Solar Settlement and Sun Ship, Freiburg, Germany

Technical Information:

Project: Sun Ship - Schlierberg Solar Settlement (Retail, commercial and residential spaces)

Year: 2000 Solar Settlement / 2010 Sun Ship

Area: 11.000 m2

Budget: € 13.300.000

Location: Freiburg, Germany

Architect: Rolf Disch – Solar Architecture

Located in the Freiburg, southern Germany for retail, commercial and residential usage. The Sun Ship earned several prizes and awards for its architecture, aesthetics and economic innovation.

With sixty individually designed PlusEnergy homes, the Freiburg Solar Settlement is said to be, Europe‘s most modern residential development project. PlusEnergy building also gains a new dimension from the Sun Ship, which fits optimally with the concept of the Solar Settlement.

The Solar Settlement is an ensemble of multistory townhomes and a commercial building, the Sun Ship. The 59 homes are divided among 11,000 m², 9 of which are penthouses on the Sun Ship roof. The single homes range from 75 to 162 m², all the homes together with over 7,850 m² of floor space. All of them are PlusEnergy homes, which produce more energy than they consume and whose supplementary income heavily outweighs the low additional costs. 

All of the houses are wooden and built only with healthy building materials, all with large photovoltaic roofs as well. The color concept was developed by a Berlin artist, Erich Wiesner. The premises remain vehicles-free thanks to the parking garage underneath the Sun Ship and the well organized car-sharing system.

The Solar Settlement generates 420,000 kWh of solar energy from a total photovoltaic output of about 445 kW peak per year. If one calculates the energy savings from the optimal efficiency, here annually 200,000 liters of oil and 500 tons of CO₂ are saved. For the first time worldwide, even until today, PlusEnergy was implemented as a community in Freiburg – receiving heavy worldwide response and exciting awards.

For the undertaking, financing and marketing of this PlusEnergy pilot-project a building development company was founded. A portion of the marketing was completed through four Freiburg Solar Funds, corporate real estate funds and simultaneously an ethical-ecological financial investment.

The Sun Ship is the service center for the Solar Settlement in Freiburg – and the first commercial PlusEnergy building. It extends itself over 125 meters along a main road and functions as a sound barrier for the housing community on its opposite side. The Sun Ship is 3 stories, with a northern front section that is 5 stories. Embedded in roof garden landscaping, 9 exclusive, 3 level penthouses were constructed. In 2 underground floors you will find storage rooms and a parking garage with 138 parking spaces.

The north front end of the Sun Ship is home to the renowned Ökoinstitut e.V. (EcoInstitute).

On the ground floor of the main building there are large sales spaces totaling 1,200 m2, used by an eco-supermarket, a pharmacy/convenience store and a coffee shop. In the 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th floors you will find offices, studios, clinical practices and 2 conference rooms.. The entire office space of the Sun Ship aggregates to 3,600 m2. On its roof there are 9 penthouses.

The supporting structure is made from reinforced concrete, however the energy optimized façade is wooden. In a post-beam construction the special triple-paned windows and vacuum insulation panels are fit into place. In addition to the large scale PV modules, the structural measurements are essential for the maximum energy efficiency. 

The implemented concept here is relatively easy to adapt for commercial and other building types all over Germany and the rest of the world and it can be built, used and marketed profitably. Significant costs are saved because of an annual primary energy savings of about 1 million kWh.

The refinancing of the project was achieved through 2 private real estate funds, which were marketed as ethical-ecological financial investments. An exemplary sustainable development project, which secured 13.3 million Euros in total – as private investments, and to a large extent, as capital asset for common interest trusts. Citizen’s financial shareholding as the broad foundation was an integral part of the concept: with a building like the Sun Ship capital can be redirected into environmentally friendly sectors of the economy. 

The Sun Ship offers infrastructure for a city catchment area of about 25,000 people. To a considerable extent many of the businesses who settled in the building cater towards the sustainability industry, and thus it became an important ecological and economic pulse transmission for the region and beyond. 

