The New ARCH Vol1 No1 (2014)

International Journal of Contemporary Architecture

The New ARCH Vol. 1, No. 1 (2014)

ISSN 2198-7688

Sustainable Architecture The

1st

OVERVIEW AND HIGHLIGHTS International Conference with Exhibition S.ARCH

DJURIC TARDIO ARCHITECTES enforma GRAFT has cook zemmrich STUDIO2050 Philippe Rahm architects STUDIO NICOLETTI ASSOCIATI SADAR+VUGA Ziegert I Roswag I Seiler Architekten Ingenieure

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www.The-New-ARCH.net

International Journal of Contemporary Architecture

The New ARCH Peer-reviewed open-access E-journal

ISSN 2198-7688

Vol. 1, No. 1 (2014) www.The-New-ARCH.net

Editor-in-Chief Arch. Marina Stosic, GERMANY E: Editor@The-New-ARCH.net

Editorial Board Arch. Prof. Dietmar Eberle – Baumschlager Eberle, AUSTRIA; ETH Zurich, SWITZERLAND Arch. Prof. Kengo Kuma – University of Tokyo, JAPAN; Kengo Kuma &Associates JAPAN, FRANCE Arch. Rafael de La-Hoz – Rafael de La-Hoz Arquitectos, SPAIN Arch. Prof. Branislav Mitrovic – University of Belgrade, SERBIA Arch. Luca Francesco Nicoletti – Studio Nicoletti Associati, ITALY Arch. Prof. Milica Jovanovic Popovic – University of Belgrade, SERBIA Arch. Jose Luis Vallejo – Ecosistema urbano, SPAIN Arch. Bostjan Vuga – Sadar+Vuga, SLOVENIA Arch. Philippe Rahm – Philippe Rahm architects, FRANCE Arch. Dr. Manfredo Manfredini – University of Auckland, NEW ZEALAND Arch. Dr. Paola Leardini – University of Auckland, NEW ZEALAND Arch. Ass.Prof. Wah Sang WONG – University of Hong Kong, CHINA Arch. Nikola Novakovic – Enforma, MONTENEGRO Arch. Dr. Milos Dimcic – Programming Architecture, GERMANY Arch. Ass.Prof. Laila Amer Al Kahtani – Princess Norah Bint Abdulrahman University, SAUDI ARABIA Arch. Dr. Dina Ahmed Ahmed Elmiligy – Princess Norah Bint Abdulrahman University, SAUDI ARABIA Arch. Hassan Estaji – Hakim Sabzevari University, IRAN, University of Applied Arts Vienna, AUSTRIA Arch. Mirjana Uzelac Filipendin – Atelje Krstonosic, Architect & Journalist ArchIntention, Ambijenti, SERBIA Eng. Ass. Prof. Vincenzo CORRADO – Politecnico di Torino, ITALY Arch. Prof. Despina KYPRIANOU SERGHIDES – Cyprus University of Technology, CYPRUS Arch. Prof. Dusan VUKSANOVIC – University of Montenegro, MONTENEGRO

Publisher

Get It Published Verlag e.k.

Allee am Röthelheimpark 14 91052 Erlangen GERMANY T 00 49 (0)9131 917 96 14 E info@get-it-published.de W www.get-it-published.de Copyright This journal and all published articles, including all illustrations contained in authors’ papers block, are protected by copyright. Upon an article being accepted for publication, all rights of publication, for translation, further reproduction, distribution, transmission, display, broadcast, of storage in any electronic form and producing photocopies are transferred to the publisher. Without the written permission of the publisher, any usage outside the limits of the copyright act is forbidden.

© Copyright by Get It Published Verlag e.K. Notice The publisher does not assume any responsibility for any harm and/or injury to property and persons resulting from any ideas, instructions, methods or products contained in the material published in this journal, as well as a matter of inattention or creation liability, or from any use or operations.

Cover Illustration Studio SADAR+VUGA, Slovenia: “Butcher’s Bridge”

International Journal of Contemporary Architecture ”The New ARCH“ Vol. 1, No. 1 (2014)

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A WORD FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF I am very pleased to announce the release of the very first issue of the International Journal “The New ARCH”, a platform where architects from all corners will discuss current architectural themes and researches will have an opportunity to publish their articles.

The idea of founding this Journal was born in parallel to the preparation of the first International Conference with Exhibition S.ARCH–2014, which had the aim to bring together architects and researchers in a discussion about sustainability in architecture.

Apparent lacking in journals devoted to both academic communication and the sensibility of international design practice was a motivating force to initiate “The New ARCH”. Therefore, the Journal reflects the wide variety of approaches to contemporary architectural themes to a wider public than a conference can do.

Because of the way the idea was born, the next logical step was to devote the first issue of the Journal to the S.ARCH–2014 conference with themed “Sustainable Architecture”.

Founding Editor & Editor–In–Chief Architect Marina Stosic

Sustainability – perhaps a word you are tired of hearing.

Everyone talks about it, everybody believes to know what it is about, everyone wants to be green… We are confronted with this topic daily from all sides and in the meantime it became a must for lot of people adorning themselves with the wording sustainability. But, do we really know what sustainability means? Do we know what Sustainable Architecture is? Certainly, there is no simple recipe for sustainability — at least none that should exist — because sustainability is much more than saving energy and resources. In the world of quick changes, sustainability should not restrict our creativity, but rather should be an exertion for it. It is not an eschewal, but rather enriching. It is a broad line-up of opportunities.

Some say adapting to change has always been important to success.

But then how much does architecture have to change?

We discussed this international architects, and all of them offer a unique perspective on sustainability, state of affairs of architecture, and its outlook for tomorrow.

Let us talk about it once more …

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International Conference S.ARCH–2014: Highlights and Overview

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A Question to GRAFT

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Production of Publicness – Interview with Boštjan Vuga

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Some Thoughts about Architecture Interview with Philippe Rahm, Eike Roswag, Boštjan Vuga, Luca Francesco Nicoletti and Nikola Novaković

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Karin Standler Open Spaces for Young People – Teens_Open_Space

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Tarek Abdelsalam A Vision for Future: Analysis of the Prominent Synthesis of Culture and Sustainability in Hassan Fathy Architecture

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Pavle Stamenović, Dušan Stojanović, Dunja Predić Extended Process of Architectural Design: Sustainable Development without a Master Plan. The Case of Kagran Area, Vienna

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Hassan Estaji Flexible Spatial Configuration in Traditional Houses, The Case of Sabzevar

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Manfredo Manfredini, Paola Leardini Existing Stock for the Future: Problems, Opportunities and Strategies for Energy Upgrade of 1940–1960 State Housing in New Zealand

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Ljiljana Djukanović, Milica Jovanović Popović, Ana Radivojević Potential Energy Savings in the Process of Rehabilitation of Residential Buildings built before the Second World War

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Saja Kosanović, Milica Jovanović Popović Ecological Assessment of Building Materials in Serbia: Constrains and Possibilities

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Haris Bradić Kromolj House in Sarajevo

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About the Journal

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Instructions for Authors

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Authors‘ Papers

S.ARCH–2014 Welcome Address of German Ambassador to Serbia

The Journal

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International Conference with Exhibition S.ARCH–2014 “Sustainable Architecture”

CONTENT

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International Journal of Contemporary Architecture ”The New ARCH“ Vol. 1, No. 1 (2014)

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Sustainable ARCHITECTURE — The Inevitable FUTURE

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True Changes Comes Through Innovation

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A Question to GRAFT

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Production of Publicness – Interview with Boštjan Vuga

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Some Thoughts about Architecture Interview with Philippe Rahm, Eike Roswag, Boštjan Vuga, Luca Nicoletti and Nikola Novaković

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S.ARCH–2014 WELCOME ADDRESS OF GERMAN AMBASSADOR TO SERBIA housing area in Berlin. The “energy house plus” offers 130 m2 space for living, it was built exclusively from material which can be recycled, and its solar panels and warm water pump produce more energy than the family living in the house can use. The additional electricity is being stored in batteries and is used to power the family´s electric car!

The house features the best isolation currently available on the market and proves, that with the right isolation any house can be warmed up with a lot less energy costs than currently needed in other houses of the same size.

Due to the reduced consummation of energy and the use of renewable construction materials the house is affordable. And the family living there has declared it one of the most comfortable houses they have ever lived in.

H.E. Heinz Wilhelm, German Ambassador to Serbia

Minister Ilic, Ladies and Gentlemen, of all the art forms architecture is the most integrated into our daily lives. We live our lives surrounded by architecture, we are constantly influenced by it.

Therefore, we often take architecture for granted, for something which is easy to achieve.

The famous architect Mies van der Rohe said: “Architecture starts when you carefully put two bricks together”.

It is as simple as that. Or is it?....

Of all the art forms, architecture is the most durable and long-living. The German poet Goethe said: “Buildings must be built right, because they are made to stay for a long time. We humans may make mistakes, but we certainly must not build mistakes!”

This is the very core of the architects´ responsibility.

We have come together for this conference in order to talk about this responsibility. How can we construct buildings which will be durable, comfortable, affordable and most of all: sustainable.

The German government has taken this question very seriously. 40% of the annual use of energy in Germany is used to heat buildings, a number which can and must be reduced. The Federal Ministry for Transport and digital Infrastructure has published guidelines for sustainable architecture and sustainable housing.

And the Ministry put their own guidelines to use and built Germany´s most sustainable house: on 7 December 2011 after only one year of planning and construction Federal chancellor Merkel opened the “Energy house plus”, a slightly futuristic looking, highly sustainable family home, located in a middle class

The German government has set the objective that from 2019 onwards newly built houses will no longer cause air pollution. They will not create green house gas emissions and they will be run on low amounts of energy. This is only possible if we increase the energy efficiency in architecture and construction.

New houses will be built as energy efficient as possible.

Old houses will not be torn down but rather equipped with better isolation and more energy efficient heating systems.

How can this new development be supported by the Government? In Germany we have introduced an energy passport for buildings. Every apartment, every building will now have to be checked for energy use, for isolation weaknesses and for the efficiency of the heating system. Thus potential buyers can find out about the future costs of heating and hot water. And non-efficient houses will not find buyers any more.

Believe me, house owners will learn very quickly that they have to look after their property and increase the energy efficiency as much as possible.

Here in Serbia the German government has created a project in order to promote and establish energy efficiency in Serbian buildings. Together with the German companies Henkel, Knauf and Viessmann young Serbian engineers are being trained in recognizing weaknesses in isolation and heating systems and they will be able to suggest renovation measures in order to make properties energy efficient and sustainable.

In 2013 the building complex “4 July” in Belgrade, which was constructed using the latest energy efficient technology, was opened to the public. After one year the results have been published: the heating costs could be reduced to only 1/3 of the average costs for a similar building!

Energy efficiency, sustainable architecture and the use of renewables in construction – these are the pillars for our future buildings!

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INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE S.ARCH–2014 HIGHLIGHTS AND OVERVIEW SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE — THE INEVITABLE FUTURE It is almost twenty-five years since the Rio UNCED (UN Conference on Environment and Development) and Kyoto protocol and the results are less than satisfactory. The new generations still have less green areas than there were in the past and the lungs of the planet are getting smaller and smaller as each day passes. The critics will comment that we did not accomplish anything in the last quarter of the century. Haven’t we learnt anything from our ancestors yet?

Now, let us discuss this subject from an architectural point of view and find answers as the professionals we are: Do the architects, as dream creators and builders, only have to change their tools in order to create sustainable buildings? Or do we need to fundamentally change our profession?! Is it enough to transfer from the humble sketching table to the advanced computer simulations that will provide us with the best solution, or do we have to change how we think and respond to the environment where we are building?! Are we ready for the future, or are we the proverbial dinosaurs waiting for the inevitable helplessness in choosing between the tradition and trend?! None of them alone will do the trick for numerous reasons.

The countries are making the laws, agreements, and challenging limits in order to become a more environmentally friendly society in the future. We set our mind to one direction but we are moving very slowly and more problems surface all the time. If we wish accomplish our goals for the sustainable future we need to be louder, smarter and fearless. The architects are not the only ones who have to challenge the burden of change in the building industry. Yet they are on the front line and they do possess the tools to make the transition more effective.

This sentence best describes the message that speakers sent to the audience during the international conference BUT I C@N @DJUST MY S@ILS TO @LW@YS RE@CH on "Sustainable Architecture". In the course of 14th–15th MY DESTIN@TION.” – Jimmy Dean May in Belgrade, the experts gathered at the first international conference known as S.ARCH to discuss and display their projects, experiments, methods or recent findings in the sustainable architectural practice. This two-day event took place at the Hyatt Regency Belgrade hotel and it was divided into two segments: the lectures and the exhibition of works from the creative people who are practicing and exploring sustainability in architecture.

“I

C@N'T CH@NGE THE DIRECTION OF THE WIND,

A few years back, Belgrade and Serbia did not even register on the professional green map as a place where experts from the field of sustainable development, green building, design, innovative architecture, and others meet and exchange their knowledge. You will be surprised by the series of events that redirected the course of conferences right into the heart of the Balkans, to Serbia, where the S.ARCH conference was also held. Thanks to the organizers - the company RENECON and its German partner Get It Published, as well as the initiator and founder of the International Conference S.ARCH, Marina Stosic, an architect from Germany, the audience had the privilege of hearing the greats of sustainable architecture in the Serbian capital this spring.

Upon the selection and invitation of the chairperson of the conference, the visitors were introduced to the worldfamous minds, authors from various countries who, through their work and progress, move the standards of architectural practice. We are talking about creative people such as the Studio GRAFT (Germany, USA, China), haascookzemmrich STUDIO2050 (Germany), Philippe Rahm architects (France), DTA / DJURIC TARDIO ARCHITECTES (France), STUDIO NICOLETTI ASSOCIATI (Italy), enforma (Montenegro), SADAR + VUGA (Slovenia), and many more. Each author uses their legitimate creations and unique attitude to weave their name into the world of renowned designers of today.

The variety of topics and lectures that were presented demonstrate maturity and courage that is rare and unconventional. The projects showcased are among the most radical, the ones that advanced the course of development of cities, urban areas, buildings, and interiors. These projects opened the door to new dimensions of ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ “International Conference S.ARCH-2014 — Highlights and Overview”

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practice and confronted the modern world with the principles of sustainable development in architecture as the inevitable future development.

During the conference, a series of constructive discussions were conducted which raised some important issues regarding sustainable building practices. It can be rightly said that the S.ARCH conference was a festival of unique views and creations that celebrates but also questions architectural practice and its methods.

“YOU MUST BE THE CHANGE YOU WISH TO SEE IN THE WORLD.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Each delegate was thoroughly introduced to the problems of implementation of sustainable principles and the narrowness of contemporary architectural profession in every corner of the Earth. Other major topics were the challenges ahead of the new generation of architects who have to lead modern society and architectural practice towards a sustainable future. The two main questions remain: What is the future of architecture? What is the architecture of the future?

In support of this statement, an international exhibition of works followed the conference that introduced everyone to the variety of works from the domestic and foreign architectural practice. The works of professionals, students, and young designers all stood one next to each other with the integrity and determination in the common goal of promoting the sustainable architecture. Research, projects, studies, and the results of experiments all showed the diversity of the spirit in search of new, more advanced and more environmentally responsible buildings, urban spaces or theories.

Looking at all of the lectures, projects, and ideas we heard during the S.ARCH conference, one can draw one SAME THINKING WE USED WHEN WE CREATED single conclusion: The main problem in practicing THEM.” – Albert Einstein sustainable architecture is the lack of quality communication and flexibility in the profession. The communication between clients – designers – builders – officials can be recognized as one of the basic problems and it needs to be improved. However, we (the architects) must tackle the greater task that our profession prepared for us! Step out of our shoes, become the managers and messengers of a sustainable future. It is a question of responsibility – the “imminent ethic” that is determined by the ecological consciousness based on sensitivity of the individual as an inhabitant of the environment, and not just the member of the Chamber of Architects. It was clear that each individual sitting in the great hall was already on their way to make this transition. But the problem was behind the door of that room – how to transmit this idea to the rest of the professional practice.

“WE CANNOT SOLVE OUR PROBLEMS WITH THE

TRUE CHANGES COMES THROUGH INNOVATION On its first day the professional and creative S.ARCH conference welcomed various lectures that practice the architectural design process and its relation to the environment. The initiator, founder, and chairperson of the international conference and also one of the moderators of the tandem ensemble program was architect Marina Stosic. The professor from Belgrade’s Faculty of Architecture, Milica Jovanovic-Popovic, was the second half of the moderator duo and one of the speakers. These two ladies skilfully conducted the lecturers and the audience through the maze of

sustainable architecture of today and guided them with excellent synergy.

DESIGN PROCESS AND CASE STUDIES “CHANGE IS INEVITABLE. CHANGE FOR THE BETTER IS A FULL-TIME JOB.” – Adlai E. Stevenson

The last two centuries brought some astonishing discoveries that changed the world forever.

Improvements in the quality and diversity of materials and structure formed the foundation for today’s contemporary architecture, especially the high-rise buildings and cities. It is our duty, as the future creative

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of life, embedding the latest of innovations, and intelligent use of the space beyond cultural fulfilment.

One of the recent projects is the German pavilion for the World Expo 2015 named “Feeding the planet – energy for life” is the idea, and the result is a structure that is at the same time confident, humorous, entertaining, and attractive. “The German pavilion is a clear and legible composition, immediately recognizable as a poetic landscape sheltered by a dynamic canopy”. It shows that reconfiguring the future structures and cities must be in line with the reinforcement of the place along with the increase of the individual identity.

Our out-dated cities are having a hard time to cope with modern society and the prognoses of their growth are disturbing, since nearly 70% of the future world population will live in cities by 2050. Therefore, an ‘individual redevelopment plan’ must be established and not necessarily an architectural one. Cities of the future will be developed as a coexisting component of individual identity. The potential of context and sustainable development and the organism "city" are inextricably linked.

David Cook

minds, to follow these steps and introduce our profession and modern community to the new architecture, the one that will fulfil the needs of its inhabitants and the one that respects and preserves the natural environment. One of the studios that follows this path is haascookzemmrich STUDIO2050 from Germany.

Architect David Cook, one of the partners, held a lecture with the title “The City as Resource” and showed the synergy between the modern cities and sustainable development.

We do not have the luxury to start fresh. We need to transform what already exists and not repeat the mistakes from the past in order to welcome the sustainable future. It will not happen overnight since building and natural environment can’t be treated isolated. Synergy of everything, sharing, and co-working is needed. These words best describe the projects that Cook presented – focusing on the value of our existing urban ambience in search for a solution for the uncertain sustainable future.

David Cook: “FOR A TRULY SUSTAINABLE DESIGN TO TAKE ON A MUCH GREATER RELEVANCE, FOR IT TO BECOME THE RULE RATHER THAN THE EXCEPTION, THEN IT IS INEVITABLE THAT WE MUST LOOK BEYOND THE BUILDING AS AN OBJECT AND REASSESS THE CONTEXT OF OUR ARCHITECTURAL ENDEAVOURS.”

Haas, Cook and Zemmrich are well known for their numerous projects that have been built worldwide and always have a special focus on the environment, quality

The German Pavilion, EXPO 2015 Source: haascookzemmrich STUDIO2050

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Followed by that were the works of the French architect Philippe Rahm who considers the climate itself as a new language and teaching method for architecture. In his lecture “Towards a Meteorological Architecture”, Rahm disposed new proverbial bricks through his work – tools for building and creating the future structure.

Philippe Rahm: “ARCHITECTURE MUST BUILD SENSUAL EXCHANGE BETWEEN BODY AND SPACE AND INVENT NEW AESTHETICAL APPROACHES CAPABLE OF MAKING LONG-TERM CHANGES TO THE FORM AND THE WAY WE WILL INHABIT BUILDINGS TOMORROW.”

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was the best practice in terms of energy, space and size of the community inspired by external influences.

Philippe Rahm

With the climate change in mind, a meteorological architecture analyses convection, evaporation, and conduction and introduces them as new principles of modern constructions. The building in which the right climatic factors of interior space guide the disposition, and link between the functions and ambient, shifts the creative process towards a more natural, sensual approach. The focus of creating is transposed from strictly visual to more sensitive and almost invisible giving the profession a totally different perspective. This unconventional approach finds its origins in the basic principles of building and architecture from the times when laws of nature and the environment influence more on the human inhabitant. The climate was the primary condition for the shape, structure and material used for every building just like the interior organization

Transforming these principles into the 21st century architecture shows that current practice still has the ability to incorporate the climate factor in a more adequate way. Creating public ambient that is dictated by pressure – air organizes the form, shape and materials of public space. Imagine the apartment designed using the thermal scheme of suggested temperatures of facilities based on clothing and activity.

This is the ambient where you no longer occupy the space but the atmosphere, and you live life not horizontally but spatially. Think of an urban park as balanced ambient in terms of its climate by mapping the bad sectors with more heat, humidity and pollution and improving it by designing adequate natural and artificial elements alongside the existing climate conditions.

Maybe future museums can be the result of the thermodynamic tension where the microclimate is based on two polar temperatures – the higher 22°C and lower 16°C creating an internal air Gulf Stream. The users are moving freely through the space in search for the right climate and temperature or particular activities that condition the disposition of the buildings’ program.

These suggestions represent the method that indicates defection from the current architecture as an inventive solution to coexist with climate rather than wrestle with it.

Hammam Lyon Source: Philippe Rahm architects

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“INNOVATION DISTINGUISHES BETWEEN A LEADER AND A FOLLOWER.” – Steve Jobs

Analysing modern society we can discover that because of the power of innovation and the strength of the pioneers the contemporary world is living in a different place now than it did decades ago. Even further in the architectural world, where creations directly influence its users physically and socially, the willingness to detach

and experiment marks the debut authors as the leaders.

Next was the lecture given by the GRAFT studio (Germany, USA, and China) that was presented by its three founders: Wolfram Putz, Thomas Willemeit, and Lars Krueckeberg. They told the story of radical but simple ideas. Their lecture “GRAFT – Distinct Ambiguity” spoke about the projects, different in scale, but with huge positive impact on the environment, society, and economy. The GRAFT is known as the studio that uses unique philosophy based on ambiguities, the kind of

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Wolfram Putz

“robust hybrid, a marriage of different sources”.

Believing in the inventive course of the future, they practice architecture that can be explained by the authors as “a change of seeing what everybody has seen, but thinking what nobody has thought”.

One of the projects that the audience had the opportunity of seeing was the process of revitalization of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. This particular project is important because it describes how they, designers by professional calling, stepped out of their native profession and took the directions of another profession in order to restore and build a different, more sustainable city. During several phases and years they managed to raise the finances, gather the experts, educate the community, make the plans and drawings together with other studios involved, and finally to start rebuilding the ruined New Orleans. Entirety of the process was under the mission of the charity Make It Right (MIR) – run by actor Brad Pitt – that was very clear: “To build safe, Cradle to Cradle inspired homes, buildings and communities for people in need” (MIR).

The famous photo of the art installation “Pink Houses” in New Orleans, became the statement of inventive architectural re-thinking, which determines in its roots spreading need for co-work between the context and humans.

Another project that GRAFT studio showed was a business research project – The Solar kiosk currently

Lars Krueckeberg

Thomas Willemeit

installed in several African countries as an innovative process of connecting and opening up new opportunities in undeveloped countries. This is a business idea rather than an architectural project, and its small proportion wasn’t crucial when it comes to the positive result of its implementation. Solar kiosk is like planting an innovative grain into the community that over time develops into a strong incubator of ideas and opportunities for the sustainable future for everyone.

This idea aims to educate and unite rather than to just house its users and functions.

Autopavillon in Wolfsburg Source: GRAFT

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DESIGN IN LINE WITH ENVIRONMENT “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” – Nelson Mandela

The S.ARCH conference was a place to hear about some marvellous works from authors who chose the nature as their ultimate teacher, and this segment was marked by the innovative use of natural materials and construction systems. The first was the lecture „Natural and Traditional – Architecture in Dialogue“ presented by architect Eike Roswag, a frontman of the office Ziegert | Roswag | Seiler Architekten Ingenieure (Germany). In his presentation, the sustainability of future facilities and practices is reflected in the implementation of intelligent approaches and the need to design and work in harmony with the natural cycles.

The current contrast of building regulations and nature can be avoided by fusing them together and developing buildings that are made from the environment and that are capable of breathing and living with the environment. Usage of materials that are more natural and hygroscopic like soil, wood, and natural fibre contributes to the vision of a more sustainable future.

Eike Roswag

One of the current Ziegert | Roswag | Seiler studio projects is the H-House – An international research project on healthier indoor environment of dwellings that aims to develop elements – i.e. eco-inventive building components for retrofitting or building structures. Scientific teams from twelve different research centres from four EU countries along with Roswag’s office work together on finding suitable wall structures that will be prefabricated from natural materials. It is a collaborative research effort, focusing on improving the housing sector to become more energy efficient and healthier for its inhabitants. The studio builds numerous projects connecting natural materials, inherited techniques and today’s practice.

They are recognized as the office who works with the people globally creating architecture, structural engineering projects, earth building consultancy, and assessment and take active participation in research and laboratory works and teaching. One of their famous projects, the built-by-hand school in Bangladesh, represents a public structure built from natural materials and using technologies fit for community and nature. It is a cob and bamboo building resting on the brick-mud foundations created for the METI (Modern Education and Training Institute). Another project with the same naturalistic approach is the “haus ihlow“, the load-bearing rammed earth house built in Germany. This is a great example of how traditional earth architecture can become excellent contemporary ambient exposing all of its robust characteristics. All of these projects celebrate the exploration and investigation of performances of the materials as the motional principles for the sustainable practice, education, and knowledge.

School Hand-Made in Bangladesh Source: Ziegert | Roswag | Seiler Architekten Ingenieure

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Branislav Mitrovic

Sometimes the colour of the façade distinguishes the artificial structure from the natural environment. Other times, he uses the surrounding and traditional materials, which communicate with the surroundings, expressing the cultural inheritance of the new structure. Also, architectural elements on the external envelope often are inspired by the existing urban heritage, establishing the link and imbedding the structure within the ambient.

Some of the recent projects from Mitrovic’s studio (office building in Andricgrad, two residence in Belgrade) all represent the design that emphasizes the aspect of the environmental proposition in architecture resting upon the acts of imagination.

The idea of coexistence with nature and usage of natural materials was followed by the lecture given by Professor Branislav Mitrovic, professor at the Architectural faculty of the university in Belgrade and founder of the MITarch studio. His presentation focused on his idea of a sensible treatment of the façade which he elaborated in his lecture: “The Material, Materialization and Texture”.

The constant dialogue between the nature and the building is based on the possibility of putting the building envelope as a director of the situation.

Branislav Mitrovic:

“THE

PREVALENCE OF THE OBJECT

BECOMES THE DESIGN FOCUSED METHODOLOGICAL PROCEDURE, THE RELATION OF FORM, FUNCTION, AND STRUCTURE AS THE MATERIAL BECOMES EVIDENT IN THE ‘ACTIVE PERCEPTION.”

He practices architecture with the respect for the quality of natural aesthetic aspects of the materials he uses. The sustainability is interpreted in a unique way in his works.

Andricgrad Source: MITarch studio

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“Most of us have far more courage than we ever dreamed we possessed.”

– Dale Carnegie

Creative professionals that are inspired by new, unconventional methods are often not recognized by the contemporary society. This historical fact proved that strength and belief in one’s own work and ideas is the most important characteristic for any mission. The lecture "Responsive Architecture" is an interesting individual interpretation of applying contextual inputs with respect for the environment. This lecture was presented by the architect Nikola Novakovic, a head of the studio enforma (Montenegro), who found his own way for practicing the sustainable architecture by the application of responsible architecture.

Nikola Novakovic:

“RESPONSIVE

ARCHITECTURE IS NOTHING

BUT AN ETHICAL RELATION BETWEEN BUILT ENVIRONMENT AND IMPACTS. SOMETHING UNETHICAL CANNOT BE AESTHETICAL!.”

This method is based on the relation of ethic–aesthetic vis-à-vis the relations dialogue – responsibility. It is the architecture whose creator is an awakened professional and his works are simply an ethical and aesthetic response to the impacts of the natural environment.

Novakovic questions the individual responsibility over the social spiritual poverty as the key for achieving sustainable objects. If the creation is aggressive and unresponsive by nature, then the architecture can’t be aesthetical, beautiful, and in harmony with its surroundings.

Novakovic’s work shows the courage in embracing the tradition, adapting it to the modern lifestyle, and

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restrictions of the natural environment. Various projects that were presented on the conference (Vila Stoliv, Lustice complex, Salt tower, etc.) all possess respect for the environment, treating it as an integral part of the building, incorporating it rather than isolating it.

Another aspect of his work can be found in his determination to follow his responsive architecture rather than the local aggressive and profit oriented architecture. This is a rare example of stepping outside of architectural trends and understanding the quality of context, profession and sense for aesthetics.

Nikola Novakovic

interpreting it with the contemporary architectural language in mind. His inspiration for the sustainable buildings comes from the quality of current built and the natural environment. To achieve this he uses the successful traditional building techniques, available surrounding materials and follows the morphological

MORE PEOPLE HEAR OUR CALL EACH YEAR, BUT MORE ARE STILL NEEDED On the second day of the conference, the continued stream of brave designers contributed to the whole vision of a brighter path for the sustainable future. The hosts’ duo of female architects and experts, Stosic and Jovanovic-Popovic, connected designers and their creations from all over the world, which are on a quest of searching for the right answer to the question: How is tomorrow’s sustainability related to architecture?!

