Sustainability and “green” building

CONTENTS

 

Introduction……………………………………………… 4

 

Unit I Sustainability and “green” building …………… 5

 

Unit II Renewable energy and construction…………… 40

 

Unit III From Pyramids to Skyscrapers……………….. 72

 

Appendix Texts for supplementary reading ………….. 120

 

References ……………………………………………….147

 

 

INTRODUCTON (ПРЕДИСЛОВИЕ)

 

Пособие предназначено для студентов строительных специальностей. Пособие подготовлено в соответствии с требованиями типовой программы по иностранным языкам для высших учебных заведений. Цель пособия – сформировать необходимый объем профессиональной лексики для чтения литературы по специальности, для ведения дискуссии и выступления с докладами на конгрессах, симпозиумах по проблемам строительства, а также создать мотивацию к дальнейшему изучению практики и теории проектирования и строительства.

Пособие состоит из трех разделов: «Устойчивое развитие и экологически чистое строительство», «Возобновляемые источники энергии и строительство» и «От пирамид до небоскребов». Каждый раздел состоит из четырех текстов. Уроки строятся по следующей схеме: предтекстовые задания, упражнения, направленные на понимание текста, на представление и освоение языковых моделей, дополнительные задания для творческой деятельности, темы для дискуссий и докладов.

В приложении пособия представлены материалы для дополнительного чтения, содержащие информацию по истории строительства с древних времен до наших дней.

Тексты заимствованы из специализированной литературы и предназначены для развития всех видов речевой деятельности. Пособие включает в себя иллюстративный материал. Авторы выражают благодарность всем специалистам, которые оказали помощь в подготовке и издании этого пособия.

 

 

UNIT I

SUSTAINABILITY AND “GREEN” BUILDING

Warming up

Read the following information about sustainability, matching questions with the answers.

 

1) What is sustainability from an ecological point of view?

 

2) What is the definition of sustainability in the broad sense?

"What use is a sawmill without a forest?”

The dimensions of sustainability are often taken to be: environmental, social and economic, known as the "three pillars".

 

 

3) What is important for humans to live sustainably?

 

4) What is necessary to avoid depleting of natural resources?

Sustainability is the ability to maintain a certain process or state. It is now most frequently used in connection with biological and human systems.

"to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

 

 

5) Since when has the idea of sustainability been reconsidered?

 

6) What is a widely accepted definition of sustainability?

Since the 1980s, the idea of human sustainability has become increasingly associated with the integration of economic, social and environmental spheres.

Sustainability can be defined as the ability of an ecosystem to maintain ecological processes, functions, biodiversity and productivity into the future.

 

 

7) What are the three pillars of sustainability?

For humans to live sustainably, the Earth's resources must be used at a rate at which they can be replenished.

An unprecedented collective effort is needed to return human use of natural resources to within sustainable limits

 

 

8) What question illustrates the main idea of sustainability?

 

Now look at the two diagrams and try to explain their meaning.

 

1. Which diagram represents the three pillars of sustainable development?

2. Which of them shows economy and society bounded by the environment?

3. Read the following explanation and decide which of the two diagrams it describes:

The economy is, in the first instance, a subsystem of human society which is itself, in the second instance, a subsystem of the totality of life on Earth. And no subsystem can expand beyond the capacity of the total system of which it is a part.

4. Which diagram do you think expresses the idea of sustainability better?

Reading task A

Read the construction credo of eco-architects engaged in sustainable construction and comment on it. Do you share it? Which part has impressed you most?

 

2. Now read the text trying to grasp the idea of sustainability. Make sure you know these words:

 

Sensitive outline

Trigger halt

Imply holistic

Flexibility life span

Impact concern

Augment commitment

Spirits precious

Convention distinguish

Challenge anticipate

Witness evolve

 

Sustainability

 

“Our work embraces infrastructure, architecture and product design.

We design by challenging – by asking the right questions.

We believe the quality of our surroundings can lift the quality of our lives.

Our work ranges from new buildings to intervention within old structures.

We work from the scale of the airport down to the detail of a door handle.

We are guided by sensitivity to the culture and climate of place.”

Norman Foster

 

While architects cannot solve all the world’s ecological problems, they can design energy efficient, socially responsible buildings and they can influence transport patterns through urban planning. Importantly, sustainability also implies a way of building that is sensitive to its location and the culture that has shaped it. Although architects work on a scale unimaginable 40 years ago, sustainability is an issue that has driven the work of the practice since the early days and continues to inform what we do today. It is a thread that runs through from the very beginning to the present and on into the future.

Sustainability is a word that has become fashionable over the last decade. However, sustainability is not a matter of fashion, but survival. The United Nations, in its latest Global Environmental Outlook, outlined a series of possible environmental scenarios for the next thirty years. At worst, it foresaw crises triggered by increasing water shortages, global warming and pollution. It suggested that these trends might be slowed, but only if nations work together to address radically the global consumption of natural resources and energy, and to halt man’s degradation of the environment.

Sustainability requires us to think holistically. The location and function of a building; its flexibility and life span; its orientation, form and structure; its heating and ventilation systems and the materials used; together impact upon the amount of energy required to build and maintain it, and travel to and from it. Only by finding new solutions to these problems can we create sustainable forms of building for the future.

