Sustainable Design Portfolio JB by Jacob Brown

Sustainable Design Portfolio Jacob Brown

Experience

Selected Works

Shawfair New-Town :

A Sustainable Landscape for Living

Practice placement : Allen Pyke associates Cambridge, 6 months, 2019. Practice placement : Robinsion Landscape Design Newcastle 1 Week, 2016. Graphic work : SadlerBrown Architects Newcastle 2017-2020 Volunteering : Laing Art Gallery Summer School Newcastle 2017

Personal Statement I am an ambitious and creative individual with a profound interest and experience within design and the arts. Relevant and transferable skills have been gained from the successful completion of my Landscape Architecture degree (MA hons) and subsequent Advanced Sustainable Design degree (MSc Hons) at the University of Edinburgh. Alongside valuable professional placement and work experience opportunities detailed opposite. Working within sustainability and landscape allows for the creation of better places for people, re-establishing links between individuals, the environment and how it should be a beneficial presence in livelihoods long-term.

Edinburgh College of Art Degree show event assistant, 2018.

Skills and Competencies Adobe Creative Cloud pack Microsoft Office Pack

Sketchup

I am seeking to gain accreditation, once in practice, in sustainability through BREEAM certification. This qualifications would assist in providing an in-depth understanding of practice and sustainable applications in the design field.

Scale model making

University of Edinburgh : Master of Arts in Landscape architecture 2016-2020 (First Class with Honours) University of Edinburgh : Master of Science in Advanced Sustainable Design 2020-2021 (First Class Honours with Distinction) Gosforth Academy : GCSEs and A-Levels 2011-2016

Sustainable Extremes :

Austria Passivehaus Mountain Lodge

Auto CAD

Ambitions

Education

04-15

Drafting and painting

Notable Achievements Exhibitor at the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition 2018 (London). Establishment of ‘Natural Palette Art’ business as a platform to sell, promote and exhibit self-created artworks.

16-23

Adaptable Office :

Montreal Design Studios

President of Edinburgh University Landscape Architecture Society, 2018-2019. Graphic Design collaboration with the Buchanan institute, Debates and Landscape Architecture societies (University of Edinburgh). Duke of Edinburgh : Silver Award.

CPD Certificate Allen Pyke Associates (2019)

24-35

Shawfair New-Town : A Sustainable Landscape for Living Site Location This site, near Edinburgh involved the regeneration of a former coal-mining site creating the basis of a new settlement. Edinburgh

The design brief was to create a new-town design based on sustainable principles and strategies. The design predominantly focused on harnessing the landscape as a mechanism for mitigating the effects of climate change in this context, managing issues such as flooding and urban heat island effects.

Site

The design was phased over a time-scale of 25 years to ensure that the benefits of the landscape-led approach could be established and any remediation realised, before any human settlement or built-form was implemented on the site.

Visualitsion: Flood control and water flow through the landscape

Existing site

Identifying Historic sties and areas for re-mediation

Shawfair New-Town :

Concept Plan Timescapes:

Objectives:

A Sustainable Landscape for Living

This project aims to re-mediate the landscape of Shawfair as a framework for regeneration and growth.

The site required remediation to reduce contaminated soils and water courses due to the previous coal mining activity on the site.

Using the landscape as a means of improving existing and providing new connections between people, nature and their surrounding settlements through creating ‘green corridors and waterways’.

Phasing the landscape and settlement design over a time-scale of 25 years, ensured that the landscape features and filtering plant species selected have sufficient time to establish and subsequently re-mediate the site conditions.

Topography mapping and creation of water courses

Establishing new tree planting and green buffer-zones around the water courses

This phasing also ensures that the design is adaptable and can be changed over-time to meet the needs of the community and landscape beyond, improving the resilience to climate change for example.

These corridors in the short term will serve as re-mediating forms and connecting routes improving the existing contaminated coal mining sites at the centre of Shawfair. In the long term these will have the ability to evolve and grow with the changing needs of Shawfair and the wider region.

Problems and solutions

Water meadow expanded and key routes through the site created

Built form added once the landscape functions are established

* Reducing the dependency on the car - Improving public transport, developing cycling routes and walk-ability providing comfortable and accessible spaces for walking for all age groups and abilities * The lack of connectivity between people and their surroundings - Creating a series of green corridors connecting people to nature, local amenities, community /cultural sites and surrounding towns and ecological sites * Addressing the current system for development in Midlothian - Providing a flexible but dense residential and commercial area in the town centre that provides a sense of place and community through the proximity of living, natural and working spaces. Designing a strategy that can be phased over time to support a growing community and greater adaptability.

