWh allowing for export to the grid of 23,024 kWh. The canopy design responds to Seattle’s low average annual sunlight of 2170 hours (compared to say, Melbourne with 2200 hours or Perth with a whopping 3200 annual sunlight hours. As well as maximising power generation, the extended PV canopy has since found a place in both tropical and desert climates providing both shade and rain shelter. See Emergency Children's Hospital, Uganda
“The era of harm reduction, half steps and lesser evils is behind us. As a society, we need to be bold in ways that were once unimaginable. Luckily in the building sector, we now can imagine where we need to go. In fact, we don’t need to just imagine it. We can touch, experience, learn from, and replicate it.”
— Denis Hayes, Bullitt Foundation President.
More recently, Miller Hull Partnership in collaboration with Lord Aeck and Sargent Planning and Design Inc. have expanded on the PV canopy concept with the Kendeda Building, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia. Average annual sunlight in Georgia 2986 hours giving the PV array the capacity to meet the building’s energy demands, with a safety factor of 10 percent, plus the 5 percent net positive factor that is required for LIVING BUILDING CHALLENGE certification.
2016
Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects, Jacob Institute for Design Innovation, UC Berkeley, California.
The Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation at UC Berkeley, is devoted to introducing sustainable design innovation at the center of engineering education and university life. The project was conceived by the College of Engineering as an interdisciplinary hub for students and teachers from across the university who work at the intersection of design and technology. It is designed as both a collaborative, project-based educational space and a symbol to the region of the University’s commitment to sustainable innovation.
The 80 kW PV system is both graceful, yet practical. It cleverly utilises two different types of solar panels: high performance polycrystalline panels at the centre of the installation combined with double glass frameless, bifacial panels on the more visible edges.
2017
CF Møller Architects, Copenhagen International School, Copenhagen.
Despite a yearly average of 1780 sunlight hours, the Copenhagen International School building, will generate more than half the schools annual energy needs. The 12,000 blue/green PV panel cladding uses a process of light interference developed by Ecole Polytechnique Federal de Lausanne, Switzerland applied to glass with a filter that determines which wavelengths of light to be reflected as visible colour. The rest of the sunlight is absorbed by the solar panel and converted into energy, producing 300MWh of electricity for the school per year.
2018
Ingenhoven Architects, Town Hall, Freiburg, Germany
This building sets a new visual and practical standard with a PV façade system that could also be utilised in hotter, sunnier climates. The module layout ensures that windows are shaded from direct sun, providing even, ambient light year round. The building achieves Net-Surplus-Energy standard, generating more energy than it uses. With the 880 full height 350cm x 60cm façade metal framed, seamless double-glass modules combined with a roof-top array generating 220kW.
2019
Holodeck Architects, Austrian Embassy, Bangkok
The Austrian Embassy in Bangkok is a wonderful example of an understated, subtle blending of Austrian culture within the Thai context. Consisting of a group of delightfully scaled individual buildings grouped around a shaded courtyard space. The entire complex is shaded by a single PV canopy that reduces heat load, provides shelter from rain, brings the compound together as a single building and generates power. The 590m2 canopy generates 75kWp and was installed by Aero Solar and Automation Company utilising standard modules combined with custom components.
2020
Fügenschuh Hrdlovics Architekten, House for Psychosocial Care and Living, Innsbruck, Austria.
With a fine eye for detail, Fügenschuh Hrdlovics Architekten have elegantly combined a coloured pre-cast concrete wall panel cladding with a south wall PV layer. The detailing of the building throughout is a delight, but elevating the “off the shelf” frameless PV panels to an refined facade is masterful. The House for Psychosocial Care and Living is a beautifully scaled four floor facility with a kitchen and common area on the ground floor, 14 small apartments for patients and a multifunctional space on top floor. It is set on a small municipal plot in a green area between the Inn River and the densely populated Innsbruck city district.
The Australia Institute Webinar Series:
ELECTRIFY EVERYTHING, POWERING ECONOMICS ON CLEAN ENERGY with SAUL GRIFFITH + DANNY KENNEDY Take the time to watch this terrifically uplifting discussion. It covers the necessity of distributed power, the essential role of the built environment and the wider role of cheap, clean electricity.
“But recent advances of ingenuity based on solar power’s brilliance have unleashed the creativity of entrepreneurs and capital. These advances are supported by serious social movements—committed activists who seek to break the corporate power of Big Oil and Big Coal and to reduce pollution and corruption.”
SNØHETTA, POWERHOUSE TELEMARK, PORSGRUNN, NORWAY
“We have created the most efficient solar power plant in Norway”
Photo: Ivar Kvaal
Situated in the historic industrial city of Porsgrunn in the county of Vestfold and Telemark, this new 11 story building marks a symbolic continuation of the district’s proud history as Telemark is home to one of the early 19th Century’s largest hydropower plants.
