Environmental Design Commons^™

Green Infrastructure Resource Directory, New England Environmental Finance Center

Sustainable Communities Capacity Building

Green infrastructure is an approach for managing stormwater that uses vegetation and soils to capture and treat rainwater where it falls. Unlike single-purpose gray infrastructure, green infrastructure realizes multiple benefits at once, including flood mitigation, improved water and air quality, community beautification, provision of recreational opportunities, and energy and cost savings. This resource directory is intended to help communities design, implement, fund, and monitor green infrastructure practices and programs. It was compiled by the Environmental Finance Center Network through the Capacity Building for Sustainable Communities program funded by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. …

Does Design Affect Behavior? A Case Study Of Pomona And Sontag Halls, Erin F. Morgan

Pomona Senior Theses

This paper investigates the successes and failures of architectural design techniques used to improve the sustainability of occupants. It looks broadly at research that has taken place in the past and focuses specifically on the strategies used in Pomona and Sontag Halls - two dormitories constructed at Pomona College.

Thermal Bridging - Understanding Its Critical Role In Energy Efficiency, Joseph Little, Beñat Arregi

Articles

Plane element heat loss[1] and thermal bridging[2] together constitute all the conduction heat loss (measured in W/K, watts per kelvin) through the thermal envelope[3] of a building. Perversely insulating the plane elements more and more without carefully dealing with junctions can lead to a significant increase in thermal bridging heat loss. This is often more significant in poorly thought-out energy-focused retrofits than in existing or new buildings.

Top Tips For Domestic Refurbishment, Joseph Little

Articles

1) It stands to reason that insulating a wall should not affect its strength or longevity, nor should it result in a buildup of moisture (inter-stitial condensation) or mould. However the Industry is currently gripped with a desire to insulate to the highest standard (U-value) at the lowest financial cost, as quickly as possible, with little thought of these issues. An appropriate, robust solution must take the original wall, the occupant’s health, the room’s function and even the building’s location into account.

Breaking The Mould 5 : Comparative Simulation Of Internal Insulation Systems, Joseph Little

Articles

In the last edition of Construct Ireland ‘Breaking the Mould IV’ established the standard that should be used to evaluate thermal upgrades of single leaf walls, described steps to physically prepare the wall, explained some of the mechanisms that affect the likelihood of mould and gave criteria for judging the simulations outputs. The next step is to simulate a number of permutations of typical internal insulation systems using WUFI Pro under IS EN 15026.

Breaking The Mould 4 : Condensation Risk Analysis – The Standards And The Issues, Joseph Little

Articles

The ‘Breaking the Mould’ series of articles was written to explore the range of issues associated with upgrading single leaf walls with a focus on occupant and building health as much as energy, just as the Home Energy Saving Scheme was launched. A year on from the first article the need for greater understanding and clear guidance for the Industry is greater than ever. This is because the Government’s ‘Energy Demand Reduction Target’ (EDRT), under the 2006 EU ‘Energy Services Directive’, is bringing energy utilities (e.g. ESB, Bord Gáis) into the refurbishment market.

Leadership, Libraries, Leed For The Future, Kathryn S. Ames, Greg Heid

Georgia Library Quarterly

The article discusses the use of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) principles in the design of the modern public library. It is stated that an LEED-certified library will have lower costs in energy, systems replacement and maintenance through the use of light-emitting diode (LED) lighting and efficient heating and air conditioning, but that due to special materials, the up-front expense is higher. The inspection of the facility throughout its construction is also noted.

Loosening The Ties That Bind: Grangegorman Masterplan, Noel Brady

Articles

Interview with James Mary O'Connor, Architect and Masterplanner with Moore Rubel Yudell designers of the Masterplan for DIT at Grangegroman, Dublin

Breaking The Mould 3, Joseph Little

Articles

This article is the third in a series looking at thermal upgrades to single-leaf walls of existing houses. The theme for this article was intended to be an analysis of various drylining options for brick and rubble-built walls of older properties. That will follow. The following events forced a change in focus.