The best architecture comes from a synthesis of all the elements that separately comprise and inform the character of a building: the structure that holds it up; the services that allow it to function; its ecology; the quality of natural light; the symbolism of the form; the relationship of the building to the skyline or the streetscape; the way you move through or around it; and last but not least its ability to lift the spirits. This holistic approach is augmented by a strong commitment to the clients and also to the public domain and the many users involved. A high degree of personal service, coupled with respect for the precious resources of cost and time, therefore characterizes the client relationships.

Eco-architects work in the spirit of enquiry, challenging preconceptions and testing conventions. The process of ‘reinvention’ distinguishes all of their work – past and present – and rests on a duty to design well and to design responsibly – whether that is at the scale of an airport or a door handle. The last decades have witnessed key shifts in public attitudes to ecology and energy consumption. Architects have always anticipated these trends, pioneering design solutions that use totally renewable sources of energy and offer dramatic reductions in CO2 emissions. Environmental awareness is an integral part of the practice’s culture as it evolves to meet the challenges of the next years.

 

3. Answer the following questions:

 

1. How do you understand the way of building "sensitive to its location and the culture that has shaped it”?

2. What is the linking element of the past, present and future in building?

3. Can you explain what it means “to think holistically”?

4. What process distinguishes the work of an eco-architect?

5. What is the essence of this process?

6. What changes took place in our society in the last decades?

7. Why is environmental awareness called “an integral part of the practice’s culture”?

 

4. According to the text what are the constituent parts of the best architecture? Discuss each of them in pairs. Put them into the order of importance from your point of view. Make use of the following conversational formulas:

 

To my mind…

In my opinion…

As for me…

If you ask me…

As I see it…

I’d like to point out that…

I can’t but mention …

Reading task B

Reading task С

 

What ecologically friendly building materials are mentioned in the interview? Do you know all of them? Are they widely used in our country? Choose one material and find additional information about its properties. Then make a presentation in class.

 

Reading task D

Reading task E

 

Earth Cycle

 

1. Go over the vocabulary list. Consult a dictionary if you need:

 

Landscape hearth rugged

Awareness align ingrained

Response rectangle acquire

Shift hunker summarily

Punctuate swoop low-key

Commonality luminaire glitzy

Relevance grid verdant

Refuge framing member scar

Affinity fin rectilinear

Forage operable meander

Prospect rustic watchword

Sod interim subdued

Foil berm butt

Cantilever rugged buttress

Flank ebb overhang

 

The beginnings.

The first of the three Olson houses, designed in the late 1960s, is on a steep, densely wooded cliff (near a beach where Olson played as a youth) overlooking south Puget Sound and, in the distance, mighty Mount Rainier. The house is a weathered cedar object inserted into the landscape. Grass and wild flowers continue from the hill behind onto the roof. The sod is penetrated by a large sculptural concrete chimney intended as a vertical foil to the horizontality of the house.

Cantilevered over the hillside, the house is pointed directly at the mountain and is flanked by a pool. The master bedroom is against the bermed rear of the house, clearly a place of refuge. At the same level, a small parlor with a large hearth is a refuge with view. A few steps down is a second living room, its glass walls on all sides bringing in the dramatic prospect of water, woods, and mountain. In all, the house has an elemental quality, a power reflecting that of the setting. It has weathered well until it is virtually a part of the landscape.

The Next Generation

The second house, built in 1992 in the suburb of Kirkland east of Seattle, bursts cheerfully from the landscape instead of hunkering into it. Yet the principle of prospect and refuge is at work here too. The clients, a family with small children, wanted the house to seem like a pavilion in the meadow, and that is exactly its feel. It is a house that, in project architect Tom Kundig’s words, “celebrates light”: major rooms are aligned in a rectangle with along glazed south wall; the roof swoops upward, reaching its high point at the south façade. The rooms in this wing are suffused with light reflected from the white slope of the ceiling high overhead, which acts as a luminaire. The prospect of meadow and water is seen through the south wall’s grid of wood framing members, horizontal metal fins, and round concrete columns. (The grid looks mechanical enough to be operable but is not.)

The rear wing of the house is more refugelike in character, set into the sloping meadow and bermed, the planting continuing over the garage and the children’s bedrooms.

The differences between the first, rather rustic house, and the second, more “mechanic” building, reflect how time, tastes, and Olson’s ideas changed in the interim: demand for rugged simplicity had ebbed and, by the time the second house appeared, the residential work of the office had grown larger, more complex and, in some instances, more formal.

 

3. Answer the following questions to part I:

 

1. What is the constant concern of Jim Olson?

2. What is the credo of his work?

3. What do three of his houses illustrate?

4. What do these houses have in common?

5. Can you explain the theory of refuge and prospect?

6. Where is the first of Olson’s houses situated?

7. Can we say that the house is the integral part of the landscape? Can you prove it?

8. Does this house have a place of refuge?

9. What views can you enjoy from the house?

10. What can you say about the general character of the house?

11. Where is the second house situated?

12. Will this house attract your attention as soon as you arrive to the place?

13. What were the clients’ requirements to their future house?

14. Can you describe the character of this house?

15. What can be seen from the grid of the south wall?

16. Can you prove that the rear wing of the house is more refugelike in character?

17. What is the reason for the differences between the first and the second house?

 

The 1960s Revisited.

Yet the third house discussed here returns to many of the themes of the first – a “return to roots” brought about in not a small part by the client’s close collaboration in its design.