Powerhouse Telemark is the fourth of the Powerhouse energy positive buildings to be built in Norway. These buildings have been the result of a collaboration between Snøhetta, R8 Property, Skanska and Asplan Viak.
Powerhouse Telemark has reduced its yearly net energy consumption by 70% compared to similar new-construction offices, and will produce more energy than it will consume over its entire lifespan. The skewed and slightly conical building features a clearly defined 45° tilting notch on the east-facing façade, clearly stating its purpose with a combination of south-east facing façadePV and roof PV generating 256,000 kWh each year, approximately twenty times the annual energy use of an average Norwegian household. Surplus energy will be sold back to the energy grid.
Given that Telemark gets an annual 1682 hour of sunlight (compared to Perth with 3212 hours) this is a remarkable performance.
Photo: Ivar Kvaal
“In environmental issues the powerhouse strategy needs examples, one to one where we can actually measure what we have calculated beforehand. And now in a small city we have an example set up. It does not have to be in locations around the world where the focus is on the highest, it can be anywhere. However there are elements that need to be improved, one of them is the distribution of surplus energy production, into its surroundings. And I think there is a political issue for the future to actually solve the distribution of surplus clean energy production into the wider network.”
Photo: Ivar Kvaal
COLLABORATORS
Contract: Skanska
Architect: Snøhetta
Landscape: Snøhetta
Technical Design: Skanska Teknikk and Asplan Viak
Photo: Ivar Kvaal
MILLER HULL PARTNERSHIP IN COLLABORATION WITH LORD AECK SARGENT PLANNING AND DESIGN, INC. , THE KENDEDA BUILDING, GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, ATLANTA, GEORGIA, USA
Photo: Jonathan Hillyer
A recurring feature of buildings posted on this site feature the solar canopy. One of the earliest PV canopy buildings selected was the ground breaking Bullitt Centre in Seattle, Washington designed by Seattle architects Miller Hull Partnership https://millerhull.com/project/bullitt-center/ . This is a building that is designed to maximise PV power generation in a city with relatively low 2170 annual average sunshine hours. It is well worth reading more about here: Bullitt Centre
With the Kandeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design at Georgia Insitute of Technology, Miller Hull Partnership https://millerhull.com/project/the-kendeda-building/ in collaboration with Lord Aeck Sargent https://www.lordaecksargent.com have very neatly combined aesthetics and function. The 917 PV panel, 330 kW canopy generates over 400,000 kWh per year that directly serves the building’s energy demands including lighting, HVAC system, water system, and plug loads. The second important function of the canopy is shade. Georgia has a humid subtropical climate, with long, hot summers and the shade provided by the canopy reduces the heat load on the building and immediate surrounds and this in turn reduces building energy requirements.
Average annual sunlight in Georgia 2986 hours and the PV array is designed to meet the building’s energy demands, with a safety factor of 10 percent, plus the 5 percent net positive factor that is required for Living Building Challenge certification.
When the PV array is not producing adequate amounts of energy, the building loads run off of electricity from the grid. When the PV array is producing more electricity for the building than needed, the building supplies electricity back to the grid. The PV array has also been sized to account for energy used from the campus chilled water connection. Water from the campus connection is metered, energy is calculated, and an energy offset is supplied to the grid in order to meet the annual net positive requirements. By harnessing more energy than the building consumes, the systems create a net positive energy facility on an annual basis. A lithium ion battery exclusively charged by the PV array serves as an emergency back-up in the event of power outages.
Photo: Jonathan Hellyer
Phot: Jonathan Hellyer
“ At the heart of our work is a connection to the power of natural surroundings. Our legacy of environmentally responsible buildings is inspired by the efficiency and elegance of passive systems and regional materials. We leverage the openness and flexibility of modernist form to celebrate connections inside and out.”
Photo: Gregg Willett
“Since 1977, sustainability has been a foundational value of Miller Hull. While we have considered natural systems and climatic conditions since our very first project, we continue to evolve with broadening sustainability concepts, technology, and increasing scientific knowledge.
In addition to designing ecologically, our own company’s operations reflect those principles as well. Both of our studios are Living Building Petal Certified providing comfortable, daylit and Red List-free environments for our staff.
Our passion for sustainability has led to successful projects for our clients and recognized by the industry with eight AIA Committee on the Environment Awards, five certified Living Buildings and recognition as a Top Firm for Sustainability by Architect Magazine.
In 2021, we launched EMission Zero which is an initiative targeting the elimination of greenhouse gas emissions in the buildings we design.”
Photo: Jonathan Hillyer
“EMission Zero
Launched by Miller Hull in 2021, EMission Zero is an initiative targeting the elimination of greenhouse gas emissions in the buildings we design.
