Arkitectur3 & Art

The past decades’ conventional office design, construction, and operational practices have decreased the quality of the indoor office environment, resulting in new health concerns and associated economic costs and liability. The introduction of a multitude of new contaminant pollution sources into the workplace, combined with tighter building construction, has intensified air-quality problems. Poor indoor air quality can result from such factors as faulty air conditioning systems, occupants related pollutants, construction materials that emit high levels of volatile organic compounds, and poor maintenance practices. The U.S ranks indoor air pollution among the top five environmental risks to public health. Unhealthy indoor air is found in up to 30 percent of new and renovated buildings. Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) and Building Related Illness (BRI) have become more common in the workplace, increasing building owner and employer costs due to sickness, absenteeism, and increased li...

The green building measures discussed in this manual can lead not only to lower building operating expenses through reduced utility and waste disposal costs, but also to lower on-going building maintenance costs, ranging from salaries to supplies. For example, in many buildings, maintenance staff collect recycled materials on each floor or even at every employee’s desk and carry the materials down to the basement for hand sorting. Recycling chutes A viable green alternative, allow direct discarding of materials from any floor in the building to the basement. The chute system, which ideally is installed during initial construction or renovation, can sort materials automatically, saving labor costs by eliminating the need to collect, transport, and sort recyclables. Other savings come in the form of lower waste hauling fees; reduced workers’ compensation insurance premiums due to lower claims for accidents from sharp glass and cans; reduced elevator maintenance; less frequent cleanin...

Construction Application of green building concepts can yield for savings during the construction process. Measures that are relatively easy to implement can result in savings to the contractor in the following areas: Lower energy costs, by monitoring usage, installing energy-efficient lamps and fixtures, and using occupancy sensors to control lighting fixtures; Lower water costs, by monitoring consumption and reusing storm water and/or construction wastewater where possible; Lower site-clearing costs, by minimizing site disruption and movement of earth and installation of artificial systems; Lower landfill dumping fees and associated hauling charges, through reuse and recycling of construction and demolition debris; Lower materials costs, with more careful purchase and reuse of resources and materials; Possible earnings from sales of reusable items removed during building demolition; Fewer employee health problems resulting from poor indoor air quality. This listing suggest...

Light is a very important aspect of human life; our bodies use it to create vitamin D. Studies have shown that laboratory mice living under a restricted spectrum of light become ill and develop antisocial behaviors. Lighting affects us on a psychological and physiological level. Thus it is very important to have good lighting in built spaces. As humans have evolved in daylight conditions, it follows that the human body is best adapted for the varied lighting conditions that are present in natural lighting. Therefore, Lighting a space with natural lighting is considered the best option. Of course caveats exist to placing as many windows in your building as possible. First of all, every window put into a building creates a hole in the building envelope, lowering the overall insulation value of the building. Also, lighting in space should be diffuse, glare from daylight or the sun, reflected or direct, can cause headaches and annoy people in a space. Lighting levels that are too low c...

Heating and cooling buildings contributes to more energy usage than any other aspect of a buildings use. A building which is well insulated will reduce the energy costs of heating and cooling.  There are many methods to keep a buildings environment comfortable while minimizing energy input including: Roof ponds Thermal mass walls Solar chimneys Solar rooms Green roofs. Passive Heating & Cooling All methods of passive heating and cooling rely directly on the sun for energy input.  Due to this reliance on the sun one of the most important aspects of a building is its solar orientation.  A building that is shaped like a rectangle (with side lengths having the ratio of 1.6 to 1, the golden ratio, being ideal) and elongated in the east-west direction is the optimum shape in all climates. Roof Ponds Roof ponds are a particularly effective method of keeping a buildings temperature constant.  To create a roof pond, water is stored in bags inside the actu...

Achieving sustainability requires us to live within the limits of the earth’s capacity to provide the materials for our activities and to absorb the waste and pollution that our activities generate. The built environment presents us with a major challenge. The construction, fit-out, operation and ultimate demolition of buildings is a huge factor in human impact on the environment both directly (through material and energy consumption and the consequent pollution and waste) and indirectly (through the pressures on often inefficient infrastructure). The built environment also has a crucial impact on the physical and economic health and well-being of individuals, communities and organisations. A good building is a delight and will enhance a community or organisation, enhance our ability to learn or increase our productivity. A poor building will do the opposite. Where buildings and built environments contribute to ill-health and alienation, undermine community and create exce...

Engineering construction, is characterized by designs prepared by engineers rather than architects, the provision of facilities usually related to the public infrastructure and thus owned by public-sector entities and funded through bonds, rates or taxes and a high degree of mechanization and the use of much heavy equipment and plant in the construction process.These projects usually emphasize functionality rather than aesthetics and involve substantial quantities of such field materials as timber, steel, piping, soil, concrete and asphalt. More so than other types of construction, engineered construction is often designed by an owner’s in-house staff, such as a provincial highway department or a federal public agency; the Army Corps of Engineers. A general contractor is usually engaged to install the work, with subcontractors as needed to contribute specialty services. With these kinds of projects, the exact quantities of some materials can seldom be ascertained in advance; thus...