News: the American Institute of Architects (AIA) has named its top ten sustainable projects of the year, including a university building made from timber, concrete and Corten steel in Minnesota (above) and a series of prefabricated houses in Tennessee.

The annual COTE Top Ten Green Projects programme, intended to promote environmentally responsible architecture, is organised by theAIA‘s Committee on the Environment (COTE) and is open to all architects licensed in the US. This year’s top ten projects were selected by a jury of architects and experts.

Brooks + Scarpa Architects is recognised for Yin Yang House, a combined home and workplace in California that produces more energy than it consumes, while Philadelphia-based KieranTimberlake is awarded for Charles David Keeling Apartments, a courtyard housing development in the same state.

Three more mentions go to projects in California: to the daylit and naturally ventilated Marin Country Day School in Corte Madera, a high-density housing community for senior citizens in Oakland and a 13-storey office building for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.

Other project in the top ten include a warehouse and brewery that Lake Flato Architects converted into a mixed-use complex of shops, offices and apartments in San Antonio, an office block on an urban brownfield site in Milwaukee, plus a Seattle office block for the US Army Corps of Engineers, which was planned and designed in 18 weeks by ZGF Architects.

The AIA also recently announced the ten winners of its annual Small Project Awards, while earlier this year the organisation revealed 28 winners of its Institute Honor Awards, including projects by OMA and Kohn Pedersen Fox. See more architecture in the US.

See the full list of winning projects below:

The American Institute of Architects Select the 2013 COTE Top Ten Green Projects

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and its Committee on the Environment (COTE) have selected the top ten examples of sustainable architecture and green design solutions that protect and enhance the environment. The projects will be honored at the AIA 2013 National Convention and Design Exposition in Denver.

The COTE Top Ten Green Projects program, now in its 17th year, is the profession’s best known recognition program for sustainable design excellence. The program celebrates projects that are the result of a thoroughly integrated approach to architecture, natural systems and technology. They make a positive contribution to their communities, improve comfort for building occupants and reduce environmental impacts through strategies such as reuse of existing structures, connection to transit systems, low-impact and regenerative site development, energy and water conservation, use of sustainable or renewable construction materials, and design that improves indoor air quality.

The 2013 COTE Top Ten Green Projects jury includes: Fiona Cousins, PE, Arup; Lance Hosey, AIA, RTKL; Keelan Kaiser, AIA, Judson University; Sheila Kennedy, AIA, Kennedy & Violich Architecture Ltd.; Rod Kruse, FAIA, BNIM Architects and Gail Vittori, Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems.

Charles David Keeling Apartments, La Jolla, California, by KieranTimberlake

The design response was to tune the design to capitalize on the favorable environmental features, while moderating or eliminating the undesirable ones. This led to a building envelope that uses thermal mass to buffer temperature changes, minimizes solar gain, and naturally ventilates. Water scarcity is managed through a comprehensive strategy of conservation and reuse, including on-site wastewater recycling. A vegetated roof, an unusual feature in this dry climate, absorbs and evaporates rain that falls on that portion of the building, with overflow directed to the courtyard retention basins.

Clock Shadow Building, Milwaukee by Continuum Architects + Planners

This project cleans up a brown-field site that was difficult to develop. The continental climate provides large swings in temperature and humidity which necessitated passive strategies such as: southern facing windows with sun screens that maximize insolation of the sun during cooler months and operable windows that let cool fresh air into the building, allowing the users to effectively “turn off” the heating and cooling systems during swing months. To gain the most efficiency from the HVAC systems, the project utilizes a geo-thermal system, drilled directly below the building, which stabilizes the temperature of the conditioned water used to heat and cool the spaces.

Federal Center South Building 1202, Seattle by ZGF Architects LLP

Current energy models predict the building to operate at a “net zero capable” Energy Use Intensity (EUI) of 20.3 kBtu/SF/year, performing 40 percent better than ASHRAE 2007. The building will earn an ENERGY STAR Score of 100 and comply with 2030 Challenge goals. The project is one of the first in the region to use structural piles for geothermal heating and cooling, as well as a phase change thermal storage tank. Two new products, chilled sails and open office lighting, were developed and manufactured specifically for this project to help achieve aggressive energy targets. To optimize the use of the available reclaimed timbers, the team designed, tested, and constructed the first wood composite beam system in the U.S.