The building industry is responsible for nearly 40 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Although we continue to work toward reducing our climate impact, it is clear that we need to do more, and improve at a faster rate, in order to mitigate the worst effects caused by climate change.
Despite our ongoing efforts, we realize that Miller Hull has not yet done enough to reduce greenhouse gas emissions incurred by the buildings we design, and therefore, our work is part of the problem. It is time for us to take responsibility for our contribution to the environment and do everything in our power to support the health, safety and welfare of our planet.
EMission Zero is an initiative that combines our actions through Design, our ongoing efforts to Educate and Advocate and then our commitment to Offset the greenhouse gas emissions released up to the point of occupancy for all of our built projects. This document outlines the scope of the initiative to reinforce accountability in every aspect of our business.”
Project Team
Design Architect: The Miller Hull Partnership, LLP
Collaborating Architect & Prime Architect: Lord Aeck Sargent Planning and Design, Inc.
Contractor: Skanska USA
Landscape Architect: Andropogon
Civil Engineer: Long Engineering
Mechanical, Electrical & Plumping Engineer: PAE and Newcomb & Boyd
Structural Engineer: Uzun & Case
Greywater Systems: Biohabitats
TAMassociati with Renzo Piano Building Workshop, EMERGENCY'S CHILDREN'S SURGICAL HOSPITAL, ENTEBBE, UGANDA.
EMERGENCY was founded in 1994 in Milan, to provide free, high-quality medical and surgical care to victims of war, landmines and poverty. It has worked in 19 countries, building hospitals, surgical centres, outpatient and mobile clinics, a maternity centre and a cardiac surgery centre. Also, at the request of local authorities and other organisations, they contribute to the restructuring and strengthening of existing facilities.
Children’s Surgical Hospital in Entebbe, Uganda project design was carried out by Renzo Piano and the Studio RPBW workshop, with TAMassociati and Emergency’s technical department. The sustainability component was a requirement within EMERGENCY’s principles of Equality, Quality and Social Responsibility (EGS).
The services include three operating theatres, wards for 72 beds, diagnostic and ancillary services that include a laboratory, blood bank, pharmacy, canteen and laundry. It also has facilities training local staff, both medical and administrative. Particularly significantly, it also included a 36 bed guest house for visiting patients and relatives.
“Healthcare in Africa should be at the same level as it is in the Global North. This project comes with all the skills, equipment and technologies needed to start high-level surgery in an extraordinary facility. We are all part of the human family. We are ‘equal in dignity and rights’, as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says. We have a responsibility to provide exactly the same level of treatment for African children that is expected in richer countries,” says Gino Strada, surgeon and founder of EMERGENCY.
“Gino asked me to design a ‘scandalously beautiful’ hospital. He uses that phrase because to some people, the idea of offering beauty and excellence to everyone, especially poor and marginalised people, is scandalous. In Swahili, the concept of beauty is linked to goodness. There is no beauty without goodness,” says Renzo Piano.
600mm thick, load bearing rammed earth walls constructed with locally sourced material and workforce provide both visual and functional quality. The suspended canopy structure provides shade and shelter to the entire hospital and supports 3600 m2 of PV panels providing all daytime power requirements. Entebbe has an annual average 2408 hours of sunlight.
Felix Holland, a partner in the Kampala multi-disciplinary design firm LOCALWORKS worked with the Hospital design team. ‘Pragmatic Idealism’ Green Architecture from Uganda is an inspirational class in tropical climate design. Localworks combine passive design with active and are guided by the local terrain, economic and logistical considerations and available materials and skills.
A public lecture by Felix Holland, co-founder of Localworks, held as a live online event on June 3rd 2021. Hosted by the Department of Architecture and Spatial Planning, Namibia University of Science and Technology.
KAUNITZ YEUNG ARCHITECTURE, THE PUNTUKURNU ABORIGINAL MEDICAL SERVICE (PAMS) HEALTHCARE HUB, NEWMAN, WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Newman is about 1200km north Perth (15km north of the Tropic of Capricorn) in the East Pilbara Region. Construction of the residential and service centre for Mount Newman Mining Company began in 1967 and in 1990’s BHP Billeton took over. The town now has a population of around 8000 and services a wider regional population of 15,000. The town is also located on the tribal lands of the Nyiyaparli and Martu people.
The climate is categorised as desert with an average annual rainfall of 308mm. Summer daily temperatures often exceed 38deg. C countered by a mild winter of 20deg. to 26deg. daily temperatures and cool nights often below 6deg C.
With the PAMS Healthcare Hub, Kaunitz Yeung Architecture has made a building suited to the East Pilbara climate in many ways, the use of a courtyard for instance. The architects words set out their considerations.
