Peter Diprose and Graeme Robertson

Keywords

Ecologically responsible design, glass tower, Modernism, mythology, solar architecture

Abstract

Recent architectural projects by leading designers have incorporated innovative measures to improve energy efficiency in response to the concerns of ecologically responsible design.  A remarkable feature of these buildings is the form that they have taken - that of the glass tower. This paper explores the use of glass-tower as a metaphor of ecologically responsible design, and enquires as to whether recent 'vanguard' office buildings are good models of green architecture?  It is concluded that uncritical use of the 'green'-glass-tower design concept, without sufficient consideration of the complex environmental problems associated with glass-tower, make an alliance between ecologically responsible design and the glass-tower a less than ideal proposition, especially over the long term.

Introduction

Responding to the concerns of ecologically responsible design,  Foster, Kaplicky and Rogers, among others, have incorporated innovative cladding techniques to improve energy efficiency, natural ventilation and natural lighting in their recent architectural projects .  These projects have been acclaimed by the architectural press as the leading edge of a new 'green' architecture (Chevin, 1994; Foster, 1993; Russell, 1992a; Welsh, 1993) .  Most remarkable however, is that these 'green' projects are introduced in the guise of the glass-tower, a form often interpreted as an enemy of ecological sustainability (Vale, 1991, p170; Szokolay 1989). 

Although there has been a long history of tower building, and of glass use in architecture, the notion of the glass-tower was born in the industrial age, a time when it became technically feasible to produce large panes of glass, mechanised vertical transportation, and tall steel framed structures - which took the place of load bearing walls (Condit, 1962; Heinle, 1989).

 

 

 

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Peter Diprose and Graeme Robertson

Peter Diprose, BA MArch, PhD Candidate.
Graeme Robertson, Senior Lecturer, Post-graduate Supervisor.
Sustainable Architecture Group, Department of Architecture, University of Auckland, PB 92019, Auckland, New Zealand.

Keywords:
new environmental paradigm, sustainability, architectural design, policy, responsibility, education.

Abstract
This paper is divided into four parts. The first section of this paper describes an 'ideal' emergent worldview - the new environmental paradigm.  The acceptance of this new environmental paradigm - sustainability -  leads to an expansion of the moral community - of individuals beyond their present  intragenerational responsibilities to other members of the community, to future generations of humans, and to nonhuman  nature.  The second and third sections detail how this expanded position of environmental responsibility has been reflected by recent policy of the New Zealand Institute of Architects, and enquires as to its short-comings thus far.  Has policy been translated into action?  Suggestions on how policy may more effectively be converted into action are provided in the final section.

Introduction
An emergent ecological paradigm has been acknowledged by the New Zealand Institute of Architects (NZIA) with their recent adoption of environmental principles, explicitly widening the responsibilities of the architect beyond the present client, user and the community, to future generations of humans, and nonhuman nature.  This has been demonstrated through a range of initiatives from the creation and acceptance of NZIA Environmental Policy and associated Position Papers, to the incorporation of sustainability into the criteria for future national architectural awards.  The provision of environmental standards embodied within policy statements however, may not in itself prove satisfactory for ensuring ecological design-in-action.  A combined approach of incentives, legislation and education is required to guide and enable the profession towards responsible action.  Above all, architectural (re)education must seek to (re)equip the practitioner with the means to design sustainable environments.

 

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Keywords: climate change, climate responsive, design processes, energy efficient, external envelope, office building, sustainability, temperate climate zone, tower.


Abstract.

The tower has endured as an architectural form for more than four thousand years. In the development of new cities during the last century, the tower was appropriated as capital by entrepreneurs, dislocating it from the realm of primarily symbolic-religious architecture to that of commodity architecture. Although the tower has become a place of work in the form of the tall commercial office building, it still lingers as symbol of modern civilisation.

Over recent decades, numerous office towers have been constructed that are now seen as major liabilities in terms of a sustainable built environment. Typically, office buildings designed in the resource-rich past failed to consider vital design considerations such as non-renewable resource depletion and the impacts of global atmospheric pollution. Energy efficiency was often of minimal importance.

The configuration of the tall commercial building's external envelope is a key contributor  to the overall success, or otherwise, of achieving the required aims of 'sustainability'. This paper explores some of those design possibilities in essentially temperate climate conditions, together with examples of recent buildings which may provide clues as to a possible shift towards a new tall commercial office building type.

(i) Introduction: Sustainability, the built environment, and the tall building

Our buildings, and the infrastructure that supports them, represent the great bulk of our accumulated capital stock. These artefacts of the human ecosystem are our principal life support systems and as such commit us to future patterns of behaviour and particular levels of environmental impact. For this reason the use, construction and refurbishment of commercial buildings must be recognised as critical factors in our commitment to a sustainable future.

World wide in recent decades, in a time when the use of non-renewable forms of energy was of reduced concern, our commercial buildings were designed to be reliant on mechanical systems to produce acceptable internal comfort conditions. The resulting buildings made heavy demands on fossil fuels whilst ignoring the needs of the occupants to have individual control of their thermal comfort conditions.  The energy crisis of the 1970's  led to concerns over the limitations of finite energy resource limits, heightening research into passive low energy architecture.  More recently global interest has shifted to 'sink limits' - more specifically the concerns over carbon dioxide emissions and climate change -  reinforcing the view that continuation of past attitudes is not sustainable.  The continuance of life as we know it may well depend on the way we respond to these global constraints .

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P. R. DIPROSE and G. ROBERTSON
Department of Architecture, University of Auckland, PB 92019, Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand.

ABSTRACT

In several well publicised designs for ‘green’ office buildings, the zone of mediation between inside and outside has been increased by the addition of a second building envelope. When interpreted as exemplars of sustainable architecture, the addition of a second wall in these buildings is questionable both biophysically and psycho-culturally. More constructive design strategies acknowledge the wider biophysical contexts of the human ecosystem, the prudent use of material and energy resources throughout a building’s life, make realistic use of climate, and promote psycho-cultural needs arising out of ecologism.


KEYWORDS

Architecture,  biophysical sustainability,  office building,  double-envelope,  ecologism,  energy efficiency, modernism,  psycho-cultural sustainability.


ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE

Over the last decade, the focus of ecological architecture has moved beyond that of the narrow goal of energy efficiency, through its growing attention to human comfort and healthy work environments (Pilatowicz, 1995). Emphasis on energy costs-in-use has given way to research into life-cycle embodied energy costs, elevating the relative importance of efficient construction and maintenance processes (Baker, 1992; Treolar, 1993). Moreover, energy efficiency has been placed into the broader context of social sustainability. A sustainable society may be identified as one "which is capable of meeting basic human needs while maintaining resilient and diverse ecological systems. Basic human needs encompass a person’s needs for social recognition, personal meaning and self-expression, as well as more widely acknowledged physical requirements of shelter, health care and security" (Blake, 1992). Thus, (ecological) architecture must aim at satisfying human society’s psycho-cultural and biophysical ‘needs’, with energy efficiency being considered an especially significant sub-goal of biophysically sustainable architecture.

 

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