COURSE OF ADAPTING ARCHITECTURE

Lustica Village Source: enforma

Individual presentations of knowledge and attributes comprise the beauty of art and architecture. Learning and understanding the environment we work in, holds the answer to performing adequately and responsibly.

With this thought in mind, and his own architectural interpretation of gained knowledge, the architect Luca Francesco Nicoletti held the lecture as the co-founder and director of the STUDIO NICOLETTI ASSOCIATI from Rome, Italy. The lecture: “Urban Ecology through Total Architecture” gathered some current and some early works of Nicoletti’s that apply green principles in architecture long before the movement was even established. As the heir of the sustainable architecture pioneer that is his father, Nicoletti believes that eloquence and power of creative architectural language must be in harmony with the natural environment.

Luca Francesco Nicoletti:

“ONLY

THROUGH A

TOTAL

ALL-

ENCOMPASSING ARCHITECTURE, CAN WE CREATE WITH AND NOT

“Understanding is a two-way street.”

– Eleanor Roosevelt

AGAINST. THE VERY NATURE OF AN ARCHITECT SHOULD BE TO STAND UP AGAINST CONVENTIONS, TO TRANSFORM THEM, TO LOOK AT THE FUTURE, TO CREATE ARCHITECTURE IN DIALOGUE WITH THE NUMEROUS COMPLEXITIES THAT OPERATE ON IT.”

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architecture and takes it to the next level of creating modern spaces that accommodate contemporary lifestyle. The quality of the projects lays in resembling artificial roots in the context that are interpreted with contemporary architectural language, where conversation with the ecosystem is the main reference.

Bio Istanbul Research and Commercial Center Source: STUDIO NICOLETTI ASSOCIATI

The misuse of the language often results in the meaninglessly transplanted structure and the incorrect processing of information, so the creation becomes lost in translation. The key problem of monotonous architecture is "blindfolded" following of, and building by standards, using certain profiles, which stagnate and cause problems in ecosystems, turn a blind eye to the future and are simply harmful to the environment.

Breaking out of this cliché provides a spectrum of undiscovered territory and non-linear thinking. It is not enough to simply mimic the surroundings, it is necessary to acknowledge total inclusion and integration of all disciplines during the creation of a building or a city.

Through displayed works (Moncada housing, a residential waterfront development in Kuala Lumpur or the Bio Istanbul Research and Commercial Center, etc.)

Nicoletti pledges the principles of bioclimatic

Luca Francesco Nicoletti

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One of the southern countries of perpetual spring, New Zealand, was represented through the analytic eyes of the University of Auckland. The joint lecture prepared by Dr. Paola Leardini and Dr. Manfredo Manfredini: ”Existing Stock for the Future – Problems, Opportunities and Strategies for Energy Upgrade to Passive House Standard in New Zealand” was presented by the female team member. The focus was on the development study of renovation and reconstruction of the built environment, which aims to increase the energy efficiency of settlements and urban areas in the segments of its capital.

Paola Leardini:

“BECAUSE EXISTING BUILDINGS COMPRISE THE

LARGEST SEGMENT OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT, ENERGY CONSERVATION RETROFITS BECOMES THE REAL TARGET TO ACHIEVE TANGIBLE EFFECTS IN TERMS OF RESOURCES AND

CO2

EMISSIONS.” Paola Leardini

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Carefully choosing the right segment of the city, the team managed to deliver the energy analysis that proved the low level of energy performance from historical and new buildings. Beside this, it had shown the structure of built stock, the value of existing buildings and social/health statistics that all demonstrate a need for reconstruction and refurbishment. Retrofitting the example that included the buildings from the mid-20th century, the team created a case studies house type that will be used as

the main resource of the future retrofitting packages.

The option was to apply the EnerPHit Standard which includes certain level of thermal comfort, no moisture/mould problems, reduction of CO2 emissions and minimal life cycle costs. The study is meant to become the ground strategy to collect data and provide the possible scenarios for upgrading by applying the Passive House standard and prepares the ground for the pilot project in Auckland.

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Golubovic, LEED professional and president of the company ENERGO Group (Serbia / Italy). In her lecture ”Transparent, Effective, Performance” she spoke about the role of all stakeholders during the design/construction process and during the period of building, the transparency and the willingness to review these actors to act responsibly at all phases of the building process.

Marija Golubovici:

“WE MUST BE TRANSPARENT ABOUT HOW

BUILDINGS ARE ACTUALLY PERFORMING TO SILENCE THE CRITICS AND ENSURE THAT OUR EFFORTS ARE REALLY ACHIEVING THE GOALS WE SEEK.”

The presentation has shown how much modern technology and experts can simulate and predict the behaviour of the objects, but also how much the practice of living in these facilities is far from theoretical predictions. For numerous reasons the correct answer to this situation is not easy but the key to create a clear picture of how our buildings are performing is to set the transparency as the inventible approach.

Marija Golubovic

In the sustainable building industry architects are not the sole and even main members of the decision making team. Structural, mechanical, electrical, civil, and other engineers are all playing equally significant roles in the integrated design process, and this is becoming the most effective way of creating and building contemporary structures. Experts do the work together and share their knowledge in every phase of the building’s life, so that the construction can perform in the best possible way. It is important to understand their presence and how solving of ones’ problems can affect the whole building positively or negatively at the end, and how through integration of all the professions time, energy, resources and environment can be saved. Therefore, it was refreshing to welcome the presentation of the solo mechanical engineer by profession, but great expert and leader in the green building industry, Madam Marija

One of the projects that ENERGO studio worked on was the LEED Platinum awarded Vodafone village. The project included the sophisticated energy models that proved how very important it is to incorporate sustainability in the early designing phases if we wish to

Italian Pavilion, EXPO 2015 Source: ENERGO

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save energy. Designers, contractors, and commissioners all play equally significant roles in achieving the sustainability goal of every building. However, the results of different studies carried out by various institutions point out that the occupants and their behaviour are also an important aspect of the building life, because these effects compose between 25-75% in proposed and measured savings for the structure.

Golubovic questioned the reality of incorporating the

post occupancy evaluation of the green buildings as the measure that will provide us with the honest and valuable data, which can be used to switch from the never ending prediction of potential problems to the clear path of solving them. Likewise, it will avoid shifting the process of green certification of the buildings from simple additional paperwork to the valuable process of getting to the sustainable future.

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BUILDINGS FOR TOMORROW “The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.” – Malcolm X

Architectural professionals can find it tricky to meet the artistic goals with the demanding social, economic, and industrial context. However, in order to create better visual identity for the future, the search for answers enriches our profession every day, and the exchange of this knowledge gets us closer to the sustainable future.

One very interesting opinion of how modern society can reach this goal was presented by the architect Bostjan Vuga, from the studio SADAR + VUGA from Slovenia, with his fresh approach of how the use of space is very important in the matter of its sustainability. His lecture “Production of Publicness” rises this new term above the concept of importance, setting it as a golden rule of sustainability, where the final users and public nature of buildings hide interesting theory of sustainable development in architecture.

Bostjan Vuga:

“PUBLICNESS IS THE RESULT OF AN ARCHITECT’S

ABILITY TO ENVISION THE WIDER EFFECTS OF THE ARCHITECTURAL OBJECT ON THE INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETY.”

Bostjan Vuga

The quality of “publicness” of each building claims the proverbial race for the population of the ambient, which helps the built environment become a viable structure imbued with "living" areas. Useless, elegant space with strictly visual identity and no public value or active users becomes wasted and unsustainable ambient. If the design doesn’t communicate with the public you have no dialogue and correlation with the environment, built or natural. Few presented projects affirm this principle of publicness.

The studio SADAR+VUGA is famous for its special approach that they call ‘formulas’. These formulas are not mathematical and are not restricted to a single project. They are a group of synonyms, expected

University College Ghent Campus Source: SADAR + VUGA

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reactions, or special functions that become the centre piece and the identity of the building. This method is based on imaging the experience that users will have with the space they are creating. The way we use, perceive, and walk through the space is in direct dialogue with the architectural phenomenology – the way how the building influences the users or perceivers.

Adding the public quality in constructing the bridge, for example, means transforming it to a new, vibrant meeting place - as the studio did with the project of Butcher’s Bridge. They envision the ‘house bridge’ with three platforms creating a new plug-in mezzanine that becomes new public space. There is no exception in incorporating the same principle to the public buildings as well. The studio was awarded for the project of rehabilitating the existing 'Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia', by proposing the retrofit of the building conceiving it as a “megastore”. It became the

place for consultation, information, training departments, and services. It acts as a local lead-in to economic globalization. The front plaza, new office space, and the added garden all attract people and increase the number of visitors and help the exchange of business ideas. Another project – the Cultural Center of EU Space Technologies (KSEVT) takes this quality to the next level, and was done in collaboration with three more Slovenian architectural offices (SADAR+VUGA, Bevk Perovic arhitekti, Dekleva Gregoric arhitekti, OFIS).

This building serves as science and research centre, exhibition gallery and cultural centre for the local community. It is a focal point of a small village, and it was inspired by the geostationary space station described in Noordung’s book. Every segment of the building – the ground floor, the roof terrace, the spiral ramp, and the interior space has the ability to welcome various functions and users, increasing the quality of life, and use of the space in the present and in the future.

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Architect Mirco Tardio from France and studio DTA | DJURIC TARDIO ARCHITECTES talked about different aspects of urban planning and how the correct density and innovative eco oriented principles can contribute to more sustainable urban structures in the future. His lecture ”Eco–Controlled Urban Density” spoke about environmentally controlled density of the urban creation – the suburb that in each segment politely respects energy, nature and its users.

Mirco Tardioa:

and selection of the materials together create a new energetic urban model that allows savings on every level providing a high level of comfort to its inhabitants, while achieving sustainable goals.

“GOING AGAINST THE CURRENT MAINSTREAM

THINKING IN TERMS OF DENSIFICATION, IT IS POSSIBLE TO FIND DURABLE SOLUTIONS FROM THE ARCHITECTURE ON A SMALL SCALE, WITHOUT DRAINING THE REFLECTION ON THE INDIVIDUAL HABITAT.

… DENSITY ECO-CONTROL

IS AN INVESTMENT

CONCEPT FOR SUBURBAN AREAS THAT FOCUSES ON RESPECT FOR THE URBAN AND ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE WHILE DENSIFYING AND OPTIMIZING ENERGY.”

The suburbs are designed according to the principle of environmental density opposed to the disproportionate parasitic cities. The aim is to create a strong identity of the suburb using architectural, urban, and social wealth so that the area becomes more sustainable in every aspect of its existence as the “sustainable suburban epicenter”. This awarded project included designing 14 houses in Gennevilliers – all with the low-carbon principle, expanding the existing spaces, providing better usage of the available land, and adding value to the ambient and the life of its users with the intelligent architectural and natural components. Bioclimatic concept, special constructions, renewable resources,

Mirco Tardio

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Vue saint Marie Source: DTA | DJURIC TARDIO ARCHITECTES

The presentation of this approach was illustrated by numerous projects that the studio recently delivered.

The “Laboratory” is a series of Individual Eco-Sustainable houses in peri-urban areas of France that are designed projects and are carefully created to emphasize the natural advantages of the location and to give users the green and healthy home that perfectly suits its surroundings. Providing better synergy between the according to the principles of sustainable development.

New buildings, extensions, and retrofits are all designed to meet the delicate, inviting, and warm facades of these habitats, city and sustainable energy allows the existing architectural heritage to preserve its identity against oversized grey cities.

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Professor Milica Jovanovic-Popovic held her presentation ”Energy Efficiency and Renewal of Residential Buildings Stock” and spoke about the findings from the conducted energy efficiency study of the existing residential fund in Serbia and what the possibilities for future development are.

As professor at the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade, she presented the current results of the study that showed a strikingly negative energy performance result and state of the existing housing stock. Based on the Tabula methodology, the project scope simulates the impact of increasing energy efficiency in buildings in relation to the energy sector of the country. By applying various measures, the study showed options for creating a national strategy to reduce energy consumption and implement a more rational approach to the management of all natural resources.

the society and experts, and with quality regulations.

With better thermal envelope, an upgrade of the heating systems, and a distribution network for domestic and heating water, it is possible to reach more than 72% savings of energy needed for heating, and a further 57% by renewal of single family house stocks.

The study concluded that the upgrade to nearly zero energy buildings should start with single family houses that should incorporate the strategy, methodology, financial support and optional user friendly software that will be publicly available, and which will provide the owners with the best feasible solution for their house.

Starting from the existing building regulations, over the international treaties to the process of harmonization with EU regulations, Serbia is encountering high demands that are difficult to achieve with the current massive unsustainable urban environment. Joining the TABULA – Intelligent energy Europe project in 2011, Serbia as an associated partner managed to collect statistical data gathered through statistical investigation, performed by IPSOS along with twelve other EU countries.

The study was organized in two segments, and the results surprised everyone. For example, the majority of the residences are single family houses that have no external wall insulation and windows that are 20 to 40 years old. Nearly every family in Serbia still uses the unsustainable heating resources (coal, wood, and gas) for their single residence. However, the study also provided several constructive solutions for these alarming figures to be improved by collective work of

Milica Jovanovic Popovic

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“Enthusi[sm mov_s th_ worl^.”

– Arthur Balfour

At the end of this powerful journey with the S.ARCH conference it was wonderful to see how professionals, young graduates, and students raised their hands to support the sustainable architecture in a country that has one of the lowest annual gross national incomes in Europe.

Determined in their goal of raising the awareness of sustainable architecture the organizers have already announced a new event same time next year, with the new theme – "Architecture and Environment". The second international conference S.ARCH will be held in the city Budva, Montenegro, during the period of 19th–20th May 2015 and we are thrilled to invite you to participate in this event.

Text: Mirjana Uzelac Filipendin

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A QUESTION TO GRAFT After the presentation of the studio GRAFT we asked all of the three partners the same single question. The result is astonishing because their individual answers actually emphases the richness of the studios’ creative charge and some interesting new perspectives.

In your work we can find numerous examples of the outstanding communication between the community and you as the authors. Could you please explain to us the following: Is the city of tomorrow actually a city that is built either based on the communication and the choice of its inhabitants or is it based on ideas and the work of architects, urban planners and other professionals that are usually involved in the planning process? What percentage of the decision making can be given to the future inhabitants?

Wolfram Putz: In my opinion it is hard to predict or guess a percentage, however, we also can see of course how it is done within the cities that we are working in.

For example in Berlin we can definitely see that people like to engage more into the process of urban planning.

Berlin has the extreme luck, that since the unification many redevelopment opportunities came up, such as the closure of an airport in the middle of the city. And during the 1st year, we used the typical 19–20th century top-down approach and it failed. It was basically not

accepted. So, today there is a mixture of different instruments that top-down officials try to use to either appease citizens – meaning that it is a fake participant process, or there is now this growing attempt to create real citizen participant processes, so people become a real democratic decision making body within government and its institutions. We think as architects that psychology and democratic value of people having a say in decision making process is great. The problem is not everyone that participates has the same knowledge,

GRAFT: Wolfram Putz, Gregor Hoheisel, Thomas Willemeit, Lars Krueckeberg Source: Studio GRAFT

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as let’s say, an architect receives in school. So it is a balancing act between a pure democratic decision making process and the proverbial oligarchy-like powers that architects used to have in these processes. We can see that the public opinion of new technologies moves in cycles, from the state of public euphoria to the state of universal distrust of government officials since the NSA incident, so we are in a kind of a flux moment right now considering this situation, and it is impossible to predict how it will settle in the end. But we like this approach much more than the monotony of the former top-down decision making process.

Lars Krueckeberg: The question is difficult because, in Berlin for example, we see this kind of thing a lot. People are taking projects into their own hands and are taking the role of the planers for granted, practically deciding to plan and build for themselves. Several families are getting together, pool their resources, purchase a site, hire an architect and build the house of their dreams.

They basically cut off the real-estate agents and the developer of course, saving a lot of money. Therefore, the overall costs are cheaper and projects are made in the way that future tenants intended it to be. We see this happening more and more. However, this is of course a very small percentage of what is happening in the world, being only Western Europe and Berlin. China officials, in an attempt to boost their economy, want more of their people to live in the cities, so they now have a problem of, in a next decade or so, moving more than 250 million people from rural areas into cities.

These cities have to be built. Think about it, this is an entire population of USA being relocated within China into new cities. Is this viable? No. Is it natural? No. But, they will still do it, meaning it will be a completely topdown project that will probably create horrible, horrible burden scenarios. There are for instance cities in South

America like Rio or Mexico City, that are growing incredibly fast and you could say it is a bottom-up approach since nobody is planning these developments — people do it by their own, with all the problems that result from it. So, in my opinion, from an Euro-centric perspective there is hope of achieving full communication during projects in the future; the rest of the world — not so much.

Thomas Willemeit: Well, if you ask about percentages, maybe it is ok to say that it will be a 50/50 mixture in the end. If we look at cities not only as planned environments or built solely with the freedom of expression, but as a mixture of both, we might come very close to what would be a good basis for building cities. If we do not understand cities simply as planned environments that everyone needs to ‘fit’ into, but see them more as a kind of user interface that you as a unit can use and explore how your personal interest can be realized through it – we may become a part of it. This will enable you to explore your own dreams and allow you to gain what you personally want to gain from a city you live in. To use a very drastic example: What is the difference between the idea of communism and the idea of an iPhone? The idea of communism was to create a better world, and they did it in a way that some people got together and discussed how that better world will be defined, and then everyone will just need to ‘fit’ into this new better world they made. The idea of an I-phone was to make a tool and pack it with as many applications and helpful tools as possible, creating a perfect omni-tool that has infinite ways of helping you, enabling you to do all the things you long for. It is a completely different approach, not using age-old methods of fear and control but enabling people to find just how much control they actually need to do these kinds of projects with maximum efficiency.

Interview: Mirjana Uzelac Filipendin

Platoon Kunsthalle Berlin (Source: GRAFT)

Tor 149 Berlin (Source: GRAFT)

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PRODUCTION OF PUBLICNESS INTERVIEW WITH BOŠTJAN VUGA Sustainability as a term can be recognized as the answer to the current ecological crises. In the beginning, the term described sustainable economic development that continues to sustain on natural resources. However, with the turn of the century the term sustainability begin to experience a much wider usage as a description that often can be confusing and vague. With all of the complex issues connected with sustainable development there are numerous discussions about replacing the term ‘sustainability’ with something more appropriate.

Focusing now on the term 'sustainable architecture' it can also be said that this term suffers from the same weakness of diluting its meaning, because of all possibilities that creative profession such as architecture can offer to the world.

One may be surprised how even a slightest change of perspective in philosophy or design process can strongly influence architectural identity to embed a different story of its sustainability. This is exactly why we chose to ask Boštjan Vuga from studio SADAR+VUGA, Slovenia, for his own vision of sustainable architecture. This studio is practicing unique and interesting architecture that treats sustainability through new prism and continues to discover the true meaning of it.

In your works we can recognize many important aspects of sustainable architecture, but one is the most important: the society – the users – the quality of correct population of buildings and cities. Would you tell us more about this approach?

Boštjan Vuga: I would describe our work with a word ‘publicness’. What are we interested in is to graft a public character in each architectural project we are dealing with. This means that buildings which are not meant to be really public also gain a public character by the way how they are architecturally consisted, conceptualized and designed. Why is inclusion of public into the spatial domain of the architectural building important for publicness? We think the cities are influenced and changed by people with different social behaviour in different buildings. Therefore, we are proposing spaces where social behaviour can be challenged. Basically, buildings and people are not two different entities, but they are actually in a constant interactions and they simply influence each other. This means that the social behaviour is influenced by the way how buildings are conceived, and on the other hand, peoples’ use of the buildings alters them too.

How is “publicness” sustainable?

Boštjan Vuga Source: SADAR + VUGA

Boštjan Vuga: Here is a simple example: If you take a building that was built for one purpose only and for one type of performance – let’s say an office building – this building will be empty 50–60% of time available. If you build a stadium, which serves just as stadium or sports hall, it will be empty and unused much more, maybe 80– 90% of time accessible. This is an indicator for spending lot of energy, finances and resources for the construction of something that is not really being used.

I’m referring not only to stadiums and sports parks, which are in fact clear examples, but also to schools, galleries, museums etc., all the buildings and premises that have a very straightforward and defined program.

Therefore, by including and developing the public character for all these buildings, and including users into

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the domain of public use will create that buildings become a sort of a hybrid. The space will be used not only for the specific or primary function, but it will be used also for very non-programmed, undefined and unthinkable activities. This process increases the public performance in the building and, in my opinion, this increases sustainability of the project. The buildings that are not used are not sustainable and this is the main goal of publicness and its connection to sustainability.

How do you perceive the users/inhabitants of your creations? Are they inspiration or resource or something else?

Boštjan Vuga: When we start designing, we always ask ourselves how this particular building will be used and what spatial and architectural effect will have to its user.

On the other hand, we also investigate what kind of influence the users will have on the public space. People are not just a statistical facts and data, they are specific individuals or social groups with their own needs, desires, emotions, ideas and as such a defined target group – the target group of our work and creations. If we talk about the New Entrance Hall for the National Gallery of Slovenia project, the idea was to bring those people into the area of the institution who had no intention to visit the show. Imagine, for example, what a mother with a kid will do within the domain of the building. Let's say it's a winter day, thus you need to consider what kind of space will be appropriate for them? Another example may be a reception for... let's say, the German ambassador or me, a common citizen, going there to read a book while having a nice view to the park. You have to create public spaces that are more like an open stage, which can be changed, altered and adapted to different usages. It is very important and I am really happy to see how some buildings from our creation are living and how they are used and how they

are aging. If buildings are not used they are not aging well, just like human beings.

The space for the city and the citizens is a sort of synergy of people and space. How do you accomplish it? Where do you find the connections and how do you enable links?

Boštjan Vuga: It refers to what I have been mentioning before. If you do not conceptualize and design with people in mind, then a building becomes just an empty object that could be very difficult to bring to life. To explain a little bit further: I am very attracted to the modernist architecture of Ex-Yugoslavia and since many of that is unused and abandoned the question is how they can be reanimated? What I am trying to find out with the group of students and through the workshop I have conducted in Montenegro, is how these buildings, which were planned, designed and built in a different country, condition and with a different program – how they could be brought back to life? This means that instead of demolishing massive concrete constructions and replacing them with the new structures, I think that one can imbue them with more social/sustainable peoples’ use. Therefore, for all the existing memorial houses, abounded hotels along the Adriatic coast or museums etc., you may find new, more suitable users.

Of course you can‘t chose the hotel from the 70s which is built for different purpose and by different standards and construction techniques and turn it into a new hotel which will respond to all current high standards of tourism. However, you can actually find a different type of users, different target groups, maybe younger generations, who will come and not require such comfort that the standards are setting. This creates links to different target groups and users within the existing mass that reanimate the particular architectural space.

Air Traffic Control Center – ATCC, Brnik, airport 2013 Source: SADAR + VUGA (Photograph Miran Kambič)

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Cultural Center of EU Space Technologies – KSEVT Vitanje 2012 Source: SADAR + VUGA (Photograph Tomaž Gregorič)

How do you conquer the challenge of creating in a strong context of identity that does not have the emblematic appearance?

Boštjan Vuga: If you had asked me this question 5–6 years ago, you would have got a very different answer.

Then I would say that it would be by studying the micro context and creating something that will not be in the contradiction to the context, but to contribute and enrich the context itself by its architecture and visual presence. Therefore, this means that provided formula makes it so that you will never repeat yourself, because the context will always be different having strong influence to the concept to the design of the building.

Now, I am less interested in this kind of iconic or emblematic appearance than I used to be.

Before it was OK to say: If you wish to influence social behaviour within a society with an architecture, you will need to create a strong iconic identity. Through the ‘publicness’ I think that this is not necessary. We don’t need iconic buildings per se but we need more recognizable and identifiable spaces. This is what I am interested in – how to create an environment on one hand spatially and architecturally strong and on the other hand to leave enough gaps for you as a user and perceiver, visitor or inhabitant to have adequate space for changing and adapting it to your own vision – i.e. creating your own micro environment in the building. It my be said that what we are doing is more like a hardware for software which will come with users.

What is more important for the future of a building: A method of its creative process or the communication with its users?

Boštjan Vuga: I think these two entities can’t be separated from each other. I still believe that architecture should be innovative. This means that innovation in every discipline is a strong fact to get or to push the profession forward. So, what is an innovation in architecture and how do you actually innovate? By this, I do not refer to technical innovation, but rather to the connection to the users. To be innovative in architecture, in my opinion, is to create a spatial situation that will actually have a different impact on users. For example: The ramp in the Guggenheim museum is a very innovative spatial element because it changes the way how people observe art and at the same time they move vertically through the space. It always has to do with the impact or effect on users. How is this possible? It is possible if you are really open to different resources, rather flexible than open to resources which are not only in architecture. Today it is impossible to work on your own. You need to work in a very integral connection with all other professions. So, it is open on one hand and integral on the other and this could bring innovative result.

Looking beyond the buildings as objects, how do you use architecture as an innovative tool to make a change in the environment in a physical and psychological way?

Boštjan Vuga: We need to create environments that have a certain impact on the way how people will perceive, move or use them. This is our role, and I am not talking in a political way but more from the social perspective and psychological way, the buildings always have influence on the society and the way how people use, perceive them etc.

Interview: Mirjana Uzelac Filipendin

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SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT ARCHITECTURE Interview with Philippe Rahm, Eike Roswag, Boštjan Vuga, Luca Francesco Nicoletti and Nikola Novaković At the very beginning of our professional education we will find the school, the university or personal mentor that guides us and introduces us to the very foundations of our profession. At some point students choose their own path and become researchers – curious people searching for their own way to express creativity. For some of them the search continues long after the books and exams are done and the innovation becomes their unique ‘creative language’. Others found their language before they even start any training and use schools as fine tool for defining their style or attitude.

Either way, it is always an honour to work and/or talk with creative minds that actively bring changes into the world, particularly into the architectural one.

Therefore, a dialogue is the opportunity to examine personal response to some of the basic questions and to provide readers with spectra of various answers and opinions. We asked few questions some of the lecturers from the S.ARCH– 2014 conference and this is the collage of their interesting answers. If we wish to move the standards of our profession it is crucial to stay open minded and join discussions. We may find them interesting or annoying but they may inspire some of us to rethink or even question our own projects, theories or opinions.

Philippe Rahm France

Eike Roswag Germany

Boštjan Vuga Slovenia

Luca Francesco Nicoletti Italy

Nikola Novaković Montenegro

Do you find architecture to be an open or a closed book (in a matter of flexibility for the improvement of the profession and the correspondence with other professions)?

Philippe Rahm

We thought we were the grandchildren of Marcel Duchamp and we discovered that in reality we are the descendants of Claude Monet. We were taught to distrust science and here we are rediscovering an artist engaged with the scientific avant-garde of his time, working on the principle of a colours optical mix of Charles Blanc or the law of simultaneous contrast theorized

by Michel-Eugène Chevreul. In a current analysis of the vaporized and meteorological work of Claude Monet, a possibility exists to draw another genealogy of French contemporary architecture, which would go back up, through spectral music and Nouveau Roman, in a straight line to the Impressionists. What matters most is not the subject but the shapes that may arise from analytical dissociation of the methods we work with. We explore the infinitely small, we analyse the optical or sound spectra, we decompose reality into visual, electromagnetic or thermal particles, then we recompose it but only with a number of its elements, not all of them. In all these works, there is a sort of French light, this rational brightness of the enlightenment, the whiteness of writing, this almost chemical objectivity, a lack of narrative, but from which emerges something magical, a "disturbing unreality", related to "a further realism more than a deliberate fiction" as Gerard Genette said about RobbeGrillet. My work is coming within the scope of this descent: I am an impressionist too.

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Eike Roswag

Architecture is a structural part of our society, lasting very long and having a major effect on everybody’s life. Architecture has a huge responsibility for the built environment and the global environment. After the carbon period, a new "environmental" period is rising with fundamental changes. The major changes can only be tackled with an integrated design in communication within our and with other professions and in dialogue with the society.

Boštjan Vuga

It is a very open book with many pages still to be written. Maybe the role of an architect has changed. I would say that architects need to have a manifold role and be up to date with everything in the contemporary society. Architect is like a conductor in integral design process.

He has to be a great communicator, to still inject new inputs into the society and to contribute to the future development in both physical and digital environment. What I mean is that this architect of today – I do not perceive him as a kind of a master in his own studio always sketching his ideas and then someone else would draw it, but is more like a person who has visions or scenarios, while at the same time very much aware that all these things are not possible without strong collaboration with other people.

Luca Francesco Nicoletti

Being an architect is about knowing about all the professions. One does not have to be an expert, but one has to know about sound, pedagogy, psychology, mathematics, about every field of interest that acts upon the life of a man. Architecture is an open book.

Nikola Novaković

In my nature, I am very energetic and curious person, so I felt in love with our profession because it never ends and never repeat. Always new tasks, locations, new clients and new wishes and what is the most important, new ideas.