In regard to PV, Newman has an average 3826 hours of sunshine per year (12.1 hours of sunshine per day in December) allowing the 150kW solar array to supply 100% of the power required during the day, when the building is in use. This provides a significant saving in operational costs, and although the architects don’t mention it, it will be one of the few net-zero buildings in the Pilbara. Electricity in Newman is supplied by Newman Power Station, a dual fuel (gas and distillate) generator that has operated since the 70’s.
THE DESIGN APPROACH
The architectural response is imbued with country, cultural and people for the objective of placing wellness at the centre of community and physically representing PAMS ethos. This was underpinned by the co-design process that was an extension of the extensive co-design process that Kaunitz Yeung Architecture led during the Punmu & Parnngurr Clinics completed in 2018. This was underpinned by the architect spending significant time in the communities over years through the projects. This facilitated iterative consultation and a genuine co-design process with the community and specific user groups. Importantly it enabled impromptu ‘yarning’, under a tree, at the petrol pump or on the way to the shop. This enabled all voices to be heard from a nomadic culture that is not always comfortable speaking within the mob. The result is a fine tuning of the architecture that resonates with community, enriching the architecture by making it subtly more appropriate to people, place and culture.
SUSTAINABILITY
The rammed earth and landscaping, including mature tress are key elements of the sustainable approach to the project. The rammed earth significantly reduces embodied energy and improves building performance. The landscaping ecologically repairs the degrade site with endemic species and shades the building.
The other key sustainability feature is the 150kW rooftop photovoltaic array. Newman is one of the driest places in Australia with only 30 days of precipitation a year and almost all its rainfall occurring in two events a year. It is essentially sunny more than 330 days a year. The solar is anticipated to provide 100% of the buildings electricity when the sun is shining. As the building is almost entirely used during the day it is expected that the photovoltaics will provide more than 85% of the building’s electricity. Realtime monitoring will clarify this over time. The solar array is already one of the largest rooftop systems north of Perth and has increased the photovoltaic capacity of the Newman postcode by 13% according to Australian PV Institute data.
Importantly this will reduce the recurrent running costs of the building significantly enabling funding to be directed to better healthcare.
KAUNITZ YEUNG ARCHITECTURE: https://kaunitzyeung.com/project/rammed-earth-health-hub/
HADDOCK ARCHITECTURE, INDUSTRIAL SHED TRANSFORMED INTO HOUSING, RENNES, FRANCE
Photo: Charles Bouchalb
The existing oak columns, beams and trusses of an industrial shed are retained to provide the structural elements a of two new houses. A 390W Mitrex integrated frameless PV module roof is used on the south providing a contemporary element to a sensitive restoration.
Photo: Charles Bouchalb
Photo: Charles Bouchalb
Photo: Charles Bouchalb
E.T.S. de Arquitectura de Málaga. UMA Alberto García Marín- Aq8 Arquitectura Juan Manuel Sánchez La Chica- Marinauno Arquitectos, SMART TREE, UNIVERSIDAD de MÁLAGA, SPAIN
Photo: Fernando Alda
The autonomous energy capture system installed in the Smart Tree allows the inclusion of control systems, the lighting of the pavilion itself and the creation of a charging point for electric bicycles.
Photo: Fernando Alda
Photo: Fernando Alda
Smart Tree was born from a research project of the University of Malaga with the objective of recycling elements from the demolition of campus buildings to improve teaching environments college.
As is the case of many of the new spaces in our cities created in the eighties of the last century, The Teatinos University Campus suffers the consequences of a design in which the car had an excessive prominence. With the intention of reactivating this environment and establishing the necessary spaces for relationships for the development of outdoor activities for users of the campus, The University of Malaga has implemented different projects of nature, among them is Smart Tree.
Smart Tree is conceived as a biotechnological tree whose mission is to rehabilitate the outdoor spaces of the university, promoting its use through the creation of green environments and connective services. Located at back of Sciences School, this intervention transforms a disused place to provide users with different buildings in the environment of an open-air co-working space, relaxed and friendly, which provides a microclimate of environmental and sensory comfort, and technology for access to renewable energy and information.
Unexpectedly and due to the restrictions that the pandemic has imposed, Smart Tree has become a makeshift outdoor classroom.
For the development of the prototype, a multidisciplinary team composed of biologists, engineers and architects, with the idea of working on the various lines of the project.
The structure of Smart tree and its furniture have been designed from materials from demolitions parts of campus buildings that have exhausted their first useful life.
The pavilion arises from the reworking of astructure that served as a pergola in the courtyard of Fine Arts School, whose necessary rehabilitation implied the elimination of it. From this work, three triangulated spatial structures were obtained that were used to compose the pavilion without the need for excessive transformation; and the concrete columns, which stuck in the land served to carry out the strict projected foundations.
