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SERVILLA, SHEILA MAY N.

September 7, 2017
BS ARCH AR11FA1 1ST YEAR THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE 1

CURRENT THEORIES AND PRINCIPLES OF ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN


GREEN AND SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE

SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE [1]


Sustainable architecture is architecture that seeks to minimize the
negative environmental impact of buildings by efficiency and moderation in the
use of materials, energy, and development space and the ecosystem at large.
Sustainable architecture uses a conscious approach to energy and ecological
conservation in the design of the built environment.
The idea of sustainability, or ecological design, is to ensure that our
actions and decisions today do not inhibit the opportunities of future
generations.
Some examples of sustainable building materials include recycled denim or blown-in fiber glass insulation,
sustainably harvested wood, Trass, Linoleum, sheep wool, concrete (high and ultra-high performance roman self-healing
concrete), panels made from paper flakes, baked earth, rammed earth, clay, vermiculite, flax linnen, sisal, seegrass,
expanded clay grains, coconut, wood fiber plates, calcium sand stone, locally obtained stone and rock, and bamboo,
which is one of the strongest and fastest growing woody plants, and non-toxic low-VOC glues and paints. Vegetative
cover or shield over building envelopes also helps in the same. Paper which is fabricated or manufactured out of forest
wood is supposedly hundred percent recyclable, thus it regenerates and saves almost all the forest wood that it takes
during its manufacturing process.
Concurrently, the recent movements of New Urbanism and New
Classical Architecture promote a sustainable approach towards construction that
appreciates and develops smart growth, architectural tradition and classical
design. This in contrast to modernist and globally uniform architecture, as well
as leaning against solitary housing estates and suburban sprawl. Both trends
started in the 1980s. The Driehaus Architecture Prize is an award that recognizes
efforts in New Urbanism and New Classical Architecture, and is endowed with a
prize money twice as high as that of the modernist Pritzker Prize.
There are conflicting ethical, engineering, and political orientations
depending on the viewpoints
There is no doubt Green Technology has made its headway into the architectural community, the
implementation of given technologies have changed the ways we see and perceive modern day architecture. While
green architecture has been proven to show great improvements of ways of living both environmentally and
technologically the question remains, is all this sustainable? Many building codes have been demeaned to international
standards. "LEED" (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) has been criticized for exercising flexible codes for
building to follow. Contractors do this to save as much money as they possibly can. For example, a building may have
solar paneling but if the infrastructure of the building's core doesn't support that over a long period of time
improvements would have to be made on a constant basis and the building itself would be vulnerable to disasters or
enhancements. With companies cutting paths to make shortcuts with sustainable architecture when building their
structures it fuels to the irony that the "sustainable" architecture isn't sustainable at all. Sustainability comes in reference
to longevity and effectiveness.
Ethics and Politics also play into sustainable architecture and its ability to grow in urban environment. Conflicting
viewpoints between engineering techniques and environmental impacts still are popular issues that resonate in the
architectural community. With every revolutionary technology or innovation there comes criticisms of legitimacy and
effectiveness when and how it is being utilized. Many of the criticisms of sustainable architecture do not reflect every
aspect of it but rather a broader spectrum across the international community.
THE FUTURE IS GREEN: ARCHITECTURE + SUSTAINABILITY [2]
Today, architecture finds itself at a crossroads. Building materials and new construction, along with the operation
and maintenance of buildings, account for a significant sum of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. Faced with this
fact, how are architects to responsibly pursue the act (and art) of building without further deteriorating the planet's
environmental make-up or depleting its resources? What forms of high and low technology can be developed to curtail
the injurious side of building? Can good or even great architecture be sustainable?
The answer, of course, is yes. The best buildings have always shown a concern for their immediate environs and
how they fit in them, whether they were conscious of "sustainability" or not. Now, all architects and buildings are
expected to be engaged with sustainable standards, such as LEED titles, photovoltaic cells, or green roofsall things that
these projects have in common.

Green-side Wall (aka "Vegitecture")


Barcelona, Spain
Designed by Capella Garcia Arquitectura
Sustainable feature: A vertical green facade with garden
terraces that is maintained by an integrated drip irrigation
system. The wall generates oxygen and absorbs C02, while also
insulating the adjacent apartment units and dampening street
noise.

Via Verde - The Green Way


Bronx, New York
Designed by Grimshaw
Sustainable feature: Affordable housing development on a reclaimed
brownfield site is designed to achieve LEED Gold and exceed the NYSERDA
Multifamily Performance Program and Enterprise Green Communities
guidelines for environmental responsibility.34,000 square feet of green roofs
offer active gardening, enhance building insulation, and reduce storm water
run-off, for on-site irrigation.

