PASSIVE RESILIENCE

Recorded by Sofie Pelsmakers, images by Essi Nisonen and Veera Saastamoinen

KEY READINGS

  • Nick Baker and Koen Steemers, Healthy Homes: Designing with Light and Air for Sustainability and Wellbeing, RIBA

  • Pelsmakers, S., Donovan, E., Hoggard, A., Kozminska, U., Designing for the climate emergency, a Guide for Architecture Students, RIBA

  • Vivienne Brophy and J. Owen Lewis, A Green Vitruvius: Principles and Practice of Sustainable Architectural Design, Routledge

  • Lechner, Norbert, and C. Wallace. Heating, Cooling, Lighting : Sustainable Design Methods for Architects. Fourth edition. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley

  • Rosa Urbano Gutierrez and Laura de la Plaza Hidalgo, Elements of Sustainable Architecture, Routledge

  • Huw Heywood, 101 Rules of Thumb for Low Energy Architecture, RIBA

  • Pelsmakers, S.  The Environmental Design Pocketbook, RIBA

  • Kimpian, J., Hartman, H., Pelsmakers, S. Energy, People Buildings: Making Sustainable Architecture Work, 2021, RIBA

INSPIRATIONAL BUILT EXAMPLES

  • Architype Architects – The Enterprise Centre, Norwich, UK  

  • Helen & Hard – Vindmollebakken Housing, Stavanger, Norway 

  • Alvar Aalto, Kunsten Museum of Modern Art, Aalborg, Denmark 

  • Glenn Murcutt, Marie Short/Glenn Murcutt House, Kempsey, Australia 

  • Herzog & de Meuron, Dominus Winery, California, USA 

  • Sauerbruch Hutton, GSW Headquarters Tower, Berlin, Germany 

  • Muzharul Islam, The College of Arts and Crafts, Dhaka, Bangladesh 

  • Bearth and Deplazes, Vineyard Gantenbein, Switzerland  

NATURAL LIGHT

Good natural light, views and connection to outside are crucial for human health and well-being. Good visual comfort needs to be provided in all spaces inhabited by humans for any length of time. Doing so supports people’s well-being and can create delightful spaces, while at the same time minimising the energy needed for active heating and artificial lighting. This can reduce running costs and reduces running costs and tackles the climate emergency.  

Key design considerations to include access to natural light in your project include:  

  • understanding the local climate, context and the building’s functions and users’ needs 

  • orienting and spacing buildings appropriately in your project 

  • carefully designing window openings  

Your design should ‘lock in’ access to sunlight at early stages: building orientation cannot be changed once built, and adding windows is often not possible once built.  

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