Like Olson, the client is a Northwest native with an ingrained respect for nature. She acquired the site for her house largely because of its fine views of one of the region’s most beautiful urban lakes. Once densely wooded, it was cleared for development that never occurred.

On the advice of an interior decorator she at first turned to a Los Angeles architect, who produced a scheme that had the house rising imposingly from the very center of the site. This the client summarily rejected and turned to Olson through acquaintance with some of his clients. She told him that she was more interested in a garden than a house, and that the house should be low-key, natural, and anything but glitzy.

When Olson saw the site he termed it “a scar” of brown earth in the otherwise verdant landscape. He determined not just to respect the site but to heal it.

Olson has a technique of getting clients to join in making collages out of architectural images they like. The one made with this client was revealing: the images she responded to were of simple, rectilinear houses blending with nature, melding indoor and outdoor space, often partially covered by vines and other landscaping; their forms were straightforward, colors subdued; several had glass butting into walls and all had huge fireplaces. Interestingly, one of the images she chose for the collage was taken from the first of the three houses.

Olson tries to make “private worlds”, using perimeter walls as buttresses and creating a quiet interior space, sometimes enclosed and sometimes open. He quickly produced a sketch applying this approach to the sloping lakeside site and it was immediately accepted.

The sketch divided the body of the house into two parallel wings, with the garage, kitchen, dining and family rooms on one side, bedrooms, exercise room, library, and indoor pool on the other. The wings began as beams at the rear of the site, and were bridged by an entry and a living room overlooking the lake. The client said that she would like to enter the house from a garden path so the “valley” between wings would be a garden. Other plantings would cover the roofs of the wings.

Once the basic scheme was established, Olson and associate Kundig began to elaborate on it. A cross axis through the two wings and the bridging element was twisted and deliberately interrupted so that it became a meandering lateral path though the house; the wings were to be largely illuminated by clerestories. They would be deep refuges with a strong sense of enclosure. The living room, the architects reasoned, should be pure prospect, a seemingly open pavilion facing the lake view. Not only would it be glazed on three sides, but the sheets of glass would have planting at their bases both inside and out so that they virtually disappeared. The roof was to be raised high overhead so that it seemed to float above the walls. Weightlessness and illusion were the watchwords. The room began to take on the look of a temple; various roof forms, including a dome and a pyramid, were studied.

Keeping it Simple

The client would have none of it – no illusions, no architectural tricks. She wanted simplicity; the living room roof would be flat, its windows perceptible as such. The cross axis would be straight and uninterrupted.

The architects were devastated to have their favourite devices rejected. “It was as though she were the artist working through us,” Olson recalls. But he came around. What the client had done, he realized, “was to take us back to our roots” and, specifically, to the first house. Once on track together architects and client undertook to make the house ever more naturalistic. With perimeter gardens and trees and grasses on the lake side, the entire site will read as a garden with a house embedded in it.

The house is emerging as one of Olson’s favourites, as was the first. He hoped that it will be “timeless, like a Mayan ruin disappearing back into the landscape.”

Olson Sundberg has a loosely organized “eco-committee,” comprising a changing group of interested employees who research and advise on diverse aspects of sustainability in the firm’s designs. The committee was partially responsible for such conserving elements as the stone floors, wide overhangs, zoned heating and air conditioning, and the use of recycled and recyclable materials that will be employed in the house.

But Olson sees the most basic kind of conservation as building to last. “These houses should only get better with time”, he says, and time already has proven him right about the first one.

 

5. Answer the questions to part II:

 

1. Did the owner of the third house help to develop its design?

2. What were her requirements for the design of the house?

3. Why did Olson call the site “a scar”?

4. What types of houses did the client respond to when making collages?

5. What idea did Olson try to realize in this house?

6. Can you describe the basic scheme of the house?

7. Will the vegetation be preserved on site according to the architects’ scheme?

8. What were the watchwords of the house design?

9. What techniques were to help them be realized?

10. Did the client support the project of her future house?

11. On what points did the opinions about the character of the house differ?

12. What was the final scheme of the house?

13. Did Olson himself like it?

14. What was the “eco-committee” responsible for?

15. What is Olson opinion of conservation?

16. Does he have grounds to think so?

 

Comprehension check

 

Language focus

 

Language development

 

14. Fill in the gaps with the words below:

 

a) inserted b) refuge

c) elaborate d) low-key

e) ingrained f) watchwords

g) a scar h) in the interim

i) in common j) conservation

k) feel l) framing members

m) devastated n) buttresses

 

1. One thing the houses have ____ is relevance to the theory of refuge and prospect, developed by the British geographer Jay Appleton.

2. The house is a weathered cedar object _____ into the landscape.

3. At the same level, a small parlor with a large hearth is a ______ with view.

4. The clients, a family with small children, wanted the house to seem like a pavilion in the meadow, and that is exactly its_____.

5. The prospect of meadow and water is seen through the south wall’s grid of wood _________, horizontal metal fins, and round concrete columns.

6. The differences between the first, rather rustic house, and the second, more “mechanic” building, reflect how time, tastes, and Olson’s ideas changed _______.

7. Like Olson, the client is a Northwest native with an ______ respect for nature.

8. She told him that she was more interested in a garden than a house, and that the house should be _____, natural, and anything but glitzy.

9. When Olson saw the site he termed it “___” of brown earth in the otherwise verdant landscape.

10. Olson tries to make “private worlds”, using perimeter walls as _______ and creating a quiet interior space, sometimes enclosed and sometimes open.

