Greener
A wide-scale ‘passive’ approach to urban planning and design across the globe can help to cut the carbon footprint of our towns and cities, writes Becci Taylor
horizons A
ction is taken by regulators and designers to increase the energy efficiency of buildings, primarily through improving
their envelopes and applying low-energy technologies. But are we missing a trick by ignoring the potential of applying passive design on an urban scale? All urban structures can be relevant to
such urban masterplanning. The courtyard, rooftop or car park can have an impact. The importance of urban-scale factors with an impact on energy consumption can be increased by their positive reinforcement of each other. For example, improving external thermal comfort can lead to reduced car use, which reduces
24 CIBSE Journal August 2011
anthropogenic heat production, which in turn improves external comfort. Centralising heat rejection can reduce
the ambient temperature, which will result in reduced cooling loads and heat rejection. Better external spaces encourage people to be outside and reduce the need for cooling in the first place – people use less energy in the park than an air conditioned flat. In a cooled office, each person eating lunch outside daily removes over 30 kWh per year of cooling load. To achieve the above we need a design
hierarchy that includes low carbon urban planning (see Figure 1). The following factors are key to making this a reality (see also Figure 2),
www.cibsejournal.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56