Thermal Delight in Architecture

Author: Lisa Heschong
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262580397
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 100

Book Description
Our thermal environment is as rich in cultural associations as our visual, acoustic, olfactory, and tactile environments. This book explores the potential for using thermal qualities as an expressive element in building design. Until quite recently, building technology and design has favored high-energy-consuming mechanical methods of neutralizing the thermal environment. It has not responded to the various ways that people use, remember, and care about the thermal environment and how they associate their thermal sense with their other senses. The hearth fire, the sauna, the Roman and Japanese baths, and the Islamic garden are discussed as archetypes of thermal delight about which rituals have developed—reinforcing bonds of affection and ceremony forged in the thermal experience. Not only is thermal symbolism now obsolete but the modern emphasis on central heating systems and air conditioning and hermetically sealed buildings has actually damaged our thermal coping and sensing mechanisms. This book for the solar age could help change all that and open up for us a new dimension of architectural experience. As the cost of energy continues to skyrocket, alternatives to the use of mechanical force must be developed to meet our thermal needs. A major alternative is the use of passive solar energy, and the book will provide those interested in solar design with a reservoir of ideas.

Visual Delight in Architecture

Author: Lisa Heschong
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000378969
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 374

Book Description
Visual Delight in Architecture examines the many ways that our lives are enriched by the presence of natural daylight and window views within our buildings. It makes a compelling case that daily exposure to the rhythms of daylight is essential to our health and well-being, tied to the very genetic foundations of our physiology and cognitive function. It describes all the subtlety, beauty, and pleasures of well-daylit spaces and attractive window views, and explains how these are woven into the fabric of both our everyday sensory experience and enduring cultural perspectives. All types of environmental designers, along with anyone interested in human health and well- being, will fi nd new insights offered by Visual Delight in Architecture. The book is both accessible and provocative, full of personal stories and persuasive research, helping designers to gain a deeper understanding of the scientific basis of their designs, scientists to better grasp the real-world implications of their work, and everyone to more fully appreciate the role of windows in their lives.

Courtyards

Author: John Reynolds
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 9780471398844
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 296

Book Description
"Courtyards presents a survey of courtyards, contemporary design guidelines, and a diverse selection of examples. Readers will acquire a basic understanding of the balance that must exist between garden and building, including practical advice for planting."--BOOK JACKET.

Adaptive Thermal Comfort: Principles and Practice

Author: Fergus Nicol
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136336478
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 281

Book Description
The fundamental function of buildings is to provide safe and healthy shelter. For the fortunate they also provide comfort and delight. In the twentieth century comfort became a 'product' produced by machines and run on cheap energy. In a world where fossil fuels are becoming ever scarcer and more expensive, and the climate more extreme, the challenge of designing comfortable buildings today requires a new approach. This timely book is the first in a trilogy from leaders in the field which will provide just that. It explains, in a clear and comprehensible manner, how we stay comfortable by using our bodies, minds, buildings and their systems to adapt to indoor and outdoor conditions which change with the weather and the climate. The book is in two sections. The first introduces the principles on which the theory of adaptive thermal comfort is based. The second explains how to use field studies to measure thermal comfort in practice and to analyze the data gathered. Architects have gradually passed responsibility for building performance to service engineers who are largely trained to see comfort as the ‘product’, designed using simplistic comfort models. The result has contributed to a shift to buildings that use ever more energy. A growing international consensus now calls for low-energy buildings. This means designers must first produce robust, passive structures that provide occupants with many opportunities to make changes to suit their environmental needs. Ventilation using free, natural energy should be preferred and mechanical conditioning only used when the climate demands it. This book outlines the theory of adaptive thermal comfort that is essential to understand and inform such building designs. This book should be required reading for all students, teachers and practitioners of architecture, building engineering and management – for all who have a role in producing, and occupying, twenty-first century adaptive, low-carbon, comfortable buildings.

Thermal Design of Buildings

Author: Phillip Jones
Publisher: The Crowood Press
ISBN: 1785008994
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 421

Book Description
The way we heat, cool and ventilate our buildings is central to many of today's concerns, including providing comfortable, healthy and productive environments, using energy and materials efficiently, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. As we drive towards a zero-carbon society, design solutions that combine architecture, engineering and the needs of the individual are increasingly being sought. Thermal Design of Buildings aims to provide an understanding from which such solutions can be developed, placing technological developments within the context of a wider world view of the built environment and energy systems, and an historical perspective of how buildings have responded to climate and sustainable development.