Marin Country Day School Learning Resource Center and Courtyard, Corte Madera, California by EHDD

Around 95 percent of spaces are daylit and naturally ventilated. Night time operation of the cooling tower and an underground water tank provide active thermal storage, for daytime cooling. The design of the building envelope includes air tightness detailing and the use of fire treated wood stud framing to minimize thermal bridging. To provide an excellent thermal envelope, walls were constructed with 2×8 and 2×10 wood studs (rather than conventional steel studs) to minimize thermal bridging and provide ample insulation. This building is designed to achieve an EUI of 6.74 kbtu/sf/yr including the energy generated by the PV array, and to use less than half as much energy as California’s strict energy code.

Merritt Crossing Senior Apts. Oakland, California by Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects

The roof area has a cool roof surface and is devoted to both a solar water panels and photovoltaic panels. Ground floor spaces benefit from the full height storefront system that similarly provides ample daylight and transparency to the outdoors. These windows are also thermally broken and have high performance glass. The windows are shaded in summer by either exterior sunshades or an overhang from the second floor. With no mechanical air conditioning, cooling is achieved by a low volume ventilation system augmented by ceiling fans in each habitable room. The site has a 94 walkability rating, an 82 transit rating and an 86 bike friendly rating from walkscore.com.

A New Norris House, Norris, Tennessee by College of Architecture & Design, UT Knoxville

At 1008 square foot, this production house is less than half the size of the median house. “Rightsizing” reduced material and operational loads and costs, and shifted funds to quality design and construction, passive strategies and high-efficiency systems. The dormer and skylight are placed so daylight is reflected and diffused. No-VOC paint color is warm white with a punch of red-orange hidden within the swing space to produce a warm glow from reflected light. Low-E glass and translucent blinds provide further control over heat, glare and privacy. All interior rooms are daylit throughout the day. Electric lighting is integrated with cabinetry and includes low-energy LEDs.

Pearl Brewery/Full Goods Warehouse, San Antonio, by Lake Flato Architects

This 67,000 square foot LEED Gold warehouse includes passive solutions including open breezeways, which were carefully oriented to prevailing summer breezes and supplemented with large ceiling fans. Large light monitors oriented to the north provide natural daylight to the breezeways, while the south wall of the cupola is open to allow hot air to escape as it rises. 100% of the rainwater captured from roofs coupled with recycled water, is used to irrigate the landscaping on site, eliminating the need for potable irrigation water. Highly efficient ductless minisplit systems were installed to condition indoor spaces. These systems can serve multiple zones using only one outdoor unit, and allows individual control of the air conditioning in each room.

San Francisco Public Utilities Commission Headquarters (SFPUC), San Francisco by KMD Architects with Stevens & Associates

The building is designed to achieve LEED Platinum certification and will exceed California’s recently-instituted Title 24 requirements for energy efficiency in new office buildings by 55% according to SFPUC estimates. The building will produce up to 7% of its own power needs from renewable photovoltaic and wind sources; will provide $118 million in energy cost savings over 75 years; and will require 45% less energy to illuminate the interior through daylight-harvesting and advanced lighting design, compared to typical Class A office buildings. The SFPUC consumes 60% less water than similarly sized buildings and is one of the first buildings in the nation with on-site treatment of gray and black water.

Swenson Civil Engineering Building, Duluth, Minnesota by Ross Barney Architects with SJA Architects

As an educational facility whose curriculum directly impacts the natural environment, the building overtly exposes sustainable systems and materials. 73% of the site is devoted to pervious materials and landscaping, reducing site detention requirements. An extensive green roof with native plants covers 22% of the roof, reducing storm water rates and filtering impurities. Storm water is directed from the roof to three scuppers and into above ground cylinders filled with rocks for filtering. Storm water eventually makes its way to a French drain system of underground water storage pipes for retention. The site lighting is minimal, and all fixtures are equipped with full cut-off optics.