11. Once the basic scheme was established, Olson and associate Kundig began to _____ on it.

12. Weightlessness and illusion were the_______.

13. The architects were _______to have their favourite devices rejected.

14. But Olson sees the most basic kind of ____as building to last.

 

Follow-up

 

18. Look through some information about underground construction and answer the following questions:

 

1. Is it possible to build underground wherever you like?

2. In what way is underground construction connected to green building approach?

3. Do you think it is a widespread construction technique? If so, give some examples of it.

4. What are the main advantages of subterranean homes

5. Can you think of any disadvantages of building such houses?

6. Would you like to live in such a house or would you prefer a conventional one?

Underground housing (sometimes called earth sheltered housing) refers specifically to homes that have been built underground, either partially or completely. These subterranean homes have grown increasingly popular over the last thirty years and are an important sector in the green building movement.

Factors determining the design of an underground home:

1. soil type

2. topography

3. precipitation

4. ground water levels

5. load-bearing properties

6. slope stability.

7. availability of waterproof, durable construction materials strong enough to withstand underground pressure (concrete is frequently used).

 

Several methods of building for subterranean living:

· Constructed Caves - made by tunnelling into the earth. Although popular around the world, this can be an expensive and dangerous procedure.

· Cut and Cover - also called culvert homes, these are made by assembling precast concrete pipes and containers into the required design of the living space, and then burying them in the ground.

· Earth Berm - house is first built on flat land or a small hill, and then buried, leaving a wall or roof open for light.

· Elevational - house is built into the side of a hill with the front of the home left open.

· Atrium - also called courtyard homes, the rooms are built below the ground around a sunken garden or courtyard that lets light in.

· PSP - stands for post, shoring and polyethylene. House is built by excavating the ground, sinking in posts, placing shoring (boards) between the posts and the earth, and placing polyethylene plastic sheets (for waterproofing) behind the shoring.

· Shaft - an ambitious project in Japan called Alice City plans the construction of a wide and deep cylindrical shaft sunk into the earth with a domed skylight covering, and different levels for business and domestic use built around the shaft.

 

Extra activities

Time for fun

Read the following jokes.

Builder in Hell

A builder dies and reports to the pearly gates. St. Peter checks his dossier and says, "Ah sorry, you're in the wrong place." So the builder reports to the gates of hell and is let in. Pretty soon, the builder gets dissatisfied with the level of comfort in hell, and starts making improvements. After a while, they've got air conditioning and flush toilets and escalators, and the builder is a pretty popular guy. One day God calls Satan up on the telephone and says, "So, how's it going down there in hell?" Satan replies, "Hey, things are going great. We've got air conditioning and flush toilets and escalators, and there's no telling what this builder is going to come up with next." God replies, "What??? You've got a builder? That's a mistake! He should never have gotten down there; send him up here." Satan says, "No way. I like having a builder on the staff, and I'm keeping him." God says, "Send him back up here or I'll sue." Satan laughs uproariously and answers, "Yeah, right. And just where are YOU going to get a lawyer?"
Construction Engineers and Lawyers
There are two big conferences in NY, one for construction engineers and one for lawyers. They are both being held in the same building downtown. On the first day of the conference, two groups run into each other at the train station and chat while waiting in line to buy tickets into the city. When they reach the counter, the three lawyers each buy tickets and watch as the three Engineers buy only a single ticket. "How are three people going to travel on only one ticket?" asks a lawyer. "Watch and you'll see," answers an Engineer. They all board the train. The lawyers take their respective seats, but all three Engineers cram into a restroom and close the door behind them. Shortly after the train has departed, the conductor comes around collecting tickets. He knocks on the restroom door and says, "Ticket, please." The door opens just a crack and a single arm emerges with a ticket in hand. The conductor takes it and moves on. The lawyers see this and agree it is quite a clever idea. After the conference, the lawyers (recognizing the engineers' superior intellect) decide to copy the construction engineers on the return trip and save some money. When they get to the station, they buy a single ticket for the return trip. To their astonishment, the construction engineers don't buy a ticket at all. "How are you going to travel without a ticket?" says one perplexed lawyer. "Watch and you'll see," answers an engineer. When they board the train the three lawyers cram into a restroom and the three construction engineers cram into another one nearby. The train departs. Shortly afterward, one of the construction engineers leaves his restroom and walks over to the restroom where the lawyers are hiding. He knocks on the door and says, "Ticket, please."   The Guilliotine In some foreign country a priest, a lawyer and a construction engineer are about to be guillotined. The priest puts his head on the block, they pull the rope and nothing happens -- he declares that he's been saved by divine intervention -- so he's let go. The lawyer is put on the block, and again the rope doesn't release the blade, he claims he can't be executed twice for the same crime and he is set free too. They grab the construction engineer and shove his head into the guillotine, he looks up at the release mechanism and says, "Wait a minute, I see your problem......"

UNIT II

Reading task A

Renewable Energy

1. Before reading the text try to answer the following questions:

What is renewable energy?

What renewable sources of energy are used nowadays?

Fill in the table.

 

Types of energy	Advantages	Countries
1. Geothermal energy
2. Hydroelectricity
3. Solar energy
4. Wind power
5. Biofuel

 

4. Read the text again and make questions. Answer them.

How many…? Where can…applied? What is…?

When…? How much…? What forms of…?

 

Reading task B

 

What is a passive house?