It is the first positive energy office building worldwide. The office spaces are flanked on both the East and West sides entirely with windows, which maximizes natural lighting and employee views while it minimizes the energy used for artificial lighting.

Sources:

http://www.rolfdisch.de/index.php?p=home&pid=78&L=1&host=2#a564

http://plusenergiehaus.de/index.php?p=home&pid=10&L=1&host=1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Ship_(building)http://www.buildinggreen.com/hpb/mtxview.cfm?CFID=42848283&CFTOKEN=84801276

ZeroHouse, New York, EUA

Technical Information:

Project: ZeroHouse

Year: 2007 (project)

Area: 60,57 m2 (+ 23,23 m2 covered decks)

Budget: € 326.401 (estimated)

Location: New York, EUA (No prototype built yet)

Architect: Specht Harpman Architects

ZeroHouse is completely self-sufficient and comfortable.

The ZeroHouse is a small, prefabricated house that can easily be shipped and quickly erected. It features all elements necessary to comfortably support 4 adults.  What sets the ZeroHouse apart from other prefabricated structures on the market, is its ability to operate independently, without the need for any external utility or waste disposal connections.

It’s composed by 2 bedrooms, living room, full bathroom, kitchen, storage compartments, covered deck, sun deck, outdoor shower (in addition to the indoor shower), heating and air conditioning systems.

As a prefabricated house, many of the furnishings are already picked out and built-in for the owner. These furnishings include king-sized bed in each bedroom, window seats for the bedrooms, deck lounge chairs, natural fiber carpets, wraparound couch for the living room, 42-inch, LCD Television, induction stove top, microwave oven, full-size refrigerator and dining booth. However, it’s possible personalize the design flair, you'll still have the option to customize your zeroHouse to a certain degree. For instance, you can communicate your preference on certain materials and color patterns, including the exterior color of the house.

The house can be used in many applications, including residential uses in remote or ecologically sensitive locations, as ecotourism resort units, or as living or office modules for remote employment such as mining, construction or relief agency uses.

The building generates its own electrical power, water, processes its own waste products and is completely automatic.

High-efficiency solar panels produce power and store it in an onboard bank of batteries.  Fully charged, zeroHouse can operate continuously for up to one week with no sunlight at all.

A rainwater collection plane gathers and diverts water into an elevated 2.200 gallon (~ 8.327 liters) cistern.  All plumbing fixtures are gravity-fed, eliminating the need for power-consuming pumps.

All organic waste is processed in a digester unit located beneath the house.  It converts the waste into clean, dry compost that needs to be removed only twice a year.

All functions of the house are monitored by an array of sensors and regulated by a “house brain” that can be controlled through any laptop computer.  ZeroHouse is fully customizable for personal usage patterns, from the weekend getaway to extended-stay living.

Zerohouse is designed for comfort as well as efficiency.  Each house features a fully-appointed living room with modular wraparound couch, 42″ LCD TV, and ample built-in storage.  The kitchen has a full array of high-efficiency appliances, including an induction cooktop, microwave oven, and full-size refrigerator.  The dining area includes a restaurant-style booth and comfortably seats four adults.

Upstairs, a covered deck provides the perfect rooftop perch for outdoor living.  Two bedrooms come furnished with king-size beds, window seats and large closets.  The bathroom, which features a large shower and a porcelain low-flush toilet, opens onto its own private sun-deck with outdoor shower and lounge chairs.

ZeroHouse is fully climate-controlled, with a high-efficiency air-conditioning/heating system and separately zoned sleeping and living areas.  The walls, roof, and floor are all insulated with closed-cell structural foam and achieve a thermal resistance rating of R-58.  The full-wall windows in each room are triple-insulated and fabricated from low-e heat-mirror glass.  Exterior doors feature vacuum-sealed aerogel panels to maintain maximum thermal performance.

Finishes within the house are selected for beauty and durability.  Countertops, sinks and bath surfaces are seamlessly fabricated from solid-surfacing material.  Natural-fiber fabrics and carpet are used throughout the house, and bio-based wood composite wall and ceiling panels can hold up to heavy use and maintain their appearance.  Fully-dimmable LED lighting built into the wall and ceiling panels will last for up to 100.000 hours of continuous use.  The interior of each ZeroHouse can be customized with many material and color combinations.