Yin Yang House, Venice, California by Brooks + Scarpa

This sound passive design strategy combined with a very tight perimeter building envelope and other active sustainable features such as the 12kw solar system make this home a zero energy consumption home. It produces 100% of its energy needs and since completion, has never received an electric bill. The design maximizes the opportunities of the mild, marine climate with a passive cooling strategy using cross-ventilation and a thermal chimney. A large cantilevered roof overhang shades all the bedrooms from direct sunlight while providing ample natural light and ventilation. The project also has green roofs, its own storm water retention system and retains 95% of roof storm water on site.

Excerpt from:
AIA names top ten green projects – Dezeen

This plastic water bottle is fitted with a Nasa-inspired filtration system so powerful it can turn cola into clear, colourless liquid, the manufacturers claim.

ÖKO’s ‘advanced filtration water bottle’ draws on technology originally developed by Nasa to ensure the drinker’s every sip is ‘pure, fresh and clean’.

This video footage of the bottle being put to the test shows it being filled with brown Coca Cola which, after being poured through the special filter cap, looks exactly like water.

Scroll down for video

The raw ingredients: A plastic water bottle with a filtration system, and a bottle of coke

The water bottle with a filter developed from Nasa technology is filled with Coke as the experiment progresses

The coke is miraculously turned into what appears to be water by the filter

The finished drink: The resulting liquid was described as ‘like sugar water’

VIDEO: Watch the Nasa-inspired water filtration system in action

Like magic! Turn Coke into water with OKO filtration system

The manufacturer used a video demonstrating the effect of the filter on cola on its website, but a tester for rocketnews24.com decided to check out the results for himself.

The footage of the experiment shows how his trial using his own ÖKO bottle yielded the same results at first.

‘The first streams of liquid were completely colourless, but became tinged with brown as I continued to pour,’ his report said.

‘I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t completely colourless, but pressed on.

‘I took a sip and was again disappointed to find that it wasn’t tasteless,’ said the tester, who added that it tasted ‘like sugar water’.

The Coca Cola experiment on the OKO website is aimed at illustrating the effectiveness of the bottle, which is designed to filter water, not other drinks.

The eco-friendly water container comes in three different filtration levels.

The Level-1 filter is carbon based and designed to reduce chlorine and odour from tap water.

Powerful: The filtration system used for the plastic water containers was inspired by Nasa technology

The Level-2 filter contains more than 400 tiny pores and uses a positively charged electro-absorption process to trap harmful agents as water passes through it.

According to the manufacturer, charge fields activated upon contact with water virtually close the pore to any intruding agents. ‘Using built-in silver ions, the material then kills bacteria upon contact,’ the OKO website says.

The third level of filtration is designed for the treatment of known elements in large volumes of water in extreme environments. Level-3 is not available to buy at retail.
Read the original here:

ÖKO’s NASA Filtration Bottles Turn Sickly Soda into Drinkable Water

ATLANTA – The newly published 2013 version of ASHRAE’s residential indoor air quality standard removes the default leakage rate assumption and also requires carbon monoxide alarms.

ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62.2-2013, Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in Low-Rise Residential Buildings, is the only nationally recognized indoor air quality standard developed solely for residences.  It defines the roles of and minimum requirements for mechanical and natural ventilation systems and the building envelope intended to provide acceptable indoor air quality in low-rise residential buildings.

One of the biggest changes in the standard over the 2010 version was an increase in mechanical ventilation rates to 7.5 cfm per person plus 3 cfm per 100 square feet. This is due to the earlier removal of the earlier default assumption regarding natural infiltration.

The Standard 62.2 Committee had previously assumed homes got a minimum of 2 cfm, per 100 square feet, according to Don Stevens, committee chair.

