Module 1

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Module 1

• Defining an Ecology of Construction

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A QUESTION OFDESIGN
A QUESTION OFDESIGN
DIALOGUE
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A QUESTION OFDESIGN
DELIBERATIVEDIALOGUE
RECONNECTION
REGENERATION
RESILIENCE
RECONCILIATION
DIALOGUE
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RECONNECTION
DELIBERATIVEDIALOGUE
PLACE
SPACE
ECOLOGICAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPERATIVES
DELIBERATIVE DESIGN
ZERO WASTE
RECONCILIATION
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REGENERATION
RECONNECTION
DIVERSITY
DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE
COMPASSION
ZERO WASTE
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RESILIENCE
REGENERATION
RECIPROCITY
REDUNDANCY
MAINTENANCE
COMPASSION
SCALE
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RESILIENCE
RECONCILIATION
LIMITS
SCALE
DIVERSITY
MAINTENANCE
PLACE
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SUSTAINABLECOMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
COMMONUnitySENSE
DELIBERATIVEDIALOGUE
RECONCILIATION
DIVERSITY
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SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
COMMONUnitySENSE
A VISION FOR THE FUTURE
DR. ANN DALECANADA RESEARCH CHAIRROYAL ROADS
UNIVERSITY
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Overview

• Introduction to concepts
• Environmental systems
• Industrial ecology
• Political and economic environment
• Green design
• Summary and Conclusions

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Sustainable Construction

• Creating a healthy built environment based on
  ecologically sound principles
• Built Environment
• Life cycle (planning, design, construction,
  operation, renovation/retrofit,
  demolition/deconstruction)
• Resources (materials, land, energy, water)
• Principles Reduce, reuse, recycle, protect
  nature, eliminate toxics, life cycle costing
• Principles of Ecology
• Ecosystems are cyclic, resilient, diversified,
  efficient, complex
• Function and interdependence at multiple scales

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Applications of the Ecological Metaphor to Human
Systems

• Urban Ecology
• Social Ecology
• Political Ecology
• Industrial Ecology

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Industrial Ecology

• Material Basis choice of material, product
  design, product recovery
• Institutional Forces market structure, financial
  considerations, regulatory environment
• Regional Strategies geographic, economic and
  political issues industrial symbiosis

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Construction Ecology

• Can be viewed as a subset of industrial ecology,
  but with characteristics that link it back to
  social, political, urban systems.
• Major subset 8 of GDP, 40 of materials
  consumption and 30 of energy resources.
• Potential Factor 10 reduction

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Construction Ecology

• Goals
• Closed-loop material system
• Dependence on renewable resources
• Preservation of / integration with natural
  systems
• Accomplishment of these goals at all scales

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Construction EcologyWould Create a Built
Environment That

• Is deconstructable
• Has easily replaceable components
• Uses recycled products
• Uses recyclable products
• Has a very slow metabolism
• Promotes the health of occupants / users
• Promotes a symbiotic relationship with the
  natural environment

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Forging a New View

• Some ancient societies have persevered for many
  centuries by living in equilibrium, and in a
  sense of harmony, with the environment.
• More technologically advanced societies have
  committed ecological suicide.
• Technology may not offer the best answers.
• We may wish to pursue an understanding of

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Ecosystem Components

• Inorganic substances (carbon, nitrogen)
• Organic compounds (proteins, etc)
• Climate regime (temperature, rainfall)
• Autotrophic organisms (producers)
• Heterotrophic organisms (consumers)
• Herbivores (primary consumers)
• Carnivores (secondary consumers)
• Tertiary consumers
• Decomposers
• (Yeang 7,8)

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Lessons From Natural SystemsEcosystems
maintain resilience through diversifiedfunctions.
Separate niches provide non-competitivelifesty
les among different species.

• Fundamental Niche-that which is available to a
  species
• Realized Niche-that which is being used by a
  species

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Lessons From Natural Systems

• Mature ecosystems are efficient by using a
  cooperative web.
• Mature ecosystems are complex enough to change
  with the external environment.
• Mature ecosystems are cyclic and operate with
  solar flux and organic storage(Odum and Brown).