Shawfair New-Town :

Town Centre visualisation: Dry Conditions

Town Centre visualisation: Flood Conditions

Community activities and the drainage area for the street rain garden run-off. The extensive trees and planting of the green corridor moving through the town centre provide habitat areas for recreation and allow for the water to move freely through the blue network established in Shawfair.

Town centre designed to manage surface run-off and excess water in more extreme weather and climate events, the island around the gap in the swales purposefully floods and the surrounding buildings and key routes are protected.

Blue and Grey water movement through built-up areas Neighbourhood Scale Key space typologies across the site

+ Green Roof strategy The neighbourhood scale plan looks more closely at how water would be integrated as a surface feature to promote habitat creation and more interaction with the natural world around the dwellings. The water moves trough the built-up areas as a swale with a buffer zone on each side for pedestrian and cycle activity away from the main routes, this provides communal space for residents and the public to explore how water is affecting the environment around them and the beneficial properties it can bring to the regeneration of the site. This design forms part of the water strategy detailed opposite which highlights how the swales would control the water movement through built-up areas and channel that into main water basins for retention, the green roofs form part of this strategy as well as incorporating grey-water from households.

Rain gardens and green corridors

Green roofs and built infrastructure

Water meadows: flux

Visualisation of the town centre without green roofs

Streets

Street-Scape

A Sustainable Landscape for Living

Visualisation

Street-scape sections in wet and dry conditions, by season.

Bio-swale Street-scape: Dry conditions (Summer)

The materials palette selected is reflective of the context of the site using existing materials to construct and give character to the new landscape and urban fabric of Shawfair. The recycled and wood and steel can be used for creating intriguing street-scapes and significantly reduce the need for importing materials. The steel use of weathered steel also links to the former context of coal mining on the site and being able to re-use those materials anew.

Bio-swale Street-scape: Wet conditions (Autumn/Winter)

The planting palette is designed for both continuing the exist-ing species selection on the site, including the silver birch trees already present in the forest to the East part of the site. The additions include tree species suitable for street planting and species more restricted in height to prevent over-shading of the surrounding buildings. For the planting more wetland and rain garden species more suitable for planting along the new street and restored habitats.

Rammed earth build-up Intensive green roof

Drainage

Public Footpath

Green wall

Water filtering and rain garden planting

Cycle-route

Swale

Planting that follows the street planting strategy

Extensive green roof

The species selected are also part of the Scottish biodiversity and pollinator strategy providing a diverse range of flowering and groups of plants to provide for the insects and bees on the site.

Imagery and Green-Roof Strategy

Perspective view with green roofs

The imagery opposite demonstrates the sustainable urban drainage systems employed in the design to cope with the water fluctuations throughout the season and accounting for more dramatic flooding events due to climate change. Despite the area being largely housing an commercial, there would be an allocation of 35% public space, this includes areas around the water courses that would be made into public parks and recreation areas.

The green roof strategy is important for showing the flow of water across the design with the planing capturing rainfall, which is slowly transported into the swales and retaining water bodies throughout the site.

Mid-water level

The green roofs aim to replace the landscape taken up by the built-form ensuring that there is still adequate space for nature and the variety of plant species to thrive on the site.

Dry conditions

Sustainable Extremes : Austria Passivehaus Mountain Lodge The brief for this project was to develop a passivehaus alpine lodge in the Austrian Alps. The location and extreme climate made the use of internal building systems and intelligent façade design essential. The climatic conditions were analysed and the effects of the climate were harnessed to improve the environmental comfort parameters of the building. For example, the building shape was designed to retain the snow cover during the winter improving the insulating properties of the building shell. The shape of the building is also south facing to capture the maximum solar gains during the winter, utilising floor materials with a high thermal mass to release heat throughout the day and night.

Site Location

Austrian Alps

SITE

Winter solstice sun angle

Spring/Autumn equinox sun angle

Winter solstice

Summer solstice sun angle

Sustainable Extremes :

Austria Mountain Lodge

Due to the extreme conditions the angle of the sunlight throughout the year is also quite dramatic at a low level the sun reaches a maximum angle of only 20 degrees and rises for around 8 hours . During the summer the angle reaches 66 degrees and is light for around 16 hours, so the design needs to take advantage of the little sunlight during the winter and protect the internal environment from the excessive solar gains during the summer.

