Construction Ecology

Construction Ecology PDF

Author: Charles J. Kibert

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2003-08-27

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 113450831X

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Industrial ecology provides a sound means of systematising the various ideas which come under the banner of sustainable construction and provides a model for the design, operation and ultimate disposal of buildings.

Unless

Unless PDF

Author: Kiel Moe

Publisher: Actar

Published: 2020-09

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 9781948765398

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Dissects the construction ecology, material geographies, and world-systems of a most modern of modern architectures: the Seagram Building.0In doing so, it aims to describe how humans and nature interact with the thin crust of the planet through architecture. In particular, the immense material, energy and labor involved in building require a fresh interpretation that better situates the ecological and social potential of design.00The enhancement of a particular building should be inextricable from the enhancement of its world-system and construction ecology. A ?beautiful? building engendered through the vulgarity of uneven exchanges and processes of underdevelopment is no longer a tenable conceit in such a framework.00Unless architects begin to describe buildings as terrestrial events and artifacts, architects will?to our collective and professional peril?continue to operate outside the key environmental dynamics and key political processes of this century.

The Ecology of Building Materials

The Ecology of Building Materials PDF

Author: Bjorn Berge

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2009-06-04

Total Pages: 448

ISBN-13: 1136434623

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The Ecology of Building Materials explores key questions surrounding sustainability of building materials. It provides technical data to enable design and building professionals to choose the most appropriate materials for a project: those that are least polluting, most energy efficient, and from sustainable sources. The book also gives information and guidance on a wide range of issues such as recycling, detailing for increased durability and Life Cycle Analysis. Berge’s book, translated from the Norwegian by Chris Butters and Filip Henley, offers safe and environmentally friendly material options. It provides an essential and easy-to-use reference guide to this complex subject for the building industry professional. New to this edition: • Thorough exploration of building materials in relation to climate change issues • Extensive updating of basic data, as well as the introduction of a wide range of new materials • Methods for recycling and reuse of materials • More information on the interaction between materials and the indoor environment, ventilation and energy use • Full colour text and user-friendly larger format Bjørn Berge is a practicing architect, researcher and lecturer. Since the 1970s, he has written several books on building ecology for the Scandinavian public. He is one of the founders of Gaia Architects who have developed a wide range of pioneering techniques in sustainable building.

Building Ecology

Building Ecology PDF

Author: Peter Graham

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2009-02-12

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 1405147547

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Buildings consume 40% of our planet’s materials and 30% of its energy. Their construction uses up to three million tonnes of raw materials a year and generates 20% of the soild waste stream. If we want to survive our urban future, there is no option but to build in ways which improve the health of ecosystems. Understanding the concept of ecological sustainability and translating it into practice as sustainable development is a key challenge for today’s built environment professionals. The skill and vision of those who shape our cities and homes is vital to achieving sustainable solutions to the many environmental, economic and social problems we face on a local, national and global scale. Peter Graham offers here a holistic view of ecologically sustainable building by drawing on established areas of knowledge, demonstrating their relevance to the environmentally-conscious building professional and putting the process, product and impact of building into context. Case studies illustrate how sustainable principles have been applied successfully and discussion topics are offered to stimulate thought. Building Ecology will help planners, surveyors, designers and builders to incorporate sustainability into their everyday practice by: · showing which styles of building are ecologically sustainable · providing fundamental knowledge for making decisions using the principles of ecologically sustainable building · explaining a complex subject in a clear, balanced way. Building Ecology sets out the current scientific view of how nature works and how buildings link with and affect nature. It provides fundamental knowledge for building in harmony with nature and keeping Earth’s life-supporting ecosystems healthy.

Sustainable Construction

Sustainable Construction PDF

Author: Charles J. Kibert

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2012-10-03

Total Pages: 922

ISBN-13: 1118330137

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The classic reference for high-performance green building delivery systems No longer just a buzzword, sustainable construction is going mainstream and soon will be the norm. Revised to reflect the latest developments of the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system and other tools, Sustainable Construction: Green Building Design and Delivery, Third Edition guides construction and design professionals through the process of developing commercial and institutional high-performance green buildings in today's marketplace. Charles Kibert provides an introduction to green building, covering the theory, history, and state of the industry as well as best practices in building procurement and delivery systems. From green building and Green Globes assessments to building hydrological systems and materials and product selection, this comprehensive text covers all of the factors involved with sustainable construction. In a clear and accessible writing style, Kibert addresses issues so that the reader can think critically and independently as part of the cutting edge in green building. The Third Edition includes up-to-date coverage of: The latest developments leading up to LEED version 4 Carbon neutral design and carbon accounting Green Globes and international building assessment systems The Living Building Challenge Environmental product declarations (EPDs) as the norm for green building products The trends in net-zero energy building design and policies Broad enough to cover the needs of faculty and students and detailed enough to serve as a professional reference, Sustainable Construction, Third Edition is a must for the builder/owner and construction manager looking to take advantage of the opportunities in this rapidly evolving field, the designer looking to be LEED certified, or anyone interested in sustainability.