Architecture is an open field. We are facing constantly with new materials, new construction solutions, and new technologies in architecture. The beauty and difference from other professions are the issues that architecture keeps you in shape to constantly learn and explore, to follow and to train your spirit and imagination.

Is there a space and time to rewrite our profession?

Philippe Rahm

Museum, magazines and lectures are the place for a critical approach of our profession. But critical is only the first step. It leads to a new language that will be used in forthcoming projects.

Many architects of my generation show projects in museums or galleries and the difference compared to previous generations is that we do not present drawings or models, but real experimental spaces that you can enter. It is exactly what Aaron Betsky, and he was right, wanted to do with the Venice Biennale in 2008 and it is the notion that Kazuyo Sejima also adopted for the Biennale in 2010. It is strange that when architects want to create real spaces for exhibitions, that one could actually enter, some people think that they are trying to make art or design objects. It is absurd. The truth is exactly the opposite. When an exhibiting architect presents plans and models, which we cannot enter, it is like he/she is imitating literally the modes of representation of painting and sculpture. But besides this polemic, I think what interests us about working in a museum, is the rethinking of the language with which we work – in this way we share a common concern with artists. It is redefining our tools and objectives, revolutionizing our practices and order of hierarchies, renewing our view and modes of action on the real. When an architect renews the language of architecture, it is then that he/she becomes an artist. Bernard Tschumi, Le Corbusier, Aldo Rossi or Peter Eisenman to cite a few, they are artists, because they are not content with applying a predefined language to different contexts and programs and because they redefined the architectural language itself. They took on new ways of thinking, seeing and acting on the real related to their moment in history. Working on the shift of architectural language towards the physiological and meteorological, I am trying to redefine the language by changing its priorities, confronting the contemporary challenges of climate and ecology. And it is the way my architecture practice could be defined as artistic, because it touches on the very essence

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of architectural language. However, in fact this has nothing to do with the medium. The work I do in a museum is still architecture.

Eike Roswag

The major steps we have to take in the nearby future will bring along changes to our profession. Design will focus less on an artificial design and more on an environmental design.

We need to relearn to design in relation with climate and develop an environmentally driven design that suits our future society. We are already in the period of change. For the environmental situation we created, change is the only way to succeed as a profession and as a society. If we as architects offer responsible, society adapted solutions for the built environment, society will respect our profession more than in the past. That means, we need to change the focus but not to rewrite our profession. We hold the necessary skills and experiences for future steps; however, we need to set our focus on the environment.

Boštjan Vuga

I hope that what I do in our office and with my students and through all other activities is writing a piece in it, like a short chapter. Also, if we talk about a matter of the word 'sustainability' itself – it has become so proliferate that we simply need a new word. We need to find a new term that will really express the future development. Sustainable should be almost substantial and integral as functional. It is not an issue anymore and the sustainable design is part of the architectural design same as the function, same as the context. It is something that enriches, which is important to an architectural design. This is the reason why I can connect ‘publicness’ to social sustainability. That connection to the public is something that I really think should be more developed in the future.

Luca Francesco Nicoletti

Every project I develop, every client I work with is approached with a different professional attitude. Fundamentally, though architecture will always remain an expression of an unsatisfied man wanting a better world.

Nikola Novaković

It is difficult to rewrite our profession. It exists as long as a mankind and follows the progress of the society and needs. I can talk only about architecture and rewriting profession in my country, because as far as I know there is no plan or strategy for its improvement and everything is on us, the individuals. I think that education, codes, laws and standards should be changed and improved. Sustainability is not a trend, it is a matter of awareness and it should be a part of everybody's life. It is not normal to import a stone from India, Asia for paving and constructions, till everybody knows that Montenegro is a country with lot of types of stone around.

What is by your opinion the architecture of the future and what is the future of the architecture?

Philippe Rahm

The true subject of architecture is space: space as a research subject, a project subject but also a subject in itself that, as such, has all the hallmarks of the neutral “it” – which is to say, of the thing located outside human subjectivity, without narrative and without emotion. Over the past fifty years, however, postmodern critical theory has defined space as something to be registered through its signs, by the means of contextualization, analogy, reference, allusion, representation, symbolism or narrative and by invoking collective memory and popular culture.

Climate change has brought about a reassessment of postmodern thoughts, as articulated by Bruno Latour in his 2004 essay “Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern.”. He claims that the critical theory’s methodology — the search for a meaning beyond the thing itself, reducing all scientific knowledge to the question of a “story” (as Jean-François Lyotard puts it) — has fallen into the hands of revisionists and conspiracy theorists, who deny global warming and cast doubt on scientific method. Lamenting this turn of affairs, Latour has contributed to an effort to surmount critical theory and to stop reducing things to stories, which thinkers like Hal Foster call “post-critical.” For Latour, the current ecological crisis brings back the earth’s archaism and the neutrality of the thing. In practice, the thing has always remained outside of narrative and human subjectivity; it has never

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attained the status of a fully humanized object. Today, as Peter Sloterdijk asserts, the thing is like an atmosphere where the human is within rather than faces the object.

To define space as a (or the) thing beyond all metaphorical meaning and to recognize its neutrality, is to leave behind the games of semantic analogy for a physical, chemical, electromagnetic analysis of things and space and human interaction with them. This is, for me, the coming architecture.

I would like to write another genealogy of architecture that starts with Roland Barthes’ degree zero, Maurice Blanchot’s blankness, Alain Robbe-Grillet’s neutrality and continues today in Marie Darrieussecq’s molecular literature, in which space and object are dissolved into elementary particles and Aurélien Bellanger’s so-called white writing, which reintroduces an objective narration. The first step is to strip space of all sentimental burdens and psychological descriptors and to dispose of its genre in order to access the neutral, to define space as a thing that is only material. This project differs from the degree zero of the 1950s, which, in a certain sense, moved the neutral toward the pure, colourless and inert. In contrast, the neutral we seek today is polarized, intensified, dynamic; heavy or light, hot or cold, arid or humid; composed of waves, particles, pressure. Space that no longer carries meaning and significance becomes a thing, without gender and without psychology, but nonetheless completely endowed with physical, electromagnetic, chemical, biological and thermodynamic properties.

The future of architecture lies in the same post-critical tendency: we must empty architecture of its narrative superstructures through the erasure of subjectivities in order to rediscover a certain blankness or psychological neutrality of things. In this process, we can discover the formal and programmatic possibilities of things for the design of spaces and buildings through quantifiable scientific knowledge. This is a paradigm shift, where space no longer has a meaning but instead has physical and chemical presence. We must engage the targets of critical theory (subjectivity, multiplicity, alterity, diversity) but change its tools (narrative, story), replacing them with objective, scientific, neutral and non-narrative approaches. This is where the semantic gives way to the somatic and where storytelling and fiction make room for the measured properties of the world, in a new objectivity of things, of space.

Eike Roswag

The present movement of sustainable architecture puts its main focus on energy efficiency.

We are able to design zero carbon and plus energy buildings, but most of the buildings are looking exactly like in the past. I think future architecture will be climate adapted. A glass box in the desert makes no sense at all. We need to adapt buildings to climate and society.

Especially in Germany, we are trying to solve all problems with a technical solution, which means building services. At the moment, we are going to mechanically ventilate all our dwellings in Germany, what is a wrong direction.

After energy efficiency, Roswag Architekten focus on resource efficiency. We will use more and more natural materials such as earth, wood, straw, bamboo etc. These materials are vapour active and benefit the indoor environmental quality. If we specify hygroscopic materials, we can reduce building technology while improving occupant comfort.

Spectacular architecture, as events showcasing economic power, is a sign of a consumer society, trusting in economic growth. My personal design approach is based on modesty.

Beautiful, humble buildings in all parts of the world could be a sign for a future global society.

Boštjan Vuga

I would be happy to see that architecture of the future will ne very basic or primary, that we will live in very responsive environments, spaces that are responsive to the context, even to the climate or season changes, but also responsive to our needs (moods). Try to imagine living in a house where you can actually move or migrate within the house and use it in a different way during the winter time and summer time as our ancestors did two millenniums ago.

Besides that, you will have all these digital devices that will help you interact with your house and a house to interact with users. Let’s say the minute you feel sad the house will react to influence your mood. I believe that the architecture of the future will be back to basics and open to responsiveness on one hand and very digital on the other hand. However, this digital aspect will be so hidden and integrated in spatial design that will not be visible.

The future of architecture as a discipline... I think this question refers to the one – 'what is the role of an architect?'. The role of an architect is to explore and think, and not only to design possible connections between the existing buildings and new users or between new buildings

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and new users. It is always up to the architect, and I think and believe that this is a very top down strategy. I as an architect, still believe my role is to propose and then to be flexible enough to negotiate and find out what is better.

I think that architects and architecture will not disappear and although our role as a mastermind has drastically decreased, we are still needed as visionaries and generators for future projects.

Luca Francesco Nicoletti

Perhaps I am repeating myself but architecture is about future. It is an individual wanting to build a better future. Therefore, from the day, man began to build and to design it was about creating a ‘tomorrow’. There is an infinite future to architecture.

Nikola Novaković

It is hard to say, but in my opinion, form is explored through our history, so new creations are mostly based on existing and already designed forms. On other hand, progress of society is moving so fast that it will not be able to tolerate certain form, and designed function for decades. So, my vision of the future of the architecture is that the objects will need to be easily changed and transformed, so the buildings will always have to respond to peoples’ needs. That will also cause losing a form. Form will be generated from transformation, function or users’ needs. Also, this concept is same for urban planning.

Anyway, the future of architecture has to have the power to change the way that we live – to be better.

Interview: Mirjana Uzelac Filipendin

Jade Mateo Park Taiwan Source: Philippe Rahm architectes

Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia Source: SADAR + VUGA (Photograph Hisao Suzuki) “House Ihlow” Load – Bearing Rammed Earh House, Germany Source: Ziegert | Roswag | Seiler Architekten Ingenieure

Residential Waterfront Development Kuala Lumpur, Mallaysis Source: STUDIO NICOLETTI ASSOCIATI

Holick House Source: enforma

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Authors’ Papers

1

Karin Standler

Open Spaces for Young People – Teens_Open_Space 7

Tarek Abdelsalam

A Vision for Future: Analysis of the Prominent Synthesis of Culture and Sustainability in Hassan Fathy Architecture 17

Pavle Stamenović, Dušan Stojanović, Dunja Predić

Extended Process of Architectural Design: Sustainable Development without a Master Plan. The Case of Kagran Area, Vienna 26

Hassan Estaji

Flexible Spatial Configuration in Traditional Houses, The Case of Sabzevar 36

Manfredo Manfredini, Paola Leardini

Existing Stock for the Future: Problems, Opportunities and Strategies for Energy Upgrade of 1940–1960 State Housing in New Zealand 43

Ljiljana Djukanović, Milica Jovanović Popović, Ana Radivojević

Potential Energy Savings in the Process of Rehabilitation of Residential Buildings built before the Second World War 51

Saja Kosanović, Milica Jovanović Popović

Ecological Assessment of Building Materials in Serbia: Constrains and Possibilities 58

Haris Bradić

Kromolj House in Sarajevo

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DOI: 10.14621/tna.20140101

Open Spaces for Young People – Teens_Open_Space Karin Standler Technical Office for Landscape Planning Seidengasse 13/3, A-1070 Vienna, Austria, office@standler.at

Abstract

1. Introduction

For young people, public space is an important part of their growing up, a requirement for social interaction and the development of social identity. The project teens_open_space is a process of youth participation within city and municipal development and in the use and designing of public spaces.

The idea, the method and the process were developed by the landscape planning office Karin Standler in Vienna. teens_open_space is the project idea to change public open spaces in the city in the interest of young people and under their active cooperation during a methodically trained planning process. The goal is to include young people into a planning process as active partners and to activate their perception and action resources. In the teens_open_space project, teenagers have the opportunity to take over responsibility in their environment. In the process they discover their spaces new and redesign them with the help of landscape architects. In planning workshops they built models of their ideas, which will be presented to the members of the city council. In construction workshops the designs of the sites are constructed by the teens themselves with the help of the city´s construction department.

For young people, public space is an important part of their growing up, public spaces are a requirement for social interaction and the development of social identity. Teenagers hang out in public spaces, they use it as spaces for communication and interaction, for exercise and as retreat. They are one of the strongest user-groups of public spaces [1]. The importance of open space for young people however is hardly reflected in town planning strategies or the design of public spaces. Juvenile demands for open space are underrepresented and have literally little space.

Partly the lack of open space for young people is due to the radical attribution of large areas to only one legitimate use: ramps for skaters, children's playgrounds for children, football fields for associations. This monofunctionalization and specialization affect especially young people, since they intensively use public spaces.

The common open spaces hardly suit everyday life, multifunctional and variable elements are hard to find and the gender aspect is not accounted for.

2. Teenagers in public open spaces – A disregarded user group

Keywords:

Youth participation, Open space design, Landscape Architecture, Planning process, City planning

Article history:

Received: 3 July 2014 Revised: Accepted: 25 July 2014

A differentiation of the term "young person" seems important to us. Experience shows that young people between 13 and 15 have other priorities in their lives and thus different demands concerning open spaces than young people at the age of 16 or 18. Girls have different preferences than boys. In the contrary to recognized infant needs, the demands of young people for more space are hardly legitimized and appropriate equipment for them does not exist. There are quantitative and qualitative regulations concerning infants´ play areas, both in housing developments and public spaces. They are entitled to a certain amount of (semi) public space and guaranteed quality. Teenagers on the other hand are "expelled". No special design/planning reference is made concerning teenage

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leisure behavior and the characteristics of young people.

Quality open space for young people must not only offer the appropriate equipment for the satisfaction of their basic needs (communication, retreat and exercise) but must also present the important chance to provide social distance, to be unobserved and to gain experiences in their own social structure. It is therefore justified and necessary to define young people as an important user group in public space in order to waive the isolation of juvenile interests.

Young people use public spaces in a different way from most other users. More self-determined and sometimes aggressive, they are no longer "sweet" to attract enough affectionate tolerance. A small group of young people is already felt to be disturbing or threatening and nobody knows what to do with theirs demands and desires. That may be the reason that research and open space planning are putting far less attention on their spatial demands than on those of the sweet children [2].

The way teenagers use open spaces often contradicts the value conceptions of adults and is often seen negatively. The claim is made that young people should integrate themselves quickly into the world of the adults, thus ignoring their realities and their legitimate wishes and negating consequences for planning [3].

3. The teens_open_space project In line with the Austrian Ministry of Science´s research project on cultural landscapes in 2000, the teens_open_space method for youth participation in open space design was developed. Young people in Bruck an der Mur in Styria (Austria) were the first to participate and to adapt three public spaces according to their needs (Figure 1). teens_open_space is co-funded by the European Union and takes place in cities in Austria and Slovakia and can take place everywhere. The examples and experiences put together in this paper represent a synopsis of six years of the project.

3.1. Starting point: Personal experiences Starting point for the work with young people is finding out about their personal experiences in public spaces and about the demands they have for open space in their municipality. This personal approach triggers considerations about spatial conditions and their influence on young peoples´ actual experience of the public space. The teens_open_space youth participatory process has the goal to carry out the design suggestions of participating young people and to create spatial facts and publicity for the topic of public open space design and ensuing change of quality of young peoples´ environments. The project offers various possibilities to articulate their spatial needs by offering different activities and methods (drawing sketches, building models, drawing plans, negotiating with mayors and responsible officials, presenting ideas, working in a filmteam etc.). teens_open_space lets teenagers speak for themselves and get active for the improvement of their most used open spaces: They analyse their open space situation, plan their open spaces, discuss and negotiate their plans with decision makers. Together with the municipality they are searching for possibilities to realize their ideas for newly equipped spaces.

The work on the project is based on the following process: Perception – articulation – reflection – design – transformation. Four workshops take them through this process: City Walk, Planning workshop, City-line conference and Building workshop.

3.2. Planning workshops The participating young people analyse qualities and deficits of their places in city walks. With the description of positive and negative experiences, they realize the influence of public open space and the built environment on their lives. Their experiences become more conscious. They show places they really relate to, which affect their daily experiences, places they spend their spare time in or alleys they have to pass through

Figure 1. Revaluation and improvement of a dysfunctional open space under a bridge in Bruck an der Mur (Styria, Austria) through local youngsters ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ K. Standler: “Open Spaces for Young People – Teens_Open_Space”, pp. 1–6

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Figure 2. Models help to transfer the idea and the image of the perfect space for the young participants to municipal authorities in the city_line conference

Figure 3. The building workshop: Young people realize their ideas and open space wishes with the help of the municipal building department

on their way to work/school. In small groups (approx. 612 people) the teenagers take us landscape designers to these places. They analyse the site, discuss amongst each other, state why it is a favourite or a scary place and express their wishes and needs. First ideas are found, what improvement this space needs, what design could do to help the place become less scary or even better.

In the planning workshop participants start drafting design ideas for their chosen site with the guidance of the landscape architects. The ideas are represented in a model. Choice of materials, dimensions and feasibility are discussed with the planners. Personal demands, innovation and feasibility are in the centre of attention.

The participants present their work in the city_line conference to the mayor, responsible officials of the town planning and youth authorities, interested parents etc. They explain their drafts and models, express those points of criticism and desire, which are the basis for their ideas (Figure 2).

Selected elements are then realized in the building workshop. Teenagers and planners do the construction

work with the support of the municipal building department and the public parks authority (Figure 3).

"Spatial" products have been e.g. communicative benches in public places, weatherproof meeting point in open spaces, new spatial concepts for parks, areas for group games and –sports, especially for girls (Figure 4).

Public spaces and teenagers´ needs are reviewed and actual changes are initiated. This leads to improvements in public spaces not only for the young people themselves, but also for other user groups and opens discussion about the municipal open space policy. The new designs cause lasting quality improvements and a revaluation of the municipality’s green spaces (Figure 5).

The qualitative improvement of the urban green belts and perspectively also the quantitative improvement of public open spaces can be promoted by special activities in public spaces, as suggested in this project. In Austria the project creates attention not only for young people and their demands for open spaces, but it also lobbies for the neglected municipal open space planning. It tries to embody open space planning strategies as independent planning discipline into urban and municipal panning. teens_open_space has its focus on the societal role and the social use of public spaces.

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Figure 4. Successful implementation of the youngsters ideas of desired open spaces: Beach volleyball field in Prambachkirchen and youth pavilion in Eferding (Upper Austria)

Figure 5. From the built model in the planning workshop, to the creation and the final result of a weather protecting concrete tube for sitting in Hartkirchen (Upper Austria)

4. Young people’s demands on open space – Results of teen_open_space

monotonous and there are only a few possible ways of use. They show the decline of public space. These places are often scary places for girls.

Favourite places of young people are open access public spaces, usually squares or parks, rarely private sites.

They are defined areas, not fallow or unused areas, no building sites or no man's land. These open spaces are usually used as intentioned (sport sites for exercise, parks to hang out). Corners in public parks are popular, where teenagers can’t be seen, but can themselves observe others. Calm atmosphere is a prerequisite for a favourite place. The common basic leisure activities of young people of all age groups are, before all, communication and social contacts and exercise/sports.

Both female and male teenagers agree on them.

Depending on age and situation of the teens, these demands have to be differentiated. Pedestrian precincts are popular meeting places and places to hang out, particularly for girls or mixed groups. Hanging out and communicating "are combined" with an "activity": e.g. exercise, watching others, studying, shopping. The favorite places are not visited alone, usually in groups with friends.

Demand for public space is gender-specific only at first sight. For social and spatial reasons it looks as if young males only wanted to do sport and young females chat and watch the on goings around them. Girls´ sports and game needs have little attention in public space. Even they themselves are often not conscious of their desires to play ball games or jog around. Only in longer discussion they express their demand for team sports/playing areas. Girls like boys want exercise, but the way they exercise is different. As opposed to the publicly recognized soccer games of boys of all ages, girl games are not recognized and not supported. The layout of open spaces reflects this picture: appropriate areas for girls´ games or areas not only dedicated to soccer are missing in most places.

Scary places are impaired by traffic or other interference factors (alcoholics, supervisors). They do not have an atmosphere, they are loud and don’t invite to linger. The equipment is mono-functional, the vegetation

Young people hang out at special places, which have meaning and their own social identity for them. Places with social identity and social security result from "allocation" of a place, from its use with a group of friends. But only those places are "allocated", which offer a spatial framework within which young people can find their identity and live accordingly. Therefore it is rarely possible to simply "shift" juvenile meeting places

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to another site. When planning a new space for young people, it is important to consider existing spatial references and the special mobility patterns of young people [4].

5. Key concluding points 5.1. Open space demands of young people are specifiable and spatially assessable Teenagers fundamental demands are spaces for communication and social contacts, areas for games/sports and retreats. Differentiations concerning the furniture of open spaces happen according to sex and age. Activating participation procedures go beyond inquiring young people’s opinions. Young persons are actively integrated into the planning process. The project explicitly promotes equal opportunities for girls in public space.

5.2. Integration of the participatory process into the municipal structure A participatory project happens in the context of existing structures (e.g. politics, administration, district institutions). It requires the openness of these institutions to allow new questions with new answers, new action fields and new dynamics. The quality of the integration of the participatory procedure into these existing structures considerably influences the success of the project and secures sustainable results

5.3. New resources from the participatory process Apart from the tangible results of the project, e.g. improved open spaces designed and built by the participants, a perspective and an atmosphere change takes place, which affects ensuing similar projects.

Briefly said: Dealing with open spaces opens mental spaces!

5.4. Connection between professional guidance and quality of results The technical support given by landscape architects to the young people during the participatory process secures the quality of the results, guarantees multifunctionality, innovative design and sustainability. A new element (e.g. outdoor seating) affects the spatial structure and cannot be left out of relation to the original place. Therefore it is necessary for the municipality to consider restructuring and redesigning the whole site.

5.5. Participation only with consequences Substantial motivation for participating in the participatory process is the effectiveness of its results, the visible, noticeable improvements, new spaces and built elements in consequence of one’s own commitment. A goal of the process must be the implementation of results, at least small immediate measures. The construction has to actively involve the participants.

5.6. Sustainable participatory process If the project is terminated and the implementation of the results has not been fully completed (that seems to be the rule, rather than the exception), it is important to hand over the responsibilities of project management to an "integrative" figure (professional or nonprofessional), who pursues completion. This "integrative" figure is crucial for the sustainability of the process and its result.

6. Conclusion Young people hang out at special places, which have meaning and their own social identity for them. Places with social identity and social security result from „allocation“ of a place, from its use with a group of friends. But only those places are acquired, which offer a spatial framework within which young people can find their identity and live accordingly. Therefore it is nearly impossible to simply „shift“ juvenile meeting places to another site. When planning new spaces for young people, it is important to consider existing spatial references, the special mobility patterns of young people and acknowledge their wishes and ideas.

Acknowledgement Gratitude towards the municipality of the city Bruck an der Mur and the Leader+ region of Eferding for the cooperation.

Funding source Research funding from the Austrian Ministry of Science´s research project on cultural landscapes.

References [1]

Paravicini, U, et al., Neukonzeption öffentlicher Räume im europäischen Vergleich, Forschungsbericht (New concepts for public spaces

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[2]

in an European comparison, research report, German language), Niedersächsischer Forschungsverbund für Frauen/Geschlechterforschung in Naturwissenschaften, Hannover, Germany, 2002.

[3]

Keller, U.; Nagel, G., Qualitätskriterien für die Nutzung öffentlicher Freiräume (Quality criteria for the use of public space, German language) Institute for green space planning and garden architecture, University Hannover, Germany, 1986.

Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien (The Chamber of Labour in Vienna) (ed.) Grünraum für Wien.

Anforderungen an eine soziale Grünraumplanung und –versorgung (Green space for Vienna. Requirements for a social green space planning and provision, German language), Vienna, Austria, 1995.

[4]

Karow-Kluge, D., Gewagte Räume. Experimente als Teil von Planung zwischen Wissenschaft, Gesellschaft und Kunst (Daring spaces.

Experiments as part of planning between science, society and art, German language), Reimer, Berlin, Germany, 2010.

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DOI: 10.14621/tna.20140102

A Vision for Future: Analysis of the Prominent Synthesis of Culture and Sustainability in Hassan Fathy Architecture Tarek Abdelsalam University of Modern Sciences and Arts (MSA) 5141 street 43, Almokattam, Cairo, Egypt, tareqslam@gmail.com

Abstract

1. Objectives and methodology

Sustainability in architecture has become a global concern as one of the consequences of energy crisis and the calls for reliance on renewable energy resources. In the last two decades, Arab architecture has been witnessing an increasing interest in sustainability. A large number of attempts were carried out by Arab architects to present truly sustainable design solutions. Yet, most of these attempts have failed to expand the general meaning of sustainable architecture from designing environmentally friendly buildings to architecture incorporating culture and local identity into design process. Ignoring the local cultural peculiarities, while dealing with sustainable architecture in the Arab society, deprives architecture from expressing identity of the local community. The Egyptian leading architect Hassan Fathy, who passed away 25 years ago, has successfully addressed this issue through his work and left a great wealth of buildings that reflect the prominent synthesis of culture and sustainability. These buildings that Fathy designed through his fruitful and distinguished journey include numerous significant lessons for future.

Although a large number of researches and studies were carried out to investigate and analyze Fathy's work, yet the synthesis of sustainability and culture in his work has not been touched.

Through focusing on this issue, this paper explores and analyzes the implications of integrating sustainability principles with cultural dimensions in Fathy's work to present an appropriate paradigm of sustainable architecture that engages culture and local identity of the community. This paradigm moves away from universal and absolute technologically based design methodologies to avoid the contradiction with cultural values of the local community. This paradigm is expected to guide architects, researchers, and decision makers in dealing with sustainable architecture in particular localities. To attain this objective, this research will discuss Fathy's thought and principles, in addition to investigate and analyze a number of his distinctive projects in Egypt.

This research aims to introduce an appropriate paradigm that engages culture and local identity while dealing with sustainable architecture in the Arab world.

To attain this objective, the research methodology will rely on; firstly: a documentary analysis of thought and principles of Hassan Fathy in dealing with sustainability issues. Secondly: in-depth analysis and investigation of examples of Fathy's work that integrate clear cultural dimensions and sustainability principles.

Keywords:

Sustainable architecture, Hassan Fathy, Culture, Arab architecture, Eco-culture

Article history:

Received: 7 July 2014 Revised: Accepted: 25 July 2014

2. Culture Before discussing the syntheses of culture and sustainability, we need to review the cultural dimensions in architecture. Robert Downs indicates that culture represents a mental map which guides us in our relations to our surroundings and to other people [1]. In general, culture is the predominating attitudes and behaviours that characterize the functioning of a group or organization. It is the totality of meanings, beliefs, values, customs, norms and symbols relative to society.

It includes all creations, material and non-material achievements, the inherited expectations, the past and present gains as a result of living together [2]. It is important to discus beliefs, values, and norms as key elements of culture. Beliefs are the means by which people make sense of their experiences, both personal and social. Values direct people on what should and should not be done, what is good or bad, and what, why, and how to choose. Norms are shared patterns of behaviour in a particular culture that informs its members what they should or should not do in a given situation [3].

Culture refers to material and non-material aspects.

Material culture refers to the physical, tangible, and concrete objects produced by people. Behind the artefacts or material objects is the pattern of culture that came from the ideas of the artefact, its use and function and the techniques of using or applying it.

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Material culture determines the physical options and opportunities of the society like the kind of foods eaten, the kind of clothes worn, the kind of houses lived, or the settling of the community in which one lives. These physical objects (art, crafts, food, costumes, and architecture) are products of culture. Technology also is a product of culture. It refers to the techniques and knowledge in utilizing raw materials to produce food, tools, clothing, shelter and means of transportation. Yet, the form of dwelling for example cannot be understood only by a consideration of the technique and material used. It is first of all necessary to be aware of how the principles of the local group are applied and what kinds of work are performed by this group, and in which rules [4].

involves a system of rules, attitudes, values, beliefs and norms and conveys the sustainability of vitality of the community [8]. Guy and Farmer classifying sustainable architecture under six different categories based on the main logic and methods as: eco-techno, eco-centric, eco-aesthetic, eco-cultural, eco-medical and eco-social.

The eco-cultural logic highlights the preservation and conservation of the variety of the existing cultural archetypes with a concern for cultural continuity. This logic leads to transformation and re-use of traditional construction techniques, building typologies and settlement patterns for expression of the cultural sustainability. This approach denies universal and technologically based design methodologies that often fail to coincide with the cultural values of a particular place and people [9].

3. Sustainability

This logic emphasizes the significance of sustainability of the culture to be provided through design in architecture. It argues that the existence of a critical interaction between culture and environment through which they continually redefine each other.

Environmental and cultural sustainability could be achieved through adopting a regional design approach.

In regional approach, design regards the climate and intends to sustain the culture of the region through considering the existing pattern of the region, the existing architectural features of the buildings, the existing lifestyles of the inhabitants and the existing cultural issues. In brief, regional design meets the goals of eco-cultural logic of sustainable architecture [10].

Principles of sustainable development have three main dimensions. Firstly: the economic dimension which is based on increasing the welfare of society (household) through the optimum utilization of natural and human resources. Secondly: the social dimension which refers to the relationship among human beings and between them and nature. Thirdly: the environmental dimension and the preservation of the resources that are based upon physical, biological and ecological systems [5]. At this point, it is important to indicate that the clues for the development of a more sustainable order lay in the examination of what was. It is self evident that many ancient cultures necessarily held a symbiotic relationship with their environment [6].

