Year: 2011

Urban design is practised by teams integrating a wide range of knowledge fields embracing many aspects of human endeavour and it is applied at all scales of development in the built environment. There is an expectation that urban design adds value that is measurable and accountable in the public domain. But who are urban designers…

ABSTRACT: Constructive perception ability that combines perception, conception and spatial reasoning composed of visual analysis, synthesis and representation in iterative nature can be argued to be equally related to creative design ability. One of the more important aptitudes for students studying Architecture design is spatial ability, often referred to as simply visual perception. Spatial ability…

ABSTRACT: The use of lightweight construction systems is common in Australia. Thermal mass materials can be combined with ‘lightweight’ domestic timber-framed construction to improve the thermal performance of buildings. This paper examines design advice available to designers called Rules of Thumb. These are useful because designers often do not have the information or finance for…

ABSTRACT: Effective assessment of pedestrian’s thermal comfort has been a continuous endeavour in urban climatology studies. A number of bio-meteorological indices such as PMV, OUT-SET* and PET have been developed aiming to describe human’s thermal comfort sensation by providing solutions to the equations governing their thermoregulations. A drawback of this approach is that these indices…

ABSTRACT: The population in Geelong Region is expected to keep growing. In order to work towards a better future of the region, it is essential to understand the feelings and needs of local communities and empower them in the community affairs. This study used an innovative technique – peoplemap – to investigate local communities’ sense…

ABSTRACT; The paper presents an evidence base model for environmental retrofitting of an existing nondomestic buildings in warming climates. The model is grounded in bioclimatic design, and uses a four-phase methodology; mapping thermal load profiles, monitoring interventions for performance improvement with current and future climates and presenting evidence for future use. Thermal load characteristics, both…

ABSTRACT: The intention of engaging children and young people in sustainable architectural design is for them to learn about sustainable principles and practices of building. This is seen as valuable due to the ideals sitting behind this premise; that this may positively influence their behaviour towards the built environment in the future. A creative and…

ABSTRACT: A holistic approach to low-energy building design is essential to ensure that any efficiency improvement strategies provide a net energy benefit over the life of the building. Previous work by the authors has established a model for informing low-energy building design based on a comparison of the life cycle energy demand associated with a…

ABSTRACT: The Australian Federal Government announced the Nation Building – Economic Stimulus Plan in February 2009 in response to the global financial crisis of 2008. A major component of this plan was the Building the Education Revolution (BER) plan, designed to create jobs and infrastructure projects for the modernisation of schools around Australia. The funding…

ABSTRACT: Located in the French tropical Island of La Reunion in the Indian Ocean, the 681 m2 NFA ENERPOS Building was inaugurated in January 2009. The building is located on the Saint Pierre Campus of the University of Reunion Island and was designed from the outset to be a net zero energy project with mixed-mode…

ABSTRACT: Investigating on-site building performance in architectural science is increasing. However, the simplest forms of measurement often lack any analytical support other than presentation on a time-series plot. Here, we present instrumentation and analytical tools to assist in reporting building performance. The intention is to explore formats for observing performance of buildings based on collected…

ABSTRACT: Occupant behaviours are cited as a significant factor in residential energy use, in a report prepared for the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency in 2010. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS), that determines the Star Rating for the Building Code of Australia (BCA) Energy Efficiency compliance, allows just a single user…

ABSTRACT: The need for qualitative study of human factors in the field of thermal comfort is well established, particularly within the context of naturally ventilated buildings where adaptation plays a significant role in occupant comfort. The importance of precision in measurement and survey instruments used within conventional thermal comfort research is acknowledged. However, it is…

ABSTRACT: A central argument in favour of compact cities has been the inefficient use of transport energy by dispersed urban forms. However, when the means of transport is predominantly electric vehicles that are fuelled by renewable energy sources, this argument becomes less valid The share of renewable sources in New Zealand’s electricity supply is currently…

ABSTRACT: The authors have surveyed and analysed the users’ perceptions of a world-wide set of sustainable commercial and institutional buildings located in a range of climatic zones. Their overall aim, based on a detailed questionnaire survey of the users of thirty-one buildings in eleven countries, was to determine how well these buildings were performing from…

ABSTRACT: This paper presents a joint research project between Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Architecture and Design and the Wellington-based architectural practice Studio Pacific Architecture. The computer-aided thermal modelling of residential buildings currently remains outside the bounds of conventional architectural practice, leaving architectural practitioners to rely on traditional ‘rules of thumb’ for evaluating the…

ABSTRACT: The current dominant social paradigm cannot address the environmental crisis forecast by climate science and a new approach is needed. The requirement for buildings that can operate in energy-poor conditions with water and resource scarcity can be facilitated by an examination of premodern buildings. A research project called the Green Renaissance Project draws upon…

ABSTRACT: Architecture can be considered as an applied art. In the twenty-first century there is a focus on how the application of this art is impacting on the use of energy. One of those impacts comes from using significant quantities of energy for mechanical heating and cooling of buildings. This paper suggests that climatic design…

ABSTRACT: This paper will present the findings of research carried out on user-response, from external evidence, in highly glazed office buildings and will analyse the impact of this on predicting the environmental performance, productivity and energy consumption of office buildings. Design tools such as the LT and LTV methods indicate that the optimum energy performance…

ABSTRACT: Conserving buildings rather than demolishing and rebuilding them avoids energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions which would result from the embodied energy expended in providing new construction materials and components. This paper explores the potential environmental advantages of conserving buildings particularly in the area of historic dwellings. To retain the distinct character of older…

ABSTRACT: Potential drawbacks to the use of Ultra Clean Ventilation (UCV) technology in modern operating theatres include difficulties with locating pendant lighting, excessive noise levels and excessive operational costs. The main benefits of using UCV technology however, is a reduction in postoperative Surgical Site Infection (SSI) rates. To solve the above challenge a novel surgical…

Significant effort, capital and time are being invested by western countries to address climate change impacts by constructing more sustainable buildings. Building a Sustainably Designed (SD) dwelling may assist in reducing water and energy consumption through passive measures, but consumption efficiencies may also be enhanced or reduced by the behaviour of the occupants within the…