Centre for Virtual Engineering


Stuttgart, Germany
Designed by UNStudio
Sustainable feature: Received Gold certification by the German
Sustainable Building Council for its "inclusive" approach to
sustainable design that features a compact building footprint
making it easier for light to penetrate the structure on all sides
throughout the dayand uses low-maintenance, recyclable
materials.

SYNERGIZE AND HYBRID SPACES (MIXED USE)

HYBRID ARCHITECTURE DEFINES AS HYBRID ALL ARCHITECTURAL INTERVENTION THAT IS AT ONCE


OBJECT, LANDSCAPE AND INFRASTRUCTURE. [3]
Hybrid architecture, pushed by the fact that it concentrates in a single architectural intervention a triple object-,
landscape- and infrastructure-related nature, generates architectural answers with very specific features, which widen
the conceptual framework of topics that are transversal and consubstantial to architecture.
All architectural intervention is defined as hybrid that is at once object, landscape and infrastructure, an
architectural intervention that simultaneously meets three conditions:
1. It is a physical intervention that, as a result of a project, proposes an architectural space generated on the
basis of human intervention.
2. It is an architectural intervention, which is at the same time a landscape: the architectural intervention
integrates inseparably into the landscape.
3. It is at once an architectural intervention and an infrastructure: in transforming into a section of
infrastructure itself, the architectural intervention incorporates part of its laws.
The fact that the architectural object incorporates the infrastructural nature into its own implies the precondition
that this object becomes an integral part of an infrastructural system of higher order.
At the same time that it possesses the autonomy characteristic of all architectural objects, a hybrid is also a
section of infrastructure integrated in a wider infrastructural system conceived to absorb flows of circulation with its
own laws and functioning.
The mobility becomes a core quality of the architectural intervention with significant consequences concerning
the spatial configuration:
a. As far as the programmatic dimension is concerned, spaces of circulation integrate into the realm of the primary
spaces as part of the core programme and occupy a greater proportion of the surface relative to the entire
available surface.
b. As far as the order system is concerned, the fact that the hybrid object belongs to an infrastructural system of a
superior order will result in the necessary incorporation of part of the laws defining this infrastructural system as
an ordering system into the genesis of the hybrid.
c. As far as the condition of limit is concerned, the indispensable condition of physical continuity between the
physical area defining the project and the infrastructural system to which it belongs, leads to the disappearance
of the concept of limit associated with that of border in light of the emergence of its definition as space of
transition.

ARCHITECTURE IS STRUCTURE PLUS SYNERGY [4]


Let us keep it simple and start from the dictionary. According to Webster's, one of the meanings of the word
``architecture'' is that it is a ``unifying or coherent form or structure''. In this general sense, one can speak about the
architecture of a town, of a house, of a novel and of a symphony, and also of the architecture of a software system. Let
us focus on the concept of unifying structure. One element relevant for software engineers and building architects alike
is that the elements of a software system, or of a building, work together in such a way that desirable overall properties
emerge. The system as a whole provides certain services at a certain quality. This is a concept well-known in systems
engineering, called synergy (Blanchard and Fabrycky 1990). The architecture of a building is the way the components of
the building are put together so that the desired overall properties emerge: Shelter, room, appearance, cost, safety, etc.
The architecture of a software system is the way the components of the software are put together so that the desired
overall properties emerge: Services, behavior, interfaces, reliability, usability, etc. So architecture is structure plus
synergy. To describe an architecture of a system, you describe its components, the way they are put together, and the
way this yields the desired emergent properties of the system.
We can generalize this view of architecture from houses and software systems to all systems, including
organizations, human-machine systems and socio-technical systems in general. The architecture of a system consisting
of people, machines and software is the structure of this system plus the way the structure causes the system to have
emergent properties. These emergent properties are not properties of any component, but emerge at the system-level
because they are the result of the way the components interact. Architecture is the reason why a whole is more than the
sum of its parts.
We find objects in nature with a wonderful architecture that creates emergent properties. but for designed
objects, we require more than that they have emergent properties: We requred that these emergent properties be
useful. A house has many emergent properties, some of which are useful and some are not. Having a pleasant
appearance, providing shelter against rain and sun, providing a room to eat and sleep, are all useful properties. Slowly
sinking into the soft ground, water seeping into the cellar, having a kitchen slightly too small, and lacking enough
cupboard space are annoying features that are nevertheless emergent properties too, properties of the house as a whole
that are due to its architecture. We require of a designed architecture that the balance of useful and useless emergent
properties is positive, i.e. that the emergent properties are overall valuable for someone.