The previous three main dimensions can be interpreted in detail through six principles that together could build into a sustainable architecture: (a) conserving energy; as a building should be constructed so as to minimize the need for fossil fuels to run it, (b) working with climate; buildings should be designed to work with climate and natural energy sources, (c) minimizing new resources; a building should be designed so as to minimize the use of new resources and, at the end of its useful life, to form resources for other architecture, (d) respect for users; sustainable architecture recognizes the importance of all the people involved with it, (e) respect for site; buildings should respond to site conditions and the context influence, (f) holism; all the sustainability principles need to be embodied in a holistic approach to the built environment [7].

4. Culture and sustainability At this point, it is important to answer a crucial question; is there any link between culture and sustainability in the realm of architecture. Culture which is expressed through the community as well as the individual,

5. The problem definition To explain the current problem that faces sustainable architecture in the Arab world, we need to highlight two recent projects in the Gulf States that are known as successful sustainable buildings. The first project is Qatar National Convention Centre (Figure 1), which operates efficiently with over 3,500 square meters of solar panels that provide 12.5% of the needed energy for the building. The building meets the standard for gold certification from the US Green Building Council's leadership in LEED. The second project is Bahrain World Trade Centre (Figure 2), which comprises two identical 50-storey commercial office towers overlooking the Arabian Gulf. With its three 29-meter diameter wind turbines that are supported by 30-meter bridges spanning between the two towers. The turbines generate 11-15% of the energy required in the two towers. It is clear that both of the two projects can be seen everywhere around the globe which means that they do not reflect any local identity or cultural aspects of their contexts. To crystallize the problem, we can argue that a large number of attempts are carried out in the Arab states to present truly sustainable design solutions. Yet, most of these attempts have failed to

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Figure 1. Qatar National Convention Centre

expand the general meaning of sustainable architecture from designing environmentally friendly buildings to architecture incorporating culture and local identity into design process. The Egyptian leading architect Hassan Fathy has successfully addressed this issue through his buildings that reflect the prominent synthesis of culture and sustainability.

6. Hassan Fathy … Thought and principles To analyze the prominent synthesis of cultural dimensions and sustainability principles in Fathy's work, it is important to review his architectural thought and guiding principles. At this point, it is important to indicate that architecture of Hassan Fathy is an innate product of reactions between factors of nature and socio-cultural influences, which reflects the environmental thought of this architecture. There may be said to be six general principles which guided Hassan Fathy throughout his career: his belief in the primacy of human values in architecture; the importance of a universal rather than a limited approach; the use of appropriate technology; the need for socially oriented, co-operative construction techniques; the essential role of tradition; and the re-establishment of national cultural pride through the act of building [11].

6.1. Implications of cultural dimensions in Fathy’s work Fathy's belief in the primacy of human values in architecture can be seen at many levels. He has anticipated many concerns about the destruction of the environment that are being voiced with increasing urgency today. He set himself apart from the majority of practitioners of his time by rejecting the temptation to reduce the role of the building users in the design and building process. In his design for the village of New Gourna, he astonished critics with his insistence on the

Figure 2. Bahrain World Trade Centre

custom design of each house in a settlement intended for seven thousand people [12]. Respecting human and social values of the New Gourna community was apparent in Fathy's design by utilizing elements that reflect these values. Fathy introduces "magaz" or offset entry into not only the houses of the village, but also the mosque plan to act as a valve between the large public square outside and the quite sanctity of the interior and prepare the worshipper for prayer (Figure 3). This magaz was provided with a "mastaba' or a large step to be used for sitting, making this a social space where people may gather after prayers to talk (Figure 4).

Fathy encouraged a deeper respect for the use of tradition in architecture as the social analogy of the personal habit. He believes that it is the responsibility of each architect to develop a heightened awareness of such habits, and to incorporate them into each design.

For Fathy, the discovery of traditional form also involved the search for a missing link in a cultural chain that had been cut by the intrusion of the industrial age, especially in his own country. In his wish to keep tradition alive, and to provide a place for visitors and townspeople alike to see authentic rituals, Fathy designed an open-air "palestra" or fighting stage to be located near the gateway of the New Gourna public square (Figure 5). In addition to folklorique performances, singing, conferences, film projection, and many different kinds of gathering, the stick-fencing championships are also contested here (Figure 6). In spite of the real danger involved, it is considered as much a traditional art form as the oriental disciplines [13].

Fathy attempted to reawaken a sense of cultural pride among the Egyptians, and to make them aware of their rich architectural heritage. Because of his efforts, many young people are more informed about the Islamic architecture in the medieval part of Cairo. This new awareness is no longer confined to Egypt alone, as Fathy's name has become associated with the reestablishment of architectural tradition throughout the

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Figure 3. Plan of New Gourna mosque showing the use of "magaz" in the entrance space

Figure 4. Main elevation of New Gourna mosque

Figure 5. Plan of the theatre of New Gourna

Figure 6. Open air theatre of New Gourna

Figure 7. Heritable elements of courtyard in Fouad Riad house

Figure 8. Vaults and domes as heritable elements in Fouad Riad house

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developing countries. At this point, it is important to indicate that Fathy studied the elements and vocabularies of Islamic architecture with particular focus on Ottoman houses and reused them in his designs [14].

In this way, his architecture was distinguished by its domes, vaults, internal courtyards, thick walls, small openings and mashrabiya as a contemporary expression of Islamic architecture. If we look at Fouad Riyd house (Figure 7), we find most of these elements are utilized but in a contemporary local spirit. His careful delineation of the exterior character of the house conveys a strong feeling of a distinctive local identity (Figure 8), due in part to the juxtaposition of a pigeon tower, malqaf (wind catcher) and domed qa,a (reception hall) combination and extensive turned woodwork.

development focuses on the optimum utilization of natural and human resources and the response to site conditions and the context influences. Fathy called for building with the available building materials, as he built with adobe, stone and clay and if the wood or steel was available, he would build with it. Fathy's adoption of building with the local and available building materials was not only based on his understanding of the materials specifications at all levels, but also on his special capability of dealing with forms and compositions produced from utilizing these materials [15].

As discussed earlier in this research, the economic dimension as one of the principles of sustainable

At this point, it is important to indicate that "Dar Elislam Complex" in New Mexico, which is one of the prominent projects of Fathy, played a significant role in conveying messages that reflect one of the sustainability principles in Fathy's architecture. Actually, this complex contributed to propagating the concept of using adobe in building contemporary facilities in USA (Figures 9, 10).

One of the American citizens who has built his house by adobe indicates that because of the limited budget that he had, he did not able to build a new house in New Mexico. When he heard about Fathy and his adobe

Figure 9. Using adobe in building Dar Elislam Complex in New Mexico

Figure 10. Internal space of the mosque of Dar Elislam Complex in New Mexico

6.2. Implications of sustainability principles in Fathy’s work 6.2.1. Economic dimension

Figure 11. The use of sand brick in New Baris Village

Figure 12. The use of local lime stone in Hassan Fathy's Sidi Krir house

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buildings in New Mexico he bought his book "Architecture of the Poor" and read it. He admired the architect and his works and decided with his wife to build their new house themselves by adobe [16].

Respect to site conditions and reliance on local building materials was apparent in his project of the village of New Paris in the Kharga Oasis. He decided to develop a new technique for making sand brick as an appropriate quality of sand is available in the site (Figure 11). While he built his house in Sidii Krier on the northern coast using local limestone faced with plaster (Figure 12). This house demonstrated that Fathy's formal vocabulary and spatial thesis were not restricted to the use of a single material, but could adapt to local conditions.

6.2.2. Economic dimension At the social dimension of sustainability principles, Fathy emphasized the need for socially oriented co-operative construction techniques or what is now called "selfhelp". Having originally put this idea into practice in the construction of the village of New Gourna more than sixty years ago, he was finally to see it accepted in principle throughout the world. This project reflected another important social dimension through respecting the building users and involving them in the design process (Figures 13, 14). He built some twenty houses in the early stages to show the Gournis the kind of architecture he was proposing as they couldn't understand plans. It was an opportunity for him to observe the families actually living in them and consult them by seeing their needs in practice [17]. Inhabitants participation in the design and construction process was one of the main pillars of Fathy's thought. Through this process he enhanced the people sense of belonging and pride which led them to preserve their houses and react to them in a positive way.

Inhabitants' participation in the design and construction process provided a unique personal identity to the house. At this point, it is important to indicate that Fathy

Figure 13. New Gourna houses, example of community participation in the design process

believed that the humanistic approach in providing the housing for poor people through community participation is more appropriate than the conventional approach of producing large numbers of houses in a short time by repeating prototypes in rows of houses [18].

6.2.3. Environmental dimension At the environmental dimension of the sustainability principles and the preservation of resources, Fathy's belief in the need for appropriate technology in architecture distinguished his work from that of the modern movement. For Fathy, technology must be applied in a way appropriate to both its users and its context, and be controlled by what he described as the "innate knowledge" that comes directly from the emotions without study or analysis. His approach to technology was closely related to the Greek meaning of the root of that word, techne, which stands for skill or craft, rather than the blind application of science [19].

Fathy believes that it is unavoidable for poor and developing societies to use the compatible and appropriate building technology. This technology relies on local building materials and local craftsmanship. In the meantime it addresses all the functional and environmental human needs without relying on imported western techniques.

To support his philosophy Fathy carried out valuable researches and studies on sustainability. He gave a great interest to the study of local building materials. He studied the specifications of clay and the structural capabilities of clay brick to utilize it in building domes and vaults wherever this material is available. In addition, he was interested in climatic research to demonstrate empirically the appropriateness of thick mud brick walls, vaults and domes for the hot arid climate. He also carried out researches and studies on organizing and activating the people participation in the building process [20].

Figure 14. Ground floor plan of New Gourna housing unit

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According to Hassan Fathy; "any architect who makes a solar furnace of his building and compensates for this by installing a huge cooling machine is approaching the problem inappropriately" [21]. Fathy indicates that successful solutions to the problem of climate did not result from deliberate scientific reasoning. They grew out of countless experiments and accidents and the experience of generations of builders who continued to use what worked and rejected what did not. They were passed on in the form of traditional, rigid, and apparently arbitrary rules for selecting sites, orienting the building and choosing the materials, building method and design. Table 1 illustrates sustainable solutions in Fathy's work that address environmental issues.

The concern for the cultural sustainability, continuity of space characteristics, use of local materials and proper responses to nature can be seen in the previous examples of Fathy's work. New Gurna Village is a new reinterpretation of a traditional urban and architectural setting. It provides sustainability both in culture through use of local materials and techniques and in environment with its extraordinary sensitivity to climatic problems. It is an outstanding example of the integration of vernacular technology with modern architectural principles. Fathy brought back the use of mud brick (adobe) and with special techniques keep building cooler during the day and wormer during the night [22]. Fathy believed that architecture was about bridging the gap between new architectural techniques and older techniques. These older techniques are sustainable and energy efficient helping the villagers to reduce their reliance on modern technologies, which are not only expensive, but have negative effects on their culture and environment [23]. Table 2 illustrates the integration of cultural dimensions with sustainability principles in Fathy's work.

7. Conclusion Based on the carried out analysis of examples of Hassan Fathy's work, and discussion of his thought and principles, we built a framework for a paradigm that engages culture and local identity in dealing with sustainable architecture in the Arab world. Arab architects and architects from other regions can utilize this paradigm while dealing with the issue of sustainable architecture in order to achieve the synthesis of culture and sustainability in their designs. This paradigm reflects the following principles: respecting cultural values and traditions and reflecting economic, social, and environmental dimensions. Graphic 1 illustrates the framework of the proposed sustainable architecture paradigm.

References [1]

Downs, Robert B., Famous American Books, Mac Graw-Hill, 1973.

[2]

Toffler, Alvin, The Culture Consumers, Random House, New York, 1973.

[3]

Downs, Robert, op. cit.

[4]

Izikowitz, K.G. and Sorensen, P., The House in East and South East Asia. Curzon Press, London, 1982.

[5]

Edgar, Goell and Lahham, Nisreen, A Future Vision for Sustainable Egyptian Cities, Lessons Learned from the International Experience, in Architecture … Urbanism & Time, Vision for the Future, proceedings of ARUP 2008, second international conference , Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt, October 2008.

[6]

Tyrrell, Roger, Culture, Climate & Place: a Cultural Perspective of Sustainable Architecture, a paper in Medio Ambiente Comportamiento Humano, 4 (2), 2003.

[7]

Vale, Brenda and Robert, Green Architecture: Design for a Sustainable Future, Thames and Hudson, London, 1991.

[8]

Matsumato, D.R. and Juang, L., Culture and Psychology, Wadsworth Publishing, San Francisco, 2003.

[9]

Guy, S. and Farmer, G., Reinterpreting Sustainable Architecture: The Place of Technology, Journal of Architectural Education, Vol. 54, 2001, issue No. 3, pp 140-148.

[10] Kultur, Sinem, Role of Culture in Sustainable Architecture, Archi-Cultural Translations through the Silk Road, proceedings of 2nd International Conference Mukogawa Women's Univ., Japan, July 14-16, 2012.

[11] Steele, James, An Architecture for People: the Complete Works of Hassan Fathy, Thames and Hudson Ltd, London, 1997.

[12] Ibid.

[13] Fathy, Hassan, Egypt, Nou Veau Village de Gourna, L' Architecture d' Aujourd' hui, volume 39,1968, issue no. 140, pp 12-13.

[14] Steele, James, The Hassan Fathy Collection, The Aga Khan Trust for Culture, Geneva, Swetzerland, 1989.

[15] Ibrahim, Abdelbaki, The Arab Architects: Hassan Fathy, Centre for Planning and Architectural Studies, Cairo, Egypt, 1987.

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Table 1. Addressing environmental issues through sustainable solutions in Fathy's architecture Environmental issues

Sustainable solutions

- Regulating the heat temperature

the concept of courtyard with water features and plants, using thick walls externally, and using the local building materials.

- Noise insulation

using double and thick walls, internal courtyards, roof gardens, and skylight all attain the desirable noise insulation in his works.

- Providing homogenous day lighting

this was achieved through utilizing internal courtyards and small openings covered by mashrabiya (wooden lattice screen) on the external facades.

Examples

Courtyard of New Gourna mosque

Thick walls of New Gourna houses

Mashrabiya in Nassif house -

Protecting the building from dusts and insects

by utilizing the concept of courtyard and bent entrance (for dust) and wire mesh on the small openings and wind catcher openings.

-

Protecting the building from sun heat

the building roof as a roof garden, domes and vaults as a roofing systems, exposed masses in the form of corbel, courtyard, arcades, and mashrabiya.

-

Natural ventilation

Utilizing wind catchers, mashrabiya and small openings in the external facades and respecting the orientation of the prevailing wind.

Bent entrance in Murad house

Vaults and shallow domes in Baris market

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[16] Mortada, Hisham, Contemporary Architecture of Desert Sustainable Living: The American Southwest as a Case Study, proceedings of the International Conference: Urban Development in Arid Regions & Associated Problems, Ministry of Public Works & Housing, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 11/2002.

[21] Fathy, Hassan, Natural Energy and Vernacular Architecture: Principles and Examples with Reference to the Hot Arid Climate, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1986.

[17] Fathy, Hassan, Architecture for the Poor, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1973.

[22] Schoeman, A., Hassan Fathy: An Early Visionary of Sustainable Architecture, http://www.theinnovationdiaries.com/2613/ (20.03.2012).

[18] Ibrahim, Abdelbaki, op. cit.

[23] UNESCO WHC, Safeguarding Project of Hassan Fathy's New Gourna Village, http://whc.unesco.org/en/activities/637/ (20.03.2012).

[19] Steele, James (1997), op. cit.

[20] Ibrahim, Abdelbaki, op. cit.

Table 2. Integrating cultural dimensions with sustainability principles in Fathy's work Building

Cultural dimensions

Sustainability principles

Courtyard as a place for social interaction

Domes protect the building from sun heat

Small openings in facades to ensure privacy

Using stone as a local building material

using mashrabiya as a heritable element

Skylight to provide natural day lighting

New Gourna house

Fouad Riad house

Nassif house

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Graphic 1. Framework of sustainable architecture paradigm

1. Cultural Dimensions

2. Sustainability Principles

1.1 respecting social values

by utilizing elements that reflect these values

1.2 the use of tradition

by incorporating personal habits into design

1.3 enhancing the cultural pride

by enhancing the awareness of the rich architectural heritage

2.1 economic dimension

optimum utilization of natural and human resources

2.2 social dimension

respecting the building users and involving them in the design

2.3 environmental dimension

regulating the heat temperature, providing natural ventilation, …

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DOI: 10.14621/tna.20140103

Extended Process of Architectural Design: Sustainable Development without a Master Plan. The Case of Kagran Area, Vienna Pavle Stamenović1*, Dušan Stojanović1, Dunja Predić2 1

Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade; 2Subventive Research Unit, Belgrade Bulevar Kralja Aleksandra 73/II, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia, pavle.stamenovic@gmail.com

Abstract

1. Introduction

The model of architectural design proposed in this paper aims to incorporate contingencies of everyday life into the project itself. By loosening the parameters of the master plan, this trial-and-error approach can catalyze the sustainable process of urban development. Over recent decades we have witnessed the failure of great urban expectations and promises. Therefore, the paradigm of testing could be an efficient tool in preventing the shortcomings of conventional urban planning models.

Testing as a method in architectural design and urban planning allows for bottom-up planning, starting from a unit towards the urban system, therefore offering a possibility for reflection and reaction. Most importantly, it introduces the trial-anderror approach in architectural design and planning that presents the opportunity to learn from one’s preliminary steps and adjusts the plan if necessary. By generating scenarios rather than functions, one can verify that the preliminary assumptions were correct and that the project should continue developing in a certain direction, or that the preliminary assumptions were wrong and that different solution is needed.

A complex task like growing a city community demands a strategy. It is not primarily about aesthetics and the appearance of objects, but rather about the sequential design of the order in which they appear and the resulting relationships thus created. Cities are developing at an accelerated rate, making it difficult to predict contingencies that any architectural design will have to face.

The issues that are going to be addressed in this paper are focusing on the role of architectural design process in relation to sustainable urban development. These issues will be analyzed through a case study project for urban development of Stadlau Shopping Park in Kagran area, Vienna.

The proposed extended process of design based on trialand-error method corresponds to incremental planning model developed by Lindblom: ‘[…] the development of an area proceeds step by step, adapting over the long term to changing factors and actors. New developments grow, as it were, out of existing uses, on the basis of place-specific characteristics.’ [1] This model incorporates risk management into the proposal. By loosening the parameters of the master plan, this trialand-error approach can catalyze the sustainable process of urban development. According to Lindblom and his Incremental Development, change is understood as evolutionary and not as revolutionary, therefore the design is focusing not merely on delivering typologies and finite architecture but rather on designing a potential which can evolve over the time responding to the needs of both users and market.

Lindblom’s model of incremental development has been successfully used for decades in various disciplines, but it hasn’t been applied to design process so far. The topic of the research is a proposal of how incremental model can be applied in design process itself.

Keywords:

Article history:

Extended process of design, Inhabiting, Interim, Contingency, Trial and error, Sustainable design Received: 19 July 2014 Revised: 1 August 2014 Accepted: 4 August 2014

2. The problem of divergent durations The pace of contemporary life inevitably raises the question of duration in architecture. The physical object of architecture presumably lasts longer than merely to meet the current needs of those for whom it was intended; it lasts longer than what constitutes the duration of the contemporary socio-political processes.

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[2]. Therefore the answer to the question of duration in architecture could be found in shifting the focus from the conventional procedures of urban planning and architectural design towards the relation between individual and generic. According to Iain Borden, social and political aspects of architectural production lead to the understanding of architectural space as a social category, rather than merely a question of building [3].

This research project argues that the conventional understanding of a building as a typologically determined product with an imposed function implies the divergence between architectural project and the life of the building. This paper questions the status of architecture of housing as an over-defined structure, both in space and in time. In this research, the existential space is seen as an interface (a mediator) influencing socio-political processes in order for the inhabitant to appropriate the space.

At the same time, the sustainability of architectural project is seen in the scope of extending the process of architectural design and overlapping the design process with the physical lifespan of architecture. Lifespan of the physical object of architecture inevitably exceeds the intent, purpose and function of the users for whom it was created, therefore making presumed program compromised and obsolete. Thus, there is a distortion of two durations - the lifespan of architecture as a physical object and the temporality of content, users, and circumstances. In relation to this, Jeremy Till argues ‘’that time, not space, should be seen as the primary context in which architecture is conceived.’’ [4] From this discussion we can conclude that the overdetermined physicality of an object of architecture is incapable of allowing and supporting the contingent elusiveness of everyday life. What is needed to overcome this discrepancy of two durations? How to encode a change into design process itself?

3. The extended process of architectural design for sustainable planning The projected space of the urban plan or the architectural project is produced through the drawing.

Commonly, this process of producing the space through a drawing presents a one-time, limited situation, because only after the design is finished begins the duration of building of architecture in physical space.

Despite the inevitable loss in translation from the architectural drawing towards the physical building as Jeremy Till notices [5], the architectural project is nonetheless conceived as a crucial link in the iterative procedure between intentions and results, and therefore may be nominated as a tool for research in the field of architecture during the extended process of searching for the intelligent spatial configuration. [6]

Unlike commonly criticized open-ended design models (flexibility in space), this approach implies the extended duration of architectural design process (flexibility in time and space). Since it is carried out according to previously defined values, this iterative procedure establishes a specific set of results that can later be evaluated (trial-and-error).

Bringing the user's needs closer to the design process, as well as involving the users in designing and building their own environment, incorporates one’s personal experience, character and thought into the process of spatial decision making. After a user is included into a process of constructing (his own) territory, the user has a distinct feeling of ownership of the space. In theory, a user is being transformed into an inhabitant. This understanding of the notion of inhabiting theoretically approaches Heidegger's concept, whereas building means dwelling [7]. This research project introduces a strategy of encouraging negotiations and identity building into the process of community planning, into what is conceived as an extended process of architectural design.

The extended process of architectural design transgresses the linear logic of decision-making process and consolidates itself in the iterative method where feedback information creates new positions for observing and understanding the design task. The design process is expected to provide answers to the constant need for dynamics and transformation, as well as to provide the position that encompasses multiple solutions. Christopher Alexander in his doctoral thesis published in a book "Notes on the Synthesis of Form’’ argues that the process of adapting and the concept of variability are associated with the process of architectural design, rather than the spatial characteristics of form. The discussions about the operationalization of diagrams, and a review of the analytical nature of architectural design take the central spot of his thesis. According to Alexander, architectural drawing is expected to offer more than its conventional meaning and understanding - that it is an exact information-transferring document [8]. The diagram does not have a relationship with the visual representation, yet it builds relation with the act of identifying and overcoming a problem. If we adopt Deleuze's idea that diagram has a generative role in the process of creating, the same model can be seen as an apparatus for using feedback in architectural design. [9] All the information obtained through the iterative process can be applied to modify the existing, or creating new fields of activity. The method used to establish the extended process of architectural design and urban planning is based on the theory of change [10] and is pursued through trial and error method of design.

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3.1. Trial and error: Testing as the method Testing as a design method allows for bottom-up planning and opens possibilities for reflection and reaction. Most importantly, it introduces the trial-anderror method in architectural design and urban planning that presents an opportunity to learn from one’s preliminary steps (mistakes and successes) and adjusts one‘s plan and design if necessary. By generating situations, one can verify that the preliminary assumptions were correct and that the project should continue developing in a certain direction or that the preliminary assumptions were wrong and that different solution is needed.

In relation to everyday life, the trial-and-error method enables us to acknowledge individual specificities as a variety of needs existing on all levels, which defers from the logic of designing standardized spaces. Instead of implying presumed optima, testing enables inhabitants to express individual spatial needs as to incorporate them into the design process itself.

4. Trial project: Kagran area urban development case study The issues raised in previous section concerning the design process and methods in relation to sustainable city growth will be explored further through a case study for Kagran area development project. This research project is produced as a proposal for European 12 competition with a topic The Adaptable City. Kagran area is situated in the city of Vienna whose population grows annually for 20.000 new inhabitants. One of the city strategies is to converse large dispersed areas and re-qualify them for being suitable for populating. The site is positioned between two intensive traffic infrastructures- the rail tracks and the motorway. This feature at the same time isolates as well as connects the site to the city and region on the wider scale. Recently, the new tramline is introduced, which is a precondition for inhabitation. Still, the area is based on car and truck logic that affects dimensions, distances, character and texture of the space. Therefore, the site has to be redesigned in order to attain anthropometry.

How can the impact of the new tramway stop be exploited in order to develop a new kind of urban quarter around this node within the next decades? How can a hyper-fragmented, “car-driven” area be converted into a sustainable and attractive urban quarter without neglecting the current reality? How can the existing structure adapt, step by step, to another idea of urbanity? [11].

The proposal offers creative possibilities for a project to incorporate uncertainty, lack of funding and the longterm territorial transformations that affect the site.

This “waiting period” before actually implementing a project is designed to facilitate multiple scenarios, to involve numerous stakeholders and ultimately to allow changes to the initial vision. The project depends on different processes that emerge out of the dynamics of the site context; therefore it can organically grow out of the site.

4.1. The specificity of the site: The context of Stadlau Shopping Park in Kagran Area The area of interest is divided into three zones based on their main features, problems and possibilities. The intention is to orchestrate the process of three different areas to function as a harmonious whole (Figure 1).

The most prominent feature of the Zone I is the fact that it is the single empty area; the only building on this site is used as infrastructural support for the flea market, happening once a month. The location is, from time to time, used to accommodate travelling circuses.

Dominant in Zone II are the shopping malls, with the vast empty space between two sides of the ‘street’, occupied with the parking lots. Unprogrammed and unused space between the shopping malls is recognized as the biggest obstacle in transforming this location into an urban neighbourhood, as well as the biggest spatial opportunity.

The most striking negative characteristic may be attributed to Zone III. As the consequence of long-term activity of the oil refinery this location is contaminated.

The main intention is to take the responsibility and repair what previous generations damaged, while promoting a truly sustainable model of urban existence.

4.2. Planning without a master plan The focus of the proposal is not on the end product itself, but rather on designing and stirring the process in order to satisfy the needs of the potential inhabitants, through understanding the dynamics of changeable circumstances. The main characteristic and intention of this project is developing sustainable design process, both in the field of architectural design and in the field of designing social relations. Hence, there are four stages to the proposal as four acts in a scenario. The scenario starts from a structural framework, and as the vision extends further into the future, the form of the proposal is becoming looser, guided by the inhabitants rather than controlled by the vision of a planner. The first and fourth stages of the process deal directly with the physicality of space through building, while the second and third stages are program-based and mutually informative.

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Figure 1. Stadlau Shopping Park

Figure 2. The infrastructural backbone

4.3. Trial and error: Methodology and evaluation In this research, a set of criteria is proposed, for both organization at the beginning of each phase and for the evaluation at the end. For each phase separately, these criteria are: Intention, Goal, Tool and Target Group. If the Goal is achieved then the next phase starts, if the goal is not achieved, then the Organization process starts from the beginning while redefining one or all of the proposed criteria.

Three criteria used for the evaluation: Intention, Goal and Tool are typical elements of Goal Based Planning used to create business strategies. The fourth criterion – Target Group – is specific to the project’s task to ’’make the site public’’, with the purpose to attract diverse potential inhabitants over different periods of time through exemptions, favorable building or renting condition etc.

A special advantage of Lindblom’s model of incremental development, from which the methodology of this design research departed, is that it supports and follows

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an organic progression where the project evolves over the period of time. This is achieved through periodically conducted evaluations that trigger either redefining or sustaining previously defined goals. In other words, extended process of architectural design proposed in this research should challenge rigidity and linearity of the conventional planning. On one hand it is economically much more efficient as the risk of failures often assigned to urban planning is reduced to a minimum, and on the other hand much more flexible and open for timely creative solutions.

4.4. The timeline of infrastructural backbone: Planning and inhabiting as parallel processes The common element for all three zones and all the phases is the infrastructural backbone. During the first phase the infrastructural backbone is a basic frame, while in the second and third phase, the backbone is program-oriented. In the fourth phase, when architecture and urbanization are taking more permanent presence, the backbone has completed its role as the engine of growth and it begins to dematerialize, serving as an extension of the street as a part of city’s slow mobility network (Figure 2).

4.4.1. Phase 1. The frame: Introducing infrastructural backbone Intention: facilitating; Tool: legislation; Goal: opening up a spatial possibility for an event to happen; Target group: school children, educational institutions.

‘’New spatial and constructional structures generate freedom, taking time as their departure-point.” [12].

The city of Vienna introduces a new spatial policy for businesses that operate in this area. During the one-year period each business is required to release the existing parking lot and transform it into a green public space.

Parking space should be located in the newly formed central axis that runs through the middle of the area, above the existing street. Each individual business must independently fund the prescribed changes. In the case of non-compliance with the new spatial regulations, businesses will have to pay a fine. The income raised through fines is used to improve the structure. Adopting these new spatial regulations regarding parking areas is intended to secure new public spaces.

