Sustainable Design – Architecture Student Chronicles

Low Carbon House Design Methodology

January 10, 2023December 31, 2022 by Architect

Stepwise procedure for designing the low carbon house

Step One

Identifying nationally recognized methods for assessing the environmental performance of new buildings in the UK.

Most widely used methods include Code for Sustainable Homes (CSH) 2006 and British Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM). Other methods include Association for Environment Conscious Building (AECB) Silver and Gold and PassivHaus.

Policies for Sustainable Development in Brighton and Hove

The City Plan Policy CP8 for Sustainable Buildings supported by Supplementary Planning Documents, SPD 08 – Sustainable Building Design is expected to deliver viable development that considers community aspirations, environmentally sensitive, high quality, adequate infrastructure and helps in mitigating the impacts of climate change by gradually transitioning towards achieving a low carbon economy (NPPF, 2012).

National Planning Policy Framework, 2012 expects the local plan policy to play an active role in guiding the development that is viable and sustainable. The principles of One Planet approach have been adopted by the Brighton & Hove City Council which aims at radical reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by reducing energy consumption before the construction and after it is built. Mitigating the impacts of climate change is an important aspect of delivering Sustainable development (Low Carbon Construction, 2010).

Her Majesty’s Government proposed Climate Change Act in 2008 which was the world’s first long-term legally binding framework to tackle the dangers of climate change. It include a statutory commitment to reducing the carbon dioxide emissions by 34% by 2020 and 80% by 2050.

Step two

One Planet living principles

It provides a framework that helps us examine and evaluate the sustainability challenges that we face and develop action plans in order to create a sustainable and healthy environment.

The ten principles are as follows:

Zero Carbon
Zero waste
Sustainable transport
Sustainable materials
Local and sustainable food
Sustainable water
Land use and wildlife
Culture and community
Equity and local economy
Health and happiness

Which tools are responsible for shaping our cities?

September 14, 2013 by Architect

Identifying factors responsible for shaping our cities

Studying and analyzing the growth of towns at a superficial level gives us a complete idea of the growth of towns and its division of towns depending on its size and population.

To study the growth of towns in depth and to identify the reasons for the development of towns and cities for the way they developed, three tools have been studied. These could be used as design tools for the design of new towns.

Transportation Planning
Land use planning
Food

Interesting facts about how food shaped our cities

We consume good wherever we go since it is our need for survival.

For consumption we need to produce…

With more and more people moving into the cities, the natural landscapes are being destroyed.

We consume meat.

Animals are fed which increase the need for more crop production to feed animals and then animals are consumed by us.

By 2050, it is estimated that twice of us are going to live in the cities. So, there will be 6 billion hungry carnivores to feed by 2050
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Design of towns today | Sustainable Town planning

July 19, 2013 by Architect

What is town planning?

The difference between town planning and architecture should be noted. The town planning expresses an era. The architecture reveals its spirit.

Evolution of planning

In the ancient times, the primitive men used to stay in tribes and they formed groups for mutual protection for carrying out business activities and maintaining a social life. The location of the settlements was decided taking into consideration the ease of defense, climatic factors, business facilities etc.

radial network london — Combination of concentric and radial pattern | London

As such cities, are as old as civilization as seen from the verbal connection between the words ‘city’ and ‘civilization’. By civilization, we mean urban civilization. There were obviously human groups before that period.

Designing towns today

Today, designing towns is not as easy as it used to be in the past. We have to deal with problems that did not exist in the past.

The requirements for the design of towns today:

Road network for cars

Town planning professionals have to consider the planning for the next 40 years while they plan the road network for the new city. Designing the road network itself constitutes a lot of complex calculations including increase in population density, wealth, increase in the number of private vehicles, public transport etc.

Public transport

We have to hire transportation planning professionals in order to establish an efficient public transport network for the automobiles. But this is not possible only with the help of transportation planning professionals. Town planners and transportation planning professionals have to work hand in hand in order to complement the road network with the new public transport.

Recycled OR New Modern Furniture?? | Sustainable Design

March 24, 2013December 14, 2012 by Architect

Step-wise procedure for conducting a research on Furniture Design

In this article, we will discuss the steps for carrying out a research on the proposed topic. This research will help us evaluate if the concept of recycled furniture is workable and whether it could be profitable as compared to the New modern furniture made from new materials.

Step One:

Study the process of making recycled furniture. This would include studying the materials for the furniture, the factories, the energy resources required for the manufacture, amount of skilled and unskilled labour and finally the costs.

Step two:

Where have they been used? Study the successful examples of the use of recycled furniture in various countries and analyse the reasons behind their success.

It is also important to consider the negative aspects of the same. It is important to know why people wouldn’t want to prefer recycled furniture and that should be very clear.

Step three:

Remember for any venture to become a success, it has to be profitable. If it is not, then nobody will care to pay attention towards it. This applies for both the consumer as well as the manufacturer.

Analysis of the profit and loss for a company manufacturing recycled materials for the furniture has to be done. It is important to know whether these run in loss or in profit which will give you an idea of the interest that people show towards using recycled furniture.