ZERO IS MORE SEOUL, South Korea [37º34N, 126º58E] Population: 10 421 782
CLIMATE: temperate climate with four distinct seasons. Summer hot and humid with temperatures reaching 35º, prevailing winds south west. Summer monsoon period between June and September. Winter cold days, occasionally it snows, temperatures reaching -10º, prevailing winds Northwest.
CITY: today's cities are in focus on the discussion for measures to tackle Climate Change and Global Warming. Most of the activities taken place in a city involves energy consumption and, consequently, Greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions. Seoul is considered to be a mega-city, highly dense, traffic congestion and reliable on fossil fuels. Oil contributes to nearly 60% of the total CO2 emissions due to its dominant use in buildings and urban transportation and also because most of the big buildings in Seoul use oil-based central heating systems 1. Households are the main source of emissions and energy efficiency in Seoul and unless the city in not designed/redesigned with different parameters and objectives, with the population growth, problems will continue to persist and increase. To increase energy efficiency in the city and decrease GHG emissions the major problems have to be identified and solutions proposed.
ZERO IS MORE: Zero primary energy consumption, rely on renewables to provide energy. Zero Greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions. Zero traffic congestion. Zero air and noise pollution. Zero ignorance. More awareness of today’s reality, of today’s concerns on way we live. More recycle. More clean air. More clean energy. More green spaces. More living in community. MORE. In uncharacteristic areas of the city new neighbourhoods will appear – the eco-communities. Identified areas of the city will be demolish to give place to this new way of living. The surgical operations in the city will be a 20ha intervention each. New, transformed, sustainable neighbourhoods will be appearing in the city creating like a ‘green’ community network, and one day will be, in fact, the entire city. The new green, sustainable, clean communities that would give the opportunity for people to live in community, aware of the today's problem with energy consumption, a community with the right proportion of construction versus green area, with all the more immediate services and commerce in a walk distance in order to reduce car usage and CO2 emissions. The urban planning of these new areas will be designed in a bioclimatic approach, focusing on passive solutions – where the building do the work – and only if necessary active strategies, energy efficient ones though, will be implemented. The aim is to reduce energy consumption in order to achieve Zero GHG emissions and More life quality, resources. ‘Zero is more’ is developed in three layers: private house - ECO Building; neighbourhood - ECO Community; city - ECO City. 1
Dhakal S., Kaneko S. and Imura H., Sustainability of Asia's Mega-Cities Policies for Energy Demand and Greenhouse Gas Mitigation are the focus of research in cooperation with IHDP-IT
SUMMARY
PROBLEMS
ECO CITY
ECO COMMUNITY
ECO BUILDING