MIXED-USE DEVELOPMENT [5]


Mixed-use development is a type of urban development that blends residential, commercial, cultural,
institutional, or industrial uses, where those functions are physically and functionally integrated, and that provides
pedestrian connections. Mixed-use development can take the form of a single building, a city block, or entire
neighbourhoods. The term may also be used more specifically to refer to a mixed-use real estate development project
a building, complex of buildings, or district of a town or city that is developed for mixed-use by a private developer,
(quasi-) governmental agency, or a combination thereof.
Traditionally, human settlements have developed in mixed-use patterns. However, with industrialisation as well
as the invention of the skyscraper, governmental zoning regulations were introduced to separate different functions,
such as manufacturing, from residential areas. In the United States, the heyday of separate-use zoning was after World
War II, but since the 1990s, mixed-use zoning has once again become desirable as the benefits are recognized. These
benefits include:
greater housing variety and density
reduced distances between housing, workplaces, retail businesses, and other destinations
more compact development
stronger neighborhood character
pedestrian and bicycle-friendly environments
Benefits of mixed-use development include:
greater housing variety and density, more affordable
housing (smaller units), life-cycle housing (starter homes to
larger homes to senior housing)
reduced distances between housing, workplaces, retail
businesses, and other amenities and destinations
better access to fresh, healthy foods (as food retail and
farmers markets can be accessed on foot/bike or by transit)
more compact development, land-use synergy (e.g.
residents provide customers for retail which provide amenities
for residents)
stronger neighborhood character, sense of place
walkable, bike-able neighborhoods, increased accessibility
via transit, both resulting in reduced transportation costs

Some of the more frequent mixed-use scenarios in the United States are:
Neighborhood commercial zoning convenience goods and services, such as convenience stores, permitted in
otherwise strictly residential areas
Main Street residential/commercial two to three-story buildings with residential units above and commercial units
on the ground floor facing the street
Urban residential/commercial multi-story residential buildings with commercial and civic uses on ground floor
Office convenience office buildings with small retail and service uses oriented to the office workers
Office/residential multi-family residential units within office building(s)
Shopping mall conversion residential and/or office units added (adjacent) to an existing standalone shopping mall
Retail district retrofit retrofitting of a suburban retail area to a more village-like appearance and mix of uses
Live/work residents can operate small businesses on the ground floor of the building where they live
Studio/light industrial residents may operate studios or small workshops in the building where they live
Hotel/residence mix hotel space and high-end multi-family residential
Parking structure with ground-floor retail
Single-family detached home district with standalone shopping center

MIXED USE DEVELOPMENT [6]


The term mixed use development refers to development projects that comprise a mixture of land uses, or more
than just a single use. In terms of planning permissions, mixed use refers to land or buildings used for different uses
which fall into more than one use class.
Mixed use developments can be vertical, in which a single building accommodates multiple uses, such as a
skyscraper that has floors of office space as well as a hotel complex, or a terrace building that has a flat on the first floor
and a shop on the ground floor.
Alternatively, they can be horizontal mixed use development where a range of different buildings on the same
site each fulfill a specific purpose, such as a community area that has accommodation as well as playing facilities, shops,
parking and other amenities.
In Britain after the Second World War, town planning tended to focus on large, single-use buildings such as
shopping centres. These often faced criticism for disrupting the traditional flow and diversity of town centre areas. More
recently, mixed use developments have become a more prominent feature of planning policy, with the aim of revitalizing
urban centres and generating benefits for the community, such as reduced demand for transport and other
infrastructure, local employment opportunities, more interesting urban fabric and enhanced property values.
One of the 12 core planning principles set out in the national planning policy framework (NPPF) that underpin
plan-making and decision-taking is to:
promote mixed use developments, and encourage multiple benefits from the
use of land in urban and rural areas, recognising that some open land can
perform many functions (such as for wildlife, recreation, flood risk mitigation,
carbon storage, or food production)
National planning practice guidance suggests that promoting healthy communities should include
opportunities for meetings between members of the community who might not otherwise come into contact with each
other, including through mixed-use developments, strong neighbourhood centres and active street frontages which bring
together those who work, live and play in the vicinity.