ZeroHouse can be located almost anywhere.  Two flatbed trucks carry all the zeroHouse components to the site, and it can be erected in less than a day.  It can be installed in places that would be unsuitable for standard construction including water up to ten feet deep or on slopes of up to thirty-five degrees.

ZeroHouse employs a helical-anchor foundation system that touches the ground at only four points, requires no excavation, and only disturbs the ground to a minimal degree.  It is especially suitable for use on environmentally-sensitive sites or locations where no permanent structural elements are permitted.

ZeroHouse is nearly maintenance-free.  The exterior is clad with integrally-colored body panels that are impervious to scratching, denting, mildew and fading.  Steel frame components are bonded and powder-coated for corrosion prevention.  No painting or resurfacing is ever required.  The photovoltaic panels, solar hot water panels and other devices are rated for indefinite use and do not lose efficiency with continuous exposure.

This house can be left uninhabited for extended periods of time.  The house can be put into a self-regulating “hibernate” mode which conserves power while maintaining necessary housekeeping functions.

The construction is also extremely secure.  All windows feature laminated “Sentry-Glass” for impact and penetration resistance.  Exterior faces of doors are Kevlar reinforced and fully mortised locking systems are used throughout.  A continuous web-based house monitoring system is also available.

The tubular steel frame of zeroHouse can withstand winds of up to 140 mph.  The living modules feature flexible attachment points to the frame to allow for deflection and movement without damage.  The solar panels are independently anchored and can detach in extreme wind conditions to prevent damage to the rest of the house.  Exterior cladding panels are installed in a pressure-equalized rain screen configuration that minimizes the possibility of water penetration from driving rain.

In many locations, the zeroHouse will produce electrical power in excess of what is required to operate the house.  This excess energy can be used to operate any number of remote devices including the charging of electric or hybrid vehicles.  With the zeroHouse, completely fossil-free living is a possibility.

Specifications:

·         Photovoltaic Array: 40 high-efficiency solar panels capable of generating 7000 peak watts;

·         Power Storage: 36 interlinked sealed lead-acid batteries;

·         Operational Voltage: 48V battery bank and standard 115V operational voltage;

·         Lighting: Fully-concealed dimmable LED light strips.  Average lifespan: 100.000 hours of continuous use;

·         Climate Control: 9000 BTU micro-split heat-pump system with two independently controlled zones. SEER:18;

·         Water Supply: Four 550-gallon primary storage tanks elevated for passive pressurization.  UV and reverse osmosis processing;

·         Waste Processor: Auto-composter with negatively-pressurized vent system.  Odor-free high-grade compost needs to be removed every 6 months;

·         Foundation Anchors: Helical micro pile anchors, stainless steel with leveling plates;

·         Structural System: Tubular cold-rolled steel frame sections with bonded powder-coat finish;

·         Body Shell: Structural insulated panel system (SIPS), with integrally-colored exterior cladding;

·         Insulation: Closed-cell polyethylene foam panel cores.  Metallized panel wrap.  Assembly rated at R-58;

·         Window Assembly: Triple-pane insulating units with SentryGlas laminated exposure film, low-e coating, and argon-filled cavities;

·         Exterior Doors: Kevlar reinforced door shell with vacuum-sealed aerogel insulating core.

Total Floor Area: 60.57 m2 (650 sq ft) net usable interior area, 23,23 m2 (250 sq ft) covered exterior decks.

Sources:

http://www.spechtharpman.com/residential/zerohouse.php

http://zerohouse.net/wordpress/what-is-zerohouse

http://www.jetsongreen.com/2010/01/zerohouse-off-grid-modular-green-home.html

http://home.howstuffworks.com/zero-house1.htm

The Phoenix Earthship, Taos, New Mexico, EUA

Technical Information:

Project: House (The Phoenix Earthship)

Year: 2006 - 2012

Area: 465 m2

Budget: € 1.366.992

Location: Taos, New Mexico, EUA

Architect: Michael Reynolds

 This Earthship house is located at the north end of the Greater World Earthship Community just across the Rio Grande Gorge from Taos County, New Mexico, USA.