Noon 43*

Noon 20*

Noon 66*

The lighting analysis demonstrates that the design is successful in being able to manage the lighting levels during the summer, this is through a combination of shading profiles in the building design and the use of mechanical shading internally to prevent excessive solar gains. During the winter the lighting levels are maximised in the main living space, this in combination with the materials will generate stored energy through thermal mass, to be released in the evening and night. Reducing the need for heating.

The shadow analysis reflects this highlighting that during the summer the building is exposed to a high level of sunlight and would need to mitigate solar gains. The opposite can be said for the sinter to maximise solar gains and ensure that energy is carried through into the evening and night.

Summer solstice

Sustainable Extremes :

Plan

Austria Mountain Lodge: Building Design The building is implanted in the land-form, this lower position in the landscape reduces the exposure of the building limiting noise from the wind and allowing for snow to accumulate around the building as it would on the rest of the mountain. The balcony is on a series of stilts anchored into the ground, the stilts allow for the movement of wind preventing an accumulation of snow on the solar panels attached to the balcony and the balcony itself. The roof angle is shallow to again allow for snow accumulation and the skylights are pitched steeply to allow for solar gains in winter. The diagrams opposite demonstrate the climatic conditions that affect and could benefit the building. Most of the snow will accumulate on the East façade, roof and North facade given the direction of the prevailing wind. As the drawings show large parts of the East façade could be covered in the winter providing additional insulation and reducing the energy demand and even improving the comfort of the spaces. The south facing facade of the building is clad in solar thermal panels to capture heat used for water heating. The extension of the building at the front also includes solar panels to generate electricity for lighting. Any shortfall is made up by a localised biomass generator. It uses pellets as a fuel source which are easy to transport and are renewable so there is a minimal impact on using this to make up any extra energy demand. Biomass. (22 kW Electricity generation and 55 kW Heat recovery)

East facade

N West Elevation

East Elevation

West facade

Sustainable Extremes : Austria Mountain Lodge

Sustainable Extremes :

Building Capacity Group 2

Winter day

Austria Mountain Lodge

Environmental Comfort Systems MVHR (mechanical ventilation heat recovery)The MVHR can recover up to 85% of the heated air, the unit takes fresh air from outdoors and exchanges it with the heated stale air that has been circulating the house, the warmed air can then be recovered using the thermal panels on the south façade. This air can then be used to moderate the internal temperatures. Any stale air can then be extracted back outdoors to maintain comfortable humidity and temperature ranges.

Winter Day and Winter night

During the winter light levels are maximized through opening the shutters and the orientation of the windows on the south façade and the skylight aim to capture the light even at low angles.

Winter night

Thermal mass and insulation At night the thermal mass from during the day provides a warming source and this can largely be maintained through the MVHR system. The thick insulation and thermal shuttering on the windows reduce losses and maximize heat retention.

These visualisations demonstrate the visual impact of the lodge on the surroundings, its position means that snowfall gathers on the North-facing facade and sides of the building blending the building into its surroundings.

The roof is an important adjustment to the template building, the shallow angle allows for retention of snow cover, increasing the insulating properties of the roof. The overhang aims to shade during the summer and the double skin façade window (with PV glass) along the length of this element provides light in winter along with high insulating properties and a small level of power generation. The living space of the building has been adjusted to maximize light from the south and minimize losses to the north with the use of glazing. The living/kitchen space is now double level extending into the roof space providing a good level of light and space for activity. The flooring would be 400x400mm stone tiles that can be locally sourced to reduce environmental footprint, the thermal conductivity of the stone would provide thermal mass and be able to warm the building in the evening. Finally, the basement provides space for the utilities and amenities and allows the systems of the house including; the water, energy and ventilation. The basement will be largely underground so won’t require insulation so can be easily regulated.

Adaptable Office : Montreal Design Studios Site Location The brief was to create an adaptable office spaces that would be able to adjust to different uses and environmental pressures over-time. The Office was focused on design studios, social spaces and gallery, this meant that the the careful control of light and temperatures needed to be embedded in the design.