 

“Maximising the use of solar energy

and minimising heat loss is our credo.”

Rolph Disch

A passive house is a building in which a comfortable interior climate can be maintained without active heating and cooling systems. The house heats and cools itself, hence “passive”.

Passive solar building design uses the structure's windows, walls, and floors to collect, store, and distribute the sun's heat in winter and reject solar heat in summer. It can also maximize the use of sunlight for interior illumination.

The technology is called passive solar design, or climatic design. Unlike active solar heating systems, it doesn't involve the use of mechanical and electrical devices — such as pumps, fans, or electrical controls — to circulate the solar heat. Buildings thus designed incorporate large south-facing windows and construction materials that absorb and slowly release the sun's heat. The longest walls run from east to west. In most climates, passive solar designs also must block intense summer solar heat. They typically incorporate natural ventilation and roof overhangs to block the sun's strongest rays during that season.

"Day lighting" takes advantage of natural sunlight, through well-placed windows and specialized floor plans, to brighten up a building's interior.

Passive solar design can be used in most parts of the world.

In the United Kingdom, an average new house built to the passive house standard would use 77% less energy for space heating, compared to the Building Regulations.

In Ireland, it is calculated that a typical house built to the passive house standard instead of the 2002 Building Regulations would consume 85% less energy for space heating and cut space-heating related carbon emissions by 94%.

The first passive house buildings were built in Darmstadt, Germany, in 1990, and occupied the following year. In September 1996 the Passive House Institute was founded in Darmstadt to promote and control the standard. More than 6,000 passive house buildings have been constructed in Europe, most of them in Germany and Austria, with others in various countries worldwide. In North America the first passive house was built in Urbana, Illinois in 2003, and the first to be certified was built at Waldsee, Minnesota, in 2006.

In the United States, a house built to the passive house standard results in a building that requires between 75 and 95% less energy for space heating and cooling than current new buildings that meet today's US energy efficiency codes. The passive house in the German Language Village, Waldsee, in Minnesota uses 85% less energy than a normal house of its size.

 

Space heating

Passive house buildings make extensive use of their intrinsic heat from internal sources – such as waste heat from lighting, white goods (major appliances) and other electrical devices (but not dedicated heaters) – as well as body heat from the people and animals inside the building. Together with the comprehensive energy conservation measures taken, this means that a conventional central heating system is not necessary, although they are sometimes installed due to client skepticism.

2. Superinsulation

Passive house buildings employ super insulation to significantly reduce the heat transfer through the walls, roof and floor compared to conventional buildings.

Air tightness

Building envelopes under the passive house standard are required to be extremely airtight compared to conventional construction. Air tightness minimizes the amount of warm (or cool) air that can pass through the structure.

Ventilation

Mechanical heat recovery ventilation systems are employed to maintain air quality, and to recover sufficient heat to dispense with a conventional central heating system All ventilation ducts are insulated and sealed against leakage.

5. Typical passive house windows

Windows normally combine triple-pane insulated glazing with air-seals and specially developed thermally-broken window frames.

Reading task C

 

1. Go over the vocabulary list. Consult a dictionary if you need.
	assembly (n) proprietor (n) rubble (n) recyclable (adj) conventional (adj) unanimous (adj) heat squandering (part) sustainable (adj) fungal (adj) capacity (n) lay off (v) boom (v) shingle (n)	emission (n) advocate (v) blinds (n) perspire (v) wavelength (n) glazed (part) surplus (n) grid (n) self-sufficient (adj) recoup (v) yardstick (n) breakthrough (n) settlement (n)
2. Notice the pronunciation of the proper and geographical names from the text.
	Hubert Fritz Arbeits-gemeinschaft Holz Erkheim Bavaria Baufritz Darmstadt Freiburg Fraunhofer Institute North America	Scandinavia Arnim Seidel Rolf Disch Heliotrop Hans Erhorn Stuttgart Freiburg Germany

Building for the future

Houses without heating? Long considered only a subject for research projects, this idea has now become a practical reality. Zero-energy houses obtain electricity and heat from the sun free of charge. Yet this still doesn’t go far enough for architects and builders like Hubert Fritz who are working on houses that are also power plants.

 

Part I. Hubert Fritz’s best ideas always come to him in bed. Between four and six o’clock in the morning, he contemplates new ways of sealing joints, intelligent assembly techniques, and innovative marketing approaches. And if, a few hours later, at around eight o’clock, he arrives at work in Erkheim, Bavaria, with a pile of paper under his arm, his employees know: “The boss has just had another night of inspiration. And we now have a strenuous day ahead of us”.

The proprietor of the Baufritz construction business feels: “We ought to use our brains more when we build.” He considers the vast majority of buildings “ridiculous, energy-wasting rubble.” In contrast, the houses of the future, believes the 59-year-old, will be intelligent and recyclable, and not use any energy. This is what Fritz works on both night and day, and a growing number of architects, engineers, and clients are following his lead. In many German towns, what are known as “low energy houses”, “ultra houses” or “passive houses” are gaining ground – buildings that need only a small fraction of the heating energy and electricity required by conventional structures. The apex of this building philosophy is represented by so-called “plus-energy houses”, small power plants that feed more electricity into the grid over a year than they take out. All these houses have good wall insulation and use the sun as a source of energy. That’s the only way to consume less than 40% of primary energy needs on heating, cooling, and lighting.