The first stage involves building the infrastructural backbone of the site, providing plenty of parking spaces above the ground level enabling the site to become an open public space. At the same time, this spatial structure is built to open up the possibility for a program to take place. In order for the test site to grow and develop in a natural and organic manner, the structure needs to be habitable. The proposed infrastructural backbone of the site is conceived as a structure for a variety of programs, interconnected to a program of living. The grid is based on the spatial requirements of a car park, therefore generating maximum flexibility for adaptable space above, that can easily be turned into flats, offices or host public programs (Figure 3).

The existing contaminated area is cleaned through the process of phytoremediation – the use of plants that mitigate the environmental problem without the need to excavate the contaminated material and dispose of it

Figure 3. The Frame: maximum structure and minimum program

Figure 4. Inhabiting infrastructural backbone with the mixture of programs ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ P. Stamenović, D. Stojanović, D. Predić: “Extended Process of Architectural Design: Sustainable Development …”, pp. 17–25

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elsewhere. Three annual crops have demonstrated the best results forbio-remedating soil contaminated by oil products: maize, oat and lupine. These plants were tested for the phytoremediation of polluted black soil of an oil refinery plant [13]. The maize plants revealed the highest remediation ability: oil content in the soil decreased by 40% in one month. Using

phytoremediation is cost effective, has aesthetic advantages, and long-term applicability.

The installation of the main infrastructure on the site facilitates the process of phytoremediation over the contaminated zone. A research institute, as a state founded project, should slowly start to inhabit the site,

Figure 5. Bottom-up planning: From the unit towards the urban system ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ P. Stamenović, D. Stojanović, D. Predić: “Extended Process of Architectural Design: Sustainable Development …”, pp. 17–25

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Figure 6. Maximum infrastructure and maximum program

Figure 7. Infrastructural backbone becomes slow mobility network

at the begging on the very temporary basis – daily activities and workshops. The main objective of the first phase is to start building up the identity of the place by conducting research and education on the site, focusing on finding solutions for the contaminated part of the site.

4.4.2. Phase 2. Inhabiting: The temporal state of living Intention: Making the site public, Inhabiting; Tool: Promotion through events, favorable rental conditions; Goal: Raising interest, attracting future users/residents; Target group: People in interim The main purpose of this stage is to make the site public through a series of events and programs with the different time spans, from one day to a few months. This time window is used to display the new vision for the area – as a result of the previous stage, what used to be parking for shopping malls is now green public space. Together with the inhabitable spatial structure the site is becoming a field of possibilities for events to occur (Figure 4).

To promote the site as an emerging urban quarter one needs to attract an audience. The goal is to generate a heterogeneous mass, creating a schedule that will bring diverse groups of people through various events, to activate the site during all seasons, at different times of day, different days of the week, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly.

In order to sustain the mixture of programs, project proposes a model of temporal housing that would attract citizens of all incomes and variety of social

backgrounds, but with one particular common preference - need of temporal housing solution.

Initial design is based on a generic unit that would be able to host different programs and activities attached to basic dwelling- concept of living and working -home office, workshops, shops, recreational activities, activities linked to the concept of neighbourhood everyday life.

As mentioned earlier, the project proposes the concept of inhabiting instead of housing. Inhabiting is different from housing because it can last from a few hours to few decades and it is not strictly connected to dwelling as housing. It also questions and decomposes the conventional notion of a house, while introducing contemporary concept of living and working.

During the two-year period, until the infrastructure is completely developed, low cost and favorable conditions, temporariness above all, are what can attract users (Figure 5).

4.4.3. Phase 3. Towards a permanent community Intention: Fostering dynamic urban development; Tool: Favorable ownership or construction terms; Goal: Creating a hybrid compound of positive urban qualities; Target group: Potential owners, private investors In this phase the backbone reaches its full capacity both spatially and programmatically. It gains stability as an urban space and the whole site becomes a place in the city. After the mixture of programs and services is

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developed during the first two stages (acting as an infrastructural foundation for subsequent residential development), new residents are attracted with favorable ownership, rental or construction terms. In the previous phase the target group consisted of people in the interim of their lives: those who have recently moved to Austria, students, people with new businesses, alternative theatre, bars, a flea market… In this phase, due to favorable ownership conditions or construction terms, permanent residents are attracted.

Here, one can build/buy one’s home, business and social life. The plug-in working/dwelling units are located in the longitudinal structure, the backbone, and now in the third phase there is the possibility of conventional building to emerge. Residents who moved here earlier and who helped developing urban qualities have the most favorable conditions for obtaining their own permanent residence (Figure 6).

4.4.4. Phase 4. Social density: Sustainable urban growth Intention: Steering; Tool: Evaluation, Consultation and Guidance; Goal: Cultivating and improving attained; Target group: Public investors.

This is the rapid construction stage of the development.

It is reaching its most urbanized state, the area is densely populated and the programmatic diversity is getting very high offering a multiplicity of choices. Design of this stage observes the city of Vienna as a whole and involves the development of an overlapping transport network: public transport, highways and bicycle paths. What is valued and fostered for the future is therefore connected with other strategic points on a larger urban scale (Figure 7).

A special advantage of the backbone is that people don’t have to be dislocated from the site during this rapid construction and development. While the permanent, conventional, housing is being built, residents can continue to live in the infrastructural backbone. After the buildings are finished the residents can easily move in. In this moment the backbone completed its previous function and slowly begins to deconstruct until when it becomes purely infrastructural again, collecting elements such as pedestrian and bicycle lanes, slow mobility network of the city.

5. Conclusion Over recent decades we have witnessed the failures of great urban expectations and promises; the paradigm of testing could be an efficient tool in preventing the shortcomings of urban planning. It is suggested that the emphasis would be on improving the tools, and drawing time instead of space, therefore simulating scenarios,

rather than merely representing the upcoming spatial configurations. Nowadays, architectural techniques for representing and rendering reality are developed to perfection. The proposal is to use these tools for simulation of different scenarios, offering virtual reality as testing ground, rather than merely portraying finite architecture.

A project shouldn’t offer just a final product but also steps to get there, allowing more organic development of the project, increased flexibility and therefore decreased risk of financial or programmatic, thus social failures.

Finally, it should be noted that in order for the extended process of architectural design to be possible, it is not sufficient to have the understanding and tools for dealing with the contingencies of urban life, but it is crucial to initiate and define new legislative framework that would allow a productive feedback between divergent times of planning/designing on one hand, and building/inhabiting on the other.

Acknowledgement The present work benefited from the input of Msc in political sociology Mina Lazarević, who provided valuable comments to the writing of the research summarized here. The authors wish to thank architect Brian Hoy for his help in shaping the present work, both in language and content. Also, the authors would like to mention Dipl. ing. Arch. Žarko Uzelac, as a co-author of the project analyzed in this research paper.

References [1]

Lindblom, Charles, Science of Muddling through, In Public Administration Review 19, Vol. 19, Number 2, Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Society for Public Administration, (1959) pp. 79-88.

[2] Piątek, Grzegorz, Trybuś, Jarosław, Warsaw's Polonia Hotel. The Afterlife of Buildings, exhibition, the Polish Pavilion, Venice Architecture Biennale, Venice. 2008. The exhibition was awarded the Golden Lion for Best National Participation.

[3]

Borden, Iain, Inter Sections: Architectural Histories and Critical Theories, Rutledge, London, UK, 2000.

[4] Till, Jeremy, Architecture Depends, MIT Press, Cambridge, USA, 2010, p.111.

[5] Schneider, Tatjana, Till Jeremy, Flexible Housing, Architectural Press, Oxford, UK, 2007.

[6] Steenbergen, Clemens, Composing Landscapes: Analysis, Typology and Experiments for Design.

Birkhäuser, Basel, Switzerland, 2008.

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[7] Heidegger, Martin, Poetry, Language, Thought, (trans.) Hofstadter, A, Harper Colophon Books, New York, USA, 1971.

Proceedings, 12th International Conference of the IAPS. IAPS, Aristotle University Press, Halkidiki, Greece, 1992.

[8] Alexander, Christopher, Notes on the Synthesis of Form, Harvard University Press: Cambridge, USA, 1964.

[11] Excerpt from the competition brief: Europan 2013 Competition brief, available at http://www.europaneurope.eu/en/session/europan-12/site/wienkagran

[9] Deleuze, Gilles, Difference and Repetition, (Trans.)

Patton, P., Columbia Press, New York, USA (1994) In recent architectural theory that deals with the question of existence, the main theoretical strongpoint is the thought of the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze, according to whom an individual transcends repressive forms of identity in order to develop a continuous process of creation, becoming and transformation.

[10] Teymur, Necdet, A Theory of Change in Architecture (-with Limited Metamorphosis), In Socio-environmental Metamorphoses:

[12] Heyden, Rene, Time-Based Architecture: Architecture Able to Withstand Changes Through Time, 010 Publishers, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2005, p.11.

[13] Telysheva G., Jashina L., Lebedeva G., Dizhbite T., Solodovnik V., Mutere O., Grigiškis S., Baškys E., Aikaite J., Use of Plants to Remediate Soil Polluted with Oil available at <http://zdb.ru.lv/conferences/4/VTR8_I_38.pdf

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DOI: 10.14621/tna.20140104

Flexible Spatial Configuration in Traditional Houses, The Case of Sabzevar Hassan Estaji Faculty Member, Hakim Sabzevari University, Iran PhD Researcher, Institute of Architecture, University of Applied Arts Vienna Building Technology Department, 1010 Vienna, Austria, estaji@student.uni-ak.ac.at

Abstract

1. Introduction

The “Ideal House” is a building that covers all the human needs. But the biggest problem is: the house users, their needs and the environment rapidly change during the time. Due to the building technology of traditional Iranian architecture, especially the use of thick and load bearing walls, rearranging the position of walls to make changes is impossible. But the traditional Iranian houses by changing in the relationship between spaces try to respond to the changes. In this paper, “Space Syntax theory” is applied in analyzing the relationship between spaces of traditional houses in Sabzevar (northeast of Iran). This research indicates that nested space, multiple entrances for each space, selective connectability and disconnectability enable the houses to create a wide variety of spatial configuration. The flexible spatial configuration lets Iranian traditional houses to adapt themselves to changes.

Living in an ecosystem- with predictable and unpredictable variables- needs a flexible and changeable Organism. From the beginning of Earth's life, those species have been preserved, which were better adapted to changing conditions. The adaptation and flexibility deal with three main changeable issues: system, environment and user (Figure 1). In general, Flexibility is the system's ability in changing to meet the needs of users (or coming users) in response to the physical and cultural environment and user changes.

Figure 1. House system

Before addressing the issue of the flexibility and adaptability in housing, the basic question is: What needs must be met by a house for the occupants? In other words; what do people expect from a house?

Keywords:

Article history:

Flexibility, Adaptability, Space syntax, Iranian houses, Sabzevar Received: 3 July 2014 Revised: Accepted: 25 July 2014

1.1. Needs theory The first comprehensive study of human needs was “Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory”. Maslow, Abraham Harold [1] in his theory in psychology believed that there are five levels of needs in every human being that when a need is fairly well satisfied, the next

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prepotent ('higher') need emerges. Maslow divided these five levels of needs into the basic and being needs.

(Figure 2).

The basic needs: 1- The 'physiological' needs: These physiological needs are human essential requirements such as: Air, Water, Food, Rest/Sleep, Clothing, Shelter, Warmth, Sex, etc. without one of them survival is impossible.

These survivals needs form the base of Maslow’s pyramid. In case of any shortage of the physiological needs the body warns biologically and automatically, warnings such as feeling thirsty, hungry and tired.

These alarms motivate men to eliminate the need as soon as possible. This stage of needs is similar to the animals' needs.

2- The ‘safety’ needs (Comfort): Once the physiological needs are mostly fulfilled, human try to control and stabilize the condition they want to be assured that their survival needs will be provided in the future and they will be protected from diseases, neighbours and environment. In the case of sense of security and defending against danger, it does not matter the threat is real or unreal, it is important to feel safe and secure.

3- The ‘love and belongingness’ needs: When physiological and safety needs are largely satisfied, The first category of social need will emerge, the love and affection and belongingness needs [1]. People like to be a member of a group or a family; this desire to belong to a group helps them to feel safer and more secure. Being accepted by the group gives self

confidence to the members and helps them to feel they are more powerful than before.

4- The ‘esteem’ needs: This stage of needs is divided into two categories; self respect or self-esteem, and other-esteem.

The being needs: 5- If all four previous human requirements are met the final stage of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, ‘SelfActualization’, will emerge. The ultimate goal of human is to achieve their maximum personal potential; “What a man can be, he must be.”[1] All humans have the same basic needs, but the wishes and personal potential are very different from person to person. Maslow in his book, Toward a psychology of being, called it B-cognition. “Bcognition (B=being) is in contrast to D-cognition (D=deficiency-need-motivation) or human-centered and self-centered cognition.”[2] Clayton Alderfer [3] reorganized and redefined the Maslow hierarchy in ‘ERG theory’. In Alderfer's ERG motivation theory, the human needs are summarized and classified in three categories, (Figure 2): Existence needs: physiological and physical safety needs Relatedness needs: social relationships and external esteem Growth needs: self-esteem and self-actualization ERG Theory is based on Maslow theory, but contrary to it states that the human needs are not hierarchical and one by one, they may emerge at one time. Instead of

Figure 2. Maslow's hierarchy of needs and Alderfer’s ERG theory, data source [1, 3] ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ H. Estaji: “Flexible Spatial Configuration in Traditional Houses, The Case of Sabzevar”, pp. 26–35

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Maslow’s hierarchical logic, there are three mechanisms between the categories: satisfaction-progression, frustration-regression and satisfaction-strengthening.

1.2. Ideal hypothetical house, based on the needs theory The “Ideal House” is a building that covers all of the human needs. Based on the amount and type of met needs by a building, we can evaluate the house. Human needs can be divided into two main groups; objective and subjective needs. For example the shelter is a building that only meets very limited physiological objective needs. According to this criterion, the most ideal house is “Motivational” house, a house that helps users to flourish and reach their maximum personal potential. But the biggest problem is: the environment, the house users and their needs and their wishes change rapidly during the time. The house requires a flexible spatial configuration to respond to the changes, changes such as seasonal climatic changes (physical flexibility) and changing in family size and family structure (social

flexibility) and changing in wishes (cultural flexibility).

There is no clear boundary between social and cultural issues because the beliefs, religion and personal and social wishes can affect relationships between members of a family or a group, (Figure 3).

2. Why is the flexibility in housing more important than other types of building?

If we divide the human life into twelve steps, the house as a place for living from birth to the end of life must cover all of these phases of human development, while other kinds of building deal with a small number of the phases, for example kindergarten and working places only deal with three phases (Figure 4). A flexible spatial configuration can cover all the phases in the entire life.

A house is a place for human activities during days and nights in all years. The wide variety of human activities as well as a wide range of times spent in the house emphasis on the necessity of flexibility in housing design, (Figure 5).

Figure 3. Levels of the house based on the needs theory

Figure 4. Comparing the coverage of human development phases by different buildings ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ H. Estaji: “Flexible Spatial Configuration in Traditional Houses, The Case of Sabzevar”, pp. 26–35

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Figure 5. Human activities

Figure 6. Characteristics of house users

Any changes in the house users affect the space requirements, but the problem is we cannot predict and control the changes, for example the family size and family structure change during the time without any fixed patterns.

“As an architect you design for the present, with an awareness of the past, for a future which is essentially unknown.” Norman Foster [4] In Figure 6 the characteristics of house users and their activities are classified. Most of them are changeable,

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Figure 7. Vertical and horizontal movements in Iranian traditional houses

only a few of them are fixed e.g. gender. A house is not necessary to cover all these users’ needs at the same time, but it must be ready for any changes.

3. Research methodology “Buildings and cities exist for us in two ways: as the physical forms that we build and see, and as the spaces that we use and move through.” Bill Hillier [5] The first approach deals with physical form, but the next way is concerned with relationship between spatial layout and users. In this paper, In addition to the qualitative analysis of traditional Iranian houses from a morphological point of view, the quantitative analysis with space syntax method is also applied.

4. Spatial configuration in traditional Iranian houses Climatic conditions and Privacy are two main factors that affect the form and the spatial configuration of traditional Iranian houses.

The traditional Iranian houses in hot and dry regions were designed based on the a simple climatic principle; avoiding the sun on hot days and taking maximum advantage of solar heat in cold days, for this purpose the traditional houses provide a flexible spatial configuration to let the user move between spaces.

These movements can be performed in two ways: daily and seasonally, and from spatial point of view: vertically and horizontally, (Figure 7).

Privacy in Iranian houses is originated from the Iranian culture and Islamic beliefs. The house manages the social interaction between family members and guests by separating the private and reception areas.

4.1.

Ideal hypothetical house

If we want to design an ideal hypothetical house according to climate and privacy based on Iranian traditional architecture we need four spaces, two spaces for responding to the climatic conditions and two spaces for separating the family and guest zones, (Figure 8).

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Figure 8. Ideal hypothetical house based on Iranian traditional architecture

Figure 9. Moslem house in Sabzevar

Moslem house in Sabzevar1 was designed based on this concept in the last years of Qajar era (before 1925). In Moslem house, vertical-seasonal movement was applied in response to climatic changes during the year (Figure 9).

5. The main question Is it possible to use this ideal concept for contemporary houses? In other words; is it a sustainable solution currently?

To answer this question, another ideal hypothetical house is assumed based on maximum spatial flexibility.

1

This model is formed according to the following sustainable strategies: -

maximum land use compact living mixed land uses using land efficiently multifunctional spaces minimum resource and material use minimum need for Energy and water minimum circulation

In this model all functional areas are located on each other (maximum overlap), (Figure 10 Right).

Sabzevar is located in the Northeast of Iran, south of Sabzevar mountain range on the outer edge of the Central Plateau of Iran.

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Figure 10. Comparing two ideal house concepts

The lack of land and energy resources, the sharp rise in the costs of construction and maintenance, technology development and above of all changing in lifestyle and family structure limit the using of single-purpose spaces in contemporary housing design. In the other hand, the highest level of space use (second idea) belongs to the “Solitary confinement”! It is clear; nobody likes to live in a box for all of its needs. Flexibility is the key of this challenge. A flexible spatial configuration can provide variable space according to the current and coming needs. In second part of this paper the necessity of flexibility in housing was mentioned.

6. Flexible spatial configuration Space syntax is a theory and a set of methods about space that according to the Hiller [5] is based on two ideas: 1- Space is not a background to activity, but an intrinsic aspect of it. Which is done in three ways: moving through space, interacting with other people in space and seeing space from a point in it.

2- Human space is not about one space, but about the inter-relations between the many spaces that make up a whole system. Hiller called it the “configuration of space”.

The house is a spatial system to meet the user’s needs and provide space for the family activities, at the same

time it must facilitate interaction and communication with other family members, guests and neighbours. Any changes in users and their lifestyle require a new spatial configuration.

Due to the building technology of traditional Iranian architecture, especially the use of thick and load bearing walls, unlike Japanese traditional architecture rearranging the position of walls to make changes is impossible. But the traditional Iranian houses by changing in the relationships between spaces respond to the changes.

For a more detailed study the first floor of Aldaqi house (end of Qajar era around 1925) as a case study is analyzed by space syntax methods. The ground floor was used for summer time and hot days, the service area such as kitchen and stores are located in the ground floor too, (Figure 11).

The first floor of Aldaqi house has a columned portico four rooms and a connected room. Due to the large number of access doors to each room, this house is able to change its spatial configuration according to the changes, some of these alternatives are presented in Figure 12 (left).

At first look, all of them are similar together but from a spatial configuration point of view they are very deferent. The justified graph of these alternatives reveals these major differences, (Figure 13).

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Figure 11. Aldaqi house in Sabzevar, convex break-ups spaces and justified graph

Figure 12. Possible plans and metric step shortest-path length maps

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Figure 14. Integration values

In Figure 12 (Right) a metric step shortest-path length of alternatives is calculated by UCL Dephtmap2 software.

The alternative F has the maximum step path length; it can provide the maximum privacy for this layout in comparison to other choices. The calculation of integration3 value shows the diversity of special configuration clearly, (Figure 14).

multifunctionality enable houses to create a wide variety of spatial configuration. This flexible spatial configuration lets Iranian traditional houses to rearrange themselves according to changes without changing the main structure and form of the house. The diversity of spatial configuration enables houses to cover predictable and unpredictable scenarios.

These alternatives can respond to different probable scenarios:

Acknowledgement

A:

each room is dedicated to one of the family members or guests.

B:

by opening all doors and connecting to the portico a large communal space is ready for guests at summer.

C:

communal space for guests at winter.

D, E: the house sub-divided to create two Independent living units.

F:

This paper is a part of my PhD thesis which I am still working on it. I would like to thank my supervisor Prof.

Karin Raith, University of Applied Arts Vienna, Building Technology Department, for her comments.

References [1]

Maslow, Abraham Harold, A theory of human motivation, Psychological review, 50 -4, (1943), pp.

370-396.

[2]

Maslow, Abraham Harold, Toward a Psychology of Being, Second Edition, Van Nostrand Reinhold Inc, New York, US, 1968.

[3]

Alderfer, Clayton P, An empirical test of a new theory of human needs, Organizational behavior and human performance, 4-2, (1969), pp. 142-175.

an extended family spends a hard winter, they chose compact living.

7. Conclusion Iranian traditional architecture spite of rigid physical structure has been able to respond to changes. Nested spaces, multiple entrances for each space, selective connectability and disconnectability, and above all 2

UCL Depthmap is an Open Source application developed at UCL for spatial analysis and performing visibility analysis of architectural and urban systems.

3

The integration of a unit space describes how closely (or distantly) the unit is topologically accessible from all other units. For more details about the integration definition and calculation methods see ‘The social logic of space‘ [6].

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[4]

Foster, Norman, A Green Agenda [Video file], (2007), Accessed: [1 December 2013], Available from: http://www.ted.com/talks/norman_foster_s_gree n_agenda.html

[5]

Hillier, Bill, The art of place and the science of space, World Architecture, 185, (2005), pp. 96-102.

[6]

Hillier, Bill and Hanson, Julienne, The social logic of space, Cambridge university press, UK, 1984.

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DOI: 10.14621/tna.20140105

Existing Stock for the Future: Problems, Opportunities and Strategies for Energy Upgrade of 1940–1960 State Housing in New Zealand Manfredo Manfredini, Paola Leardini* School of Architecture and Planning, University of Auckland Architecture Building (421), 26 Symonds Street, 1010 Auckland, New Zealand, p.leardini@auckland.ac.nz

Abstract

1. Introduction

A large part of current New Zealand housing stock was built before compulsory home insulation was introduced in 1978. In recent years, the low energy efficiency of these older houses has aggravated significantly existing issues of health inequality, fuel poverty and building decay. As they will constitute a significant portion of future housing stock, their retrofit provides a logical option to meet present and future environmental imperatives and to tackle the most urgent health issues of a country with the second highest incidence of asthma in the world. State housing, in particular, includes a relevant portion of problematic buildings, which are cold and damp, often with evidence of mould growth. A consistent and significant cohort of them was built between 1940 and 1960, under the government-funded social housing scheme introduced in 1937 by the Labour Party administration. These houses, built with the iteration of few similar types, good quality materials and sound construction prove to be suitable candidates for effective energy upgrade interventions.

Drawing on results of long term research on State housing ecoretrofitting, carried out at the University of Auckland, this paper discusses meaning and value of conservation and energy upgrade of this large State housing cohort built until 1978, threshold to the new era of building energy performance policies in New Zealand.

According to the International Energy Agency, buildings are responsible for 32% of the total final energy consumption and around 40% of the primary energy consumption in most of its member countries [1]. The growing awareness of the impact of the built environment on energy security that started with the 1973 oil crisis, has worldwide made building energy efficiency a common target of national energy conservation policies and has produced a wide variety of certification and rating tools aimed at assessing and enhancing the energy performance requirement of new buildings. Those measures, however, have had a limited effect as in the developed countries a large part of the global building activity concentrates on existing buildings. Only through a consistent energy efficiency upgrade of the existing stock will it hence be possible to achieve tangible effects in resource savings and CO2 emission reduction. Moreover, retrofitting is more effective than reconstruction both in economic and environmental terms. The potential environmental impact reductions associated with building reuse and renovation are confirmed by the study The Greenest Building: Quantifying the Environmental Value of Building Reuse, commissioned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation [2], that considers new construction over a 75-year life span. Furthermore, when the retrofit involves buildings with historic or cultural value, additional benefits need to be accounted for: heritage retrofit not only contributes to the development of local culture and economy - since that kind of retrofit requires a wide array of skilled labour provided on site – but also enhances the quality of the urban environment, while retaining its character and heritage. Overall the conservation of existing buildings positively influences local communities, eventually promoting more sustainable urban living patterns.

Keywords:

Energy retrofit, New Zealand State house, House typology, Heritage conservation

Article history:

Received: 18 July 2014 Revised: Accepted: 28 July 2014

New Zealand is not an exception: retrofit intervention activity has largely exceeded new construction, especially during the years that have followed the GFC. According to a report published by the Building Research

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Figure 1. Labour Party state housing, Orakei, Auckland (Courtesy of Renelle Gronert)

Association New Zealand (BRANZ) in 2008, alterations and additions represented about one-third the total value of the new dwellings, including approximately 33,000 residential consents [3]. A forecasted increase in this activity is based on both the significant ageing of the NZ housing stock and some urgent maintenance interventions (i.e. earthquake strengthening). A particularly positive aspect of the dwelling alteration activity is its non-cyclical trend, in contrast to the figures of new residential building activity, characterized by sharp highs and lows over time [4].

Drawing on results of long term research on State housing eco-retrofitting, carried out at the University of Auckland by the authors, this paper discusses the meaning and value of conservation and energy upgrades of the large New Zealand State housing cohort that was built between 1937 – when the first Labour Party housing scheme was enacted – and 1978, the threshold to the new era of building energy performance policies in the country. The question of environmental, economic and cultural sustainability of this stock are evaluated in consideration of the relevant cultural heritage of New Zealand’s urban environment.

2. Auckland’s housing crisis The city of Auckland has a steady growing population (8% increase in 2006-2013 and a predicted shift from 1.4 to 2 million over the next 20 years) [5] and is currently affected by a major housing crisis in both quantitative and qualitative terms. The growth in housing demand continues to exceed the growth in supply, as it is propped also by speculative real estate investments relying on a rather favourable financial and fiscal frameworks (e.g. the absence of capital gains tax). The perpetuation of this situation has made the city one of the most over-priced house markets in the world [6] with a steady price growth since 2008 that in 2013 reached +17.5% [7]. The situation has been confirmed by an official survey that found Auckland to be the ninth most expensive place among the largest cities of

Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States; the median house price is 6.7 times higher than the gross median New Zealand household income [8]. The consequent severe housing unaffordability has been identified and recognised as a major problem by both central and local authorities [9] as it further aggravates other consolidated housing related issues characterising the largest New Zealand city, such as house overcrowding [10], sociospatial polarisation and social segregation [11], and health inequality [12]. The policies and incentives recently promulgated by the authorities to answer the crisis by stimulating the construction of affordable housing do not seem to lead to substantial changes in new housing provision. One main reason lies in the peculiar endogenous problems of the New Zealand construction sector that has traditionally been affected by fundamental issues of both a technical – i.e. the limited capacity and low efficiency of the organisations [13] – and structural, nature – i.e. the size of the local market, shortage of land supply and infrastructural upgrades. The main effect of this situation is the increasing pressure on the existing building stock, which will constitute the largest portion of the country’s housing for at least the next three decades [14], assuming a fundamental role in this critical scenario for the future evolution of Auckland’s housing conditions.

A particular problem afflicting existing New Zealand housing is their poor healthy and comfortable living conditions. This is mainly due to the low energy performance of the approximately 65% of New Zealand homes built before 1978, in an age of cheap energy and absence of regulation concerning thermal insulation.

The 1977 standard NZS 4218P ‘Minimum thermal insulation requirements for residential buildings’ introduced a first mandatory set of requirements for new construction [15] to improve the standard types (mainly built as basement-less, timber-frame structures, with weatherboard or brick veneer cladding and metal roofing) that have very low thermal inertia, high heat transmittance and minimal or no insulation.

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The problems of unhealthy and uncomfortable living conditions have been widely studied and documented.

The above-mentioned BRANZ Study Report [3] states that the biggest housing cohort currently requiring major renovation are houses built in the period from 1940 to 1960 (about 480,000). Recent studies assessing their behaviour revealed critical thermal conditions, with winter average indoor air temperatures that recurrently fall below the critical limit of 18°C [16] set by the World Health Organisation [17], and frequent formation of visible mould [18]. The consequent negative impact on occupants’ health, in particular on respiratory conditions, has been found especially among less advantaged people [19]. Poorly performing houses, associated with rising energy costs, have aggravated fuel poverty issues and increased the incidence of respiratory diseases and asthma, of which New Zealand has among the worst rates worldwide. The cohort of 1930s - 1970s houses represents therefore the major group to target for effective sustainable retrofit interventions, also in consideration of the scarce improvements gained by buildings that were upgraded according to common New Zealand retrofit practices, as recent surveys demonstrate.

3. Mid–twentieth century state–supported housing The history of public housing in New Zealand started with the early twentieth-century Liberal government, but only with the extensive mass housing scheme of the first Labour government, that built about 30,000 houses during its 1935-49 term, did State houses start to be associated with progressive living conditions and with the iconic image of standard weatherboard and ‘brick and tile’ construction. They were based on a limited number of types and construction systems, replicated around the country regardless of different climatic conditions for over twenty years.