The Place of Houses

Author: Charles Willard Moore
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520223578
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 322

Book Description
Originally published: New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, c1974.

Thermal Comfort in Hot Dry Climates

Author: Ahmadreza Foruzanmehr
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 131552712X
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 211

Book Description
With increases in global temperatures, the risk of overheating is expected to rise around the world. This results in a much higher dependency upon energy-intensive cooling systems and air-conditioners to provide thermal comfort, but how sustainable is this in a world where problems with the production of electricity are predicted? Vernacular houses in hot and dry central Iran have been adapted to the climate through passive cooling techniques, and this book provides a valuable assessment of the thermal performance of such housing. Shedding new light on the ability of traditional housing forms to provide thermal comfort, Thermal Comfort in Hot Dry Climates identifies the main cooling systems and methods in traditional houses in central Iran, and examines how architectural elements such as central courtyards, distinct seasonal rooms, loggias, basements and wind-catchers can contribute to the provision of thermal comfort in vernacular houses.

Energy and Environment in Architecture

Author: Nick Baker
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1135811172
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 315

Book Description
A unique and revolutionary text which explains the principles behind the LT Method (2.1), a manual design tool developed in Cambridge by the BRE. The LT Method is a unique way of estimating the combined energy usage of lighting, heating, cooling and ventilation systems, to enable the designer to make comparisons between options at an early, strategic stage. In addition,Energy and Environment in Architecture the book deals with other environmental issues such as noise, thermal comfort and natural ventilation design. A variety of case studies provide a critique of real buildings and highlight good practice. These topics include thermal comfort, noise and natural ventilation.

Adobe Homes for All Climates

Author: Lisa Schroder
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
ISBN: 1603582827
Category : House & Home
Languages : en
Pages : 226

Book Description
The lay-up of adobe bricks is an easy, forgiving way to achieve a solid masonry-wall system. Contrary to stereotypes, adobe is perfectly adaptable for use in cold, wet climates as well as hot and dry ones, and for areas prone to earthquakes. With its efficient use of energy, natural resources for construction, and minimal effort for long-term maintenance, it’s clear that the humble adobe brick is an ideal option for constructing eco-friendly structures throughout the world. The book is ideal both for first-time do-it-yourselfers and for experienced adobe builders seeking to improve their craft. Drawing on the experience of more than fifty major adobe projects since 1993, Adobe Homes for All Climates describes Adobe Building Systems’ patented reinforcement and scaffolding systems, showing readers how to construct adobe homes more easily and safely, and with superior strength, durability, structural integrity, and aesthetic appeal, as compared to earthen homes of the past. All aspects of adobe construction are covered, including making and laying adobe bricks, installing lintels and arches, conduits and pipes, doors and windows, top plates and bondbeams, ideal wall dimensions, adobe finishes, and other adobe construction components, such as the inexpensive use of scaffolding. These methods will produce a premium product that will meet and often exceed inspection standards. Equipped with this manual, you will be able to obtain a building permit, make adobe bricks swiftly, and confidently lay them up. You will be able to beautifully finish your adobe walls with earth plasters creating stunning colors and outstanding light effects and create a beautiful, energy-efficient home that will last for generations to come.

Experiencing Architecture, second edition

Author: Steen Eiler Rasmussen
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262680028
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Book Description
A classic examination of superb design through the centuries. Widely regarded as a classic in the field, Experiencing Architecture explores the history and promise of good design. Generously illustrated with historical examples of designing excellence—ranging from teacups, riding boots, and golf balls to the villas of Palladio and the fish-feeding pavilion of Beijing's Winter Palace—Rasmussen's accessible guide invites us to appreciate architecture not only as a profession, but as an art that shapes everyday experience. In the past, Rasmussen argues, architecture was not just an individual pursuit, but a community undertaking. Dwellings were built with a natural feeling for place, materials and use, resulting in “a remarkably suitable comeliness.” While we cannot return to a former age, Rasmussen notes, we can still design spaces that are beautiful and useful by seeking to understand architecture as an art form that must be experienced. An understanding of good design comes not only from one's professional experience of architecture as an abstract, individual pursuit, but also from one's shared, everyday experience of architecture in real time—its particular use of light, color, shape, scale, texture, rhythm and sound. Experiencing Architecture reminds us of what good architectural design has accomplished over time, what it can accomplish still, and why it is worth pursuing. Wide-ranging and approachable, it is for anyone who has ever wondered “what instrument the architect plays on.”