It is crucial to better integrate building and urban design, starting at a community scale, if the profession of architecture wish to truly contribute to a society that is more sustainable economically, socially and environmentally.
A good reference guide for designers to achieve sustainable communities is the General Information Report 53[6] from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DETR). It represents one vision of the factors likely to contribute to sustainability at a community scale, with ideas on the layout, density and transport
considerations in settlement design. A development that promotes these concepts in a community is often referred to as zero or low carbon emissions development (ZED / LED).
A desirable feature of a ZED / LEDI is that, on balance, it should not contribute to any of the greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, especially carbon dioxide (CO2).
To achieve this, and according to the DETR[6], a sustainable community should feature among others:
• Local generation of energy by using wind, solar and biomass • Interconnection of work, housing, community and leisure facilities
Both of the above were considered on the cases modelled in this thesis. Nevertheless, as it will be discussed in the next sections, one of the most important issues among zero and low carbon emission developments is the energy generation. It is because renewable and energy efficient technologies play a significant role in ZEDs and LEDs that this study makes emphasis on the characterisation of the wind regime in urban environments to integrate small wind turbines in buildings.
The architects’ interest in getting involved in ZED and LED is reinforced by the recognition by the UK government that an appropriate uptake of a mix of renewables and energy efficiency measures installed in new build and refurbished buildings, that
I
More information on sustainable communities can be found in the text: ‘Sustainable communities: building for the future’[7], here, the UK government underlines the importance of raising the quality of life through increasing prosperity, employment, better public, education and health services. More importantly it relates housing with sustainable development and stresses the point that communities are more than just houses.
respond to the market and local resource conditions is needed[8]. This has resulted in activities led by the local and regional government, including schemes such as Solar for London, (which provides grants for the installation of solar thermal hot water systems), and others, that support zero and low carbon emissions developments such as Sherwood Energy Village (SEV)II and Beddington Zero (fossil) Energy Development (BedZED)III.
Sherwood Energy Village is situated in Ollerton, Nottinghamshire. SEV has won the Enterprising Britain award in 2005 and the Royal Town Planning Institute’s Silver Jubilee Cup in 2008. The development has 196 dwellings planned that range from single dwelling bungalows and apartments through to terraced, semi7detached and detached housing, making a total of eleven different housing types architecturally designed to achieve Eco7Homes rate Excellent. SEV opened in October 2006 the business centre or E7Centre. The E7Centre building design includes green roofs, rain water harvesting systems and solar panels and a wind turbine that power lampposts.
Award winningIV BedZED[9] is located in Wallington, Surrey. It was designed by Bill Dunster architects and developed by The Peabody Trust and BioRegional Development Group. The scheme in South London is a mixed use development solar urban village that provides 82 affordable dwellings in a mixture of flats, maisonettes and town houses and approximately 2,500m² of workspace/office and community facilities. The 165 hectare site, that was originally a brownfield site, was organised into a layout that obtains maximum benefits from both passive and active
II
More information regarding SEV is available at: http://www.sev.org.uk III
More information rearding BedZED and ZED standards is available at: http://www.zedfactory.com/ IV
Among others, BedZED project was selected as finalist in the world habitat awards (2001) and in the Bremen partnership award (2004). Also in 2004, it was rated as Excellent in BRE’s EcoHomes environmental assessment award.
solar gain, by arrangin minimise heat loss. with heat recovery, so power (CHP) plant.
BedZED integrates ren into the building fabric three7fold function: en rest of the community fuelled CHP station. most recognisable ZE principle (Fig. 2.1). Ev exceeded building reg generation in this deve
BedZED exterior v
rranging all the dwellings facing south in a seri The energy strategy includes the use of wind ry, solar heating, rain water collection and a co nt.
es renewables by using 1,138 PV panels that hav fabric and provide 109kW at peak output. The n: energy generation, solar shading and externa
unity energy requirements are met with a 125kW All the buildings are wind driven ventilated le ZED products; the wind cowls that work with Even though, BedZED has been a model deve g regulations, at this time, there are not wind tu s development.
rior view. Passive and active design strategies.
a series of terraces to wind driven ventilation combined heat and
t have been integrated . The PV cells have a xternal cladding. The 125kW dried woodchip tilated using one of the k with a passive stack l development in that it ind turbines for energy
These are only two examples of urban ZEDs / LEDs, among a number of other examples of zero and low carbon emissions developments throughout the UK. All of which include bioclimatic concepts such as building orientation and passive solar heating. Nevertheless, not many of the developments include wind energy generation, in this sense Hockerton Housing Project in Southwell, standout with the use of two stand alone wind turbines, each rated at 5kW.
This suggests that even though there is an increased awareness regarding the importance of sustainable development and the role that renewable energy systems play to achieve a ZED / LED; there are still some issues that need to be resolved in order to foster the integration of wind energy into buildings.