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Lessons From Natural Systems

• Natural systems are not sustainable over long
• periods of time.
• Constant change shapes their existence, and
• their existence begins and ends as a part of a
• larger system.
• By studying natural systems we can expect to
• improve the effectiveness of our design process
  and
• products.
• James Kay (will be covered later in the course)

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• A brief history of life on earth
• Stage one fermentation based, anabolic, carbon
  dioxide producing, and anaerobic
• Stage two photosynthetic, carbon consuming, and
  oxygen producing (oxygen as toxic substance)
• Stage three oxygen consuming, and capable of
  metabolizing multiple molecules

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Industrial System

• Our current industrial systems are equivalent to
  Stage One of life on Earth-- Carbon consuming and
  carbon dioxide emitting.
• Our current industrial systems are consuming
  solar produced resources (fossil fuels) at 10,000
  times the rate of regeneration.

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Industrial System

• The creation of the built environment generates
  0.4 to 0.5 tons of waste per capita per year.
  (Based on projections of 2000 census data, this
  is somewhere between 120 million tons and 150
  million tons per year in U.S.).
• Construction industry provides 8 of GDP while
  using 40 of materials and 30 of energy
  resources in U.S.
• Our built environment currently stores as much as
  90 of extracted materials

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The Ecology of Systems

• H.T. Odums Systems Ecology deals with the
  transformation of energy as it moves through
  various systems.
• It all begins with sunlight.
• The energy in sunlight is transformed by natural
  processes (e.g. photosynthesis, tidal flows),
  building biomass or yielding energy in other
  forms.
• ALL other forms of energy are quantifiable in
  terms of sunlight thus a common currency for
  evaluating the impacts and efficiency of systems.

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• Five General Building Components of
• Built Environment
• Manufactured, site installed components
• (windows, doors, etc)

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Five General Building Components ofBuilt
Environment

• Engineered, off-site fabricated, site assembled
• (Structural trusses, etc)

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Five General Building Components ofBuilt
Environment

• Off-site processed, site finished products
• (Concrete, asphalt, etc)

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Five General Building Components ofBuilt
Environment

• Manufactured, site processed
• (Lumber, drywall, wiring, etc)

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Five General Building Components ofBuilt
Environment

• Manufactured, site-installed, low mass
• Products (Paints, glues, etc)

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Managing the Five Components of the Built
Environment

• Designing for cyclical patterns of use
• Dematerialization
• Closed loop material cycles

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Designing For Cyclical Pattern of Use

• The energy and material cost of recovery
• The ecosystem impacts of dismantling and recovery
• The emissions and outputs of recovery process
• The form, type, and mass of materials used in the
  built system
• (Yeang 136)

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Designing For Cyclical Pattern of Use

• The forms of construction
• The manner of demolition or dismantling
• The existence of a use or a need for the
  recovered product
• Choice of servicing system
• (Yeang 138)

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Dematerialization

• Definition The reduction of quantities of
  materials needed to serve economic functions or
  the decline over time in the weight of materials
  used in industrial end-products.
• Dematerialization serves to reduce resource
  consumption and reduce weight of the built
  environment.
• Dematerialization and a cyclic pattern of use can
  help close material cycles

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Closed Loop Material Cycles

• Buildings are not currently designed or built to
  be disassembled
• Products constituting the built environment are
  not designed for disassembly
• The material constituting building products are
  often composite and difficult to recycle
• These difficulties increase resource consumption,
  cost, and waste

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Difficulties with Dematerialization

• Does not take into consideration the by-products
  of materials extraction and processing
• Encourages use of light weight composite
  materials that are difficult if not impossible to
  recycle
• Currently struggles against free market system
  that promotes diversity and availability
• Lacks emphasis on recycling and reuse,
  detoxification, decarbonization, and
  deenergization
• Lack of coordination between economic,
  industrial, and governmental systems to encourage
  or enforce dematerialization

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Political / Economic Environment

• Federal Initiatives
• EPA Energy Star Program US Government
  Buildings Construction Guidelines
• Market Conditions and Strategies
• USGBC LEED Extended Producer Responsibility
  (EPR)

