Tag: Resilience

TAG Videos | Drip Irrigation in the City

Video Source | The ꓥrchitecture Gazette

Music Source | “My Best Melody” catatau5 | Link

References / Additional Reading |

1) Alliance for Water Efficiency | https://bit.ly/2T2nynY

2) CINAGRO™ Products | https://amzn.to/2SbZdfo

Cool Roofs

While researching various Passive Strategies and Technologies for the Building Envelope, we came across ‘Cool Roofs‘. We realized that this is a simple, low cost technology with large potential benefits. These include – Energy savings, Reduction of Urban Heat Island Effect and Greenhouse Gas Emissions, enhanced Durability of roofs, and Resilience to extreme heat 1.

Thus, this week’s Article and Video are dedicated to this important idea. The Video 2 , 3 , 4 outlines the Need for Cool Roofs and how they Protect Buildings. In the Article, we cover Initiatives by various parties working in the direction. We also look at some successful Case-Studies that could become models for future developments.

Due to multiple possible benefits, the technology has caught the attention of International actors, Indian central, state and local governments, as well as the Private sector. Their attempt is to use Cool Roofs for large scale Impact at the Building and Urban scales.

Initiatives

  • The Bureau of Energy Efficiency [(BEE), Government of India, Ministry of Power], has prepared a ‘Cool Roof Design Manual‘ 2 to spread technical information about Cool Roofs for the Composite Climate Zone of India.
  • A Fact Sheet 5 and Issue brief 6 have been released by Natural Resources
    Defense Council (NRDC) and Partners to showcase local projects, and to spread the message, so that action can be scaled up.
  • Green Building Rating systems like LEED, GRIHA, IGBC need compliance with the Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) norms. ECBC specifies minimum cool roof values (reflectance and emittance), for roofs with different slopes 6.
  • IIIT Hyderabad Cool Roof Calculator – The simulation tool by IIIT Hyderabad, uses a base and design case for testing various roof conditions in certain cities of India. A percentage change in cooling energy can be compared 2 , 7.

The above efforts are helping common people as well as experts to understand and utilize Cool Roofs, by providing technical information, tools and answers to common questions. The following examples showcase successes in the field.

Case-Studies

  • Ahmedabad’s Cool Roof Initiative, as part of its ‘Heat Action Plan‘ aims to convert 3000 roofs in 6 zones to Cool Roofs. This is being undertaken by city staff and student volunteers. They are using white lime paint, which costs as little as ₹0.50 per square foot 5.
  • Hyderabad is also witnessing a Cool Roof Initiative as part of its Building Energy Efficiency Program. The Pilot included 25 city roofs in low income areas. A High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) cool roof membrane (costing ₹13 per square foot in Hyderabad) was supplied by Dupont as part of their CSR initiative 1.
  • The Indore and Surat ‘Cool Roof Project‘ is using local success stories to make a case for cool roof policies in the future. The project consists of over 100 households.  They are using simple materials such as lime concrete, broken earthen pots, China mosaic tiles  6.
  • A Joint study was conducted by International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) on 2 office buildings in Hyderabad. The studies saw a drop of approximately 20°C in Roof surface temperatures after application of cool roof coating 2.

We leave you with the following questions –

  • Have you used ‘Cool Roofs’ in your Project? Do you know of any projects using ‘Cool Roofs’?
  • What Benefits have you felt after application of the ‘Cool Roof’ technology?
  • What Problems did you face?
  • What kind of Assistance if any, did you receive from the Government or any other organisations?

Let us know! We would love to provide a platform, to showcase your project and spread more useful information.

Video Source: 

The Architecture Gazette

Music Source:

“My Best Melody” catatau5 | Link

Data Sources:

