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:: Specific Design Brief
CAT 6:
Ecological Housing
PRODUCT DESIGN UK
GENERIC DESIGN CONTEXT
A few committed designers and builders are gradually extending knowledge and
practice in energy efficient, ecological methods of construction. Design and
make a model of an energy efficient, pre-fabricated house or alternative
building, or a component for such a building. It should use ecological
materials and renewable energy systems, and should be affordable and
appropriate for use in the UK.
SPECIFIC DESIGN BRIEF A:
Product Design: Sunlight maximising
A significant percentage of energy used in buildings is that used to light the
spaces. Energy efficient design tries to minimise this by incorporating high
levels of daylighting, with specific design to focus the daylight where it is
most needed, i.e. desk areas, cooking surfaces, reading, workshops. Design and
make a piece of equipment or a system that will bring and distribute sunlight to
an inaccessible part of a building of your choice, e.g. into a basement, or part
of a building where no windows are possible.
SPECIFIC DESIGN BRIEF B:
Product Design:
Waste minimisation
Current amounts of waste in the UK, both domestic and industrial, are
unsustainable. Identify an industrial, agricultural or domestic waste stream in
the UK and design and make a construction method or product for use in an energy
efficient house.
SPECIFIC DESIGN BRIEF C:
Product Design: Timber frame technology
Building materials made of plants and natural fibres can be produced sustainably
more easily than materials made from finite material resources. Design a
pre-fabricated timber framed, energy-efficient house for the UK market and
climate, based on the use of components and products that are made of plant and
natural fibres. Either model the whole house, using scaled-down models of the
actual materials, or make up a section of the house on a larger scale.
CLIENT DETAILS
You have two possible first points of contact with experts in the field of
sustainable buildings. One is Ann MacGarry at the Centre for Alternative
Technology. Contact by email,
[email protected],
or by phone, 01654 705963.
The other is Simmonds Mills, sustainable architects, who can be contacted at
[email protected] or telephone 01952-433252.
SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES
• Sustainable building design covers most areas of environmental sustainability
– energy, use of renewable materials etc.
• Economic issues include the preservation of traditional skills and jobs.
• Social issues would include health, preservation of local character,
encouragement of wildlife.
FURTHER INFORMATION
BACKGROUND
STUDY SUBJECTS
If you decide
to work on this design brief, don't forget to consider the issues of
sustainability in the different phases of your designing and making.
Click
here to access Sustain-a-balls |