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Green Building In The United Kingdom
Both the public and private sectors in the United Kingdom promote green building. Presently, there are already regulatory mechanisms in place that establish Britain's commitment to this kind of building construction. The government, for instance, set out a target that by 2016, all new homes will have zero carbon emission and it also includes a progressive tightening of energy efficiency regulations by 25 percent and 44 percent in 2010 and 2013, respectively. The UK Building Regulations set requirements for insulation levels and other aspects of sustainability in building construction. For the private sector, there is the case of the Association for Environment Conscious Building (AECB), which promotes green building (or sustainable building) in the United Kingdom since 1989. The UK is also bound to the European Union policy covering green buildings. Under the Energy Performance of Building Directive (EPBD), Europe has made a mandatory energy certification since 4 January 2009. A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Green Building
Green building (also known as green construction or sustainable building) refers to both a structure and the application of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from planning to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition. This requires close cooperation of the contractor, the architects, the engineers, and the client at all project stages.Yan Ji and Stellios Plainiotis (2006): Design for Sustainability. Beijing: China Architecture and Building Press. The Green Building practice expands and complements the classical building design concerns of economy, utility, durability, and comfort. Green building also refers to saving resources to the maximum extent, including energy saving, land saving, water saving, material saving, etc., during the whole life cycle of the building, protecting the environment and reducing pollution, providing people with healthy, comfortable and efficient u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Passive Solar Gain
Solar gain (also known as solar heat gain or passive solar gain) is the increase in thermal energy of a space, object or structure as it absorbs incident solar radiation. The amount of solar gain a space experiences is a function of the total incident solar irradiance and of the ability of any intervening material to transmit or resist the radiation. Objects struck by sunlight absorb its visible and short-wave infrared components, increase in temperature, and then re-radiate that heat at longer infrared wavelengths. Though transparent building materials such as glass allow visible light to pass through almost unimpeded, once that light is converted to long-wave infrared radiation by materials indoors, it is unable to escape back through the window since glass is opaque to those longer wavelengths. The trapped heat thus causes solar gain via a phenomenon known as the greenhouse effect. In buildings, excessive solar gain can lead to overheating within a space, but it can also be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Energy In The United Kingdom
Energy in the United Kingdom came mostly from fossil fuels in 2021. Total energy consumption in the United Kingdom was 142.0million tonnes of oil equivalent (1,651 TWh) in 2019. In 2014, the UK had an energy consumption ''per capita'' of 2.78tonnes of oil equivalent (32.3MWh) compared to a world average of 1.92tonnes of oil equivalent (22.3MWh). Demand for electricity in 2014 was 34.42 GW on average (301.7TWh over the year) coming from a total electricity generation of 335.0TWh. Successive UK governments have outlined numerous commitments to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. One such announcement was the Low Carbon Transition Plan launched by the Brown ministry in July 2009, which aimed to generate 30% electricity from renewable sources, and 40% from low carbon content fuels by 2020. Notably, the UK is one of the best sites in Europe for wind energy, and wind power production is its fastest growing supply. Wind power contributed almost 21% of UK electricity generation in 2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hockerton Housing Project
The Hockerton Housing Project is a small community of five earth sheltered homes on the outskirts of Hockerton, Nottinghamshire, UK. The houses were designed by ‘green’ architects Professor Brenda Vale and Dr Robert Vale. Low carbon living is facilitated through the use of renewable energy, the water system, food grown on site, and the community's approach to work and transport. The homes were completed in September 1998 after three years of planning and 18 months of construction, at a cost of about £65,000. Two homes have since changed ownership on the open property market. Layout The development consists of a terrace of five single story dwellings which are earth-sheltered at the rear (North), so that the ground surface slopes and blends smoothly into the field at the back. The houses have passive solar heating (a combination of high thermal mass and the south-facing conservatory) removing the need for a space heating system and the greatest factor in lowering energy u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Energy Efficiency In British Housing
Domestic housing in the United Kingdom presents a possible opportunity for achieving the 20% overall cut in UK greenhouse gas emissions targeted by the Government for 2010. However, the process of achieving that drop is proving problematic given the very wide range of age and condition of the UK housing stock. Carbon emissions Although carbon emissions from housing have remained fairly stable since 1990 (due to the increase in household energy use having been compensated for by the 'dash for gas'), housing accounted for around 30% of all the UK's carbon dioxide emissions in 2004 (40 million tonnes of carbon) up from 26.42% in 1990 as a proportion of the UK's total emissions. The Select Committee on Environmental Audit noted that emissions from housing could constitute over 55% of the UK's target for carbon emissions in 2050. A 2006 report commissioned by British Gas estimated the average carbon emissions for housing in each of the local authorities in Great Britain, the first ti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
UK Green Building Council
The UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) is a United Kingdom membership organisation, formed in 2007, which aims to 'radically transform' the way that the built environment in the UK is planned, designed, constructed, maintained and operated. The council is concerned about the environmental impact of buildings and infrastructure on the environment, in particular the use of water, materials, energy, the impact of greenhouse gas emissions, and the health of building occupants. Formation The organisation was founded in the autumn of 2006 and launched in February 2007 in response to the 2004 Sustainable Building Task Group Report ''Better Buildings - Better Lives'', which recommended the UK Government should "review the advisory bodies concerned with sustainable buildings to simplify and consolidate them and to provide clear direction to the industry" (para 1.8, p. 7). Its first CEO was Paul King (formerly head of campaigns at WWF), who filled the role from its inception until De ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Double-skin Facade
The double-skin façade is a system of building consisting of two skins, or façades, placed in such a way that air flows in the intermediate cavity. The ventilation of the cavity can be natural, fan supported or mechanical. Apart from the type of the ventilation inside the cavity, the origin and destination of the air can differ depending mostly on climatic conditions, the use, the location, the occupational hours of the building and the HVAC strategy. The glass skins can be single or double glazing units with a distance from 20 cm up to 2 metres. Often, for protection and heat extraction reasons during the cooling period, solar shading devices are placed inside the cavity. History The essential concept of the double-skin facade was first explored and tested by the Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier in the early 20th century. His idea, which he called ''mur neutralisant'' (neutralizing wall), involved the insertion of heating/cooling pipes between large layers of glass. S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Natural Ventilation
Passive ventilation is the process of supplying air to and removing air from an indoor space without using mechanical systems. It refers to the flow of external air to an indoor space as a result of pressure differences arising from natural forces. There are two types of natural ventilation occurring in buildings: '' wind driven ventilation'' and ''buoyancy-driven ventilation''. Wind driven ventilation arises from the different pressures created by wind around a building or structure, and openings being formed on the perimeter which then permit flow through the building. Buoyancy-driven ventilation occurs as a result of the directional buoyancy force that results from temperature differences between the interior and exterior. Since the internal heat gains which create temperature differences between the interior and exterior are created by natural processes, including the heat from people, and wind effects are variable, naturally ventilated buildings are sometimes called "breat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
One Angel Square
One Angel Square is an office building in Manchester, England. Construction work began in 2010 and was completed in February 2013. The landmark building is the head office of the Co-operative Group. Standing 72.5 metres (237.8 feet) tall, the building forms the centrepiece of the new £800 million NOMA development in the Angel Meadows area of Manchester city centre. The building cost at least £105 million to construct and was sold on leaseback terms in 2013 for £142 million. One Angel Square is one of the most sustainable large buildings in Europe and is built to a BREEAM 'Outstanding' rating. It is powered by a biodiesel cogeneration plant using rapeseed oil to provide electricity and heat. The structure makes use of natural resources, maximising passive solar gain for heat and using natural ventilation through its double-skin facade, adiabatic cooling, rainwater harvesting, greywater recycling and waste heat recycling. The building's distinctive form has been compared to a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carbon Emission
Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities strengthen the greenhouse effect, contributing to climate change. Most is carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas. The largest emitters include coal in China and large oil and gas companies, many state-owned by OPEC and Russia. Human-caused emissions have increased atmospheric carbon dioxide by about 50% over pre-industrial levels. The growing levels of emissions have varied, but it was consistent among all greenhouse gases (GHG). Emissions in the 2010s averaged 56 billion tons a year, higher than ever before. Electricity generation and transport are major emitters; the largest single source, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, is transportation, accounting for 27% of all USA greenhouse gas emissions. Deforestation and other changes in land use also emit carbon dioxide and methane. The largest source of anthropogenic methane emissions is agriculture, closely followed by g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bill Dunster
William Robert Dunster OBE (born 9 July 1960 ) is a British architect. Prior to forming Zedfactory, Dunster worked for Hopkins Architects for over 14 years specialising in low energy and sustainable development. While an associate at Hopkins he worked on Nottingham University's Jubilee Campus. As project architect in charge, he took the scheme from the initial competition bid through to completion. Opened in December 1999 by HM the Queen the campus has since been awarded the RIBA Sustainability Award 2001. Before Nottingham he developed the environmental strategy and detailed façade design for Portcullis House. This work followed 4 years of research in the European Union funded Joule Research Project, collaborating with the leading environmental consultants in Europe, including Arup, CSTB Nantes, Christian Bartenbach and Conphoebus. In 1995 he built his own house, Hope House which is a prototype low energy live/work unit in which he and his family now live. Dunster was educ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust Limited, Scott Trust. The trust was created in 1936 to "secure the financial and editorial independence of ''The Guardian'' in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of ''The Guardian'' free from commercial or political interference". The trust was converted into a limited company in 2008, with a constitution written so as to maintain for ''The Guardian'' the same protections as were built into the structure of the Scott Trust by its creators. Profits are reinvested in journalism rather than distributed to owners or shareholders. It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. The editor-in-chief Katharine Viner succeeded Alan Rusbridger in 2015. Since 2018, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