  1. Jaiswal A, Bhagavatula L, Awasthi A, Sarkar S. Keeping It Cool: Models for City Cool Roof Programs. National Resources Defense Council. https://on.nrdc.org/2jLgLPJ. Published 2018. Accessed November 27, 2018.
  2. Bureau of Energy Efficiency. Cool Roofs for Cool Delhi: Design Manual. http://shaktifoundation.in/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/cool-roofs-manual.pdf. Accessed November 27, 2018.
  3. Majumdar M. Cooling homes…heated pockets. The Economic Times Blogs. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/blogs/IssuesonSustainableHabitats/cooling-homes-heated-pockets/. Published 2013. Accessed November 27, 2018.
  4. Panchkula gets energy-efficient, green government building. Indian Express. http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/panchkula-gets-energyefficient-green-government-building/1049101/. Published 2012. Accessed November 27, 2018.
  5. International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad, Administrative Staff College of India, Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar, Mahila Housing SEWA Trust. Keeping It Cool: How Cool Roofs Programs Protect People, Save Energy and Fight Climate Change.; 2018. https://on.nrdc.org/2FIxYas. Accessed November 27, 2018.
  6. International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad, Administrative Staff College of India, Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar, Mahila Housing SEWA Trust. Issue Brief – Cool Roofs: Protecting Local Communities and Saving Energy.; 2018. http://www.phfi.org. Accessed November 27, 2018.
  7. Cool Roof Calculator v3. CBS, IIT – Hyderabad. http://coolroof.cbs.iiit.ac.in/. Accessed November 27, 2018.

TAG Videos | Cool Roofs

Video Source | The Architecture Gazette

Music Source | “My Best Melody” catatau5 | Link

Data Sources |

 

Building with Nature

 

“The harmony of natural law reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection.”

-Albert Einstein

Contemplating this powerful quote by Einstein could send chills down your spine. Our insignificance in the face of Nature’s power, begs us to show more humility. Nature doesn’t fear our walls, and everyday Climate related calamities should teach us better. It is ultimately in all of our favor, to Build with Nature, instead of withstanding it!

Following this chain of thought, today we look at Integration of Built with Water. Such a synergy with Water has positive effects on Micro-Climate and Energy Loads.

However, insects can be attracted to areas of vegetation and water. While all insects are not harmful they may not always be welcome in an urban setting.

Let’s look at some ways to address this issue-

1) Deeper water could prevent mosquitoes, since larvae prefer shallow water bodies of less than 2 feet

2) Natural pest Predators like Dragonflies are garden heroes

3) Select Plant Species that repel pests – Lavender, Citronella Grass, Marigolds

Read more here.

 

Video Source: 

The Architecture Gazette | Sustꓥinꓥble Snippets

Music Source:

“Almost New” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Data Sources:

 

 

TAG Videos | Building with Nature

Video Source: 

The Architecture Gazette | Sustꓥinꓥble Snippets

Music Source:

“Almost New” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Data Sources:

 

Passively Battling 50oC!

Sustꓥinꓥble Snippets

NEEMrana

A 16 km (once the campus is completed) tunnel network of Air Earth tunnels, will be running 4 m below the ground in NIIT University, Neemrana Campus. Surface temperature and seasonal variations do not penetrate below this depth, keeping air temperature constant throughout the year. Fans will pull cool air through these tunnels. This would then be taken through precipitators to eliminate dust and would be supplied to the building through ducts. The result! – Pleasant 25oC temperatures indoors, without the use of air-conditioning, when temperatures outside are nearing 50oC1.

Read the whole article here –

Graphic Source:

The Architecture Gazette | Sustꓥinꓥble Snippets

Data Source:

  1. Bhandari P. Let buildings breathe. Times of India Jaipur. https://bit.ly/2MH0kzV. Published 2009.

 

Part 5/5: The Red System (Energy), Singapore

This is part of a series of posts based on scripts, written for class presentations during our Masters in Integrated Sustainable Design at National University of Singapore.
The class had to analyse various complex systems in Singapore, as a precursor to the Design problem in Studio. The systems included are – Red (energy), Blue (Water), Green I (Biodiversity), Green II (Food) and Grey (Public Space).
The following posts elaborate on the Red System.

Part 5/5: How can energy be restructured to improve self sufficiency and reduce emissions?

The 4 parts of the series till now outline the existing Energy system of Singapore – its timeline, characteristics, issues. We saw a Sankey diagram in Part 3/5 detailing existing flows and exchanges, while Part 4/5 elaborated on the System Structure at 3 scales.

This final part talks of an ‘After‘ Scenario where we propose a ‘Restructuring‘ to address issues and gaps – to improve self sufficiency and reduce emissions.

The issues at hand which create possible vulnerabilities are –

  • a Gap at the neighborhood scale
  • a largely Centralized system
  • large consumption for air-conditioning loads
  • high dependence on imported fossil fuels

Continue reading “Part 5/5: The Red System (Energy), Singapore”