Montreal

The facade design was the main asset in achieving this, through the use of mechanical louvres, underfloor heating and cooling convector’s and a tightly controlled ventilation system. The facade is a double skin construction meaning that the significant temperature fluctuations externally between the summer and winter months can be managed, whilst maintaining the light levels through a highly glazed surface area.

Site

Adaptable Office :

Montreal Design Studios

Adaptable Office : Montreal Design Studios Depending on weather conditions, external temperatures, wind pressures and time of day the Building Management System (BMS) automatically controls the window, vent and Louvre operation. This is obviously intrinsically linked to temperature and ventilation control as well. It is however important to underline that users are able to manually control these systems as well, whilst still being informed on what the BMS would do maintain a comfortable environment therefore conciliating technology with users’ need to create a more responsive and productive work environment.

Stack ventilation: 3m lanterns above the main central atrium and smaller ones along the side atrium allow for natural stack ventilation to take place.

Core activation system (inner heating and cooling system): The radiant heating and cooling system uses the exposed gypsum floor with added Phase Change Material to provide thermal comfort.

Night purge: The high diurnal swing in Montreal (average swing from 18 to 26) as well as the large amount of thermal mass (from the exposed concrete ceilings and gypsum floors) allow for night purging in the building. To assure that this system would work we looked into mixedmode night flushing by using fans to assist the natural night-time airflow and allow for natural buoyancy to take place.

Warmer Seasons: In warmer seasons air is drawn naturally trough the operable windows and the diurnal swing will allow for natural radiant cooling thanks to the exposed thermal mass - concrete ceilings and gypsum floors.

Under floor convector: This system located all around the internal facade is there to provide extra source of ventilation as well as to prevent increased heat loss from large glass surfaces. The system takes fresh air from the facade cavity trough a vent and either delivers it inside or acts as a heating system. In this building the convector system can be switched off and fans in the same system can be activated in summer to increase air flow.

Ground source geothermal pump: This systems draws heat and cold stored at lower ground levels to heat and condition the building.

Adaptable Office :

Montreal Design Studios

Montreal Design Studios Office Bay and central Atrium visualisations

Winter Day

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Adaptable Office : Montreal Design Studios This selection of images demonstrates the construction profile of the South facade. The original building frame supplied in the brief was concrete, however this structure was adapted to make use of local and more sustainable materials that would allow the performance of the building and control of internal environmental conditions to be carefully managed.

South SouthFacade FacadeComponent ComponentBuild-up. Build-up. South Facade Component Build-up. 1 1 1

2 2 2

3 3 3

South Facade Component Build-up. 1

South Facade Design The seasonal light fluctuations meant that it was important to manage the light levels through the South-facing facade to provide the optimal light conditions for working, reducing glare and maximising a consistent level of lux across the room. The three images below highlight how the mechanical louvres attached to the internal part of the facade would operate to control light levels, the louvres can be mechanically or manually opened and closed. The lighting levels throughout the year is explored in the shading analysis with the solstice and equinox. In each of these the louvres are at Mid-open level but this could be adjusted to better control the light levels during the summer solstice for example.

The use of a double-skin facade and highly insulating sustainable materials ensures that the internal conditions are maintained despite the variation in external temperatures and climatic conditions. Prefabricated facade ‘bays’ can be fixed to the existing column and slab structural framework. Prefabricating the bay panels will allow for a faster and simpler construction process reducing energy inputs and improving the embodied energy of the materials used. Prefabrication also means that the bays can be adapted to future changes in the building use with the components potentially able to be de-constructed and used elsewhere and new prefabricated bays installed.

TheThe existing existing slabslab andand column column base base frame frame withwith additional additional

The existing slab andatcolumn base frame with additional structural structural support support added added the at the toptop of the of the column column to support to support Poured Gypsum structural support added at the top of the column to support the the facade facade components. components. the facade components.

Embodied energy for Gypsum has half that of concrete and a similar thermal conductance of 0.62 W/m2

4 4 4 The

existing slab and column base frame with additional structural support added at the top of the column to support the facade components.