A generation of ecologically inspired architects and construction businesses have made it their credo: “Save Fossil Fuel, Use Solar Energy.” They believe that energy needs can be met entirely by using the sun, wind, water, and biomass – provided that current energy consumption levels can be reduced by roughly half. This has not only been achieved by the first “passive house”, which was built in Darmstadt in 1991. By 1995 it was estimated that some 5% of new houses in Germany already fulfilled low-energy standards. According to an optimistic scenario presented by the Freiburg-based Öko-Institut, all new houses will be low-energy buildings by the year 2015. It is quite possible that 10% of new buildings will then achieve the energy-saving standards of “passive houses” and only require emergency heating systems.

Although the planners and construction firms are unanimous about the need to strike electricity and heat squandering bungalows and housing blocks from their order books, they also differ on the materials that will enable them to achieve this. While some put their faith in stone, concrete or plastic, Hubert Fritz is a firm believer in the virtues of wood. Some 90% of each house he builds is made of the renewable material: walls, ceilings, roof shingles – if client wishes, even drainpipes – are made of spruce and fir from sustainably managed forests. The moustached entrepreneur is particularly proud of the insulation material he developed in conjunction with researchers at the college in Rosenheim, Bavaria. To improve fire safety characteristics, Fritz mixes wood chips, produced by the ton in his factory, with whey, a by-product of cheese production. With a portion of soda added to prevent fungal attack, the special material provides good insulation.

Not all wood construction firms employ the ecological building material as extensively as Hubert Fritz. Yet most are working at near full capacity. While other construction firms are laying off employees, the wood sector has began to boom. More and more clients can not only imagine living in a wooden house, but are actually having them built. Germany is still not a centre of wooden house building like North America or Scandinavia. But Armin Seidel of Arbeitsgemeinshaft Holz, a working group that promotes the use of wood, estimates that 14% of new buildings in Germany will be made of wood by the turn of the millennium – twice as many as at present.

Wood has a number of advantages. The production of the material itself causes low levels of emissions and requires low energy input, it is a renewable and carbon-storing material, and has excellent building characteristics. This is why Hubert Fritz calls his products “Voll-Wert-Häuser” (whole-value products). In German the term brings to mind images of health food, but Fritz is not a muesli manager” advocating a return to nature. “Houses ought to be oases where people can relax without chemicals,” says the skilled carpenter. “And relaxation also involves technology that makes life easier.”

 

5. Answer the questions to part I:

What kind of person do you think is Hubert Fritz?

1. What is his opinion about conventional buildings?

2. What is the apex of his building philosophy?

3. Are his ideas popular in Germany?

4. Can you explain the difference between “zero-energy houses”, “low-energy houses” and “plus-energy houses”?

5. What can satisfy energy needs according to eco-architects?

6. Is a “passive house” still a dream?

7. When and where was the first passive house built?

8. Can you describe the optimistic scenario of the eco-construction sector development?

10. What building materials are mentioned in this part?

11. Is there the one and only material accepted by all construction managers?

12. What is Hubert Fritz’s favourite building material and why?

13. What material did he develop?

14. What sector in German construction industry has begun to boom and why?

15. What countries are the centres of wooden house building?

16. Can you prove that wood has a number of advantages?

17. What is Hubert Fritz’s opinion of what houses should be?

 

Part II

In conjunction with the local college and other businesses, Fritz is attempting to combine high-technology and ecology in an “intelligent house” in Rosenheim. The windows close when the air conditioning comes on, and the blinds quietly roll down before the sun makes the occupants perspire. The house technology can be controlled via monitors or the telephone. “We need houses that demand less looking after, that gives us more time for our children, that are more fun,” says the father of two children. “Where are the self-cleaning windows? What about electronic systems that let us in, but keep burglars out? Where is the exchangeable installation core?” At least Fritz has been able to realize the latter in his houses.

The eco-manager has worked with the wood technologists in Rosenheim for many years in order to gain a scientific foundation for his ideas. Since 1996 he has enjoyed inviting his partners to “Germany’s largest wooden head.” From time to time Fritz brings together managers, engineers and politicians inside the 15-metere-tall sculpture to plan an environmentally friendly building future. He appeals for ideas and thinking based on natural cycles and oriented toward the sun.

On this point, Hubert Fritz is on exactly the same wavelength as Rolf Disch, the Freiburg-based solar pioneer. In contrast to Fritz, however, Disch does not limit himself to using only one building material. Wherever possible the architect uses wood, but if necessary his houses are also made of stone with polystyrene insulating material. Disch always gives priority to the economical use of electricity and heat. “That’s the most important thing,” says 54-year-old looking down over the vineyards onto the city of Freiburg. Disch has an unobstructed view from the fully glazed side of his house. What is more, Heliotrop, his solar tree house, can turn in all directions, towards and away from the sun as needed. The architect lets the sunshine in during the winter, but on hot summer days he gives it the cold shoulder – turning the almost completely closed metal side of the house toward the sun. The solar panel on the roof, on the other hand, always directly faces the sun and busily supplies electricity – more than the house and its energy-saving devices can use. During the summer Disch feeds the surplus energy into the local electricity grid. Overall, the Heliotrop produces five times as much electrical energy as it uses each year.

The solar architect plans soon to put his concept of the “plus-energy house” into practice in a housing area in Freiburg. And he intends to do this at affordable prices. “It’s still maintained that solar, energy-saving construction doesn’t pay. Yet we want to show that it’s possible – through intelligent planning – not only to save money, but even to make a profit.” Disch points to the tubular solar collectors that not only provide safety as balcony railings but also heat the shower water.

