books

In the book, architects and homeowners work together to find unique and aesthetically compelling ways to build more sustainably. Melding client desires with real world pragmatism, these efficient homes present a diverse spectrum of solutions that include everything from state of the art climate control systems to ancient, passive, and renewable building techniques.

The sustainability debate in recent years has focused on the issue of efficiency. However, efficiency alone is not a solution to close the gap between increasing demand, shrinking resources and increasing environmental degradation. The achieved savings through efficiency gains for the construction and operation of a square meter of living space than offset by the increasing demand of living space per person. A departure from the doctrine growth and a culture of renunciation is incompatible with the current economic and social development. Therefore, growth should be decoupled from resource consumption and quality should be replaced by quantitative growth.

The architects consider the problem basically. For them, the restoration in the building stock is no   physical or technical problem, but a contribution to sustainable development of society. This house of the 1948 shows how an existing structur can be used and how an apartment building with commercial premises becomes an attractive energy terms Townhouse. The wooden staircase, for example, was protected and combined with new elements.

Sustainable Construction has become one of the central issues in architecture. Climate change, resource scarcity and economic crises increasingly forcing architects and planners to question traditional methods and solutions critical. Already in recent years research institutions and universities, but also architecture- and engineeringoffices started to search for new approaches to the implementation of sustainable architecture and urban development. In summer 2011 the Münster School of Architecture hosted several symposia to work with international experts to discuss on these controversial topics. The publication "Building the Future" summarizes the different levels and positions of current concepts: the aim is to represent relationships and attitudes sustainable building in a holistic manner. This well-known authors with their contributions represent the current state of research on this subject and present innovative approaches and solutions to the architecture of the future.

Contemporary architecture is increasingly influenced by the concept
of landscape, and this is particularly the case in the Netherlands.
Like at many other places, a new mindset is emerging, transforming
the core values of the disciplines of architecture and urbanism with
the notion of the organization of architectural space as a landscape.
Through experiment our lab develops methods to analyze such
phenomena in focused studies of specific cases, understanding
how architects use landscape not only as a metaphor but also as a
method to design buildings.

32 students selected and analyzed outstanding built work of a
wide field of architects from four generations of Dutch practitioners
starting with Huig Maaskant (founder of the RAvB), Wim Quist, OMA,
SANAA, Mecanoo, MVRDV, NOX, De Zwarte Hond, NL-Architects,
Onyx, FACT and MonderschijnMoonen. Students drew and built models
of their analyses, where four layers are detachable as a separate
entity, and then played a game the surrealist called Cadavre Exquis.

The result is a dismantled floating olympic village for Rotterdam,
which is exhibited at it’s site in the historic docklands RDM on the
Heijplaat. This Book is the catalogue to the exhibition.

download PDF 20 MB from TU Delft repository

Please keep in mind that the suggested donation price is 4 EUR. You can donate at the opening in cash. We will set up donation online after the opening of the exhibition. If you donate for the digital pre-release you will get the digital full-release for free probably this summer.

This book deals with the aesthetic potentials of sustainable archit ecture and its practice. In contrast to the mechanistic model, the book attempts to open a new area of scholarship and debate on sustainability in the design and production of architecture. In many instances, the key principles behind environmental concerns and sustainability in architecture are often misunderstood and misrepresented. Many often consider sustainability within a limited set of choices or still regard it as yet another inconvenience that hinders development. Certainly technical improvements help alleviate the problems at hand. But fundamental questions remain in regard to architecture: What are the structural issues behind the consciousness on sustainability and how do we address them in design? And what kind of opportunities can we find in its aesthetics for the revision of our industrial model? The book traces and underscores how the consideration of environment and sustainability is directly connected to aesthetic propositions in architecture. http://www.010.nl/catalogue

Designed by Piet Gerards Ontwerpers
English 320 pp / 240 x 170 mm / paperback 
price € 29.50 ISBN 978 90 6450 752 6
to be published November 2011, forthcoming

Minimum Impact House - Developing a sustainable prototype

The project Minimum Impact House is a prototype for sustainable housing development in the city. Sustainability and ecology requires a holistic optimization of the building. At the mini house manufacturing of the building, operation and location factors such as urbanity and mobility were considered together. It turned out to be an inner-city densification has a number of environmental advantages. Prevent urban sprawl, traffic, reduces the intensified use of existing infrastructure and strengthen the social fabric of the city. For developing inner-city African developing new building types and building structures for the creation of sustainable housing in the city is required.

The demand for passive houses has risen substantially in recent years. To meet the ever increasing cost of oil and electricity prices, many owners opt for an energy-efficient construction and save up to 90% on energy costs.

The new planning guide passive houses residential planning prepares you for this task well before, because selected project examples and detailed technical information to help you implement your own building project.

Take advantage of the design manual passive houses of residential buildings

Expertise for client consulting: The selected projects provide ideas for your own design. Concept variants and construction data to support the decisions.
Safety in design: designs, details and concepts of the building can be incorporated into your own planning.

This minibook summarizes the results of the three-year research project and the developement of the prototype house.

The Miniboook is published by Müller + Busmann, Wupperthal.

188 pages (English and German) 14,80 Euro

Order:

minibook@dgj.eu

Dealing with the issue of sustainability always implies the hope of improving the present conditions and of actively contributing to sustainable developement. An awareness of the complex relations involved the search for new possible solutions, and education, and training concerning the mutual interdependence of the various systems.

The Materiality of buildings and constructions is an important aspect of architectural design. The approach to and use of materials is a fundamental building block of architectural training. The themes featured include: subjective effect of materials; haptic influences; use of materials; and creative use of classical construction materials.

Jesse Reisser and Naneko Umemoto of RUR Architects are investigating the relationsship of uses, material, and the structure of space.

Vast achievements in the field of sustainable building habe been made: A variety of targets, aspects and criteria habe been identified that constitute important building blocks of a comprehensive understanding of sustainability in the field of architecture. Assessments and evaluation systems have been developed that help to analyse designs and buildings. Still missing are strategies that could be used to integrate the targets in the design process. In a two year empirical research project concepts, strategies and methods for designing sustainable residential buildings habbe been gathered and analysed. Sustainable design is notmerely a technical problem, rather it can be most successful if it accomplishes to bridge the gap between the cultural role of architecture and its technical side. For this reason, the study focused on the design potential that could be derived from the following questions: . What are approaches and strategies to meet the diverse and sometimes divergent requirements of sustainability in architecture? . Waht methods and tools can be applied in the early stages of the design and planning process for new and existing buildings to be planned holistically in order to optimize the design in terms of sustainable construction? . What is the role the context(in the broadest possible sense of climatic, Structural, cultural and social context) plays in respect to the design? . What are the advantages and disadvantages arising from their implementation?