Eco-Planning: Redux

A lot has been happening in the eco-village/community/neighborhood scale in sustainability. Picking up some loose threads of a recent post on Eco-Planned Communities a few more recent precedents to round out the mix. Sherwood Energy Village is a model UK development with the simple tagline: "Delivering practical regeneration that won’t cost the Earth – A nice place to live, work, learn and play."

:: images via Sherwood Energy Village

While rife with many practical applications of sustainable development, one interesting term is SUDS, or sustainable urban drainage system. From the SEV website: "SUDS deal with surface water run off from the roads and other hard surfaced areas. The water gently permeates or evaporates creating green corridors through the site and stopping any risk of flash flooding. The Energy Village has the UK's largest application of engineered SUDS, with all surface waters being managed on site."

:: SUDS - image via Sherwood Energy Village

Previously covered widely, (this via Jetson Green) the US town of Greensburg, Kansas suffered devastating losses due to tornado damage. It has since become the first city require all buildings bigger than 4,000 square feet to be LEED Platinum rated. It will be interesting to see if this approach works - not necessarily eco-planning but setting a standard target for all significant buildings. Plus it will cut down on the potential McMansions. Overall, from a community planning scale, even a modest one of 1500, it might be a better approach to adhere to LEED-ND standards if dealing with a community scale?

In Germany, the Solar City in Frieburg is a model example of solar-energy as the driving force in development. As part of the larger Solar Region, the goal is to maximize solar resources. It's interesting to note that Germany has similar sun days to the Willamette Valley region of Oregon, where PV panels are consistently poo-poo'd as not feasible due to lack of solar access. There seem to be a lot more of them showing up in recent years.

:: map of solar projects - image via Solar Region

Business Week recently offered the 'Rise of the Carbon-Neutral City', with numerous examples world-wide for sustainable development. These include, amongst others, a hydrogen-powered city in Denmark, BedZED, one of the first net-zero developments in the world, as well as examples from China, Canada, and Libya. From BW:

"The flurry of interest in environmentally sound planning and building has generated an ambitious crop of überefficient—even carbon-neutral—city and community projects. The ideas behind these green-tinged utopias go back at least to the 1970s and the birth of the modern environmental movement. But new projects around the world are banking on recently developed high-tech innovations, including zero-emissions transportation systems and sophisticated green building materials as well as humbler policies such as recycling."

A sampling of the projects:

:: H2PIA Hydrogen Powered Community, Denmark - image via BusinessWeek

:: BedZED, UK - image via BusinessWeek

:: Dockside Green, Victoria,BC - image via BusinessWeek

:: Green Mountain, Libya - image via BusinessWeek

:: Guangtang Chuangye Park, China - image via BusinessWeek

:: Dongtan Eco-City, China - image via BusinessWeek

I'm planning some more in depth features on a few of these, particularly Dongtan, BedZED, and Dockside Green. Another project from the article is Masdar, which was previously featured in L+U as the first net-zero everything community in the world. On a more theoretical side, a recent article in New Urban News highlights a concept for 'Cool Spots', which is a planning tool to define neighborhoods that are: "...compact, transit-oriented nodes that are both trendy and friendly to the climate."

:: image via New Urban News

In the same issue is an article by Andres Duany on knowing your audience. 'Who will opt for a green community?' targets four types of people that are constituents of the core group for 'eco-planning' activities. These include Ethicists, Trend-Setters, Opportunists, Survivalists, and the final group, the Apathetics. Why? To market to the specific goals and motivations of each group.

Duany, from the article: "New urbanists, Duany said, should have the prescience to ask themselves: Are you speaking to an ethicist, a survivalist, or a member of one of the other market segments? You can build the same project for people of differing outlooks, but you should present it differently, depending on the target."

The above projects show a variety of scales and offerings of 'green' communities, circumnavigating the globe. So I guess the question isn't which one, but rather, what are you waiting for?

Veg.itecture: Caixa Forum Madrid

The Caixa Forum project in Madrid has been shown in brief on L+U before. It is, simply put, an amazing composition, using two complementary materials (red rusted metal panels and green vegetated panels) juxtaposed together with stunning results. Project is by Herzog & de Meuron. Vertical Garden by Patrick Blanc. Image links to Flickr pool are via Dezain.


:: image via Flickr - Pacobond


:: - image via Flickr - Ronin


:: image via Flickr - Matritensis


:: image via Flickr - jamesantoni




:: in process images via Flickr - Josh Clark

It's great to see the in-process shots (thanks to all the Flickr contributors for the images) - and to see how much it's filled in in a short period of time. If you can't tell, I've been blown away by this project since the first time I saw it. Is there really anything else to say?

Four+Zero = Net-Zero

More case-study research for Net-Zero development, offering some modest examples to augment some previous developments. For starters, via Jetson Green is the High Street Philadelphia project is being developed by home(scale) in a former brownfield zone in downtown Philly. The most urbanized version, this was originally shown as a very vegetated facade in early renderings from mid-2007:






:: images via Jetson Green

These images are from a more recent post, showing building refinement but less overall greening (or a different facade? I can't tell. Either way, this project is very cool, and is similar to the previous net-zero case studies using green roofs and vegetated walls to provide energy mitigation as well as amenity and stormwater management.

:: images via Jetson Green

Another couple of projects not specifically touted as net-zero, but with lots of similar green features. First is the Vento Residences in Calgary, Alberta is a mixed-use project, designed by Busby Perkins + Will, and certified by the Canada Green Building Council as the first LEED-Platinum multi-family development in North America. Information from an article in Building Design+Construction outlines images as well as some of the major features:

"...22 townhouse units incorporate sustainable features rarely attempted in smaller residential projects, including heat recovery ventilators in each suite and stormwater recycling for flushing water and irrigation. These somewhat unusual approaches, combined with more traditional green initiatives—including dual-flush toilets, radiant flooring, double-glazed low-e argon-filled windows, occupancy sensors, and abundant daylight."

:: images via BDCnetwork

Definitely a case-study in green being a market advantage, part of the reason. From BC+D, the developers, "...decided to best the competition by going all out on advanced green features and high design. While other developers were building condos with a few 'light green' features..." This all led to better sales, even though comparably priced to single-family homes and similar condos, or just a slight percentage more in cost.

Another example from the US, is the Cromley Lofts, according to Treehugger, the first LEED-certified Condos in Virginia (Gold rating). The major component with this project, and similar to many net-zero is the modesty of size and scope, while being packed with green features. A few, via their website:




:: images via Cromley Lofts

A major component is the ecoroof, which is typically more effective for energy-efficiency in single-story or smaller scale multi-story buildings, because of a high ratio of roof to skin surface, compared to a high rise. The following shows seasonal variation of the vegetation as well.


:: image via Cromley Lofts


:: image via Treehugger

The final net-zero entry is from the UK, and is non-vegetated, but does delve into spatial re-arrangement plus high-tech solutions by creating a curved facade that provides maximum daylighting with minimal energy loss. Via G-Living, the BRE Lighthouse uses form, as well as a 'high-performance Structural Insulated Panel (SIP)" which provides a large amount of thermal insulation which reduces heat-loss by two-thirds from a standard design. Check out all of the projects at the BRE innovation park.

:: images via GLiving

The modest scale of some of these projects is starting to show that there are many technologies and opportunities that work on residential scale buildings. One aspect of acheiving net-zero is having less volume to condition, making it easier to use less and conserve more. While some are not-necessarily designed as officially net-zero, which is kind of a moving target anyway, the writing is on the wall that more models will being built around the world, making it a sure net-gain in net-zero.