AN ENERGY EFFICIENT EXTENSION FOR THE HOUSE FOR AN ART COLLECTOR

François Saint-Hilaire Lia Ruccolo

April 2005

119937708 119729846

Energy, Environment and Buildings 301-337B

House Site Climate

The original house is a single-family dwelling on top and an art gallery below. Our extension is an office for an architect.

Living floor is conceived as a single shell open to the roof insulation, into which a box-like volume was placed. It includes kitchen, sanitary installations and three bedrooms; it cuts out dining and living areas on both end sides and can be accessed via the hallway and separated into zones by minimal thresholds. This autonomy is enhanced by the direct garden access.

When built, the house won the concrete prize for its imaginative and overall use of the material: even the tub is framed by polished concrete.

Main House First Floor Main House Second Floor

House Site Climate

The

extension

inserts itself underground, in the garden of the original house. Only four 3.6 by 3.0 m skylights are apparent at the ground level.

The architect’s office is parallel to the main house and reflects similar linear organisation. The space is divided in 4 modules, each provided with a skylight.

conference reception services workspace Extension First Floor Extension Roof Plan

House Site Climate

sunset The house is built in a residential development near the city of Basel, Switzerland.

On the South side, a lawn area opens up to the meadows above. The yard is a kind of container, intimate and enclosed. sunrise sloping down 1,5m sloping up 3m House for an Art Collector View from street

House Site Climate

Monthly averaged temperatures range from 0 ˚C to 18 ˚C. By comparison, Montreal receives 16 % more precipitation and monthly averaged temperatures show a larger amplitude, that is they range from 9 ˚C to +22 ˚C.

Situated near the Rhine river at the intersection of Germany, France and Switzerland.

Latitude 47˚ 33’ North Longitude 7˚ 35’ East Altitude 277 m Therwil is the lowest lying of all Swiss cities North of the Alps. Its position in the Rhine valley gives it a temperate mild climate - comparable to the climate of Boston (USA) influenced by Mediterranean air current. It is also characterized by above average sunshine periods.

Total yearly precipitation is 791 mm and most of it occurs in the form of rain during the summer months.

120 100 80 60 40 20 0 1 25 20 15 10 5 0 -5 -10 -15 1

Monthly Averaged Temperature

3 5

M onth

7

Monthly Precipitation

9 Therw il Montreal 11 3 5

Month

7 9 Therw il Montreal 11

House Site Climate Main House

Herzog and deMeuron employed many principles of traditional Swiss chalet construction; the single living space is accordingly open to the roof, which enables excellent natural air circulation.

Also, each façade is different, conscious in its design to the polar orientation of the building: the South presents large windows while the North has small hidden openings.

The house uses a lot of concrete, however. Concrete is not a very ecological building material. Fans claim that it spends relatively fewer energy than other materials. Its production, however, releases a lot of carbon dioxide and is not recyclable.

Extension

The design was not very energy efficient. Although it had an open plan concept which is favourable to good air circulation, ventilation was poor. Also, the skylights were not operable.

Like the main house, it used concrete as the principal building material.

Assessment

For the purposes of the assignment, we will assume that the extension has not been built yet and that we can therefore modify its design in terms of energy efficiency. The general design moves, however, such as the fact that it is situated underground, will not be modified.

Preservation of

water

is a growing concern for the Swiss authorities.

1 2 3 Earth

as a building material is much more ecological than concrete.

Good

air circulation

is a priority for an underground space.

Objectives

Earth as building material 1

2 3 An 8 storey building was built in Germany in 1830. It is still standing today and is said to be Europe’s tallest earth building.

Rammed earth

, or

pisé

is a composite material combining clay and aggregates.

Offers many advantages: • regulates air humidity • has good insulation capacities • isolates sound • absorbs heat • saves energy • is recyclable • limits transportation costs • preserves wood and other organic materials • sets toxic substances.

Technique was popularized in central Europe in the 16 th century. More recently and locally, it was used twice in the neighbouring town of Basel, by architects Herzog and de Meuron (Hoffman Foundation), and also architect Peter Stiener (Basel Zoo).

Section through a

pisé

wall

1

2 3

Earth as building material

Preparation and finishing of rammed earth necessitates 1% of the energy needed to fabricate bricks or reinforced concrete walls.