WHAT IS MIXED-USE DEVELOPMENT? [7]


As defined by the MRSC of Washington, mixed-use development is
characterized as pedestrian-friendly development that blends two or more
residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, and/or industrial uses. Mixed use
is one of the ten principles of Smart Growth, a planning strategy that seeks to
foster community design and development that serves the economy,
community, public health, and the environment.
While mixed use has become a popular buzz word, the term can be
confusing. It is not just limited to a multi-story development that incorporates
commercial use on the first floor with residential uses on upper floors. The
Urban Land Institutes Mixed-Use Development Handbook characterizes mixed-
use development as one that 1) provides three or more significant revenue-
producing uses (such as retail/
entertainment, office, residential, hotel, and/or civic/cultural/recreation), 2) fosters integration, density, and
compatibility of land uses, and 3) creates a walkable community with uninterrupted pedestrian connections.
A blog, dont get mixed up on mixed use, by the folks at PlaceMakers clarifies that mixed use is:
three-dimensional, pedestrian-oriented places that layer compatible land uses, public amenities, and utilities together
at various scales and intensities. This variety of uses allows for people to live, work, play and shop in one place, which
then becomes a destination for people from other neighborhoods. As defined by The Lexicon of the New Urbanism,
mixed-use is multiple functions within the same building or the same general area through superimposition or within the
same area through adjacency from which many of the benefits are pedestrian activity and traffic capture.
Mixed-use zoning allows for the horizontal and vertical combination of land uses in a given area.
Commercial, residential, and even in some instances, light industrial are fit
together to help create built environments where residents can live, work,
and play. The Placemakers blog, and a brief prepared by the Village of
Caledonia, WI, further explains that while there are many forms of mixed-use
development, it can be categorized three ways:
Vertical Mixed-Use Development
Combines different uses within the same building
Provides for more public uses on the lower floor such as retail shops,
restaurants, of commercial businesses
Provides for more private uses on the upper floors such as residential
units, hotel rooms, or office space.
Horizontal Mixed-Use Development
Consists of single-use buildings within a mixed-use zoning
district parcel, which allows for a range of land uses in a single development project
Provides for a variety of complementary and integrated uses that are walkable and within a given
neighborhood, tract or land, or development project
Mixed-Use Walkable Areas
Combines both vertical and horizontal mix of uses in an area, within an
approximately 10-minute walking distance to core activities

INTELLIGENT BUILDING

DEFINING TODAY'S INTELLIGENT BUILDING [8]


The term intelligent building has been in use since the early 1980s and you would think that a globallyaccepted
definition of the attributes of an intelligent building would have been established by now. Well,think again. Although
several organizations have attempted to establish a universal definition, there are a multitude of definitions with
different levels of detail and varying degrees of emphasis on various aspects of building intelligence.
The first definition, coined by the Intelligent Buildings Institute, defines an intelligent building as one which
provides a productive and cost-effective environment through optimization of four basic elements: structure, systems,
services and management, and the interrelationship between them. According to this initial definition, an intelligent
building is one that optimally matches its four elements to the users needs with an emphasis on the technology that
makes the interrelationship between the elements possible.
As intelligent buildings began to take hold around the world in the late 1980s and 1990s, many competing
definitions were put forward. In Europe, the European Intelligent Buildings Group coined a new definition stating that an
intelligent building creates an environment which maximizes the effectiveness of the buildings occupants while at the
same time enabling efficient management of resources with minimum life-time costs of hardware and facilities, tilting
the spotlight towards the occupants needs to be served by technology. In Asia, the definitions focused on the role of
technology for automation and control of building functions.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the intelligent building spotlight tilted towards energy efficiency and
sustainability with the introduction of the BREEAM code (1990) and the LEED program (2000). In the late 2000s, given
the increasing convergence of intelligence and sustainability, a Frost and Sullivan research paper commissioned by the
Continental Automated Buildings Association, coined the term Bright Green Buildings for buildings that are both
intelligent and green.
More recently, definitions are starting to take into account the emergence of Internet of Things technologies,
applications and their impact on intelligent buildings. A recent research report by Memoori highlighted the emergence of
a new Building Internet of Things (BIoT) defined as the overlaying of an IP network, connecting all the building services
monitoring, analyzing and controlling [the building] without the intervention of humans. Memoori predicts that the
traditional Building Automation Systems (BAS) will evolve into a BIoT over the next five years. BIoT technologies and
applications are poised to deliver increased efficiencies in all aspects of building intelligence.
Today, major shifts are occurring in the way buildings are designed, operated and used. Corporate real estate,
facilities and IT departments stand to benefit greatly from the use of building intelligence in order to meet space
optimization, energy efficiency and connectivity challenges at a time when changing workplace demographics come with
increasing occupant expectations of modern and flexible space design, improved comfort, productivity, and pervasive
connectivity.
Although there are multiple and evolving perspectives on the subject, it is becoming increasingly clear that an
intelligent building is a connected and efficient building.
A connected building boasts an integrated communications infrastructure that supports wired and wireless networks and
applications. It also facilitates person-to-person, person-to-machine and machine-to-machine communications within
the building and with the outside world using a state of the art intelligent, flexible, wired and wireless platform. The
platform supports wired LAN, Wi-Fi, in-building wireless, audio/visual, sensors, lighting and building management
applications. Buildings are also becoming cloud connected as an essential part of smart grids and smart cities.
An efficient building leverages a state-of-the-art connectivity platform to address key corporate real estate,
facilities and IT challengesto improve energy efficiency, space utilization and occupant satisfaction. In an efficient
building, the intelligent connectivity platform is easily adaptable to changes in space design or communications
technologies. A high density sensor network integrates with other building systems to provide fine-grained occupancy-
based control of building systems for optimal energy use and occupant comfort while providing a real-time and historical
view of occupancy patterns.
At a time when the design and utilization patterns of a buildings individual and common spaces are undergoing
significant changes, efficiency expectations continue to increase. This is fueled by the increase in connected devices,
sensors and BIoT applications. As the definition of intelligent buildingscontinues to evolve, buildings are becoming
increasingly connected and efficient.
What is your definition of an intelligent building? Do you feel that connectivity and efficiency are essential to validating
an intelligent building? Leave a comment below and Ill be sure to respond.