“Because research shows houses have gotten tighter and apartments have always been tight, the 2013 edition drops this default assumption and calls for the entire amount to be provided mechanically,” he said. “The only exception is when single family homes have a blower door test – then the predicted average annual leakage rate can be deducted.”

Another major change is a requirement for carbon monoxide (CO) alarms in all dwelling units. CO poisoning leads to hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries each year in homes, resulting from automobiles left running in attached garages as well as from portable generators, power tools and heaters, according to Paul Francisco, committee vice chair. A small fraction of poisonings also result from failed central heating combustion appliances.

“Residents have very little ability to sense the presence of CO without detectors, unlike many other indoor polluting events,” he said.

Whether to include CO alarms as a requirement in the standard had been discussed since the standard was first proposed with debate focused on the unreliability and cost of alarms.

Francisco said the committee believes the time has come to make this change, noting that it brings the standard into closer alignment with the International Residential Code, which requires alarms if the house has combustion appliances or attached garages, and with many states that have passed laws requiring CO alarms.

The requirement goes a step further, expanding the protection to all homes, regardless of fuel type or garage configuration, reflecting the fact that many CO exposures occur due to causes completely independent of these factors, he said. It also requires that alarms be hard-wired with battery backup to address an increased likelihood of high CO exposure events during power outages.

Other significant new changes include the removal of the climate limitations on pressurization and depressurization; specifications related specifically to multifamily buildings; and new calculations and weather data for estimating annual leakage based on a blower door test.

The cost of Standard 62.2-2013, Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in Low-Rise Residential Buildings, is $58 ($48, ASHRAE members).

To order, contact ASHRAE Customer Contact Center at 1-800-527-4723 (United States and Canada) or 404-636-8400 (worldwide), fax 678-539-2129, or visit www.ashrae.org/bookstore.

For the past two decades, there has been little improvement in energy efficiency for North
American clothes dryers. Recent innovations in clothes drying technology offer new
opportunities for energy savings. One innovation in particular has substantial savings potential:
clothes dryers utilizing heat pump technology. This technology has already made significant
market gains in Europe and Australia, but is not yet sold in North America. Manufacturers are
looking to bring heat pump clothes dryers to North America in the near future.
The successful market introduction of this new, highly efficient technology will require support
from energy efficiency program providers and governments in North America through labeling,
promotion, and incentives. Programs and governments must have high-quality data on the
energy savings that can be expected from heat pump technology before providing this support.
Our study compares the energy consumption of currently available European heat pump dryers
to North American conventional electric dryers to better understand the potential for energy
savings if this technology were introduced into North America.

To develop these data, Ecova procured four European models and three conventional North
American models spanning a wide range of sizes, prices, features, and manufacturers. To
compare dryer efficiency and performance, each dryer was subjected to the same tests: the
current (2005) US Department of Energy (DOE) clothes dryer test procedure and the proposed
2011 DOE test procedure that Ecova modified to include automatic termination in anticipation of
a revised DOE test procedure. In 2013, after the testing and analysis was completed, the DOE
did indeed propose a revised test procedure. This test procedure is very similar to the
anticipated DOE test procedure that was used in this work. The 2011 DOE test procedure, with
automatic termination, was also repeated with several alternative test laundry loads that more
closely resembles real-world clothing than does the DOE-defined test load.
Key findings include:
• European heat pump dryers use only 40-50% as much energy as North American
conventional dryers to dry the same amount of laundry;
• European heat pump dryers took twice as long to dry a load of laundry as North
American conventional dryers;
• Drying time and energy consumption increased for all dryers when drying test loads that
more closely resemble real-world clothing;
• North American conventional dryers had peak power consumption roughly five times as
high as European heat pump dryers;
• Energy consumption and drying time varied significantly between the European heat
pump dryers, suggesting that labeling and incentives could be used to promote the sale
of the highest performing heat pump technologies.
Key conclusions and recommendations include:
• Heat pump dryers are a globally mature technology with substantial energy saving
potential;
• A heat pump dryer designed for North America could still offer significant energy savings
even if it were designed to sacrifice some energy efficiency in order to reduce drying
time;
• Further modifications to the new DOE test procedure, including the use of a test load
that more closely represents real-world clothing, are needed to more accurately predict arch 2013
Page 5 of 42
actual dryer energy consumption. The recently proposed 2013 revisions to the DOE
clothes dryer test procedure includes automatic termination – a significant improvement
from the current 2005 test procedure.
This study was funded by CLASP as a part of the Super Efficient Dryer Initiative (SEDI), which
brings together manufacturers, government agencies, energy efficiency program providers, and
appliance retailers in support of a North American market for new, energy efficient, advanced
dryers.