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Political / Economic Environment

• National Organizations
• US Green Building Council National Association
  of Home Builders (NAHB)
• State and Local Ordinances
• Florida Green Building Coalition
• Local Green Building Enterprises
• Austin, TX Seattle, WA

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Market Conditions and Strategies

• US Green Building Council
• State and Local Green Building Initiatives
  Committee
• 15 local and state entities, developing tools
  to disseminate information and help governing
  bodies create mandates and incentives for green
  building.
• Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)
• Primary implementation is in Europe aim is to
  shift costs and physical obligations of
  production of goods from municipalities and
  individuals to producers themselves. Focus is
  on assigning responsibility to producers for
  mitigating / minimizing environmental impacts,
  with an emphasis on upstream effects.

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Federal Initiatives

• EPA Energy Star Program
• Partnering system between government and
  business, aimed at reducing energy consumption
  of facilities through upgrades of building
  components, systems, and appliances.
• US Government Buildings
• Federal Energy Management Program Greening
  Federal Facilities, Second Edition
• Buildings must conform to a project-specific
  point system that accounts for factors such as
  local fuel costs, climate, and construction
  costs for energy efficiency measures

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National Organizations

• US Green Building Council LEED Rating System
• Leadership in Energy and Environmental
  Design Voluntary, consensus-based, market-driven
  initiative based on existing, proven technology.
  Whole building, entire life cycle,
  performance-oriented. Definitive standard for
  green building in US.
• National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)
• 200,000 members in 800 local chapters.
  Pamphlet Building Greener, Building Better
  gives an overview of green design strategies and
  energy consumption improvements in residential
  construction. Fact sheets on environmental
  issues published for contractor education.

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State and Local Ordinances

• Maryland Green Building Council
• Energy-conservation orientation, promotes
  efficiency upgrades rather than
  construction-oriented initiatives.
• Boulder, CO Green Points Building Program
• Green Points New Home Program requires
  selection among acceptable options for receipt
  of a building permit for new construction and
  additions over 500sf.
• Green Points Remodeling Program voluntary
  program encouraging homeowners with small
  projects to seek green solutions.

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Local Green Building Initiatives

• Austin, TX Green Building Program
• the first comprehensive program to encourage
  using sustainable building techniques in
  residential, multifamily, commercial and
  municipal construction.
• Provides technical assistance, program
  membership for building professionals, rating
  system, education and outreach.
• Seattle, WA
• Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) partners with
  other government agencies, businesses,
  educational institutions, and non-profit
  organizations to promote sustainable design and
  construction practices and technology in the
  building and landscaping industries.

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Green Design

• Ecological Design
• Historical Advocates
• Goals of Green Design
• Sustainable Example Thurgoona Campus
• Green Home Improvement

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Ecological Design

• Also termed Green Design
• Definition (as stated by Van der Ryn and Cowen,
  1996)
• Any form of design that minimizes environmentally
  destructive impacts by integrating itself with
  living processes.
• Sustainable construction (as stated by Kibert,
  1994)
• The creation and maintenance of a healthy built
  environment using ecologically sound principles.
• Specifically materials that are natural,
  renewable and native, with low embodied E. Is
  this true?

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Historical Advocates

• Architects
• Frank Lloyd Wright
• Richard Neutra
• Malcolm Wells

• Urban Planners
• Lewis Mumford
• John Tillman Lyle

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Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect

• Lived 1869 - 1959
• Inspired by his mentor, Louis Sullivan, whose
  slogan was form follows function
• Coined the term organic architecture meaning to
  reinterpret natures principles.
• Wright believed that a buildings design should be
  influenced by its site and function.