Architecture and Systems Ecology

Architecture and Systems Ecology PDF

Author: William W. Braham

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-08-11

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 1317540786

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Modern buildings are both wasteful machines that can be made more efficient and instruments of the massive, metropolitan system engendered by the power of high-quality fuels. A comprehensive method of environmental design must reconcile the techniques of efficient building design with the radical urban and economic reorganization that we face. Over the coming century, we will be challenged to return to the renewable resource base of the eighteenth-century city with the knowledge, technologies, and expectations of the twenty-first-century metropolis. This book explores the architectural implications of systems ecology, which extends the principles of thermodynamics from the nineteenth-century focus on more efficient machinery to the contemporary concern with the resilient self-organization of ecosystems. Written with enough technical material to explain the methods, it does not include in-text equations or calculations, relying instead on the energy system diagrams to convey the argument. Architecture and Systems Ecology has minimal technical jargon and an emphasis on intelligible design conclusions, making it suitable for architecture students and professionals who are engaged with the fundamental issues faced by sustainable design. The energy systems language provides a holistic context for the many kinds of performance already evaluated in architecture—from energy use to material selection and even the choice of building style. It establishes the foundation for environmental principles of design that embrace the full complexity of our current situation. Architecture succeeds best when it helps shape, accommodate, and represent new ways of living together.

Sustainable Construction Technologies

Sustainable Construction Technologies PDF

Author: Vivian Y. Tam

Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann

Published: 2019-01-03

Total Pages: 490

ISBN-13: 0128117508

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Sustainable Construction Technologies: Life-Cycle Assessment provides practitioners with a tool to help them select technologies that are financially advantageous even though they have a higher initial cost. Chapters provide an overview of LCA and how it can be used in conjunction with other indicators to manage construction. Topics covered include indoor environment quality, energy efficiency, transport, water reuse, materials, land use and ecology, and more. The book presents a valuable tool for construction professionals and researchers that want to apply sustainable construction techniques to their projects. Practitioners will find the international case studies and discussions of worldwide regulation and standards particularly useful. Provides a framework for analyzing sustainable construction technologies and economic viability Introduces key credit criteria for different sustainable construction technologies Covers the most relevant construction areas Includes technologies that can be employed during the process of construction, or to the product of the construction process, i.e. buildings Analyzes international rating systems and provides supporting case studies

Niche Construction

Niche Construction PDF

Author: F. John Odling-Smee

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2013-02-15

Total Pages: 488

ISBN-13: 1400847265

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The seemingly innocent observation that the activities of organisms bring about changes in environments is so obvious that it seems an unlikely focus for a new line of thinking about evolution. Yet niche construction--as this process of organism-driven environmental modification is known--has hidden complexities. By transforming biotic and abiotic sources of natural selection in external environments, niche construction generates feedback in evolution on a scale hitherto underestimated--and in a manner that transforms the evolutionary dynamic. It also plays a critical role in ecology, supporting ecosystem engineering and influencing the flow of energy and nutrients through ecosystems. Despite this, niche construction has been given short shrift in theoretical biology, in part because it cannot be fully understood within the framework of standard evolutionary theory. Wedding evolution and ecology, this book extends evolutionary theory by formally including niche construction and ecological inheritance as additional evolutionary processes. The authors support their historic move with empirical data, theoretical population genetics, and conceptual models. They also describe new research methods capable of testing the theory. They demonstrate how their theory can resolve long-standing problems in ecology, particularly by advancing the sorely needed synthesis of ecology and evolution, and how it offers an evolutionary basis for the human sciences. Already hailed as a pioneering work by some of the world's most influential biologists, this is a rare, potentially field-changing contribution to the biological sciences.

Unless

Unless PDF

Author: Kiel Moe

Publisher: Actar D, Inc.

Published: 2021-03-16

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 1638409145

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Dissects the construction ecology, material geographies, and world-systems of a most modern of modern architectures: the Seagram Building. In doing so, it aims to describe how humans and nature interact with the thin crust of the planet through architecture. In particular, the immense material, energy and labor involved in building require a fresh interpretation that better situates the ecological and social potential of design. The enhancement of a particular building should be inextricable from the enhancement of its world-system and construction ecology. A “beautiful” building engendered through the vulgarity of uneven exchanges and processes of underdevelopment is no longer a tenable conceit in such a framework. Unless architects begin to describe buildings as terrestrial events and artifacts, architects will—to our collective and professional peril—continue to operate outside the key environmental dynamics and key political processes of this century.