Here is the original post:
Heat-Pump Clothes Dryers Really Work, Study Confirms

Click here for the full video.

Maybe this is the right way to sell High Performance Construction.

These days it seems that everyone trying to be greener.  As people become more and more aware of their impact on the environment, the demand for more environmentally friendly products has risen.  This is certainly the case in regards to home construction and renovation.  Here are five renovations that can help make your home a bit more efficient and green, none of which involve painting your house green!

Insulation

A good place to start when considering making renovations to make your house greener is with the insulation.  Typically, the most energy that is used in a house is the energy we use to heat it.  This is where a great opportunity for energy savings exists.  The key is to try to pack in as much insulation as possible.  Quite simply; the more insulation you can fit, the more efficient your house will be in terms of energy.  This renovation can be taken a step further, in regards to being green, if you can find some insulation that is made from recycled and/or eco-friendly materials.

Increase Water Efficiency

Another place where renovations can be made to reduce energy usage is with your home’s water efficiency.  Houses use tons of gallons of water each year and there are some steps you can take to reduce this aside from simply taking shorter showers.  The first, and easiest, thing you can do is install aerators on all faucets and sinks.  These aerators are inexpensive and will help greatly on saving water.  As for taking shorter showers; this is a good practice, but you can maximize water savings by also installing low-flow showerheads in all the showers in your home.

Implementing Alternative Wood Products

Most types of renovations that you do will include some need for wood.  This will provide you with a great opportunity to make your house greener.  When doing such renovations or remodels, it is important to consider what type of wood you are using and where it is coming from.  One option is to use recycled wood from the deconstruction of the area being remodeled.  Of course, this is only plausible if you are actually deconstructing a part of the house.  If this is not the case, you can still apply green wood by using wood that is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.  These types of woods come from rapidly renewable sources such as palm or bamboo.  When thinking green about wood choices it is also important to keep in mind that you can reduce environmental impact by purchasing local, as there is less transportation involved.

Use Products with Low Volatile Air Compounds

Using products and materials with low volatile air compounds (VOCs) is not only greener, but it is also safer regarding your health.  When thinking about low-VOC products we are usually thinking about paint.  So to contradict myself, you could actually make your house greener using green paint…so long as that green paint is organic and has low-VOCs.  Another area where you can lower VOCs is with your counter-tops where low-VOC materials can be used in place of other options which have a higher content of harmful VOCs.

Install Efficient Appliances

All of the previously mentioned topics can go a long way in making your home greener and can be even more effective when paired with energy efficient appliances.  For example, water efficiency can be enhanced by adding a dual flush toilet which uses less water.  For most appliances you can simply look for the blue Energy Star label.  This label means that the appliance is certified as meeting the high level of energy efficiency standards required by the U.S. Department of Energy.  There are a variety of Energy Star products and appliances available and when you’re doing a green renovation, you can go the extra mile by installing them.

When undertaking a remodel or renovation with hopes of making your house greener, the five categories mentioned here should be kept in mind.  These green improvements are not only better for the environment, but also your wallet as you will save on energy.  Hiring a green building company to perform the renovation is a good way to ensure that all these green procedures are implemented.

Wade Myer grew up under the watchful eye his father, a contractor, who taught him the tools of the trade. Even though he can swing a hammer with the best of them, he’s always been drawn to the written word where he can frame sentences rather than walls.  Currently he writes on behalf of Schererville Home Builders.