A few kilometers away, a hydrogen-based system is meeting the year-round energy needs of a family of three. The occupants of this energy-self-sufficient solar house, a research project by the Freiburg Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, burn solar-generated hydrogen for cooking and heating. Their electricity is supplied by photovoltaic units and a fuel cell.

What has been achieved here, namely “disconnecting” a house from the electricity and gas networks, is clearly too expensive for the “man in the street”. The higher investment costs for a passive house are recouped within a few years as a result of the lower energy costs. But if you want to reach the plus-energy standard, and decide to mount a photovoltaic installation on your roof, you won’t be able to reduce your building costs below 2,000 marks a square metre of living space, even taking into account federal and state subsides. This figure is considered the yardstick for cheap building. Accordingly, Hans Erhorn of the Fraunhofer Institute for Construction Physics in Stuttgart considers it realistic – as in the car industry – to aim for a “three-litre house,” a building which only requires a maximum of three litres of heating oil a year per square metre, compared with the figure of 30 litres achieved by houses built in the 1970s. “If we succeed in making the low-energy house the norm, we’ll have accomplished a great deal,” says Hans Erhorn, who believes that ecological building will only really make a breakthrough when it pays for the majority of house buyers.

Hubert Fritz is also working towards this goal. New settlement concepts, small building plots, and jointly used technology are intended to make sustainable construction affordable – without any concessions on quality. Nevertheless, we still have a long way to go until we can build cheap, intelligent, recyclable houses that need no energy input. Hubert Fritz will have to spend a few more nights thinking up new ideas.

 

7. Answer the questions to part II:

1. Was Hubert Fritz successful in making an “intelligent house” in Rosenheim? Give ground to your answer.

2. What does he appeal for?

3. Does Rolf Disch share all the ideas of Hubert Fritz?

4. Has Rolf Disch succeeded in building a solar house according to his construction philosophy?

5. Can you describe Heliotrop?

6. Is it a “zero-energy house”, a “low-energy house” or a “plus-energy house”? Explain why.

7. What project is Disch planning to realize in the near future?

8. Does Disch think that “plus-energy houses” can make a profit?

9. Do you believe he will manage to realize his project?

10. What is another example of an energy-self-sufficient solar house described in the text?

11. What supplies electricity there?

12. What is faster to recoup: the higher investment costs for a “passive house” or for a “plus-energy house”?

13. What figure is considered to be the yardstick in cheap building?

14. What is more realistic to aim for according to Hans Erhorn?

15. What will help to make sustainable construction affordable?

Comprehension check

 

8. Decide whether the following statements are true or false according to the text:

 

1. Hubert Fritz is a famous German economist.

2. “Plus-energy houses” are small power plants that feed more electricity into the grid over a year than they take out.

3. The planners and construction firms are unanimous about the materials that will enable them to achieve low-energy consumption levels.

4. For Hubert Fritz the best construction material is wood.

5. Germany is a centre of wooden house building.

6. The windows open when the air conditioning goes off in an “intelligent house”.

7. Rolf Disch is on the same wavelength as Hubert Fritz on the point of using only one building material.

8. The Heliotrop produces 3 times as much electrical energy as it uses each year.

9. Rolf Disch is a designer of a hydrogen-based system meeting the year-round needs of a family of three.

10. Energy-self-sufficient solar houses are affordable for the “man in the street.”

11. Architects and construction firms have already succeeded in making the low-energy houses the norm.

 

Language focus

 

14. Match the words with their synonyms:

1) proprietor 6) breakthrough a) overlook f) support

2) estimate 7) squander b) stable g) evaluate

3) conventional 8) consumption c) compensate h) use

4) face 9) advocate d) traditional i) waste

5) recoup 10) sustainable e) owner j) advance

 

15. Match the words with their antonyms:

 

1) roughly 6) affordable a) hire f) relaxed

2) lay off 7) strenuous b) expensive g) shortcoming

3) surplus 8) skilled c) shortage h) exactly

4) unobstructed 9) boom d) incompetent i) dependant

5) self-sufficient 10) virtue e) slump j) blocked

 

 

16. Match the words with their definitions:

 

1. store a) to pass through a system again for further treatment or use or to reclaim for further use

2. by-product b) to close tightly so as to render airtight or watertight

3. assembly c) capable of being maintained at a steady level without exhausting natural resources or causing severe ecological damage

4. insulate d) a one-storey house, sometimes with an attic

5. seal e) a junction of two or more parts or objects

6. bungalow f) to prevent or reduce the transmission of electricity, heat, or sound by surrounding with a non-conducting material

7. shingle g) the process of putting together a number of parts to make a machine or other product

8. joint h) to keep, set aside, or accumulate for future use

9. sustainable i) a thin rectangular tile, esp. one made of wood, that is laid with others in overlapping rows to cover a roof or a wall

10. recycle j) a secondary or incidental product of a manufacturing process

 

Language development

 

1. Fill in the gaps with the words below making all necessary changes to them:

 

a) fulfilled low-energy standards b) are laying off

c) are gaining ground d) put their faith in

e) strenuous f) a number of

g) brings to mind h) to gain a scientific foundation

i) on exactly the same wavelength j) limit himself to

k) gives priority to l) gives it a cold shoulder

m) to make a profit n) to put his concept into practice

o) are following his lead p) apex

 

1. The _____ of this building philosophy is represented by so-called “plus-energy houses”, small power plants that feed more electricity into the grid over a year than they take out.

