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In a nutshell, what are LEED Standards? LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. They are a set of routes to way to make housing more efficient for producer and end user and in maintenance over the life of the building. The target is not wasting, and using what sun and water you get naturally, instead of shunting them away. Ideally a structure adds more oxygen than it C02 it produced, even in the use of equipment and materials. The emphasis is limiting impact on resources and maximizing impact of beautiful design for a space that is more ergonomic to live and work in. LEED is measured by these criteria, Sustainable Site: x/14 Water Efficiency: x/5 Energy and Atmosphere: x/17 Materials and Resources: x/13 Indoor Air Quality: x/15 Innovation and Design Process: x/5 The score for the building out of 69 determined where the building ranks on the scale (Certified level, Silver, Gold or Platinum level). Ideally, by this way of thinking, a building is not only energy efficient but off the power grid or a producer using photovoltaics as well as adds ecological space for plants and local fauna to move in through green roofs. (Quite the contrast from pigeon and deer scarer devices built into factories). There's a focus on designs using bounce lighting and positioning of building and windows and atriums to light indoor spaces well. The design includes passive solar and using natural convection currents of the shape of the space to circulate air naturally to insulate and to heat for comfort without a need for blowers or fans or other noise pollution. Using natural materials and no toxic finishes that can cause allergies or chemical sensitivity keep the environment safer. Low impact of cutting back on needless waste comes in further in capturing rain water, grey water reuse, fly ash cement instead of typical highly off-gassing cement. The idea is based on innovation. Busby's approach to building is a hybrid of frugality, practicality and forward vision. He’s focusing on the building in context of patterns of use, local materials, angle of sunlight and context of noise, line of vision and climate. He uses all the basic practicalities often overlooked in convervative circles of Canada — passive solar, greywater, natural direct ventilation, solar tubes. He also encorporates green roofs as well as light shelves which bounce natural light into buildings. He aims to make an aethetic, ergonomic and healthy pleasurable space to be in. I have not had the pleasure as of yet to feel his buildings firsthand but maybe on some architectural tour (and most trips anywhere are those) I can find the opportunity. For now I can review his principles and practices of ecotecture. Many of his renovation projects involve making a “double envelope” building, a “rejacketing” solution more common in Germany. It was used in projects such as the TELUS building in Vancouver. The outer layer of 900mm gap between materials acts like a chimney. It draws warmth up and away when hot and acts as insulation when cool. The TELUS building was first built in 1946 when consumption for the sake of consumption was at its peak. By putting a second exterior over the south side of the building, the draughty thing got a 80% energy consumption reduction. As a further bonus by not tearing the building down and starting again 16,000 tonnes of rubble was saved from being trashed in a landfill, which often is already 1/3 full as the result of renovation and demolition rubble. He favors using flyash concrete as a healthier and less wasteful alternative than the aggregate typically used for concrete. He would rather refinish woods, reglaze panes of glass, find new use for beams in the same or other projects than chuck out the old and truck in the new. There are times when new is better such as mechanical systems. To switch over old heating systems to more efficient ones such a new higher efficiency boiler can make huge savings. When he designs he considers the users, right down to the impact of their collective body heat on the comfort of the room. Typical mainstream rooms are choppy boxes in houses with poor flow because “the customer is always right” and those with the knowledge are not educating the public well enough to convince them that ergonomic and energy-efficient solutions will be more pleasant and cheaper. A typical payback time is 10-12 years which is comparable to the rate of bank interest for the same money as invested in better engineering, materials and design. The difference is that after your investment is paid back you are spending less annually than you would be with other market offerings. While he feels a piece of architecture should be made to the time, use, and place, he has a personal vocabulary of extrusions, glazings, handrails common to his designs as well as principles of airflow. He is fond of minimalist look of exposed materials and structure. Common elements include operable windows, atriums and room shapes that make air circulate well, widows positioned for shade in summer and to let light in by window low-in-the-sky sun. All of these demonstrate how he likes to control the indoor climate not be thermostat and forced air and A/C but more simply with fewer parts to break. He feels in recent “progress”, we’ve lost some basic sense as we depend on plastics, VOCs, and motors to run and decorate our buildings but in the process of ease, it’s isolated us from our environment and risked making us the servants and patients (in the case of sick building syndrome) of the structures designed to serve our needs. He conceives of some of his buildings like flowers opening by day and closingby night like flowers. Like greenhouses the thermostat auto opens and shuts to regulate temperature and air flow. Not surprisingly, he is against using inaccessible spaces for functional mechanics of the building. He showed a slide of the fresh air intake duct from one renovation project — it had 50 mm thick of spore mass and dust coating the inside of the duct. He likes to salvage parts for future projects but not this one thanks. Older design, which due to poor insulation options available, such as commercial Victorian, taught us lessons we lost in the 50s to 70s on how to use thermal mass, light wells, awning for shading, stacked rooms with an atrium, double paning of windows, high ceilings and plaster as a thermal conductor. But even as we reach backward, forwards and inwards for better solutions for today we can’t miss being aware that designing an environment is a long learning curve with a brutal feedback loop. It takes years for miscalculations or missteps to show up. By the times they do the same mistake has been made several times. But he’s of the attitude that if you’re still breathing, it is never too late to make a better choice. | ||||
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