Without the need to add new elements to generate the pavilion, the first of the structures was used to build the floor plane, the second to generate the vertical support, and the third and last,to cover the pavilion. Of the power of these structures and the absence of other structural elements to recycle arose the cantilever that means this «folie», which painted yellow floats over the garden without hardly touching it. Some tubular iron benches and beech wood boards from the demolition of the laboratories of the Sciences School served to furnish the pavilion and delimit the crops.
All this was built on a garden, which with the intention of improving the environmental and sensory conditions, was designed using native flora. A weather station and various strategically located sensors enable the collection of data in real time of the environmental quality conditions, through which conclusions are drawn for the improvement of this space and its future application in other rehabilitation projects of outdoor spaces.
LEDDY MAYTUM STACY ARCHITECTS, EDWIN M. LEE APARTMENTS, San Francisco, CA. USA
Photos: Bruce Damonte
A model for healthy living and resilience, the Edwin M. Lee Apartments is the first building in San Francisco to combine supportive housing for both unhoused veterans and low-income families. This collaboration among LMSA, Saida + Sullivan Design Partners, Swords to Plowshares, and Chinatown Community Development Center supports an integrated, equitable, and sustainable community in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood.
This affordable housing development provides 62 apartments for formerly homeless veterans and 57 apartments for low-income families with ground-floor services for families, veterans, neighbors, and the greater community. Balancing a civic scale with a feeling of home, the building enables sustainable lifestyles for its residents, prioritizing access to views and daylight, along with showcasing alternative energy generation and connections to nearby public transportation. The project frames a generous internal garden courtyard that balances a range of areas for retrospection, interaction and play.
lmsA
OWNER
Chinatown Community Development Center and Swords to Plowshares
ASSOCIATED ARCHITECT
Saida + Sullivan Design Partners
LOCATION
San Francisco, CA
SIZE
123,701 sq. ft.
STATS
GreenPoints Rated Platinum certification; Solar PV panels estimated to produce 91% of the building’s common area electrical energy; Solar thermal panels estimated to produce 60% of the building’s hot water heating energy
Photo: Tim Griffith
Jacobs Hall, College of Engineering, University of California, Berkeley also by Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects was posted in Dec 2016.
MILL 19, HAZELWOOD GREEN, PITTSBURGH, USA
One of Pittsburgh’s last operating steel mills to close is now the centrepiece of the 178-acre Hazelwood Green redevelopment. Mill 19 will serve as the home to Carnegie Mellon University affiliated Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing Institute and the Manufacturing Futures Initiative, Catalyst Connection and autonomous vehicle company Aptiv. The PV installation is the largest building mounted single sloped solar array in the U.S. consisting of 4,785 LG panels generating 2.0 MW. The solar panels were installed using an innovative technology called the Spider WorkWeb. With this approach, the panels were directly attached to Mill 19’s existing frame reducing time and cost.
Installed by Scalo Solar Solutions
THE BULLITT CENTRE, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, USA
“The era of harm reduction, half steps and lesser evils is behind us. As a society, we need to be bold in ways that were once unimaginable. Luckily in the building sector, we now can imagine where we need to go. In fact, we don’t need to just imagine it. We can touch, experience, learn from, and replicate it.”
I first came across the Bullitt Centre in 2015 and posted now seems a good time to take another look at this ambitious six level Seattle office building that opened in 2013.
The broad rooftop PV array is eye-catching, and the energy positive PV component dominates, but the building offered much more as a demonstration of what is achievable in a “deep-green”, low carbon guided by the principals of the Living Building Challenge (version 2). The Bullitt Foundation had hoped that it would be the forerunner of new generation of buildings that would progress the ideas and engineering to the point of standardisation. They also hoped to show potential developers a way forward in navigating the financing and regulatory requirements and then demonstrate what could be achieved with architects, engineers and builders working as a collaborative team.
FEATURES OF THE BUILDING
The 1300m2 roof-top PV array protruding well beyond the walls is the most visible feature of the building. In 2019 the unit generated 249,014 kWh and the building consumed 225,990kWh allowing for export to the grid of 23,024 kWh. Seattle has a temperate climate with mild summers (Aug av max 26 deg and min 14 deg) cool wet winters (Dec av max 8 deg and min 3 deg) The average annual sunlight is 2170 hours. By comparison, Melbourne has 2200 hours and Perth a whopping 3200 hours). The system relies on the grid as a battery, exporting and importing as needed and with Seattle electricity predominantly clean with around 90% hydroelectric, an increasing wind proportion and a mixture including nuclear providing the balance.
Wood, concrete, and steel are used in the building structure according to their specific load-bearing and tensile characteristics. Concrete is limited to the substructure and rainwater cistern. 100% Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified flu-lam timber beams are used for structural timbers.