As stated above, the houses built from 1940 to 1960 by the State or by private firms with the State’s financial support represent today the largest homogeneous housing group in the country [20], and typically presents features that are favourable for energy retrofit interventions, such as the compact shape and the use of good quality materials and sound construction. These houses, despite their quite varied appearance, are mainly single-storey detached buildings, generally with small (around 100 m²), rectangular or L shaped floor plans. Usually they have hipped or gabled roofs, made of tiles, asbestos-cement shingles or corrugated sheets; a suspended timber floor on a concrete perimeter foundation wall; a single fireplace and chimney; timber weatherboard, brick veneer, stucco or asbestos-cement cladding; small multi-paned timber-framed casement

windows and recessed front and rear porches [21]. A characteristic feature is their usual orientation to the north, allowing maximum sun penetration into the interior of the living areas in winter, with eaves for summer heat protection. Their windows are large, for sunlight and fresh air, which was deemed very important to avoid the recently experienced outbreak of Tuberculosis and Diphtheria [22].

Notwithstanding their modern and progressive design and their sound construction those houses ended up being cold and draughty, and a few years after completion mould was discovered in over 50% of them [23]. Although some form of insulation was already available in the 1950s, it was seldom installed, causing houses to be difficult to heat with the single fireplace in the living room - the most common form of space heating until the 1960s. Supplementary heating was supplied using solid fuel stoves, later replaced by gas (reticulated only in the 1960s) and electric heating, which became popular in the 1940s and 50s, despite the unreliable electricity supply.

3.1. State housing retrofit programmes The pre-1978 housing stock does not present significant typological differences between public and privately owned dwellings. However, the level of maintenance of State-owned rental properties – given low-income tenants, peripheral location and budget constraints – has often been lower, with minimal interventions to upgrade their quality over the time. After decades of neglect, in 2001 the government’s National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy set up the political and financial framework to support a major energy retrofit programme, providing a platform to extend funding for pre-1978 home insulation retrofits around the country, including State housing stock. That same year Housing New Zealand Corporation - the largest public landlord in the country with more than 69,000 rental properties - initiated the Energy Efficiency Retrofit Program, addressing the lack of insulation of its pre1978 houses across the country with a 10–12 year plan.

It aimed to upgrade two thirds of the stock with ceiling insulation, aluminium foil below suspended floors, hot water cylinder insulation and draught stoppers. Given the magnitude of the programme, the University of Otago was commissioned to monitor results of the upgrade process [24]. Findings of this study seriously challenged the efficacy of the retrofit programme, revealing apparent limits of retrofitting to the ceiling and floor only, which, in the South Island, this resulted in minimal temperature increase.

The increased awareness of the importance of energy upgrade of existing housing as a means to guarantee healthy and comfortable living conditions has led to the

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introduction of policies particularly directed to lowincome households, framed in the New Zealand Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy 2011–2016 [25].

Retrofitting of the existing housing stock was also introduced as a priority in the new Auckland Plan, the city’s regulatory framework for the next 30 years [26].

Its high socio-economic relevance among disadvantaged social groups was confirmed by studies on the relationship between density of State housing and deprivation status [27], which highlight the key role of the house in improving living conditions of disadvantaged social groups. Accordingly, HNZC has recently focused on upgrading its housing stock in Auckland (where 43% of State housing lies), mainly on pre-1978 detached houses, as this cohort represents a significant portion of the urban housing stock [28].

3.2. Social and cultural relevance of midtwentieth century state-supported housing The active preservation of Auckland’s mid-twentieth century state-supported housing is a fundamental measure to safeguard both the tangible and intangible cultural patrimony of a specific form of urbanity: the distributed post-colonial city. This represents the evolution of Kiwi culture and its spatial approach, now challenged by irreversible environmental, technological and socio-economic changes. These houses in their urban aggregations bear a unique testimony of the extraordinary effort of modern New Zealand society to perpetuate the ‘happy dream’ of the foundational nineteenth century colonial era; this core notion of European colonisation would have the migrant’s condition changed from “pauperism” to “plenty”, transforming him into “a man of property”, able to purchase land and build “himself a nice house” [29].

Following this collective vision of prosperity, the construction of the city was made possible through the institution of a State-controlled land supply: the plentiful availability of land in the new colony was both the greatest opportunity and a major threat, given its indefinite excess against the needs of the society [29].

Control was maintained through the development of governance means – from land inalienability to zoning regulation – that allowed the State to instigate a period of intrepid and elated construction of a steady extending green-dominated suburban urbanism that still motivates today’s practices.

The Garden City model, introduced in 1919 with the first New Zealand Town-Planning Conference, was reworked into the idea of a green “classless suburb” with the assimilation of various social groups “into an overall

culture of family and home” [30]. The detached family home was conceived as a domestic idyll that deployed an epic narrative, articulating four key elements of the concrete utopia: (1) the ‘ideal of retreat’ – the creation of a comforting domain granting independency, privacy and isolation; (2) the paradigm of the private ‘bucolic space’ – directing it to the integration into the natural environment with care for the environment and cultivation; (3) the spatial platform for the individual path to “emancipation through social identification” – centring it on family life and its affirmation in the space through the definition of a distinctive protected, secured and cared territory within an established community framework; and (4) the principal means for “originary self-expression” – fabricating and decorating the house and its annexes as act of truth creation.

Over time, the ‘concrete utopia’ reified through the production of detached family homes became mainstream and constituted the recognised New Zealand norm for the construction of the city.

Permeating all physical, social and psychological spatialities reflected in plans and regulation, interactions and communication, behaviours and everyday practices, it has continued to orient housing choices until today. Its narrative probably constitutes the core component of the intangible values responsible for the obliteration of modern attempts to introduce more dense urban forms. Its momentum has continued to hinder any form of collective housing, notwithstanding the social, economic and environmental problems connected with low density urban sprawl, that have been officially recognised since the 1950s [31].

The political development of this idea in New Zealand’s housing history was marked by the enactment of dedicated planning regulations and housing policies from the 1930s to the 1970s (i.e. from the post-Great Depression era to New Zealand’s economic downturn).

This period saw the alternation of two distinct political approaches, ideologically informed by sociallyorientated Labour party and market-orientated National party visions: the housing programs introduced by the first Labour government from 1935 to 1949 – a compound of substantial building and loan schemes to provide all New Zealanders access to highest quality public housing, framed in fundamental welfare state reforms – and the National government’s less demanding home ownership policies of the 1950s, anticipating the principles of property owning democracy (eventually developed by the Thatcher government in Britain in the early 1980s). Finally, with the advent of globalisation, the ‘dream’ has dramatically faded because of environmental imperatives and socioeconomic changes.

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4. Heritage conservation issues: Regulatory framework and socio-cultural aspects The current New Zealand retrofitting practice, principally steered by economic drivers and supported by basic technological principles, is characterised by a limited consideration for both heritage and environmental values. This extremely pragmatic approach is resistant to the cultural orientation of contemporary western conservation theory and practice, entirely relying on the backward national building sector that uses basic construction techniques and often inhibits the penetration of innovative practices targeting energy efficiency heritage conservation. This custom reflects a modest preservation and restoration culture consequent to the relatively minor problems arising from the limited patrimony of material legacy – a fact reflected, for instance, in the absence of UNESCO listed cultural sites in New Zealand. (Napier tried to get UNESCO world heritage status, but was rejected because of an adverse report by a local architectural historian.) Given that context, the current regulatory framework – produced and consolidated during the last three decades of deregulation inspired by a strong neoliberal political orientation – includes rather loose policies and controls in this field. One of the key features of this system is the fundamental transfer of responsibility for heritage identification and protection to local authorities. Under the 1991 Resource Management Act (the country’s fundamental legislation for environmental management), they are only required to include a schedule of heritage items in their district plan.

Therefore, matters of conservation of building and places of historic, cultural and architectural relevance are addressed inconsistently across the Country and are typically managed with bland zoning practices and development controls.

Auckland has one of the country’s most advanced urban planning systems, which includes a formal commitment to the identification, protection and maintenance of its historic patrimony. This obligation (one of the eight main issues of the policy framework of the new Auckland Unitary Plan, currently in its submission/observations phase), includes the assumption of responsibility to safeguard and guarantee intactness of historic heritage [26]. The Plan integrates and harmonises, the current district plans of the seven councils amalgamated in 2010, with an emphasis on simplification. It defines three groups of heritage cultural resources: Category A and B places, respectively with exceptional and considerable overall significance, and Historic heritage areas, which include groups of inter-related places or features that collectively meet the criteria for the category A or B places. Those groups include a wide variety of entities: buildings and

structures, archaeological sites, sites sacred and significant to Māori, cultural landscapes, gardens, trees and vegetation. Their broad definition, though, is translated in rather limited heritage protection measures and bland development controls, that do not set peremptory clauses even for demolition and destruction [32]. However, in the Plan these areas are mainly defined around uninterrupted clusters of housing built in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Moreover, large parts of the city have been included in the ‘Special Character Areas’ overlay that, according to the aim to retain and manage identified local special character values, is only aimed to retain the overall notable or distinctive aesthetic or physical qualities of the areas and, hence, include controls that are sensibly more relaxed than the Historic Heritage ones. To complete the conservation regulation, a ‘precautionary’ historic heritage overlay has also been introduced in the new Plan – the ‘pre-1944 building demolition control’ – “to address concerns that unscheduled historic heritage buildings and places or groups of special character Buildings [among them a significant number of the first generation of State Houses…] will be lost before an evaluation is done” [33].

In this framework, the missing inclusion of the individual and clusters of the latest houses of the ‘happy dream’ built in the mid twentieth century within the scheduled historical heritage is a gap to be urgently filled, as it represents a threat to the preservation of a fundamental part of the cultural heritage to understand and appreciate the distinctive history, culture and identity of Auckland’s people and places. The conservation of that patrimony of values embedded in domestic architectures is a relevant measure to preserve and treasure the legacy of the great collective effort of the New Zealand society to construct an effective model for its social, cultural and physical wellbeing. This is because the resulting system of ‘ideal’ patches that punctuate Auckland’s distributed urban landscape of domesticity (Sarah Treadwell, 2005) still comprehends today an invaluable patrimony of ecologies, habitats, signs and symbols that supports the life of communities with unusual high level of cohesion. Those patches are compositions of unique local networks of places that, acting as open surfaces for the inscription of incremental individual contribution, have developed through the highest personal investment of the residents to accommodate their needs and desires, making the best use of all the available material and immaterial resources. The perseverance of the “do it yourself” culture is possibly the most obvious aspect of this society. One of the most authoritative recognitions of this characteristic can be found in the most controversial critique on New Zealand architecture by Nikolaus Pevsner in the late 1950s; an unequivocal appreciation of the impressive character of the typical

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suburban houses – “all neatly built and neatly painted in gay, boiled-sweet colours” – in their capability to generate “the most ingratiating chaos one can imagine” [34].

To take care of those houses means primarily to treasure the capital of material and intangible values of the habitat that they host: a crucial undertaking in this period of deep socio-economic transition characterised by a rapid expansion of blanket commodification that increasingly affects the building sector. The current Auckland dwelling culture registers an unprecedented emphasis on economic speculation (supported by the absence of capital gains tax) that subjects most of the construction and transformation practices to the commercial rule of “resale price” maximisation.

The mid-twentieth century State housing is repository of authenticity that needs to be respected, studied, protected and vitalised, as its obliteration would be feral for any intervention aiming at sustainable urban regeneration. Moreover, the effort in preserving these Auckland houses is particularly urgent as their basic foundational function of social inclusion is exposed to an emergent threat correlated to the aforementioned phenomenon of urban fragmentation: the polarization of the habitats of a ‘demographically super-diverse’ territory, where a composite immigration flow, occurred during the last three decades, has developed as a disjoined network of ethnic-specific precinct with rising phenomena of segregation.

Architecture and Planning, Paul Litterick in particular, for providing fundamental information and encouragement. Great thanks to the Programme Committee of the International Conferences S.ARCH for the efforts done for the success of this event.

Funding source The authors acknowledge the financial support from the University of Auckland.

References [1]

International Energy Agency, https://www.iea.org/aboutus/faqs/energyefficien cy/ (accessed 28th April 2014).

[2]

Preservation Green Lab, The Greenest Building: Quantifying the Environmental Value of Building Reuse, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Seattle, USA, 2011.

[3]

Page, I.C. and Fung, J., Housing life cycle and sustainability, Study Report 214, BRANZ, Porirua, New Zealand, 2008.

[4]

Poot, Jacques, Building activity brings many benefits for NZ, Build, 125 (2011), August/September, p 31.

[5]

Statistics New Zealand Census 2013; Auckland Council 2012. AGM; SNZ Subnational population estimates.

[6]

OECD, “Economic outlook, general assessment of the macroeconomic situation”, 2014.

[7]

REINZ – Real Estate Institute of New Zealand, Residential Press Release, September 2013.

[8]

Demographia, “9th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey: 2013 Ratings for Metropolitan Markets”, Belleville, Illinois: 2013.

[9]

New Zealand Government & Auckland Council, Auckland Housing Accord, 2012; Department of Building and Housing, ‘New Zealand Housing Report 2009/2010: Structure, pressures and issues, Wellington, 2010).

5. Conclusions The social and cultural role assumed by these houses and their habitat in contemporary Auckland is of paramount importance but extremely complex, as it concerns multidimensional matters of identity and diversity, social cohesion and dynamism, wellbeing and health. However, the rich articulation of those implications is also a threat because, as it results are very difficult to identify and measure with simple parameters, empirical indications should be found only in composite indexes – such as the Deprivation index – or in grassroots protest movements like the 2011 Glen Innes state housing riots. The performance-based retrofitting of those houses is a key factor for the substantiation, formulation and enactment of adequate policies and actions to address crisis and disruptions that particularly hit the disadvantaged people the houses of the ‘happy dream’ were built to cater for.

Acknowledgement The authors acknowledge the support of Housing New Zealand Corporation and of colleagues at the School of

[10] Ministry of Housing, Auckland Council, “Auckland Housing Accord”, 2013.

[11] The Salvation Army, Social Policy and Parliamentary Group, “Mangere housing survey report: A snapshot of overcrowding in south Auckland”, 2011, AUT Social Science + Public Policy, “Super City? State of Auckland”, http://www.supercityproject.aut.ac.nz (accessed 1st April 2014).

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[12] Spoonley, C., Meares, C., “Laissez-Faire Multiculturalism and Relational Embeddedness: Ethnic Precincts in Auckland”, Cosmopolitan Civil Societies Journal, Vol.3, No.1, 2011.

[13] The Ministry of Health, “NZDep2013 Index of Deprivation”, Wellington, 2014.

[14] Baker, M.G. et al., “Infectious Diseases Attributable to household Crowding in New Zealand: A systematic review and burden of disease estimate”, He Kainga Oranga / Housing and Health Research Programme, University of Otago, Wellington, 2013.

[15] Auckland Council (2011), The Draft Auckland Plan, Auckland Council, Auckland; Department of Housing and Building (2010), New Zealand Housing Report 2009/2010: Structure, Pressures and Issues.

Department of Building and Housing, Wellington.

[16] Howden-Chapman, P. et al., “Warm homes: Drivers of the demand for heating in the residential sector in New Zealand,” Energy Policy, 37, 2009, pp. 3387-3399.

[17] Isaacs, N., Camilleri, M., French, L., Pollard, A., Saville-Smith, K., Fraser, R., Rossouw, P. and Jowett J., Energy Use in New Zealand Households: Report on the Year 10 Analysis for the Household Energy End-use Project (HEEP), Study Report 155, Building Research Association New Zealand, Porirua, New Zealand, 2006.

[18] World Health Organization - Regional Office for Europe, Housing, energy and thermal comfort, Copenhagen, Denmark, 200.

[19] Keall M.D. et al, ‘A measure for quantifying the impact of housing quality on respiratory health: a cross-sectional study’, Environmental Health 2012, 11:33.

[20] Pattemore, P.K., et al., Asthma prevalence in European, Maori, and Pacific children in New Zealand: ISAAC study, PediatrPulmonol, 5 (2004), 37, pp. 433-42.

[21] Page, I. and Ryan, V., It takes all types – a typology of New Zealand housing stock retrofits, Innovation and Transformation, Proceedings Sustainable Building 2010, Wellington, New Zealand, 2010.

[22] Elkink, A., Renovate 1940-1960, Building Research Association New Zealand, Porirua, New Zealand, 2011.

[23] Firth, C., State Housing in New Zealand, Ministry of Works, Wellington, 1949.

[24] Brien, R.M. and Winsome, D.R., Investigation into causes and control of moulds in State houses, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Wellington, New Zealand, 1944.

[25] Lloyd, C.R., Fuel poverty in New Zealand, Social Policy Journal of New Zealand, 27 (2006), pp. 142– 155.

[26] Ministry of Economic Development, Developing our energy potential: New Zealand energy strategy 2011-2021 and the New Zealand Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy 2011-2016, Wellington, New Zealand, 2011.

[27] Auckland Council, The Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan Auckland, New Zealand, 2013: Chapter E: Overlay objectives and policies.

[28] Grimes, A., et al., State Housing Database: 19932009, http://ssrn.com/abstract=1710319, viewed: 10/9/2010.

[29] Auckland Regional Growth Forum, Growth Forum report, 2003.

[30] Wakefield, E. G., A View of the Art of Colonization, London, 1849.

[31] Ferguson, G., Building the New Zealand Dream, Dunmore, Palmerston North, 1994:204.

[32] Holden, H.C., “Summary”, Department of internal Affairs, Wellington, 1959.

[33] Auckland Council, The Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan, Auckland, New Zealand, 2013: Chapter E: Overlay objectives and policies, 2 Historic Heritage.

[34] Auckland Council, The Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan, Auckland, New Zealand, 2013: Chapter E: Overlay objectives and policies, 3.2 Pre-1944 Building Demolition Control.

[35] Pevsner, N., “The ingratiating chaos”, in Pevsner on Art and Architecture: The Radio Talks, Games, S. (Ed.), Methuen, London, U.K., 1958.

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DOI: 10.14621/tna.20140106

Potential Energy Savings in the Process of Rehabilitation of Residential Buildings built before the Second World War Ljiljana Djukanović*, Milica Jovanović Popović, Ana Radivojević Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade Bulevar kralja Aleksaandra 73/II, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia, djuli@arh.bg.ac.rs

Abstract

1. Introduction

Improving the Serbian housing stock built before the beginning of World War II has the potential to achieve multiple benefits in terms of both saving energy and enhancing the quality of life in them. Considering the importance of preserving these buildings as testimonies of our architectural past, investing in their rehabilitation will also contribute to the preservation of a significant element of our national identity. Recent data from the 2011 Census show that 322,244 dwellings in Serbia were built prior to 1945, accounting for 10% of total dwellings.

Nearly half of these (45%) are located in Vojvodina, and a fifth (20%) belongs to Belgrade area. The methodology for rehabilitation was based on the typology of buildings from this period, as the starting point for calculating the potential energy savings and was developed for the purpose of the National Typology of Residential Buildings in Serbia. The Serbian housing stock built before World War II is characterized by high diversity as to the territorial distribution of construction types, while the remarkable differences between the old urban and rural architecture further add to the complexity of the typology. The present paper defines possible improvements to the selected building types as model representatives of real structures. The calculations of the energy performance and building type distributions were used to determine the potential energy savings in the process of rehabilitation.

The results presented in this paper arise from the extensive research conducted by a group of authors from Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade, within the IEE Project TABULA [1]. The starting point of the project was the typology of residential buildings, which encompassed family and multifamily housing and aimed to define the structure of the total housing stock in Serbia [2-4]. The characteristic types selected by the year of construction and the defined structure of the thermal envelope were used to analyze the energy performance of the buildings and to propose potential energy savings at the national level [5].

Keywords:

Building stock, Energy rehabilitation, Energy savings

Article history:

Received: 8 July 2014 Revised: Accepted: 25 July 2014

2. Characteristics of the Serbian pre–WWII housing stock 2.1. Specific features of the housing stock pertaining to territorial divisions The specific characteristics of the Serbian pre-World War II (WWII) housing stock seem pertinent to territorial divisions, the socio-historical context and natural conditions. This paper highlights three territorial entities that reflect the particularities of housing construction in the period before World War II: Vojvodina, South Serbia and the City of Belgrade (Figure 1).

Vojvodina differs from other parts of Serbia by its geographical position and specific historical conditions, which gave rise to the distinctive features of the local architecture. By the end of World War I, Vojvodina had belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire so that building construction and architectural styles were influenced by those of Central Europe. Geographically, Vojvodina is a lowland area with a rich river network and sparse forests, its soil composed of loess deposits, and its temperate continental climate characterized by a wide range of temperature extremes. Its natural features influenced the choice of building materials, usually found in the immediate vicinity of the

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Figure 1. Characteristics of the Serbian housing stock built before the World War II by territorial criteria

Table 1. Distribution of dwelling units by territorial criteria A before 1919 territorial distribution

Serbia • •

no. of units in max-2 unit houses solid construction materials

Vojvodina • •

no. of units in max-2 unit houses solid construction materials

South Serbia • •

no. of units in max-2 unit houses solid construction materials

Belgrade • •

no. of units in max-2 unit houses solid construction materials

total no. of units

share in total no. of units

115 879 96 923 52 940 76 519 66 830 30 244 29 167 26 428 13 760 10 193 3 665 8 936

construction site. The key features of Vojvodina’s building construction were determined by the abundance of land suitable for building and, on the other hand, the paucity of stone and timber, which caused the houses in the area to be built of rammed earth or brick, firstly unbaked and later baked.

Statistics show that 45% of the preserved housing stock built in Serbia before World War II is located in Vojvodina, while most of the dwellings (90%) are family

B 1919-1945

share in total no. of units of the period

3.59%

100%

9.02%

66%

1.77%

25.2%

1.39%

8.8%

total no. of units

206 365 154 442 128 369 69 255 62 716 30 816 84 386 78 692 46 770 52 724 13 034 50 783

share in total no. of units

share in total no. of units of the period

6.39%

100%

8.17%

33.56%

5.12%

40.9%

7.17%

25.5%

houses comprising no more than two living units (Table 1). Houses built of rammed earth and unbaked brick account for 60% of the total number of buildings in this area; the preference to these materials persisted even after World War II. The 1957 Ordinance On technical and other requirements of design and construction of buildings in the city area introduced a ban on the use of rammed earth and unbaked brick, which marked the beginning of planned elimination of adobe architecture.

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For a time, the building method endured in the rural areas of Vojvodina only to gradually give way to baked brickwork.

In contrast, the territory south of the rivers Sava and Danube is characterized by different geographical features: the terrain is hilly to mountainous, and rivers and forests abound. Besides physical differences, the historical development of this Serbian region was also dissimilar to that of the northern province, resulting in the distinctive techniques of architectural design and construction. The centuries of Ottoman dominance over the territory contributed to the evolution of the oriental architecture and construction techniques widespread in the Balkans and Asia Minor. The availability of timber influenced the ubiquity of this building material in traditional houses: log houses were built in the mountainous regions (Užice, Stari Vlah), and post and petrail prevailed in the highlands of East and South Serbia. Statistics show that 35% of the preserved preWWII housing stock can be located to the south of the Sava and the Danube; most of the dwellings are family houses with a maximum of two living units (as much as 92%), found predominantly in rural areas (70%). Half of the buildings from that period (53%) were built of solid material, while the other half (47%) were done in post and petrail technique (Table 1).

Belgrade, the capital city, accounts for 20% of the total housing stock constructed before World War II, with the largest number of houses built in the interwar period (1919–1945). The capital became a distinct entity not only due to the high concentration of housing but also

because the urban development gave rise to specific housing types pertaining to urban areas. Although Belgrade is an ancient European settlement considering its historical development, its architecture does not reveal this heritage, primarily due to the lack of material evidence of its rich history. The time boundary for the establishment of the Belgrade housing stock is set to the beginning of the 19th century; however, few surviving buildings (mostly public by purpose) testify about this period, and the largest number of the existing housing units date back to the second half of the 19th century and later [6-7]. Belgrade is distinguished from other parts of Serbia by a large number of dwelling units in multifamily buildings (with three or more units), with 63% of the total housing stock built before World War I and 75% from the interwar period (Table 1). The first multifamily houses in Belgrade were constructed in the 1850s, but it was not before the early 20th century and the period of intensive settlement after World War I that the building construction activities fully flourished.

Despite the predominance of one-floor family houses at the time, the present data reveal the results of using construction materials not solid enough to resist the ravages of time and surges of urbanization. Two specific types of family houses could be distinguished: gentry town homes modeled on the European architecture, and small, modest dwellings for the poor, who translated the models from their original rural areas into the city [8]. The latter have not been preserved as they were mostly built in post and petrail technique with the infill of wattle and daub or unbaked brick.

Table 2. The national typology of residential buildings in Serbia family housing 1

multifamily housing 2

3

4

5

type

A before 1919

B 1919-1945

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2.2. Selecting the model representatives of the typology structure for the national housing stock In compliance with the recommendations of the Project TABULA on the formation of the national typology of residential buildings, and with consideration of the specific characteristics of the national housing stock, the adopted typology structure comprised particular building types (Table 2). The following types were defined: for family housing, 1. Freestanding family house; 2. Row family house; for multifamily housing, 3.

Freestanding residential building; 4. Lamella residential building (with repeated lamellar cores and multiple entrances); 5. Row residential building; and, 6. High-rise residential building (tower). The last category was excluded from the tables analyzed in this paper as such buildings date from a considerably later period. The national typology adopted the periodization according to the key socio-political events, the changes introduced in the building technologies, and the regulations relevant to the construction industry. Thus, the preWWII residential stock was divided into two periods: A— before the end of World War I (before 1919), and B—the interwar period and World War II (1919–1945). This division is consistent with the changes in the building technologies, choice of materials and equipment, and relevant legislation.

The representatives of the characteristic building types were selected upon the survey developed for this research, which included 6,000 family houses and 13,000 multifamily buildings. The research was based on architectural and urban parameters, quantitative indicators (dwelling unit area, gross floor area, number of floors), and characteristics that determine the thermal performance of the building (floor plan complexity, façades, roof, windows and doors). The defined criteria were included in the survey and then used to establish the characteristics of typical buildings that were representative of specific periods of construction; finally, the national typology was formed.

The A1 type model (a freestanding family house built before 1919) is a ground floor house with a compact floor plan, without a basement, and with an unoccupied loft. Depending on the territorial criterion, it can be a post and petrail construction in South Serbia or a rammed earth/unbaked brick structure in Vojvodina. A large number of such houses still exist, mostly in rural areas.

The A2 type model (a family house in a row built before 1919) is a ground floor house with a complex floor plan, mostly built of unbaked brick, with a basement, and an unoccupied loft. Such houses can be found only in Vojvodina, as Austro-Hungarian authorities imposed planned housing development according to the

orthogonal parceling pattern. The houses are positioned along the border to the adjacent lot so that they have adjoining walls and thus form a row. The type is characteristic of both urban and rural areas. However, the settlements in other Serbian regions are of a dispersed type so that such a layout cannot be found.

The selected A3 type model (a freestanding multifamily building built before 1919) has the GF+1 floor scheme, with a basement and a loft. It is one of the first multifamily houses built by the Belgrade municipality to provide housing for the socially disadvantaged. Its construction features make it a typical representative of its time, with baked-brick walls, wooden floor constructions and Prussian vaults above the basement.

It is characteristic of the urban environment.

The selected A4 type model (a lamella built before 1919) has the GF+1 floor scheme, with a basement and a loft.

Similarly to the type above, it represents a social housing complex, and has the same characteristics as the previous example. However, a novelty was achieved by an innovative architectural and urban layout, whose common core of dwelling units is multiplied to form a lamellar row with several entrances, comprising a building as a whole. It is one of the first examples of this type of house and is characteristic only of urban areas.

The A5 type model (a row house built before 1919) has the GF+2 floor scheme, with a basement and a loft, which has been converted into a living area. Integrated into the city matrix, the building takes the full length of the lot to the street front. The same as the types above, its construction consists of load-bearing brick walls, wooden floor constructions, and Prussian vaults above the basement. It is characteristic only of urban environments.

The B1 type model (a freestanding family house dating from 1919–1945) is a ground floor house with a compact floor plan, built of brick in a massive construction with a wooden ceiling to the loft. Such buildings mark the transition to the new way of building that used solid and more durable materials for walls, such as baked brick, while the use of old materials, rammed earth and unbaked brick, was discontinued. Although most buildings of this type have been preserved in rural areas, some have also survived urban growth in the cities.

The B2 type model (a family row house built in 1919– 1945) is a ground floor structure with a compact floor plan, with a basement and an unoccupied loft. The building materials may have been unbaked or baked brick, with a wooden floor construction to the loft and a Prussian vault above the basement. Similarly to the representative row houses of the older period, such structures can be found only in Vojvodina, where planned parceling was the norm. This type is characteristic of both rural and urban areas.

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The B3 type model (a freestanding multifamily building dating from 1919–1945) has the GF+2 floor scheme, with a basement and a loft subsequently converted to a living area. After World War I, the cities faced a severe housing crisis and rental multifamily housing developments were a lucrative business. Its construction characteristics are typical of its time, with brick walls, wooden floor constructions, and reinforced concrete ceiling above the basement level. It is characteristic only of urban areas.