SMART/INTELLIGENT BUILDINGS [9]


There are many interpretations of intelligent design:
The main interpretations mostly consider the crucial role of technology without sufficient consideration of social,
cultural and user interactions. Other similar studies define intelligent buildings as automated buildings with flexibility,
cost-efficiency and integrated technical performances.
However, a few studies criticize previous interpretations while arguing that intelligent buildings must be
responsive to the users actual needs.
What is a smart/ intelligent building?
Intelligent building accentuates a multi-
disciplinary effort to integrate and optimize the
building structures, systems, services and
management in order to create a productive,
cost effective and environmentally approved
environment for the occupants.Despite the
previous interpretations of the concept of
intelligent building, recent studies proclaim that
it must create a successful combination between
the environment and the occupants.
Smart building refer to built
environments such as apartments, offices,
museums, hospitals, schools, malls, university
campuses, and outdoor areas that are enabled
for co-operation of smart
objects and systems, and for ubiquitous interaction with frequent and sporadic visitors. Prime business scenarios include
smart retail environments and public areas providing better service to customers and citizens, and home and office
environments making living and working more comfortable and efficient.The Smart/intelligent building involves the use
of integrated technological building systems, communications and controls to create a building and its infrastructure
which provides the owner, operator and occupant with an environment which is flexible, effective, comfortable and
secure." A smart building is equipped with: a communications network, linking sensors, domestic appliances and other
electronic and electric devices, that can be remotely monitored, accessed or controlled, and which provide services that
respond to the needs of its inhabitants resp. users.
Four key aspectscharacterize a smart home
1. A communications network through which different devices talk to each other
2. Intelligent controls to manage the system
3. Sensors that collect information
4.Smart features (Example: Intelligent heating systems that adjust automatically to external temperature), which
respond to information from sensors or user instructions [25] as well as to the system provider (Example: Remote
control of appliances)
Key requirement for smart buildings
Key infrastructure required for the smart home, including new and existing homes:
The smart home network,
Interoperability,
Reliability,
Security.
Installation of smart buildings
Three methods of smart building propagation: (1.) Retrofitting existing buildings (2.) Converting other properties
(e.g., barns, warehouses) tailored to buyers requirements (3.) Purpose built buildings Currently, the latter two are most
used. They offer the ability to optimize the high costs of extensive cabling and intelligent control infrastructure with
respect to the physical characteristics of a building.

Sources:
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_architecture
[2] https://architizer.com/blog/architecture-plus-sustainability/
[3] http://quaderns.coac.net/en/2011/09/262-observatori-pinto/
[4] http://graal.ewi.utwente.nl/WhitePapers/Architecture/architecture.html
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed-use_development
[6] https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Mixed_use_development
[7] http://www.completecommunitiesde.org/planning/landuse/what-is-mixed-use-development/
[8] http://www.commscope.com/Blog/Defining-Todays-Intelligent-Building/
[9] http://www.inogate.org/documents/Lecture%20Building%20EE%203%20ENG.pdf

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