Breaking The Mould 2 : An Analysis Of Single-Leaf Insulation Upgrades, Joseph Little

Articles

This article is the second in a series looking at thermal upgrades to single-leaf walls of existing houses. It compares a range of ways of upgrading masonry single-leaf walls, particularly the ubiquitous hollow block wall, and the impact of those decisions on moisture content, wind- and airtightness, cost and heating. Future articles will look at various drylining approaches for a range of walls including brick walls of various widths.

Breaking The Mould 1 : A Study Of Condensation In Single-Leaf Concrete Wall Upgrades, Joseph Little

Articles

This article is the first of a series looking at upgrade options and issues associated with single-leaf walls of existing houses. This article will focus on insulated drylined concrete block walls of the ubiquitous housing estate house. This will include the findings of software that dynamically models moisture movement through the wall over several years. The article following this will look at a range of options for replacing existing drylining or installing drylining where it never was before, be that for a solid block wall of a 1950s house or a solid brick wall of an 1850s house.

In Transit - Transition Movement Inspires Dramatic Carbon Cuts In House Refurb, Joseph Little

Articles

Drawing on the ‘Energy Descent Action Plan’ he developed at Kinsale, Rob Hopkins and his team launched Transition Town Totnes (in the UK) one and a half years ago. 64 recognised transition communities and 600 other groups (and counting) are now in communication with Rob’s team to launch their versions of this initiative in their communities worldwide.¹ The Transition Ireland Network is coordinated by Davie Philip of Cultivate and several transition initiatives are underway here.

Frame It - Thoughts On Education, Reducing Carbon And Vapour, Joseph Little, Robbie Cousins

Articles

Joseph Little believes timber frame can be the backbone of a new generation of low-carbon, energy-efficient housing, and be used as an intelligent response to Climate Change and fuel prices. But he tells Robbie Cousins that timber frame manufacturers, suppliers and architects need to gear-up and work more closely together if the true potential of this vision is to be realised.

Joseph Little’s chief bugbear is poor construction standards & details on site and the core of this issue is how the knowledge set of architects and builders and how standards are controlled. The seeds of this idea may have …

Baugruppe - Lessons From Freiburg On Cooperative Housing : Lessons From Freiburg On Cooperative Housing, Joseph Little

Articles

Creating Sustainable Communities in the UK and Ireland

The Genesis of Quartier Vauban

Bio-Solar Home The Integrated Design Approach For Renewable And Sustainable Solution, Soontorn Boonyatikarn, Vorasun Buranakarn

NAKHARA (Journal of Environmental Design and Planning)

Site design and land use concepts are extremely important for housingdesign and urban renewal concept, especially when their relates toenergy conservation and sustainable development. The solution presented willinclude the investigation of microclimate elements along with the actual moni-toring data. The solution is finally used for designing the future bio-solar homewhich has proved to be very successful.

Construct Ireland - Lime-Hemp - A Potential Solution To A Concrete Problem, Joseph Little

Articles

This article is intended to act as an exploration and provocation. Why do we build the way we do, what effect does that have? Could we for instance, design and specify buildings that actually benefit the Environment rather than burden and pollute it as currently. Is it possible that the construction of a house could absorb CO₂ thereby transforming new housing estates or apartment buildings into giant absorbers of carbon dioxide? Imagine Ireland being able to count commercial constructions or new housing among its ‘carbon sinks’, in place of Siberian forests or the carbon credits that the Government will …

Construct Ireland - Partial Fill Cavity Walls, Joseph Little

Articles

An examination of whether it still deserves its best practice status in the Irish Construction Industry in light of higher U-Values, construction practices, recent research and cultural pressures.

Towards The Poetic, Noel Brady

Other resources

The thesis purports to build a theory for the analysis and synthesis of architecture. It identifies a poetic strutcure which contextualises the production of arhcitecture while aspiring towards universal themes of dwelling and belonging. Using a number of case studies it uses deep reading of the artefacts to confirm the theoretical concepts.