The B4 type model (a lamela built in 1919–1945) has the GF+2 floor scheme, with an unoccupied loft. This building concept generally refers to social housing; thus, the chosen development was financed by a wealthy industrialist, the owner of “Bajloni and Sons” company, to provide housing for their workers and clerks [9]. The construction consists of brick walls and ribbed reinforced concrete floors. The use of reinforced concrete grew after World War I, firstly only for ceilings above the basement (which had to be fire resistant).

Later, the material replaced the wooden floors completely, becoming the only choice for floor constructions. Considering its layout, the building is typical merely of urban environments.

The type B5 model (a row building built in 1919–1945) has the GF+3 floor scheme, with a basement and a loft subsequently converted into residential space.

Integrated into the city matrix, the building is characteristic only of urban areas. The construction comprises load-bearing brick walls, wooden floor constructions and a reinforced concrete ceiling above the basement.

2.3. Quantitative analysis of the typology structure for the national pre-WWII housing stock The typology structure was the starting point for the quantification of the selected representative buildings nationwide, while the results thus obtained were used to assess the total Serbian housing stock. The survey of the buildings conducted for the purposes of this project, the 2011 National Census, and other data from the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, [10] yielded the following numerical values for each identified type at the national level: the areas, the number of buildings, and the number of dwelling units (Table 3).

In summary, the numerical values expressing the distribution of certain types can indicate that freestanding family houses (type 1) constitute by far the largest percentage of buildings constructed by 1945 (91%), while their area accounts for 78% of the total square meters built during this period. The distribution of the other types is much lower (under 10%), especially for multifamily residential buildings. This numerical distribution can be explained by the facts that multifamily housing had not begun its development until the early 20th century; that it was characteristic only of urban areas, which in Serbia were few; and, that most of such buildings were concentrated in Belgrade. In addition, years of war and the economic crisis in the interwar period held back any large-scale investment and building projects, which primarily affected multifamily housing. Buildings of the lamella type were

Table 3. National typology before World War II—Type distribution

А B

< 1919 1919-1945 Σ m2 %

А B

< 1919 1919-1945 Σ items %

А B

< 1919 1919-1945 Σ items %

Type distribution by area (m2) family housing multifamily housing 1 2 3 4 5 8 812 918 1 641 759 181 255 128 836 319 202 14 060 213 871 044 1 056 060 343 833 1 829 417 22 873 131 2 512 803 1 237 315 472 669 2 148 619 78.21 8.59 4.23 1.62 7.35 Type distribution by number of buildings (items) family housing multifamily housing 1 2 3 4 5 117 985 17 394 183 40 345 194 546 10 937 1 530 170 1 663 312 531 28 331 1 713 210 2 008 90.64 8.22 0.50 0.06 0.58 Type distribution by number of dwelling units (items) family housing multifamily housing 1 2 3 4 5 117 985 17 394 1 098 567 2980 195 812 11 078 12 240 2 457 18 267 313 797 28 472 13 338 3 024 21 247 82.60 7.50 3.51 0.80 5.59

Σ m2 11 083 970 18 160 567 29 244 537 100.00

% 37.90 62.10 100.00

Σ items 135 947 208 846 344 793 100.00

% 39.43 60.57 100.00

Σ items 140 024 239 854 379 878 100.00

% 36.86 63.14 100.00

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Table 4. National typology before World War II—Type distribution by heating consumption [MWh/year] family housing

2 317 797 3 402 572 5 720 369

512 229 284 831 797 060

38 064 196 427 234 491

21 129 75 299 96 428

52 988 272 583 325 551

Σ [MWh/year] 2 942 187 4 231 712 7 173 899

79.74

11.11

3.27

1.34

4.54

100.00

1 А B

< 1919 1919-1945 Σ [MWh/year] %

multifamily housing 2

3

4

5

% 41.01 58.99 100.00

Table 5. National typology—Savings after the standard improvement of building energy performance [MWh/year] family housing

1 427 693 1 841 888 3 269 581

270 890 166 369 437 259

19 757 108 774 128 531

11 209 49 512 60 721

21 067 144 524 165 591

Σ [MWh/year] 1 750 616 2 311 067 4 061 683

80.50

10.76

3.16

1.50

4.08

100.00

1 А B

< 1919 1919-1945 Σ [MWh/year] %

multifamily housing 2

3

a novelty in the construction industry; as they demanded large investments, it was not until the 1970s that their development reached its peak.

3. Energy performance and savings potential in pre–WWII residential buildings The next step in the analysis of the housing stock in Serbia was to determine the energy properties of the representative types of residential buildings. The review of technical documentation and the field research helped to define the structure of the thermal envelope and the heat and domestic hot water supply systems so as to carry out the thermal calculations and establish the energy class of the building. The data on the specific annual heating energy demand for each building type [kWh/m2/year] and the distribution balance of the types and the total area [m2] were used to determine the energy required for heating [MWh/year]. The results are shown in Table 4. Considering the predominance of family houses (A1 and B1) compared to other housing types, these buildings show the highest demand for heating energy [11-12].

3.1. Energy performance and savings potential in pre-WWII residential buildings The suggested measures for improving the energy efficiency of the representative buildings of the typology structure considered two levels of improved performance: standard measures, and advanced measures.

4

5

% 43.10 56.90 100.00

Standard measures encompassed construction interventions that are typical of domestic practice in improving energy efficiency of a building: replacement of the existing windows with new packages, compliant with thermal codes; and, adding thermal insulation to walls and floor constructions to the external or unheated areas. The purpose of the standard improvement measures was to raise the energy efficiency class by one, with respect to the valid regulations on energy efficiency of buildings.

Advanced measures took into account the maximum possible improvement of energy performance considering the characteristics of the building in question. This included the installation of top quality windows available on the domestic market and thick insulation layers in the thermal envelope, with the purpose of raising the energy efficiency class as high as possible.

Energy savings achieved by standard improvement measures are shown in Table 5. The intervention on freestanding family houses, which account for most of the total housing stock built before 1945, would yield the greatest energy savings. If standard measures were applied on the buildings of this construction period, the potential annual savings could amount to 4,061,683 MWh, which would reduce the total heating energy demand by 56% of the present figures.

Energy savings achieved by advanced improvement measures are shown in Table 6. The greatest proportion of freestanding residential buildings contributed to the highest energy savings achieved in this category. The comparison between the total energy savings achieved by advanced improvements (5,039,391 MWh per year)

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Table 6. National typology—Savings after the advanced improvement of building energy performance [MWh/year] family housing

1 683 267 2 362 116 4 045 383

357 903 189 017 546 920

26 282 129 895 156 177

14 172 56 389 70 561

31 920 188 430 220 350

Σ [MWh/year] 2 113 545 2 925 846 5 039 391

80.28

10.85

3.10

1.40

4.37

100.00

1 А B

< 1919 1919-1945 Σ [MWh/year] %

multifamily housing 2

3

and the present consumption (7,173,899 MWh per year) highlights the reduction in total heating energy demand by 70%.

4. Conclusion Improving the energy performance of buildings constructed before World War II could result in significant energy savings and a better standard of living.

However, the importance of preserving and refurbishing this segment of the Serbian housing stock lies beyond the scope of potential energy savings. A significant number of these buildings have been included in the national cultural heritage and are under state protection, which can further complicate the process of rehabilitation. On the other hand, the measures that contribute to their better energy efficiency can be viewed as the process of renovation and preservation, which is of special interest in such buildings. Although the proportion of the buildings of this period in the total housing stock is small, they represent a testimony of our architectural past so that the investment in their rehabilitation would contribute to the preservation of a significant facet of our national identity.

Funding source The survey for the present research was conducted by Ipsos Strategic Marketing agency, Belgrade.

References [1] TABULA—Typology Approach for Building Stock Energy Assessment, www.building-typology.eu [2] Popović Jovanović, Milica et al., Аtlas porodičnih kuća Srbije [Atlas of Family Housing in Serbia] , Faculty of Architecture University of Belgrade and GIZ Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, Belgrade, Serbia, 2012 (in Serbian and English).

[3] Popović Jovanović, Milica et al., Аtlas višeporodičnih kuća Srbije [Atlas of Multifamily Housing in Serbia], Faculty of Architecture

4

5

% 41.94 58.06 100.00

University of Belgrade and GIZ Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, Belgrade, Serbia, 2013 (in Serbian and English).

[4] Popović Jovanović, Milica et al., Nacionalna tipologija stambenih zgrada Srbije [National Typology of Residential Buildings in Serbia], Faculty of Architecture University of Belgrade and GIZ Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, Belgrade, Serbia, 2013 (in Serbian and English).

[5] Popović Jovanović, Milica and Ana Radivojević, National Typology of Residential Buildings in Serbia. Design Structure and Principles, In Housing Development in Serbia in the Context of Globalization and Integrations. Approaches and experiences, (Vladimir Mako, ed.), Faculty of Architecture University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, 2012, pp. 176-193.

[6] Đurić-Zamolo, Divna. Beograd 1898-1914. Iz arhive građevinskog odbora [Belgrade 1898–1914. From the Housing Committee Archives]. Muzej grada Beograda, Belgrade, Serbia, 1980 (in Serbian).

[7] Roter-Blagojević, Mirjana. Stambena arhitektura Beograda u 19. i početkom 20. veka [Housing Architecture of Belgrade in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries]. Faculty of Architecture University of Belgrade, Orion art, Belgrade, Serbia, 2006 (in Serbian).

[8] Nestorović, Bogdan. Arhitektura Srbije u XIX veku [Serbian Architecture in XIX Century]. Art Press, Belgrade, Serbia, 2006 (in Serbian).

[9] Vuksanović-Macura, Zlata. Život na ivici.

Stanovanje sirotinje u Beogradu 1919-1941 [Life on the Edge. Housing of the Poor in Belgrade]. Orion art, Belgrade, Serbia, 2012 (in Serbian).

[10] Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia. 2011 Census of Population, Households and Dwellings in the Republic of Serbia, Dwellings by the type of building. Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia, 2013 (in Serbian).

[11] Republic of Serbia, Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental Protection.

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Rulebook on energy efficiency of Buildings. Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia no. 61/2011, Belgrade, Serbia, 2011 (in Serbian).

[12] Republic of Serbia, Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental Protection.

Rulebook on the conditions, content and manner of issuance of certificates of energy performance of buildings. Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia no. 69/2012, Belgrade, Serbia, 2012 (in Serbian).

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DOI: 10.14621/tna.20140107

Ecological Assessment of Building Materials in Serbia: Constrains and Possibilities Saja Kosanović*, Milica Jovanović Popović *Faculty of Technical Sciences, Kosovska Mitrovica Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade Kneza Miloša street No. 7, 38220 Kosovska Mitrovica, saja.kosanovic@pr.ac.rs

Abstract

1. Introduction

Building materials make significant impact on the environment, hence their ecological performance became one of the key sustainability topics. To determine environmental impact of a material, it is necessary to examine the phases of its life cycle, by using the established method. Unified assessment methodology enables comparison between different materials and the selection of more ecologically friendly option. The practice has already been applied internationally and the diverse models for ecological assessment of building materials are in use. In Serbia, on the other hand, various constrains impede researchers’ efforts to develop an assessment system. Undeveloped legal regulation in the field and the lack of quantitative data which describe the ecological quality account for the main aggravating circumstances. Within the existing conditions, ecological assessment may be conducted rather by using descriptive method and general knowledge on building materials and their impact, than by applying approach based on impact measurement. In accordance with this thesis, the set of criteria which may be used in current situation, and which are derived after aligning with the life cycle phases and predicted impact, are proposed. In respect to the criteria development, following issues were considered: Use Efficiency; Durability; Eco-Sign; Availability; Construction Waste and Alternative Building Materials. Transitional ecological assessment model represents a step towards sustainable national building practice and may be used until the database with measured impact of all nationally produced building materials is formed.

Building materials make significant impact on the environment, hence their ecological performance became one of the key topics in the field of sustainability. From architectural point of view, the use of building materials is found to be one of the critical factors of environmental pollution and degradation [1].

A study of the environmental impact of building materials is based upon the examination of their behaviour from the process of getting raw materials and concluding all operations until the final return to the natural environment or to the repeated production/installation process. This series of processes represents “the life cycle of building materials” [2]. The rule of thumb is that a building material has potential negative environmental impact in every phase of its life cycle, depending on: origin of raw materials, method of production, distance between the production and construction sites, method of transport, content and features and possibility of re – use / recycling [1], [2].

Keywords:

Life cycle analysis, National regulation, Ecological assessment, Ecological criterion

Article history:

Received: 6 July 2014 Revised: Accepted: 25 July 2014

Different methodological approaches are used to determine the ecological quality of building materials.

Assessment may be conducted independently, where materials are the only subject of the analysis, or as a part of overall evaluation through which all segments of ecological performance of a certain building type are examined.

To-date, a series of approaches have been developed for the environmental assessment of building materials: LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) studies, eco-labelling, eco guides, environmental concepts, etc. It was found that different approaches answer different questions and that stakeholders may need to use different tools for external communication, external decision-making support, and internal development [3]. With the harmonized indicators, unified LCA methodology could be considered as the approach which is offering comparable results. To achieve this, "it is important to extend, adjust and harmonise the existing inventory

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databases of construction materials to the characteristics and peculiarities of the construction industries in each country", where the manufacturers are obliged to provide standardised information based on the LCA of the real impact of every product [4]. "...In this sense, there would be accurate information on the impact of each product, which would facilitate a correct assessment of the impact of a building from an LCA perspective. Without this information, this impact can only be estimated approximately using existing inventories that, on occasions, are difficult to adapt to the reality of a specific geographical area" [4].

In international systems for overall environmental assessment of buildings, building materials are examined to the variable extent, again by using different methodologies. In German DGNB (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen), for example, there exist a series of established environmental criteria and supporting indicators based on which the parts of building structure, such as walls, are assessed [5].

System BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) calls upon another data base, named Green Guide to Specification, according to which materials can be assessed [6]. Other evaluation systems put an accent on specific materials.

Construction waste is also assessed, as well as material re-use or recycling. Advantage in selection is given to prefabricated, long-lasting, regionally available materials, and materials with eco certificates [7].

While setting the base for the first national system for overall environmental assessment of defined building type [8], there were significant specificities observed in the field of building materials. In the process of information gathering and analyzing, materials were labelled as "unexplored" content. Detected peculiarities were found to be independent from the building type and, to the large extent, from the territory for which the system is designed. This paper, in relation to the said, aims to overcome the present state in the domain of building materials on national level, by proposing the transitional ecological evaluation method that fits present conditions, but also represents the base for further scientific and institutional work in the field.

Proposed criteria are applicable as independent or may be embodied in national assessment systems for different building types.

2. Analysis of national conditions The interest in sustainable architecture in Serbia is best visible in scientific and educational domains, whereas green buildings are still rarely built. The same is true for building materials, and for both, national legal regulation is insufficiently developed.

2.1. State on market Study of the Serbian market indicates the availability of many nationally produced building materials: ceramic bricks, blocks and tiles; building stone; cement and other binders; aggregates - gravel and sand; wooden, PVC (polyvinyl chloride) or aluminium frames for doors and windows; glass products; tin products; prefabricated concrete components; facade and interior mortar products; thermal and hydro insulation materials; rubber products; paints; decorative materials, etc [8].

But, not all raw materials (components) of produced materials originate from Serbia. This fact points to a more complex life cycle and, consequently, to quite certain difficulties in determining the environmental impact in phases.

In most cases, data on nationally produced material behaviour through the phases of life cycle are unavailable. Occasional and isolated available data are not harmonized and very difficult to use. There aren't available data on ecological effects of production process. In general, it is, however, certain that this phase make significant impact on the environment [1].

Additional causes for potential impact increment are: weak pollutants control; solid waste generation and its weak management; energy inefficiency; lack of control of waste water quality; usage of non-renewable energy and material resources; obsolete production technologies; inadequate environmental management in production; lack of financial support for clean production introduction; lack of regulations for clean production introduction, etc.

National manufacturers do not issue valid certificates nor declarations which could mark previously examined and proved ecological quality of a purchased material.

Occasional notes which indicate good ecological performance of a material and which are put on package following the producer's own initiative, most often carrying not more than the advertising message, may lead buyers to wrong purchase decisions.

Usage of recycled and re-used materials for construction is rare and not considered as typical, but is potentially achievable to the large extent.

Ecological effects of use of domestically produced building materials are neither known. Many of produced materials are not tested on presence of harmful substances. Effects of various substances in materials are still not examined or proved.

2.2. Legal framework To-date, a national legal document which would relate to the regulation of ecological quality of building materials is still not brought. Domestic Law on

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Environmental Protection [9], brought on 2004 and amended on 2009, defines environmental protection standards in domains of imported or domestic technologies, processes, products, half products and raw materials. According to the Article 52 of mentioned document, Producer or Distributor is obliged to warn on environmental pollution or harm on the human health, which certain product or its package causes or may cause, and this by issuing the declaration of half product of product. In another article, Law on Environmental Protection defines the Eco-Sign, and separate derived regulation from 2009 [10] defines the terms for obtaining, awarding and usage of the Eco-Sign, intended for different products, processes and services, including here building materials.

The most important national document which regulates the environmental assessment of buildings [11] refers to general guidelines, but doesn't consider building materials separately. Some aspects of materials' environmental considerations, related to life cycle phases, are regulated with broader national legal documents on environmental protection [12], [13], [14].

Analyses of the studies on several mid and large-scale projects [8], developed in accordance with these regulations, clearly indicate that there exist the lack of important quantitative information in regard to environmental impact of building materials, as well as the reference list, i.e. the database which would enable the comparison of different materials, based on their environmental performance.

Domestic Law on Enhancement of Construction Industry in Conditions of Economic Crisis [15] obliges all stakeholders involved in project realization process to use domestically produced building materials at a minimal rate of 70% of total material used.

Governmental Strategy on Waste Management for Period 2010-2019 regulates a series of actions related to the waste management [16].

2.3. Voluntary assessment of building materials "The absence of national legal regulation in the field of reduction of negative environmental impact of building materials has as a consequence relied on the exclusively volunteer devotion and efforts of architects and other participants involved in the processes of the design and construction of buildings. It is the architect who has an assignment to point out to Investors all the advantages of the selection of ecologically correct options of, not only basic, but also of alternative building materials" [1].

The current praxis of voluntary assessment of building materials in Serbia, therefore, before all relates to the appropriate material selection. In this sense, it can be further concluded that the current assessment

represents rather the thinking process based on knowledge about ecology of building materials, than the established quantitative approach application. The fact indicates the need for the assessment methodology development.

Not long ago, Association of Consulting Engineers of Serbia started an initiative in order to create the "GREENBASE" with green building materials (both nationally and internationally produced) [17]. To-date, however, the number of materials which found their place in the base is still minimal.

3. Proposal for criteria development According to the analysis of national conditions (chapter 2), it can be concluded that there exist aggravating circumstances which influence the formation of criteria for the environmental assessment of nationally produced building materials: – Unavailability of information regarding ecological quality, – Unavailability of information regarding environmental impact over the life cycle phases, and especially during the production ("gate") phase, and – Insufficiently developed legal regulation.

Mentioned problems are in relation to missing quantified input and output data, which should be included in LCA assessment framework. This further impedes the definition of ecological indicators and their environmental weight, where the both present a base for quantitative approach to the assessment of environmental impact of building materials [18].

Based on the scope and content of existing national legal framework (chapter 2.2.), it can be concluded that it is not possible to establish a significant relation between the regulations and criteria for environmental assessment. Few of the mentioned legal documents, however, may be embodied or used as initial guidelines.

Within the explained conditions, ecological assessment of building materials on national level may be conducted rather by using qualitative method and general knowledge on materials and their impact, than by applying impact measurement based approach. In accordance with this thesis, the set of criteria which may be used in current situation is proposed.

Proposed criteria are derived after aligning with life cycle phases and predicted impact [1]. From the above said reasons, integration was not an easy task. In relation to LCA, following cycle phases and belonging ecological issues were taken into consideration for the criteria defining:

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– Raw materials (material origin), – Transport (distance), – Installation (construction waste management), – Use and maintenance (durability / long-lasting, impact on environmental pollution and partially health impact), – Decommissioning (construction waste management), – Re-use (previously used materials), and – Recycling (possibility of recycling).

Finally, achievable ecological objectives were defined and six categories for the ecological evaluation of building materials are derived (Table 1). Every proposed category contains one or more criteria which enable ecological evaluation (Table 2).

4. Conclusions Reduction of operational energy consumption in buildings (energy efficiency) accounts for the best regulated environmental aspect, both on national and international level. It is, however, estimated that the set goals of this aspect will in near future be fulfilled to the largest extent. The attention is, therefore, gradually moving towards other segments of buildings, such as building materials.

Different internationally developed methodological approaches are used to determine the ecological quality of building materials. Assessment may be conducted independently, where materials are the only subject of the analysis, or as a part of the overall evaluation through which all segments of ecological performance of a certain building type are examined. In Serbia, on the other hand, various constrains impede researchers’

efforts to develop an assessment system. Unavailability of information about the ecological quality and the environmental impact over the life cycle phases, as well as the insufficiently developed national regulation in the field, account for the significant aggravating factors.

After analyses of national conditions, it was concluded that the ecological assessment of building materials on national level may be conducted rather by using qualitative method and general knowledge on materials and their impact, than by applying impact measurement based approach. Therefore, the set of criteria which may be used in current situation were proposed. Shown criteria are derived from six proposed categories for environmental assessment of nationally produced building materials, and these are derived after defining realistically achievable ecological objectives.

Beside meeting present conditions and at the same time aiming to overcome them, proposed transitional ecological evaluation method also may be used as a base for further scientific and institutional work in the field.

Presented criteria are applicable as independent or may be embodied in national assessment systems for different building types, where the additional detailing in terms of indicator values and environmental weight determination are needed in both cases.

In a wider perspective, paper aims to enhance the development of new environmentally friendly building materials, ecologically correct methods of production and construction, and the introduction of certificates for ecological quality of building materials.

The results urge all involved in design and construction sector: architects and engineers of other profiles, legislative institutions, manufacturers, researchers, etc, to direct their efforts towards the formation of database with measured environmental impact of nationally produced building materials.

Table 1. Proposed categories for environmental assessment of nationally produced building materials No I

Category Name USE EFFICIENCY

Ecological Objective To decrease negative environmental impact and resource consumption by reduction in material use

II

DURABILITY

To reduce the demand for new materials by promoting durability / long-lasting

III

ECO-SIGN

IV

AVAILABILITY

V

CONSTRUCTION WASTE

VI

ALTERNATIVE BUILDING MATERIALS

To promote selection of materials with enhanced ecological characteristics and the development of legal aspect To reduce transport energy consumption by locally/regionally available material selection To reduce construction waste generation and to promote its re-use To promote eco-friendly substitutes to some conventional building materials with significant environmental impact

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Table 2. Proposed criteria for environmental assessment of nationally produced building materials No I1

Criterion Name Building Area

I2

Floor Height

I3

Open Plan

I4

Volume Mass & Dimensions

I5

Concrete Use Reduction

I6

Wall Finishes

II 1 II 2

Protection from Moisture Service Life

III 1

Eco-Sign

IV 1

Distance to the Production Facility

V1

Re-Use

V2

Recycling

V3

Prefabrication

There exist prefabricated structural building parts f

VI 1

Thermal Insulation

Materials selected for envelope thermal insulation have vegetal origin

VI 2

Mortars

Selected mortars by type are: lime, plaster or lime-plaster

VI 3

Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) Finishing Coats

There are no PVC components present in building structure g Applied finishing coats on exterior and interior surfaces are water-based, additionally of natural origin

VI 4

Criterion Definition Usable area of a building is reduced, in accordance with regulations and comfort demands Clear floor height is reduced, in accordance with regulations and comfort demands Open plan dominates building’s spatial organization Applied materials/components are with reduced volume mass and dimensions In the above-ground part of a building, measures for concrete use reduction have been applied External/internal wall finishes with solely decorative character are exempted The set of measures for protection a from moisture have been applied Main structural parts of a building b are made of materials with prolonged service life Applied building materials are labelled with Eco-Sign Building materials applied in main structural parts of a building are locally/regionally produced Materials applied in certain parts of building structure d have already been used before Certain parts in building structure e are made of materials that may be recycled

Supporting Indicators/Evidences % of reduction; Reference values (m2) for subject building type Space height (cm); Reference values (cm) for subject building type Inspection of project documentation Weight (kg) per unit area (m2) of built space; Material specification Ratio between concrete volume and the built area (%); Reference values for subject building type % of exemption in relation to total wall surface (m2) Inspection of project documentation Durability (in years) for every main structural part of the building; Applied methodology for service life estimation % of materials with Eco-Sign in relation to total materials used, measured by weight % of locally/regionally produced materials in relation to total domestic materials used, measured by weight; Maximum distance radius (km) % of re-used materials in relation to total materials used, measured by weight Minimum number of parts of building structure, where a part relates to all applied components of the same kind Minimum number of prefabricated parts of building structure, where a part relates to all applied components of the same kind % of vegetal insulation materials in relation to total insulation material used, measured by envelope surface (m2) % of lime/plaster/lime-plaster mortars in relation to total mortar used, measured by covered surface (m2) Visual check and inspection of project documentation % of surfaces covered by water-based, additionally natural coats, in relation to total surface area (m2)

a Measures for moisture control in criterion II 1 relate to: adequate hydro and thermal insulation; envelope waterproofing; water diffusion and condensation control; application of moisture-resistant materials, especially in wet areas; adequate water drainage / water management; protection of porous materials; adequate material storage; underground space levelling, in accordance with subterranean waters; comfort demands b Structural parts of a building in criterion II 2 relate to: foundations, foundation and basement walls; above-ground structural elements (columns and beams in skeletal, i.e. walls and ceilings in massive structural system); floor in contact with the ground; external walls; staircases; roof structure and roof cover c Main structural parts of a building in criterion IV 1 relate to: foundations, foundation and basement walls; above-ground structural elements (columns and beams in skeletal, i.e. walls and ceilings in massive structural system); floor in contact with the ground; external walls; staircases; roof structure and roof cover d Parts of a building structure in criterion V 1 relate to: foundations, foundation and basement walls; external walls, interior supporting walls; interior wall partitions; roof structure; roof cover; floor in contact with the ground; ceilings; staircases; floor finishes and outdoor materialized surfaces e Criterion V 2 relates to: main structural elements; thermal insulation; roof structure; walls; roof cover; staircases; windows and doors; installation pipes; flooring materials f Prefabricated structural parts in criterion V 3 relate to: ceilings; main skeletal structure; main roof structure; panel walls; panel roof system of prefabricated cells and small mobile structures g Structure components in criterion VI 3 relate to: windows, doors, partition walls, flooring and solar protection systems

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Berlin, Germany (2010), http//www.longlifeworld.eu/res/dnl/en/2010020 1LL%20comparison%20certification%20systems .142.pdf, Assessed on 29.03.2014.

Acknowledgement Opinions, findings, conclusions and recommendations expressed in this paper are those of authors.

[8]

Kosanović Saja, Model za ocenu ekološke ispravnosti kuća za individualno stanovanje na području Beograda (transl. from Serbian: Model for environmental assessment of single-family houses in Belgrade area), Doktorska disertacija, Arhitektonski fakultet Univerziteta u Beogradu, Beograd, Srbija, 2012.

[9]

Zakon o Serbian: "Službeni Srbija, br.

Funding source The funding sources had no involvement in conducting the research and preparing the manuscript of this paper.

References [1]

[2]

[3]

Jovanović Popović Milica and Kosanović Saja, Selection of building materials based upon ecological characteristics: priorities in function of environmental protection, Spatium International Review, Vol 20, (2009), pp.

23-27, DOI:10.2298/SPAT0920023P. Jovanović Popović Milica et al., Unapređenje energetske efikasnosti gradova/zgrada kroz proces energetske sertifikacije (transl. from Serbian: Towns/buildings energy efficiency improvement throught the process of energy certification), Tematski zbornik radova (2.deo), Međunarodni naučni skup: Održivi prostorni razvoj gradova, Beograd, Srbija, 25 – 26. januar 2008, Institut za arhitekturu i urbanizam Srbije, Beograd, 2008, pp.

229 – 240.

Jönsson Åsa, Tools and methods for environmental assessment of building products - methodological analysis of six selected approaches. Building and Environment, Vol 35, (2000), Issue 3, pp. 223 – 238.

[4]

Zabalza Bribián Ignacio et al., Life cycle assessment of building materials: Comparative analysis of energy and environmental impacts and evaluation of eco-efficiency improvement potential, Building and Environment Vol 46, (2011), No 5, pp. 1133 – 1140.

[5]

DGNB System: Criteria, http://www.dgnbsystem.de/en/system/criteria/, Assessed on 25.03.2014.

[6]

BRE: Green Guide to Specification, http://www.bre.co.uk/greenguide/podpage.jsp? id=2126, Assessed on 29.03.2014.

[7]

Nolte Ingo, Comparison of worldwide certification systems for sustainable buildings: Report of state of worldwide certification systems for sustainable and energy efficient buildings in 2009 with the emphasis on residential versions of these certification systems and in a further step on education versions to compare the effect of typology on the systems, Techniche Universität,

zaštiti životne sredine (transl. from Law on environmental protection), glasnik Republike Srbije", Beograd, 135/04, 36/09 i 72/09.