2. While some _______ stone, concrete or plastic, Hubert Fritz is a firm believer in the virtues of wood.

3. The architect lets the sunshine in during the winter, but on hot summer days he _______ – turning the almost completely closed metal side of the house toward the sun.

4. Disch always _______ the economical use of electricity and heat.

5. Yet we want to show that it’s possible – through intelligent planning – not only to save money, but even ______.

6. The eco-manager has worked with the wood technologists in Rosenheim for many years in order ________ for his ideas.

7. Wood has _________ advantages.

8. In many German towns, what are known as “low energy houses”, “ultra houses” or “passive houses”_______.

9. On this point, Hubert Fritz is _______ as Rolf Disch, the Freiburg-based solar pioneer.

10. In German the term ______ images of health food, but Fritz is not a muesli manager” advocating a return to nature.

11. In contrast to Fritz, however, Disch does not ______ using only one building materials.

12. This is what Fritz works on both night and day, and a growing number of architects, engineers, and clients ________.

13. By 1995 it was estimated that some 5% of new houses in Germany already ________.

14. While other construction firms _______ employees, the wood sector has began to boom.

15. “And we now have a _______ day ahead of us”.

16. The solar architect plans soon ________ of the “plus-energy house” _____ in a housing area in Freiburg.

 

1. Think of not less than 5 sentences of your own using the words and word-combinations from the previous exercise.

 

1. Complete the sentences with a suitable preposition. You can choose from the following ones: up, with, of, at, by, in, out, for, via. Some of them can be used more than once.

 

1. The engineers are especially proud ___ improving this construction material.

2. The cost of maintaining these new low-energy houses will be reduced ___ roughly half.

3. It will be possible to control the operation of all the technological units installed into this house ___ monitors or the telephone.

4. The houses in this new residential area will be sold ____ affordable prices.

5. The team of ecologically-inspired architects spent a strenuous day thinking ___ new ideas and concepts for their research project.

6. This insulating material is made ___ wood chips mixed ___ whey.

7. Wood chips are produced ___ the ton in sawmills.

8. The houses are equipped ___ electronic systems letting the residents ___, but keeping the burglars ___.

9. Hubert Fritz appeals ___ environmentally friendly construction.

10. The new power plant is working ___ full capacity to satisfy the energy needs of the city.

 

1. Read the following quotations and try to guess people from which spheres of life and of what professions they could belong to:

 

1. "Right from the beginning, I considered light and sun to be essential elements in housing construction, initially as a source of brightness and well-being, then increasingly as an energy factor — until I moved over to solar architecture altogether."

2. "Today the task of architecture is to give people living spaces that have a future in both ecological and economic terms."

3. "People who live in surplus energy housing are not affected by oil crises and rising energy costs."

4. "I was fascinated by the idea of being an energy producer in my own home."

5. "Most of people still believe that the sun does not shine enough in Germany and that therefore it doesn’t make economic sense to use solar energy."

6. “And perhaps one day I will be able to fulfill a special dream of mine: a fitness studio of the future in which people create their own energy, as they work out on exercise bikes and treadmills.”

7. “But the architect does not just put his faith in modern technology. He also exploits the skills of solar architects that have been passed down through the centuries.”

 

21. Translate the following sentences from Russian into English:

 

1. Древесина – это натуральный экологически чистый возобновляемый материал с превосходными строительными характеристиками.

2. Не все строительные фирмы единодушны в вопросе использования каких-либо одних строительных материалов.

3. Экологическое строительство только тогда закрепит свои позиции, когда оно будет выгодно большинству покупателей.

4. Энергетические потребности «пассивных домов» можно полностью удовлетворить, используя энергию солнца, ветра, воды и энергетического сырья.

5. Более низкие расходы на отопление компенсируют более высокие затраты на строительство «пассивных домов».

6. Гелиотроп, солнечный дом Рольфа Диша, производит в 5 раз больше электроэнергии, чем ему необходимо за счет установки солнечной панели на крыше и способности всегда поворачиваться к солнцу.

 

Follow-up

 

Reading task D

 

Villa Girasole

The oldest rotating house we have found is Angelo Invernizzi's Villa Girasole (Villa Sunflower) near Verona, Italy. "The two storied and L shaped house rests on a circular base, which is over 44 meters in diameter. In the middle there is a 42 meters tall turret, a sort of conning tower or lighthouse, which the rotating movement hinges on. A diesel engine pushes the house over three circular tracks where 15 trolleys can slide the 5,000 cubic meters building at a speed of 4 millimeters per second (it takes 9 hours and 20 minutes to rotate fully).

2. Everingham Rotating House

This Australian house rotates around a central pivot point. “It also encapsulates many aspects of ecologically sound building principles, such as optimising on natural light and heat, while rotating 180o to take advantage of sunshine and shade at different times of the day and year.”

The Everingham model is a 24 m (79’) diameter octagon with a 3-metre (10’), 360-degree verandah. It weighs 50 tonnes, but can rotate a full 360-degrees, around a central core of plumbing and electricals. Within this core is also a geothermal piping system (120 metres long and 2.5 metres deep), supplying a constant 22ºC to the house.

3. Massau Rotating House