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Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect

• Guggenheim Museum in New York City, 1959
• Ziggurat allows people to descend a continuous
  ramp at their own pace.
• Nautilus shape allows for free space.
• Design fuses the paintings and building into a
  symphony of art.
• Considered refreshing architecture

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Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect

• 1935s FallingWater, where forest, rock, stream
  and all the elements of structure come together
• Experience nature as the habitat that formed us,
  find spiritual awakening
• The walls are made of the native Pottsville
  sandstone

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Richard Neutra, Architect
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Richard Neutra, Architect

• Lovell House, 1929

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Richard Neutra, Architect

• Lived 1892-1970. Began US career in Los Angeles,
  1923.
• Known for flat-surfaced, industrialized
  residential buildings that contrast against
  nature
• Favorite materials steel, stucco, concrete, wood
  and glass
• Biophilia close connections between living
  spaces and nature

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Richard Neutra, Architect

• As an architect, my life has been governed by
  the goals of building environmental harmony,
  functional efficiency and human enhancement into
  the experience of everyday life.
• He placed special provisions, such as built in
  furniture and flat roof gardens, into buildings
  for the purpose of functionality

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Malcolm Wells, Architect

• Believes that man should leave nature alone.
• Build underground on ruined sites and allow
  nature to eventually return
• Laments that time is running out for land-killing
  projects, and he happily awaits their certain
  demise

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Lewis Mumford, Urban Planner

• Lived 1895 - 1990
• Stringent opponent to large-scale public works in
  New York City
• I would die happy if I knew that on my tombstone
  could be written these words, This man was an
  absolute fool. None of the disastrous things that
  he reluctantly predicted ever came to pass!

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Lewis Mumford, Urban Planner

• In 1964, The City in History. Documentaries
  concerning his concerns with a technological
  city
• The role of the city in magnifying the opposing
  creative and destructive potentials of Man
• Technology breeds boredom
• Commercial values and factory regimentation
  undermined human values and variety
• Urges that suburban areas be provided with more
  points of pedestrian scale for vital human
  congregation, as found in city centers, and that
  the urban centers be given some of the
  spaciousness found in suburbia

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Lewis Mumford, Urban Planner

• Believed in Ecotechnics An early form of
  bioregionalism and biourbanism. Promotes
  technologies that rely on local sources of energy
  and indigenous materials
• Noted that infrastructure should be built to
  maximize the free work that nature provides.

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John Tillman Lyle, Landscape Architect / Urban
Planner

• Began career around the 1980s, which was cut
  short in 1998 due to an untimely death.
• One of the most renowned ecological designers of
  our time.
• Regenerative Design for Sustainable Development
• Proven regenerative practices for water use, land
  use, energy use and building design.

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Ecological Building
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Ecological Building

• What can be learnt from history?
• In the past, human beings lived in harmony with
  their environment
• Comfort requirements were different
• Small population meant ample space, modest
  requirements, low energy needs and emissions
• Waste products mostly recyclable bio-degradable
• Mobile communities
• Low threat to the environment

Nomadic life sparse requirements drove the
architecture of the past and made it sustainable
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Ecological Building

• Buildings in cold climates characterized by
• Small windows that allowed little light into
  spaces resulting in minimal heat gains/loss and
  cooling/heating loads
• Building mass with high thermal storage
  capacities
• Low standards for heating and sanitary systems

These castles in Europe use small fenestrations
to minimize heat loss
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Ecological Building

• Buildings in temperate zones characterized by
• Tendency to locate living areas underground to
  utilize coolness of the earth and create
  ventilation through buoyancy
• Small window roof elements minimizing heat
  transfer
• Use of narrow courtyards to promote ventilation
• Fine grained cities that cause mutual shading
• Use of water as an architectural element

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Ecological Building

• The Industrial Age is characterized by
• Migration of ever increasing population from
  rural to urban areas
• Extremely poor living conditions for most people
• Industrialization rapid advances in technology
• Increased demands for energy met through use of
  coal gas
• Sharp increase in emissions indiscriminate
  dumping of wastes
• No efforts to protect environment, conserve
  natural reserves
• BEGINNING OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL CALAMITY

Alarming number of industries, poor living
conditions, deteriorating environment mark the
industrial era
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Ecological Building

• The early mid 20th century is characterized by
• Urbanization, technological development,
  industrialization, concentration of labor in
  cities at a frantic pace
• Concentration of workplaces in small areas
• Shortening of distances for communication
  information
• Maximized utilization of available spaces
• An architecture technology that pays no respect
  to the environment energy consumption
• A false sense of Man has overcome nature
• Skyscrapers, fully automated climate control