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year.

and external glazing can befacade added andmechanically

to internal the to the wooden wooden frame. frame. TheThe external external facade is isfixed mechanically to the and wooden frame. The external facade is mechanically operable operable and the the internal internal glazing glazing is manually is manually operable operable by the by the operable and the internal glazing operable user. user. A solar A solar panel panel is also is also fitted fitted to isthe tomanually the external external partpart of by the of the user. A facade solaronly. panel isThis also fitted to able theenergy external part of the south south facade only. This willwill en-enable energy generation generation south facade only. This will enable energy throughout throughout the the year year combined combined withwith the the panels panels on on thegeneration the roofroof of of throughout the year combined with the on roof of the the building. building. The The panels panels willlouvres will alsoalso add add to the topanels the shading shading design design User adjustable wooden are added on thethe internal 5 the building. Thesouth panels will also addexcess toexcess thesolar shading design required required ontoon themanage the south facade facade to prevent to prevent solar gains gains in window light levels throughout the year. Thein required onexternal the south facade tobe prevent solar the the summer. summer. internal and glazing can addedexcess and fixed

gains in the summer. to the wooden frame. The external facade is mechanically operable and the internal glazing is manually operable by the user. A solar panel is also ﬁtted to the external part of the south facade only. This will enable energy generation throughout the year combined with the panels on the roof of the building. The panels will also add to the shading design required on the south facade to prevent excess solar gains in the summer.

South Facade Shading Analysis

Winter Solstice light levels (LUX)

Engineered Timber The prefabricated wooden frame

can then be ﬁxed to the existing structure using the slab and additional structural support as an attachment mechanism. Prefabricating the panels will ease construction save The wooden use of local materials reduces the carbonprocesses footprint of and the conenergy in the construction phase. struction. Engineered timber is comparable to steel in it’s strength profile but provides significant reductions in embodied energy at only 0.48 kgCo2/kg.

TheThe gypsum gypsum layer layer cancan be be added added to provide to provide the the flooring, flooring, thisthis The gypsum layer can be mass added to ain provide the flooring, layer layer will will allow allow for for thermal thermal mass in similar a similar way way to to thethis the layer will allow for thermal mass in embodied a similar way to that the concrete concrete withwithoutout the the highhigh level level of embodied of energy energy that concrete withoutinsulation the high level of embodied energy that concrete has.has. An An insulation barrier barrier between between the the facade facade ventvent has.(concrete An(concrete insulation barrier between theadded facade andconcrete and the the internal internal core) core) systems systems willwill be added be so that so vent that and the internal (concrete core) systems will be added sobythat these these systems systems cancan be be operated operated separately separately andand controlled controlled by systems can be operated separately and affect controlled by thethese the user, user, preventing preventing interactions interactions thatthat could could affect thethe the user, preventing interactions that could affect the systems. systems. systems. The gypsum layer can be added to provide the flooring, this layer will allow for thermal mass in a similar way to the out from the high level of plant embodied that Hempconcrete insulationwithis made fast-growing materialenergy that prohas.suitable An insulation barrierbuildings. betweenThe the low facade vent vides concrete dense fibres for insulating U-values and the internal be added so that and embodied energy(concrete profile forcore) hempsystems makes itwill a good material these systems buildings. can be operated separately and controlled by choice for insulating the ofuser, preventing interactions could affect the U-value 0.04 and a heat capacity of 1800that J/kg. systems.

Hemp Insulation

37.5 % recycled materials Embodied energy 10 MJ/kg

Spring Equinox light levels (LUX) S

Glass

The double skin facade mainly constituted of glass, will provide a lightweight construction that will allow for temperature regulation and appropriate lighting levels for various types of working activities.

19 19 19

Embodied energy 1.63 kg CO2/kg

Summer Solstice light levels (LUX)

Adaptable Office : Montreal Design Studios The ground floor is one of the more adaptable spaces and is open to the public for the cafe and social spaces. The imagery demonstrates that even at this level the lighting conditions are good with light from the atrium’s still penetrating the centre of the building right down to the ground floor. Adaptability: Building Skin (20+ years): Our design was concerned with creating a smart facade that followed the environmental requirements of the climatic zone. By creating a double skin facade all around the building we hoped to cope with the harsh winter conditions and allow for low levels of passive heat loss. The façades are however different on all sides as they follow specific strategies to protect from glare as well as over heating in summer times. The materiality strategy seeks to provide insulating materials and extensions to the existing facade to prevent excessive solar gains (during the summer) and insulate the internal environment from the winter weather. The materials selected optimise the thermal properties and also have low levels of embodied energy for the carbon neutrality of the construction. Many of the facade components can also be prefabricated reducing the energy inputs.

Contact Email : jacobfsbrown@gmail.com Website : www.naturalpaletteart.co.uk Tel : (+44) 07576382882