Fabrication

method is relatively low-tech. Earth is compacted layer by layer in a fixed formwork. Strata on the finished wall reveals this method.

Wall can be finished in many different ways, for example with limestone or even wax. The later allows the colour to intensify with time, and the composing minerals to irradiate in contact with light.

Steps in the fabrication of

pisé

Apparent strata on

pisé

wall Austrian precedent under the snow.

1

2 3

Earth as building material

Pisé

is appropriate for our project as it already engages excavating the ground. Assuming the soil properties are adequate, the earth that is dug out can directly be used for construction.

This strategy reduces the consumption of energy at the inception of the construction process, as well as at an eventual disassembly of the project. It helps reducing the demand in materials and resources, maximizing the use of ecological building materials, minimizing the losses in the process of construction and minimizing the demolition process.

Since the intervention is underground, a small percentage of cement will have to be added to the earth mixture (about 5% of the total weight of the original mixture).

Formwork In 2000, the production of concrete was responsible for 10% of the anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions worldwide.

Wall detail

1 Water System

2

aqueduct baby toilet shower/ washing appliances water filter neutralizator tank for rain collection boiler 3

Water Efficiency

runoff

1

2

3

boiler condensate washing appliances

50% 3% 47%

rain Water Efficiency Water consummation

175,000 liters/year/2-3 persons: 87,500 L from reusable water 5,500 L recycled from the boiler 82,000 L from the rain Averaged yearly precipitation (791 mm) x roof projection (217 m 2 ) = 175,000 L - evaporation - runoff = still more than we need remainder is evacuated 4 tanks: 4.5 m in height, 1.2m in radius

Water Efficiency

1

2

Water Heating System Comparable to warming yourself in the sun, this type of heating warms objects as opposed to raising the temperature of the air.

3 boiler Radiant floor system designed not to exceed 29 °C Air temperature profile

Water Efficiency

1

2

3 1% unusable CH 4 + 2O 2  CO 2 (+latent heat) + 2H 2 O (g) (+latent heat) + sensible heat + … pollutants (CO, H 2 CO 3 , etc.) Vitodens 200 (28 kW) respects requirements of German ecological label Ange Bleu After 1% of heat loss on various surfaces, the theoretical efficiency = 109% !!!

Condensing boiler

11% of extra heat recuperated the heat that warms you (98% of combustion) Condensing boiler Low-temperature boiler 1975 boiler (Constant temperature boiler)

1

2

3

Recycling condensate from the boiler?

Energy consummation for small house in Switzerland : 125,000,000 Btu Condensing boiler produces 4.4 liters of condensate/100,000Btu ~5500 liters of water/year or ~ 15 liters of water/day =

Water Efficiency

Water Efficiency

1

2

3

Combustion

CH 4 + 2O 2  CO 2 + 2H 2 O + H 2 CO 3 + CO +… + HEAT Neutralization (Magnesium hydrolyte) Grey water to treatment

Neutralization of Condensates

Natural Ventilation

1 2

3

Therwil’s

air quality

is excellent. The incoming air will not have to be filtered before it enters the building.

We intend to promote

passive systems

for ventilation to reduce the environmental impacts of our intervention on the site and to provide the best air quality for the underground extension.

Further, the ventilation will be manually controllable by the users.

Since the extension presents an open plan inspired by the plan of the main house, it will allow the maximisation of the use of the wind to refresh and ventilate.

User control Chicken Point Cabin OSKA Architects

1 2 The windows where air is incoming are away from the street and next to

vegetation

, improving the quality of the air.

3 Natural Ventilation

outgoing air Incoming air Garage door Longitudinal Air Circulation Natural ventilation in (out) Cross Sectional Air Circulation

1 Window specification 2 Moderate solar heat gain of 50 % 53 % of visible light transmitted Model FMC Comfort Velux Switzerland U-factor = 0.50

Double glazed Low-E Argon gas filled Suitable for climates with heating and cooling concerns

3 Natural Ventilation

Shading for solar inclination of 30 ° summer solstice winter solstice

AN ENERGY EFFICIENT EXTENSION FOR THE HOUSE FOR AN ART COLLECTOR

François Saint-Hilaire Lia Ruccolo

April 2005

119937708 119729846

Energy, Environment and Buildings 301-337B