A very important part of a Living Building is a living “skin”; a selective filter that responds to the ambient environment to maintain comfortable conditions inside the building. In the case of the Bullitt Center, the windows and shading systems do the bulk of the work for daylighting and ventilation, as well as assisting in the thermal comfort of the building.
The skin is a system of layers that are used in different combinations to achieve optimal thermal and daylight qualities. The outermost layer of the skin is the deployable stainless steel shades. Designed by Warema, the system sits about 12 inches away from the windows. In the summer, when solar heat gain can be a challenge, the shades deploy to diffuse direct rays before they hit the glass. In the winter, the shades are designed to maximize natural daylight in the office spaces, while still protecting against direct glare on workstations.
The German design for triple-pane operable glazing design with deployable stainless steel exterior shades was licensed to a local manufacturer and installer to avoid the high carbon footprint of freighting. The system eliminated thermal bridging and provided an efficient thermal barrier in both winter and summer conditions. In mild weather the windows allow for fresh air throughout the workplace.
Other features included in the building are radiant floor heating, heat recovery ventilation, rainwater harvesting, greywater system. Walkability was a priority in siting the building. Bus routes, a streetcar and light rail within less than a kilometre, also bike storage and showering and locker rooms encourage the bike riders.
These are not all the features of the building, and it seems that fine tuning and improvements are ongoing. Financially the building has been a success. They estimate that the soft costs (time taken persuading government officials and arranging finance increased the overall building cost by 23%, however construction costs were comparable to any class-A commercial building. The building is fully leased and operates profitably.
Living Building Challenge
One of the most ambitious aspects of the Bullitt Center was achieving the goals of the Living Building Challenge(version 2.0), as described by the International Living Building Institute.
To be certified as a Living Building a structure is required to produce as much energy as it uses in a year, and capture and treat rainwater for all its needs for at least 12 continuous months and to meet rigorous standards for “Red List” compliant materials and for the quality of its indoor environment.
The Living Building Challenge requires a project to meet 20 specific imperatives within seven performance areas (or “Petals”). For the Bullitt Center, meeting the imperatives included the following:
Site: The location supports a pedestrian-, bicycle-, and transit-friendly lifestyle.
Water: Rainwater is collected on the roof, stored in an underground cistern and used throughout the building (once approved by the regulatory authorities).
Energy: A solar array generates as much electricity as the building uses (actually 60% more than we used in 2014).
Health: The building promotes health for its occupants, with inviting stairways, operable windows and features to promote walking and resource sharing.
Materials: The building does not contain “Red List” hazardous materials, including PVC, cadmium, lead, mercury and hormone-mimicking substances, all of which are commonly found in building components.
Equity: All workstations are within 30 feet of large operable windows, offering workers access to fresh air and natural daylight.
Beauty: Stunning architecture, an innovative photovoltaic array, a green roof and other native plantings, large structural timbers and a revitalized pocket park help beautify the surrounding neighborhood.
CASE STUDY: http://www.bullittcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/living-proof-bullitt-center-case-study.pdf
KLIMENT HALSBAND ARCHITECTS, Mount Sinai Kyabirwa Surgical Facility, Kyabirwa, Uganda.
Mount Sinai Kyabirwa Surgical Facility
This prototype for an independent, self-sustaining ambulatory surgical facility provides life-saving treatments in underserved parts of the world.
The design for the first of these facilities takes inspiration from the stands of banana plants found on the site in Kyabirwa, a rural village near the equator in Uganda. The solar panels collect sun and provide shade, much like the surrounding banana plants. The solar array shelters and powers the simple modular brick facility beneath. The building is composed of three functional elements: a reception pavilion and a courtyard waiting area for patients’ families, an intermediate pavilion for pre-op and post-op activities, and a sterile pavilion with two operating rooms and related support spaces. The facility provides access to surgical treatments not available to this community before, as well as training for nurses and surgeons on quality surgical care. The medical staff is also supported by telemedicine links to Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, with real-time operating room video conferencing.
Kliment Halsband Architects
https://kliment-halsband.com/work/mount-sinai-kyabirwa-village-surgical-facility-healthcare/
CLAYTON & LITTLE, SAXUM VINEYARD EQUIPMENT BARN, Paso Robles, California.
Saxum Vineyard is located in the West Paso Robles American Viticultural Area (Lat. 35deg. N) halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles. At the entry to the vineyard, the equipment barn might be a metaphor. The recycled oil field drill stem pipe structure supports a laminated glass module photovoltaic roof system that generates more power than the vineyard requires (around 87,000kWh/year). The oil drilling rods representing a carbon energy past and the PV roof the transition to a clean energy future. The PV system currently powers the winery and vineyard irrigation well pumps, but in time might supply electric vehicles, electric tractors and other farm machinery. Farming sustainably, without chemical fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides, it is foreseeable that Saxum Vineyards could also achieve a net zero carbon footprint.