Original Here:
Mid-century Modern dream homes: Are they a secret killer of children?

Isaac Newton wrote about his work, acknowledging those before him: “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” The idea of the Passivhaus, or Passive House building system, is often seen as an original mix of super-insulation, tight envelope and controlled ventilation, when in fact lot of people were looking at many of the key principles back in the seventies.

That’s why it is so encouraging to see the Passivhaus Institute is honoring those who came before with the Passive House Pioneer Award. According to Passivhaus founder Wolfgang Feist, the award acknowledges these predecessors. Feist says they ” call to mind the important historical milestones and appropriately appreciate their significance.”

This year’s winner is the Zero-Energy House, built in Copenhagen in the 1970s by Vagn Korsgaard (1921 – 2012) and Torben Esbensen. From the press release:

“Korsgaard’s and Esbensen’s work demonstrated back in the 1970s that energy-efficient technology really does work. The construction of this building was thus an important basis for later developments in Europe and around the world,” explains Dr. Wolfgang Feist, who, as Founder and Director of the Passive House Institute, will present the Pioneer Award on 20 April. “The Danish zero-energy experiment was one of thevery first of its kind and was certainly one of the most systematic. The published project findings were incorporated into Passive House research right from the start.”

Passepedia/CC BY 2.0

This is actually the third Pioneer award; the other two were the Philips Experimental House in Aachen:

A super-insulated experimental house, built in 1974/75, equipped with ground heat exchangers, controlled ventilation, solar and heat pump technology and “inhabited” by a computer served as a test and calibration object for computer models, used to explore the opportunities of energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy sources.

Rocky Mountain Institute via Passepedia/CC BY 2.0

In 2011, The Rocky Mountain Institute won the award and honored RMI head Amory Lovins.

Amory Lovins, who is well-known for his publications about alternative energy, did not stop at the theory. He built an extremely well-insulated solar passive house in Old Snowmass in Colorado, at an altitude of 2164 metres. Tropical vegetation flourished in the winter garden and the stove was seldom used.

Fram/Public Domain

Interestingly, when you go to the Passipedia and look at the historical review, they list precedents going back to ancient China and to Nansen’s Fram, (Seemore on Fram here) which was not only super-insulated but had wind-generated electricity in 1883.

The Tyee/Promo image

However it doesn’t list the Saskatchewan Conservation House at all. This 1977 house had most of the hallmarks of a Passive House, including almost airtight construction and lots of insulation. Physicist William Shurcliff wrote about it in 1979 and is quoted by Martin Holladay:

What name should be given to this new system? Superinsulated passive? Super-save passive? Mini-need passive? Micro-load passive? I lean toward ‘micro-load passive.’ Whatever it is called, it has (I predict) a big future.

Holladay continues:

Eleven years after William Shurcliff’s landmark press release, a German physicist, Dr. Wolfgang Feist, adopted Shurcliff’s list, suggested a few further specifications, and coined a German word, Passivhaus, to describe the construction method. In a January 2008 interview, Feist acknowledged, “The building process for the first Passivhaus prototype started in 1990. At the time we knew about other similar buildings — buildings made by William Schurcliff and Harold Orr — and we relied on these ideas.”

Yet somehow it is not even acknowledged as a precedent in the Historical Review page.

Saskatchewan Conservation House Section/Promo image

The Saskatchewan Conservation House isn’t the prettiest thing we have shown on TreeHugger, but it is important in the history of the Passivhaus movement. Look at that section: thick insulation all round a boxy design with few jogs, air to air heat exchangers, heat recovery on hot water, careful solar orientation and shading. It’s almost indistinguishable from a Passivhaus section, shown below. Why is it being ignored?

© What’s Passive about that? Passivhaus Institute

I am not sure why it is not recognized as an important precedent, but I am going to get all my Passivhaus buddies to nominate it for next year’s Passive House Pioneer Award.

Original Post by Treehugger.
Passivhaus Precedents: Zero Energy House from 1970s recognized with award