[10] Pravilnik o bližim uslovima i postupku za dobijanje prava na korišćenje ekološkog znaka, elementima, izgledu i načinu upotrebe ekološkog znaka za proizvode, procese i usluge (transl. from Serbian: Regulation on close terms and procedures for obtaining rights for Eco-Sign usage, and on elements, appearance and modes of use of EcoSign, intended for products, processes and services), "Službeni glasnik Republike Srbije", Beograd, Srbija, br. 3/09.

[11] Pravilnik o sadržini studije o proceni uticaja na životnu sredinu (transl. from Serbian: Regulation on content of environmental impact assessment study), "Službeni glasnik Republike Srbije", br.

69/05.

[12] Uredba o utvrđivanju liste projekata za koje je obavezna procena uticaja i liste projekata za koje se može zahtevati procena uticaja na životnu sredinu (transl. from Serbian: Decree on the list of projects for which the environmental impact assessment is required and the list of projects for which the environmental impact assessment may be required), "Službeni glasnik Republike Srbije", Beograd, Srbija, br. 84/05.

[13] Uredba o vrstama aktivnosti i postrojenja za koje se izdaje integrisana dozvola (transl. from Serbian: Decree on the types of activities and facilities for which the integrated permit is demanded), "Službeni glasnik Republike Srbije", Beograd, Srbija, br. 84/05.

[14] Uredba o kriterijumima za određivanje najboljih dostupnih tehnika, za primenu standarda kvaliteta, kao i za određivanje graničnih vrednosti emisija u integrisanoj dozvoli (transl. from Serbian: Decree on the criteria for determining the best available techniques, the application of quality standards, as well as for determining the emission value limits in

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integrated permit), "Službeni glasnik Republike Srbije", Beograd, Srbija, br. 84/05.

[15] Zakon o podsticanju građevinske industrije Republike Srbije u uslovima ekonomske krize (transl. from Serbian: Law on enhancing the construction industry of the Republic of Serbia in conditions of economic crisis), "Službeni glasnik Republike Srbije", Beograd, Srbija, br. 45/2010.

[16] Strategija Vlade Srbije upravljanja otpadom za period 2010-2019. godine (transl. from Serbian: Strategy of the Government of Serbia on waste

management for period 2010-2019), "Službeni glasnik Republike Srbije", Beograd, Srbija, br.

29/2010.

[17] GreenBase Website, http://www.greenbase.rs, Assessed on 23.03.2014.

[18] Harris J. Douglas, A quantitative approach to the assessment of the environmental impact of building materials, Building and Environment, Vol 34, (1999), No 6, pp. 751 – 758.

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DOI: 10.14621/tna.20140108

Kromolj House in Sarajevo Haris Bradić Faculty of Architecture, University of Sarajevo Patriotske Lige 30, 71000 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, harisb@af.unsa.ba, haris_bradic@yahoo.com

Abstract

1. Introduction

The Paper presents one of the Author’s designs realized in 2013 in Sarajevo, Poljine. The parcel has the altitude of 693m and the following geographic coordinates: 43˚53'23.01 of latitude and 18˚24'39.09 of longitude. It is a south-east oriented slope, located within natural environment, just 6 km away from the city centre.

The house has the area of 282m2, laid out in two floors: semiburied ground floor and the first floor. It was designed for one family as a highly insulated architectural space whose final goal is to provide excellent indoor quality. The U-value of nontransparent parts of the house is below 0.2W/m2K, whereas that of the glazed surfaces does not exceed 1.0W/m2K. Based on the calculations, the total energy needs stand at 30kWh/m2/year. All requirements of the Building Physics, including heat and water vapor transfer through envelope, have been fully satisfied. The project included review of available mechanical installations, that is, analysis of various systems and possible combinations of renewable energy sources: pellet – biomass, electricity generated by photo-voltaic cells, ground energy generated by vertical or surface loops, or energy generated by an air-source heat pump and solar collectors. Economic analysis, that is, the analysis of the initial investment and the payback period was carried out and it was decided that the air-water heat pump should be installed as the best solution. The final result in terms of energy needs was 12.6kWh/m2/year, classifying this house as a “low energy house”.

The house cannot be classified as a passive house due to the properties of its envelope. Besides emphasizing the importance of insulation, that is, envelope materialization, this design also indicates the importance of the relationship between the transparent and non-transparent surfaces and the orientation of glazed areas towards the Sun. Carefully designed glazed areas enable controlled penetration of solar energy into the house. The western side and partially the eastern side of the house have been closed to prevent heat transfers. This proves that envelope design in energy efficient architecture must be considered from the earliest stages of the design process (layout development). The original idea was successfully carried out and the house is today an example of modern and energy efficient architecture both in Sarajevo and in the broader region.

The design presented in this Paper is a low-energy house built in Sarajevo. This design is a result of a thorough analysis of the energy potential of the location (the sun, wind and geothermal energy) and the investor's requests in terms of the usable area and desired form.

When it comes to overall energy consumption, the main objective of the project was to design a passive house.

However, a low-energy house was the final result.

The guiding idea was to create a piece of architecture that will establish a close relationship between the lowenergy design, environment and its consumers. Every period, and thus every space in which architecture emerges, is per se specific in its economic and human relations towards design and construction. The example presented here is a design that came into life as a result of the investor’s desire and aspirations to have a family house that would not disturb the natural environment,i i.e. the landscape in which it will be erected. This family house, or “The Kromolj House”, has a total area of 282 m2 and it is built on a plot of ca 9,000 m2. The whole design was guided by one thought – to build a house that will be compliant with the natural environmenti in terms of its volume, form, materials and energy consumption.

The final results indicate that the main objective has been achieved, i.e. a low-energy house was built with a high comfort level and contemporary architectural design. It must also be mentioned that the original idea was to build a passive house, but this could not be done in this particular case primarily due to the investor’s personal economic reasons. The CO2 emission has been reduced to minimum, and the total energy needs to 19.4kWh/m2 per year.

Keywords:

Architecture, Building physics, Energy, Envelope, Environment

2. Evolution of the relation between architecture and energy

Article history:

Received: 8 July 2014 Revised: 22 July 2014 Accepted: 1 August 2014

Throughout the history, people have been trying to create comfortable space for life, work, recreation, etc.

This means that relation between architecture and

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energy saving is an issue that has been discussed since the birth of architecture. In the light of the above, even the Socrates’ house showed how solar energy could be used in a completely passive way by adjustment of the house form and orientation.

The science has been dealing with this issue since 1970s, or the first oil crises. Facade design has no longer been the only preoccupation – engineers began calculating k or U values of envelope layers. Maximum allowed values have become one of the factors for classification of architecture into low-energy architecture, passive architecture, zero emission architecture and energy plus architecture. This classification indicates the level of energy saving measured for total energy needs per annum, which is then showed in the form of an energy passport.

The first step in today's design of buildings is to set the energy consumption target that a future building needs to achieve. This will then affect its form, materialization, relation between transparent and non-transparent parts on the envelope, technical solutions for indoor air treatment (HVAC systems), etc. It arises therefrom that architectural energy adaptations affect the design and pose a significant challenge to architects (Figure 1, 2).

3. Location and micro-climate The house is located in Sarajevo at the altitude of 695m (latitude 43°53′23.08'' and longitude 18°24′38.56'') and it administratively belongs to the Centar Municipality.

The surrounding area is dominated by family houses built on sizeable plots of land (exceeding ca 2,000m2).

The location is ca 5km away from the city noise and traffic. It has been built on an east-oriented slope (which also partially faces the south). On the north and the west side, the plot is bounded by high, mainly deciduous trees (cherry, apple, chestnut, walnut, etc). The entire landscape, the terrain morphology and the orientation of the plot were the factors that most affected the entire design. The plot is accessed from a 3m wide road, and has connection to the water, electricity and partially gas line (each of them can be used).

Climate in Sarajevo is characterized by strong winters with heavy snow (up to 120cm even in the very city). The lowest mean temperatures on record for the past 10 years were for February (-9°). Summer periods are hot with temperatures around +32 °C (usually in August).

The above indicates that Sarajevo has a continental climate in winter, whereas in summer the whole area is under the influence of the Mediterranean climateii.

Precipitation recorded in 2002 stood at 967.1 l/m2, in 2007 at 996.2 l/m2 and in 2012 at 887.4 l/m2, indicating relative stability, but different intensity through months.

Winter periods are becoming scarce in snowfall, whereas summer periods are becoming characterized by heavier rainfall. However, rainfall is not of the same intensity, i.e. there are periods when rain falls heavily for a certain period of time causing floods and damage to buildingsiii (Charts 1, 2).

Figure 1. Original condition

Chart 1 shows mean temperatures per years (last ten years). We see that in 2012, the mean temperature was 12.2°C, which is by ca 0.5°C more than the last ten years’ average. This clearly indicates that the temperature is rising, increasing the risk of natural catastrophes in Sarajevo. Chart 2 shows that the number of natural disasters in the world grew from 80 to 135 in the period from 1970 to 1994 [1]. These are the signs that warn us that in the future we must not allow construction of poorly insulated buildings, i.e. high energy consumers and high CO2 emitters. Architecture, as one of the largest energy consumers, must become a point of reference when it comes to energy savings and influence its occupants to change their attitudes towards nature, energy and overall survival of people on Earth.

4. Form and shape of “The Kromolj House” Figure 2. Original condition

As it has already been said in the Introduction, the main idea underlying this design is the desire to build a house

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Chart 1. Mean annual temperatures in Sarajevo

Chart 2. Increase in the natural disaster number in the world for the last 25 years; Source: Daniels, K., 2009, p.19

that will be fully compliant with its environment (landscape and terrain) and the energy comfort specificities (investor’s requests). The area of the house is 282m2, with two floors, namely a semi-buried ground floor and the first floor, which, if observed from north, is also a ground floor with the main entrance door. The volume and the form follow the contours of the slope, making the house dominant in relation to the ground.

The major part of the slope is east-oriented, but also facing the south.

This specific architectural design shows a playfulness of solid and glazed surfaces (Figure 3), whose main objective is to open up the house as much as possible to

create both visual and functional contacts between the interior and the exterior (landscape). Total area of the envelope is 580.99m2. The shape factor is 0.71, and the conditioned volume is 812m3. The window factor is 23 (Chart 3), which means that the transparent vs. nontransparent ratio is high. Given that transparent parts of the house are the parts with the highest U-values, special attention had to be given to selecting the right external openings to meet the U-value requirements.

Chart 3 shows that 13% of the total envelope is transparent parts. This was a significant number of windows that needed to be properly materialized so that the minimum heat transfer coefficient, i.e. Uw,

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(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Figure 3. Current condition (September, 2013), (a) South and east facade, (b) South-west facade, (c) North and west facade and (d) South facade

Chart 3. Envelope structure (border between conditioned and unconditioned environment)

could be achieved. This increased the investment significantly. Nowadays, modern technology is able to produce windows whose Uw value is 0.6 W/m2K, which was impossible 10 years ago.

While designing this house, the plan was to orient the transparent parts towards the south, while keeping the north parts non-transparent and highly insulated. The

Chart 4. Envelope structure in details (border between conditioned and unconditioned environment)

house is by its shape and materialization compliant with the environment, providing excellent conditions for energy savings (cooling and heating) both in summer and in winter. Figure 4 shows the ground floor plan and the position of the 50m3 rainwater tank for rainwater harvesting from the roof and terraces (whose total area is 235m2).

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Figure 4. Ground floor plan

Figure 5. First floor plan ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ H. Bradić: “Kromolj House in Sarajevo”, pp. 58–67

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Figure 6. Section

Table1. Geometric and thermal properties of the envelope ENVELOPE PART

U-VALUE

AREA

W/m2K

82.2 m2

1

External wall type 1, RC and stone wool

0.149

2

External wall type 2, thermo block and stone wool

0.175 W/m2K

116.61 m2

W/m2K

47.77 m2

1.8 W/m2K

5.23 m2

W/m2K

67.77 m2

0.26 W/m2K

81.36 m2

W/m2K

31.2 m2

3

External wall, wall in ground, RC and XPS

4

External openings, entrance door, solid wood

0.296

5

External openings, windows, Rehau Geneo system, triple glazed, Low-e, g=0,50

6

Slab on ground

1.0

7

Floor above unconditioned crawlspace

0.149

8

Flat roof

0.182 W/m2K

125.5 m2

9

Shed roof

0.13 W/m2K

23.35 m2

TOTAL ENVELOPE AREA

5. Envelope materialization The envelope has been designed to have approximately the same U-values on all its parts: the flat roof U-value is the lowest and amounts 0.13 W/m2K, external wall has the U-value of 0.15 W/m2K and the slab-on-ground the value of 0.26 W/m2K (Table 1). Heat transfer coefficients could be even lower, but the investment would have risen and the energy needs for heating would not have decreased that much, unless the windows with passive house certificate had been installediv. This certificate prescribes that Uw must not exceed Uw=0.8 W/m2. This has not been achieved, so the envelope is considered low-energy. The mean U-value of the entire envelope is

580.99 m2

0.29W/m2K. Transparent parts have the U-value of 1.05W/m2K, and non-transparent U= 0.19W/m2K. The envelope was designed to be „passively active“v in terms of the energy movement control in both directions. The external walls were built using the thermal Wienerberger, type 38 PROFI block for the first time in BiH. The entire house was insulated with the Knauf insulation, type PTP 035. The reinforced concrete overhangs and horizontal ring beam are insulated using the 3cm thick sandwich panel before installation of the 20cm thick thermal insulation.

As a result, the total load-bearing structure (reinforced concrete and thermal block) has no thermal stresses, i.e. temperature dilatationsvi and the water vapor flow is

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Figure 7. Temperatures of the envelope layers and graphs showing vapor diffusion on the facade walls

(a)

(b)

Figure 8. Construction site as of May 2013, (a) Thermal block wall insulation, (b) External wall on ground insulation ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ H. Bradić: “Kromolj House in Sarajevo”, pp. 58–67

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Thermal energy of the environment Energy potential

Thermal energy of the interior

Architectural design relation building-environment

Low-energy architecture MAN, ENVIRONMENT AND ARCHITECTURAL SPACE Figure 9. Factors affecting low-energy architecture

stationary without condensation effects in the envelope. Furthermore, the drawings presented here show the Author's desire to adjust the thickness of the thermal – acoustic insulation on the reinforced concrete structure (horizontal and vertical reinforced concrete ring beams) and the 38cm thick thermo blocks to achieve harmonized U-values on the entire envelope (see Table 1).

Figure 7 shows the structure of the facade, where it can be seen that the investor has changed the original decision and instead of the stone wool used the graphite EPS in the facade. The final thickness of walls is 50 cm.

Also, 20cm thick waterproof facade polystyrene, XPS, type Fragmat 300L was used on the external side of the walls, 30 to 50 cm from the ground, and also on the reverse flat roof.

Figure 7 shows envelope layers and calculation of water vapor movements.

6. Energy saving concept ENSI EAB 8.1 vBiH software was used in this project to calculate the total energy needs for heating, ventilation, lighting, etc. Energy needs for cooling were calculated by means of tentative assessmentvii. In terms of energy savings and the building's relation with the environment, the design is characterized by several factors: (Figure 8).

The calculated amount of energy must somehow be emitted into the house, and therefore special attention was given to technical solutions. Even though the investment went up significantly due to envelope quality improvements, this segment increased it even more.

Modern technology offers variety of different energy efficient systems and it has been very difficult to choose a company and products that would fully meet the design requirements. Analysis of the microclimate, soil composition and access to the site showed that in the

long run installation of a heat pump would be the best solution. The system selected is the „air to water heat pump“viii (type: Stiebel Eltron, WPL 18 E, whose exit power at air temperature of 10°C is 13.40 kWh, and at 15°C, 8.2 kWh), which can be used even at temperature of -20 °C. This would decrease the energy need for heating by two to four times, whereby one of the initially set goals would be achieved. The central system includes preparation of hot sanitary water supported by solar collectors (type: Stiebel Eltron SOL 27 basic, 500 W/m2, with the total area of 3x2.38=7,14 m2), (Figure 6) that transfer the heat energy generated during daylight into the central tank (type: Stiebel Eltron SBB 401 WPSOL, volume 400l), which then, with the help of the heat pump generated energy heats the water to temperature of +35 °C. In the end, the total energy needs would be reduced from 43.2 kWh/m2 to 19.4 kWh/m2 per year, which would be a huge success given the time and the place the house is built in. Financial indicators show that the total investment into heating and hot water preparation systems is EUR 23,500.00 and that the payback period for money invested into the solar collectors and the heat pump is eight years (compared to gas use via condensing boilers, or electricity via electrical boilers). The results presented here confirm the original concept of this design, especially in the part related to the envelope. Energy needs and the investment into the above mentioned hot water preparation system have been reduced to minimum. In addition, another model, i.e. simulation was prepared for this project, namely the use of the geothermal heat pump with two vertical probes of minimum 100m.

However, the results showed that installation of this system is more complicated and that the investment would be even higher for two reasons: small number of probes (only two) and difficult access to the site, which would only mean additional construction works that would only extend the payback period to 18 years, whereas energy savings would not change significantly.

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(a)

Today, this project serves as a model for future similar endeavors, new ideas and searching for solutions that involve minimum energy needs and lowest possible emission of CO2. Besides the highly insulated envelope and contemporary use of energy from the environment by means of solar collectors and heat pump, it is also important to emphasize the high quality of the interior, by which all the requests of the investors were met.

Therefore, this house meets all architectural visual demands as well. Construction of low-energy and passive buildings in the developing countries is still very difficult due to its costs (the payback period is up to 30 years). Every new building or house designed and built under the above principles should be adequately promoted to urge the relevant authorities to establish funds that would help future investors, and make such projects more realistic and achievable.

References [1]

Danijels, K., Tehnologija ekološkog građenja, Osnove i mere, Primeri i ideje, (Technology of ecoconstruction, basics and measures, examples and ideas) NK Jasen, Beograd, Srbija, (2009.), ISBN: 97885337-66-6.

[2]

Duran, S., C., Architecture & Energy Efficiency, LOFT Publications, Barcelona, Spain (2011), ISBN: 97884-9936-206-9.

(b)

[3]

Figure 10. Boiler room and heat pump, (a) Boiler room, (b) External unit of the heat pump installed on the roof

Hadrović, A., Arhitektonska fizika, drugo izdanje, (Architectural Physics, second edition), Arhitektonski fakultet u Sarajevu, Sarajevo, BiH, (2010.), ISBN: 978-9958-691-20-1.

[4]

Hadrović, A.,Bioklimatska arhitektura, traženje puta u raj, (Bioclimatic Architecture, Searching for a Path to Heaven), Arhitektonski fakultet u Sarajevu, Sarajevo, (2008.), ISBN: 978-9958-69105-8.

[5]

Hegger, M., Fuchs, M., Stark, T., Zeumer, M., Energy Manual, Sustainable Architecture, Institut fur internationale Architektur-Dokumentation GmbH & Co KG, Munich, Germany, (2008.), ISBN: 978-3-7643-8830-0.

[6]

Radaković, M., Geotermalna energija, (Geothermal Energy), AGM knjiga, Beograd, Srbija, 2011, ISBN: 978-86-86363-30-5.

[7]

Radosavljević, J., M., Pavlović, T., M., Lambić, M., R., Solarna energija i samoodrživi razvoj, (Solar Energetics and Sustainable Development), Građevinska knjiga, Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, (2004.), ISBN: 86-395-0405-9.

[8]

Recknagel H., Sprenger E., Schramek E. R., translation from German by: Čeperković Zagorka, Grijanje i vjetrenje, (Heating and Air-conditioning),

7. Conclusion This was a presentation of a low-energy house as one of the first such projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The findings of this analysis indicate that the house has been perfectly incorporated within its surroundings, excellently insulated and equipped with the cutting edge technologies, representing a success of all the participants to the project, especially the investor’s.

Construction price was ca EUR 1,000 per m2, which is 100 % more expensive than the usual construction both in our country and in the region.

The house is a result of a joint work of the investor, the designer and the constructor, who worked hard to bring this project to life in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Construction of the energy efficient buildings is still a privilege of well-off individuals and is still not widespread. Therefore, every new energy efficient structure is a great success of all project participants.

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Interklima-Grafika, Vrnjačka Banja, Serbia, (2004.), ISBN: 86-82685-13-2.

[9]

Sir Houghton, J.T, Global Warming, the Complete briefing, Cambridge University Press., New York, SAD, (2009.), ISBN-13 978-0-511-53365-5.

[10] Šamšalović, S., Toplotna pumpa, tehnologije samoodržive proizvodnje energije, Heat pump, technology of sustainable energy production, Savez mašinskih i elektrotehničkih inženjera Srbije (SMEITS), Beograd, Serbia, (2009.), ISBN: 978-8681505-49-6.

Web pages: www.elektroprivreda.ba www.energis.ba www.fhmzbih.gov.ba www.koenigsolar.at www.passiv.de www.sarajevogas.ba www.schueco.com www.statisticbrain.com/solar-energy-statistics/

i

This house has been designed under the principles of bioclimatic architecture (See “Bioclimatic Architecture”[4]

ii

Source: All data were obtained from the FBiH Hydrometeorological Institute, namely the Bjelave outpost, measured in the period from 2002 to 2012, www.fhmzbih.gov.ba

iii

For global effects of climate changes see [9]; the effects have also been present in Sarajevo for the past 10 years

iv

PHI – Passive House institute, established in 1990 by Professor Wolfgang Feist in Darmstadt, www.passiv.de

v

Long overhangs above the ground floor (south-oriented) serve as protection from excessive insolation in summer, but allow solar gains in winter. This is one form of passive use of solar energy [7]

vi

Temperature dilatations occur in winter due to unequal envelope layers in winter [3]

vii

Data obtained based on the tentative assessment method; it has been estimated that air temperature of 18 C° and 80 % of relative humidity is required to cool down the air of 32 C° and 40% of relative humidity. Rooms in residential spaces need 30-40 W/m3 of thermal energy, and the system must be adjusted to the time spent in those rooms [8]

viii

Heat pumps: air to air, air to water, water to water and ground to water [10]

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The Journal

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About the Journal

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Instructions for Authors

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ABOUT THE JOURNAL Aim and Scope International Journal of Contemporary Architecture “The New ARCH” publishes research articles and studies on solutions to architectural projects and urban planning. Papers that are multidisciplinary and/or address new or emerging areas of architecture are particularly encouraged. Thus, the scope includes but is not limited to the design process and case studies with performance evaluation, buildings for tomorrow, transforming cities towards the future, course of adapting architecture, challenges of buildings refurbishment, energy efficiency and savings including building technologies, design in-line with environment associated with ecological impact of materials.

“The New ARCH” is committed to publishing original papers communicating both recent research findings and innovative new practice. Thus, it provides an active interface between theory, science and practice serving both researches and practising professionals. The accent is on the architectural quality demonstrating different approaches of relations between good architecture and environment, without focusing only on technical aspects of building. So, the sustainability and great design does not exclude each other in the process of creating architectural spaces. Joined, they provide contemporary pillar to architecture.

Language “The New ARCH” is published in English and accepts contributions written only in English.

Frequency “The New ARCH” is a thrice yearly open-access electronic journal.

Contributions Two types of contributions are expected: - Original Article - must either be of a current general interest or of a great significance to readers, - Review - introducing a particular area through a concise overview of a selected topic by the author(s).

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The author(s) should provide a statement attesting to the originality of the work submitted for publication. Exception is an abstract or part of a published lecture or academic thesis.

Peer Review “The New ARCH” is a peer-review journal. All submitted manuscripts, which follow the scope of the journal, are read first by the editorial stuff and only those that meet editorial criteria are sent for formal double-blind peer review process.

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Authors are obliged to follow remarks and comments of reviewers, instructions for preparing manuscripts, reference list specification as well as remarks and corrections of the Editorial Board.

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INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS General Information Procedure The authors are obliged to submit papers only in English and free of typing errors. The manuscript should not exceed 14 pages (A4 format), including figures and tables. For the review process the manuscript should not exceed 14 pages and should be submitted in electronic form only as MS Word file.

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An abstract may also be presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. For this reason, References should be avoided, but if essential, then cite the author(s) and year(s).

Keywords Maximum 8 characteristic words (regular letters, with indent 20 mm from left and right margin) explaining the subject of the manuscript (for example, “of”, “and” ... have to be avoided) should be provided directly below the abstract. Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible. These keywords may be used for indexing purposes.

Introduction It should place the work in the appropriate context and clearly state the purpose and objectives of the contribution.

Body of the Text Authors are obliged to use System International (SI) for Units (including Non/SI units accepted for use with the SI system) for all physical parameters and their units.

Titles of sections and subsections have to be written in bold, left, numerated (decimal classification) in Arabic numbers, with spacing one line before and one line after.

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___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Ensure that each graphics/illustration has a caption. A caption should comprise a brief title (not on the figure itself) and a description of the illustration.

Keep text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.

Figure captions should be placed below figures, in bold, justified left; one line should be left blank below figure captions.

Table captions have to be placed above tables in bold, left justified with the table; one line should be left blank above captions and below tables. Place footnotes to tables below the table body and indicate them with superscript lower-case letters.

All tables and figures must be referred in the text.

All equations, formulas, and expressions should be numbered in parentheses, with right alignment, in the order of appearance in the text, and must be centred with one line left above and below.

Also, equations, formulas, and expressions should be referred within the text with Eq., or Formula, or Expression, with corresponding number in parentheses.

The mark of variables with dimensions in brackets used and explained only once in the text, do not include into the nomenclature.

References References should be numbered in brackets in the order of appearance in the text, e.g. [1], [3, 4], [7-11], etc. The full references should be listed at the end of the paper (left alignment, hanging indentation) in numerical order of citation in the text.

For references having two authors, names of both authors should be given. For more than two authors, only name of the first author should be given, followed by latin abbreviation et al.

Data in References should be given according to the Reference List Specification, given in the next section.

Footnotes Footnotes should be used sparingly. Number them consecutively throughout the article. Indicate the position of footnotes in the text and present the footnotes themselves separately at the end of the article. Do not include footnotes in the Reference list.

Preparation of Graphics (Illustrations) Graphics intended to appear in black and white or grayscale should not be submitted in colour.

Graphics have to be submitted also in separated files in a JPG and/or TIF format. Use of colour in manuscript graphics is encouraged when it is important for clarity of presentation.

It has to be noted that the quality of the graphics published in the journal depends on the quality of the graphic images provided by authors.

Do not supply graphics optimised for screen, that are too low in resolution or that are disproportionately large for the content.

Digital graphics should have minimum resolution of 1200 dpi for black and white line art, 600 dpi for grayscale art and 300 dpi for colour art.

For uniformity of appearance, all the graphics of the same type should share a common style and font. For scanned half-tone illustrations a resolution of 300 dpi is sufficient.

Conclusions

Reference List Specification Journals Author(s)1, Paper title, Journal title, Volume number, (Year), Issue, pp. xx-yy, DOI number2

Books Author(s)1, Book title3, Publisher, City, Country, Year

Chapters Author(s)1, Chapter title, in Book title3, (Editor(s) of the book)4, Publisher, City, Country, Year, pp. xx-yy

Proceedings, Transactions, Book of Abstracts Author(s)1, Paper title, Proceedings, Proceedings information5, Conference, City, Country, Year, Volume6, pp. xx-yy

Thesis Author(s)1, Thesis title, Thesis rank, University, City, Country, Year

Reports

Content of this section should not substantially duplicate the abstract.

It could contain text summarising the main contributions of the manuscript and expression and idea for the work to be continued.

Author(s)1, Report title, Report number, Institution, City, Country, Year

Acknowledgement

Literature or Data on web Sites and Documents without Authors

May be used to acknowledge helpful discussion with colleagues, assistance providing starting material or reference samples, data and services from others who are not co-authors, or providing language help, writing assistance or proof reading the article, or financial support.

Funding Source Author has to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the manuscript and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design, as well as in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data, as well as in the writing of the manuscript, and in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement then this should be stated here.

Nomenclature Author should use a systematic name for each compound. The variables in nomenclature have to be written in alphabetical order and, if exist, must have dimension in brackets. The Greek symbols must be separated, and as well as subscripts and superscripts, abbreviations, and acronyms.

Author(s)1,2, Title/Data/Institution, Link

Web As a minimum, the full URL should be given and the date when the reference was last accessed. Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given

Patents Owner(s)1, Title of patent, Patent number, Year __________________________________________ 1 Last name, Initial (optional), First name 2 If exist 3 Title in original language or in transliteration, the English translation in parentheses with the indication of the original language 4 Editor(s)1 (in parentheses) 5 (Name(s) of the editor(s), if exist, in parentheses), Title of the publication if it is not the same as the title of the meeting 6 Only for Transactions

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International Journal of Contemporary Architecture ”The New ARCH“ Vol. 1, No. 1 (2014)

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THE NEXT ISSUE THE NEXT ISSUE OF THE JOURNAL THE NEW ARCH IS SCHEDULED FOR DECEMBER 2014 !!!

Following articles will appear: °Recent work of Philippe Rahm architetctes from Paris, France – Similar methodologies in very different scales °Exciting interviews °The second Block of Authors’ papers with the Topic “Sustainable Architecture”

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