Architects Statement:
Located in the Templeton Gap area of West Paso Robles, California this simple agricultural storage structure rests at the toes of the 50 acre James Berry Vineyard and the adjacent Saxum Winery sitting just over 800 feet away. Designed as a modern pole barn, the reclaimed oil field drill stem pipe structure’s primary objectives are to provide an armature for a photovoltaic roof system that offsets more than 100% of power demands on the winery and to provide covered open-air storage for farming vehicles and their implements, workshop and maintenance space, and storage for livestock supplies.
Designed to harnesses the local climate to maximize cross ventilation, daylight and solar energy, the recycled oilfield pipe structure holds a laminated glass photovoltaic roof system that produces 1/3 more power than needed (roughly 87,000 kWh per year), eliminating the dependence of grid tied power for the winery and the vineyard irrigation wells through net metering. Utilizing the laminated glass solar modules as both the actual primary roof and the renewable energy generator, offset any additional costs to construct an additional roof with separately mounted crystalline solar panels.
Minimalistic materials were selected to withstand the particularly dry climate, for regional availability, long-term durability and to minimize the need for maintenance. The primary column and roof structure is constructed of welded Schedule 40 reclaimed drill stem pipe, in 2”, 3” and 3.5” diameters, left to weather naturally. The lateral load resisting system, consists of diaphragm rod cross-bracing and vertical tension only cross-braced frames. Laminated glass solar modules, serving as both the solar system and the roofing, are supported on wood and WT steel flitch purlins welded to the pipe trusses. An 8” diameter Schedule 40 half-pipe gutter is situated at the low end of the roof to accommodate future rainwater harvesting.
22 gauge Western Rib Cor-Ten corrugated perforated steel panels provide shading and filtered privacy to equipment bays.
Salvaged materials do more with less. Barn doors are clad in weathered steel off-cuts that were saved for reuse from the adjacent winery shoring walls, re-used in a "calico" pattern to fit the oddly shaped panels to tube steel framed door leafs. Storage boxes are skinned with stained cedar siding with the interiors clad with unfinished rotary cut Douglas Fir plywood.
Foundations limit the amount of cast-in-place concrete by including pervious gravel paving for all open vehicle storage bays and livestock pens, maximizing the amount of rainwater that is filtered back through the soil into the watershed. In addition, providing an engineered deepened earthwork program allowed the structural foundation requirements to be more efficient with their utilization of cast-in-place concrete.
Sitting sentry as the foremost structure present upon entering the vineyard lined property, the barn and its renewable energy system speak to the winery's commitment to sustainability and subservience to the natural landscape. This structure is completely self-sufficient and operates independently from the energy grid, maximizing the structure’s survivability and resilience.
Project Team
Architecture:
Clayton & Little - Brian Korte AIA Partner / Design Lead, Josh Nieves, Derek Klepac, Brandon Tharp
Consultants:
Structural Engineer: SSG Structural Engineering – Michael Parolini, S.E.,
Joe Klimczyk, S.E.
Lighting Design: Clayton & Little
Contractor: Rarig Construction, San Luis Obispo, CA – Doug Bolt, Superintendent
Solar Basis of Design: Pacific Energy – John Ewan
Photography credit: Casey Dunn
Fügenschuh Hrdlovics Architects, House for Psychosocial Care and Living, Innsbruck, Austria
The daily search for well designed, visually pleasing PV power generating buildings and homes can be disheartening, but from time to time is rewarded splendidly. Fügenschuh Hrdlovics Architects Innsbruck psychosocial care residence was a special find, that due to its subtlety, could easily have been missed. It is a compact and refined building accomodating 14 small apartments distributed over four floors with kitchen and common area on the ground floor and the multifunctional use of space on top floor. The glass PV panels are fitted with precision to the South wall (Innsbruck lat 47.2 N) and reflect the Inn River directly beyond.
Project Description
There had long been a search for a municipal use of a very small plot in the green area between the Inn river and a densely populated city district with high-rise buildings from the 1960s. Finally it ended up with giving a use to a „House for psychosocial care and living“.
The building provides a temporary home for people with chronic mental illnesses. Its special location on the edge of a public green zone is reflected in design of common areas, where an outdoor area with entrance and covered terrace links the building with its green surrounding.
There are 14 small apartments distributed over four floors between the kitchen and common area on the ground floor and the multifunctional use of space on top floor.
These allow the residents private space within a supervised environment.