New York the city of skyscrapers
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Ecological Building

• Late 20th century architecture characterized by
• Renewed search for elegant architectural solution
  with respect to energy use, environment
  ventilation
• Facades designed for natural ventilation
• Creation of climate buffer zones (halls and
  atria)
• Improved heat insulation sun protection
• Implementation of energy recovery waste
  treatment systems
• Major energy crisis in 1973
• Architects, engineers clients turn to
  ECOLOGICAL BUILDING DESIGN

Commerzbank headquarters in Germany by Architect
Norman Foster uses garden terraces every 12 floors
Menara Mesiniaga by Ken Yeang in Malaysia is a
revolutionary high-rise building design using
sustainable principles
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All things are connected like the blood that
unites us,  We did not weave the web of life.  We
are merely a strand in it.  Whatever we do to the
web, we do to ourselves. 

• -Chief Seattle

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Goals of Green Design

• Methods to Achieve Sustainability

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Methods of Sustainability

• Reduce resource consumption
• Reuse of resources/use recycled materials
• Recycle built environment at end of life
• Switch to materials with low E processing
• Eliminate toxic materials and by-products in all
  phases of the built environment

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Methods of Sustainability

• Protect natural systems and their function in all
  activities
• Incorporate full-cost accounting in all
  economic decisions
• Incorporate Ecotechnics, Bioregionalism and
  Biourbanism
• local E sources, indigenous materials
• vary craftsmanship, beauty and aesthetics

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Methods of Sustainability

• Conservation, regeneration and stewardship of the
  natural environment
• Front-loaded design
• Disassembly and remanufacturing
• Increase of energy and material efficiency
• No such term as waste, return beneficial
  nutrients back to environment

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Sustainable Example

• Thurgoona Campus at Charles Sturt University in
  Australia. Consists of the School of
  Environmental and Information Sciences, a
  herbarium, computer network center, and
  accommodation cottages.

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Thurgoona Campus

• Winner of the 1996, 1999, and 2000 RiverCare 2000
  Award by the New South Wales Government.
• One of nine winners at the International Design
  Resource Awards 2000 in Belfast, Ireland for the
  incorporation of recycled materials.
• In 2000, Marci Webster-Mannison and her team won
  the National Resource Efficiency Award and
  National Energy Efficiency Award presented by the
  Master Builders Association of Australia.

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Site Selection and Eco Design

• Old abandoned land bought in 1993
• Set up with a natural water management system
  involving wetlands, retention basins, composting
  toilets, windmills and solar energy.

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Use of Renewable Energy
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Design of Built Environment

• Building and road locations follow the contours
  of the hills to minimize the loss of soil due to
  erosion.

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Building Materials and System Designs
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Building Materials

• Buildings are constructed of rammed earth walls
  and concrete floors
• Large, shaded windows with recycled timber frames
  allow the sun to provide 85 of total lighting
  energy

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Building Materials Cont.

• Recycled timber, and plantation wood
• Used/recycled library shelving from a donor
• Structural steel and glass
• Minimal use of PVC piping in plumbing and may use
  plumbing seconds

• Wool roof insulation
• Wool and linoleum flooring
• Non toxic paints and timber finishes
• Mesh guards on vents provides protection from
  termites

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Heating and Cooling Systems

• Through the methods and materials used at
  Thurgoona Campus, energy consumption is reduced
  by 61

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Heating Systems

• Heating and cooling system consists of solar
  panels and water pipes
• Wool insulation above ceiling
• Rammed earth walls

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Ventilation System

• Small and large vents
• Open windows and ceiling fans that will reverse
  in winter to circulate heat
• Thermal chimneys

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Summary and Conclusions

• The construction industry (as an industrial
  system) can and should be understood through an
  analogy with natural systems thus,
  Construction Ecology
• Such a comparison can be used to rethink and
  redesign the built environment to cause less
  damage to and work in harmony with the natural
  environment

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Summary and Conclusions

• Construction ecology deals with all aspects of
  the construction process
• Material cycles
• Energy use
• Water consumption
• Emissions
• Construction management
• Post-occupancy operations