After our class trip to Jeld-Wen, I started thinking about other countries and how the use of doors and windows, as well as heating and cooling affects how they design. A few years ago I spent a couple weeks in Singapore to visit a friend of a friend. It was an incredible experience but I find my self appreciating it more each day as I am continually learning more about sustainability. Singapore is not a very large country, it takes up very little space on the map, but it has an extremely large population density. One of the first things I noticed as I landed in Singapore was the vast amount of tall buildings. Since space is tight, instead of building out like we do in Canada, they build up. As of right now, Canadians aren’t worried about space. The amount of land located between our cities is so large that we do not have to consider running out of space as a possibility. In Singapore, they value their land and do not waste any of it. Great thought is put into the design and development of their city. Unlike Winnipeg where communities like Waverley West expand across our prairies in the span of only a few months. One thing a Singapore resident said to me that really stuck was “why do you waste so much space in Canada?” My answer to his question was “because we can.” If he were to ask me the same question now, I wouldn’t answer the same way. I would actually ask the same question myself. Yes, we do have a large amount of open land, but we aren’t thinking into the future. Sprawl is becoming more of an issue and we have to start taking it seriously. In Singapore, you very rarely see a single family home located on its own piece of land. People live in large apartment buildings. They reach stories into the sky and really tackle their space issues. This also makes transportation easier.
Another thing I noticed in Singapore, was there methods of heating and cooling. Although, since the country stays at a nearly constant temperature of 30 degrees celsius, heating is not really an issue. The apartment that we stayed in was located many stories above the ground and consisted of 3 floors. It felt more like a house than an apartment. On one of the floors there was actually a window cut into the wall. The neat thing about this was that there was no glass. It was literally just a whole in the wall linking directly to the outdoors. Because of Singapore weather conditions, such a thing is possible. At first I thought this would be a problem with the air conditioning. It would allow the cool air to escape and prevent the air conditioning from being as effective. But, SIngapore has a different method of cooling than we do here in Canada. Each room has its own individual air conditioning unit. As you enter a room, you can turn the air conditioning on to your desired temperature. As you leave the room, the unit can be turned off. This eliminates the use of unneeded energy. Since the units are so advanced, all of them can be turned off when you leave the apartment and can be turned on when you return for immediate air conditioning relief.
Singapore is so technologically advanced compared to almost all other countries. Why is it that such technologies have been developed, yet very few people actually take advantage of them? This is just one of the many questions concerning sustainability. Slowly, we will attempt to answer them.
Windows and doors are such an essential part of a structure. Although they may sometimes go unnoticed, they play a very large role. It was quite interesting to hear all about them at Jeld-Wen. Most of what was talked about I had not heard before, and I found it to be very education. It’s nice to know that environmental sustainability is considered in every aspect of design. One thing that really caught my attention, was the comparisons between wood and PVC. Wood doors and windows have more environmental advantages. They have a higher percentage of recyclability and create less pollution in the manufacturing process then PVC doors and windows. Although, with PVC, one gets better durability, less heat transfer, and they are more economical. Personally, I like the idea of a wood door or window compared to PVC. There look is more natural, and there environmental benefits outweigh those of PVC. It would be interesting to know if it would one day be possible for PVC and wood to be on the same level. Could Jeld-Wen find a way to increase the durability of their wood products? Could they find a way to recycle a greater portion of the PVC and reduce its environmental impact?
After visiting Red River College Princess campus i was interested in finding out more about the specifics of design and energy efficiency that went into the project.
Corbett Cibinel Architects is the group responsible for the design of RRC. Through a link from their site I found a floor by floor break down of the design and restoration of the site. This allowed me to better understand the buildings involved and see the functions of each space. Prior to reading this document i was not aware of the historic buildings that were preserved or the intigration of the new buildings. This information is found at: http://www.cibinel.com/uploads/rrcoverview.pdf.
All of us in ED2 are aware that RRC has acclaimed energy efficiency and is a state of the art green building, but i didn’t understand what elements directly contributed to this standard. I came accross a list of “GREEN FEATURES” which introduced me to the environmentally friendly design. This list consists of the following:
- Historic urban area rehabilitation with heritage facades, remodel of existing building plus new construction
- Strong energy conservation through envelope and equipment design.
- Materials salvage emphasis.
- 200m2 vegetated roof.
- 20 kW PV curtain wall under consideration.
- Emphasis on water conservation,
- integration with transit system.
- Daylight design, visual comfort for IT workplace and high air quality emphasis.
- Incorporation of 120 year old heritage facades and entire 4,646 m2 of early 20th century brick building pose energy design challenges.
- Building demonstrates excellent repeatability
Information found at http://www.iisbe.org/iisbe/gbc2k2/teams/canada/red_river/rrc-edu.htm.
GF Shymko & Associates Inc. were the energy consultants for this project. I located a brief summary of the project from their point of view at http://www.gfshymko.com/projects_redriver.html. This document introduced me to the C-2000 Program building standard, HVAC ventilation, and Photovoltaic system in place at RRC.
Though this is still the tip of the iceberg of information about energy efficiency that contributed to RRC, it has aroused my interest. I will be further investigating the systems in place and hopefully find a way to link them into our final assignment: Redesign the U of M campus.
Todays presentation was very enjoyable. The information was interesting and well suited for our purpose.The one down side of a formal presentation from an employee is that they constantly push the positive aspects about their product and not the possible downfalls. This is done for good reason of course but in reading the extra hand outs that we were given a few things caught my attention. The vinyl used for the PVC products “is 57% derived from common salt which is an abundant and inexpensive resource.” Just because something is an abundant resource doesn’t mean we can constantly use it. Fresh water was once an abundant resource but quantities have changed. Oil was once thought to be a never ending resource, which is not the case. Trees and forests were existed in way more abundance in previous generations, but we can not afford to think like that anymore.
Jeld Wen does a lot of great work. I was impressed to hear about the research facilities and testing centres that they own, where new product is designed. Knowing that they are doing continuous research just shows me that being happy with a product and efficiency is great, but that doesn’t mean one should be satisfied. New environmentally friendly energy efficient products are still eing invented.
One last fact that i found interesting how our presentor advertised the low carbon footprint. In reading the hand out it tells that in fact Jeld Wen did not purchase local products to reduce carbon emmisions. They did so to simply reduce their own transportation costs. A decision made for the company’s wallet now being advertised as “Leadership in ‘Carbon Footprint’ reduction”.