Address: An der Lan Strasse 16, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
Architecture: Fügenschuh Hrdlovics Architects (Julia Fügenschuh, Christof Hrdlovics)
Website: http://www.fuegenschuhhrdlovics.com
Contact e-mail: office@fuegenschuhhrdlovics.com
Firm Location: Zirl, Tyrol, Austria
Collaboration architecture: Gernot Baumann
Client: IIG (Innsbrucker Immobilien GmbH & CoKG)
Engineering: Peter Stippler BM Dipl. Ing.
PV: Alpsolar Innsbruck
Photo credits: David Schreyer
Photographer’s website: https://www.schreyerdavid.com
Planning: 03/2012 - 03/2018
Completion Year: 2018
Sustainability
Heating demand: 10.8 kWh/m²a (according to PHPP – Passive House Planning Package)
Heating demand: 7.2 kWh/m²a (according to Energy certificate)
Final energy demand: 30.5 kWh/m²a (according to Energy certificate)
Primary energy demand: 58.2 kWh/m²a (according to Energy certificate)
Certifications: Certified Passive House according to PHPP
LAKE|FLATO ARCHITECTS and SHEPLEY BULFINCH ARCHITECTS, AUSTIN CENTRAL LIBRARY, AUSTIN, TEXAS, USA
Completed in 2017, the Austin City Library has 182 kW rooftop and shade structure arrays. The library is a long way from Net Zero (it is understood to generate around a third of the buildings electricity needs), but it is a highly visible integrated PV demonstration project in a popular public facility. The design also allows for daylight to central areas allowing for ambient natural reading light and substantial energy savings.
Snøhetta, Powerhouse Brattørkaia, Brattørkaia 17, Trondheim, Norway.
"The mantra of the design industry should not be 'form follows function' but 'form follows environment'. This means that the design thinking of today should focus on environmental considerations and reducing our footprint first, and have the design follow this premise."
Snøhetta founder Kjetil Trædal Thorsen
Architects statement:
Powerhouse Brattørkaia is located in Trondheim, Norway, 63° north of the Earth’s equator, where sunlight varies greatly between the seasons.* This presents a unique opportunity to explore how to harvest and store solar energy under challenging conditions.
The 18 000 m2 office building is situated by the harbor and connects to Trondheim Central Station via a pedestrian bridge on the rear end of the building.
On average, Powerhouse Brattørkaia produces more than twice as much electricity as it consumes daily, and will supply renewable energy to itself, its neighboring buildings, electric buses, cars and boats through a local micro grid.
The aim of the project is threefold; to maximize the amount of clean energy produced by the building, to minimize the energy required to run it, and to serve as a pleasant space for its tenants and the general public. The building’s site has been carefully chosen to ensure maximum exposure to the sun throughout the day and seasons. Its skewed, pentagonal roof and the upper part of the façade is clad with almost 3 000 m2 of solar panels, strategically placed to harvest as much solar energy as possible.
Over a year, this amounts to a total of about 500 000 kWh with clean, renewable energy. In effect, the building dually functions as a small power plant in the middle of the city. Ample space for energy storage is built into the building footprint, allowing it to store surplus energy in the summer months of near total daylight, to then use it in the winter months when daylight is at a minimum.
The building is extremely energy efficient, leveraging a series of technologies to radically reduce energy use for its daily operations. This is accomplished through insulating the building for maximum efficiency, installing intelligent solutions for air flow to reduce the need for heating, heat recovery solutions for ventilating air and greywater (wastewater from all sources except toilets), using seawater for heating and cooling and implementing only energy efficient electrical appliances. Daylight conditions are optimized throughout the building design and artificial light use is kept at a minimum.
For its efforts, Powerhouse Brattørkaia has received the BREEAM Outstanding certification, the highest possible ranking by the world’s leading sustainability assessment method for an asset’s environmental, social and economic sustainability performance. Its solutions support the UNFCCC Paris Agreement that pursues efforts to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
For some perspective, Trondheim has an annual average of 1,343 hours of sunshine compared to Perth, Western Australia with 3,200 hour annual average.
PROJECT TEAM:
ENTRA http://entra.no
Building owner. A real estate company leading the way in high, quality energy efficient buildings.
SKANSKA http://skanska.com
Construction. A multinational construction and development company based in Sweden.
ZERO (Zero Emission Resource Organisation) http://zero.no
Norwegian environmental organisation with the philosophy that “if new facilities are made emission-free, then when existing plant and methods are phased out due to old age, society is left with emission-free facilities”.
ASPLAN VIAK http://asplanviak.no
Norwegian engineering and architectural consulting firm. Services include architecture, urban and land use planning, building and construction, energy and environmental engineering, geo info and visualisation, landscape architecture, community analysis, community planning, technical installations and water and environmental engineering.
IVAR KVAAL http://ivarkvaal.com
Photography
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