Earthship homes are built using recycled materials from Taos County. The mainly applied materials were used tires and plastic bottles filled with local earth , used glass and cans bottles. The glass bottles have several different colors which creates a very interesting kind of environment, when sunlight passes through those walls.

Earthships make their own electricity from solar panels; catch their own water from rain and snow melt; contain and reuse their own waste water; and provide their own heating and cooling without the use of fossil fuels via passive solar and thermal mass architecture. We continue to evolve basic mechanical components and to simplify structural details toward this goal.

The Phoenix earthship is composed by 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths w ith Tubs, full kitchen, dining room and living room (with fireplace). Furthermore it's possible to grow food in a jungle greenhouse, that also contains a fish pond, that can grow eatable fish.

Earthships Design Principles:

1) Thermal/Solar Heating & Cooling

Earthships maintain comfortable temperatures in any climate. The planet Earth is a thermally stabilizing mass that delivers temperature without wire or pipes. The sun is a nuclear power plant that also delivers without wires or pipes.

2) Solar & Wind Electricity

Earthships produce their own electricity with a prepackaged photovoltaic / wind power system. This energy is stored in batteries and supplied to your electrical outlets. Earthships can have multiple sources of power, all automated, including grid-intertie.

3) Contained Sewage Treatment

Earthships contain use and reuse all household sewage in indoor and outdoor treatment cells resulting in food production and landscaping with no pollution of aquifers. Toilets flush with treated grey water that does not smell.

4) Building with Natural & Recycled Materials

House as Assemblage of by-products: A sustainable home must make use of indigenous materials, those occurring naturally in the local area.

5) Water Harvesting

Earthships catch water from the sky (rain & snow melt) and use it four times. Water is heated from the sun, biodiesel and/or natural gas. Earthships can have city water as backup. Earthships do not pollute underground water aquifers.

6) Food Production

Earthship wetlands, the planters that hold hundreds of gallons of water from sinks and the shower are a great place for raising some fresh products you’d like to have in the winter.

Major Goals of the Earthship Community

To reduce the economic and institutional barriers between people and sustainable housing.

To begin reversing the overall negative effect that conventional housing has on the planet.

To create a less stressful existence for people.

To interface economics and ecology in a way that immediately and tangibly affects current pressing problems with existing life styles.

To provide a direction for those who want to live in harmony with their environment.

To empower individuals with the inarguable forces of nature.

To find and distribute knowledge about sustainable lifestyles.

- Produce our own energy;
- Harvest our own water;
- Contain and treat our own sewage;
- Manufacture our own bio-diesel fuel;
- Grow much of our own food;
- Our buildings heat and cool themselves;
- Made utilizing discarded materials of modern society.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthship

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Reynolds_(architect)

http://earthship.com/Learn-More/phoenix-earthship

http://taosearthships.com/80750.htm

http://p3.publico.pt/cultura/arquitectura/9874/earthship-casas-ecologicas-prova-de-catastrofes

Z6 House, California, EUA

Technical Information:

Project: Z6 House (Single Family)

Year: 2006

Area: 230 m2

Budget: € 1.029,69

Location: Santa Monica, California, EUA

Architect: Ray Kappe Architects

Rated by LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for Homes v.1 in 2006, achieving the level Platinum.

The Z6 House is a single-family residence that was added to a multifamily-zoned lot with an existing duplex. It has 4 bedrooms, 2 complete baths and a service bathroom. The house serves as both a residence and a model home for a line of green, modular, single-family dwellings offered by the owner's (Steve Glenn) company - LivingHomes.

The house is constructed of factory-built modules that were erected on the site-built foundation over a period of 13 hours; the structural slab-on-grade serves as the finish floor for the first level. A roof deck offers views and a green roof with vegetation. Plantings on the roof are native species of southern California, mostly sedums, native grasses, and rushes. The site also includes a small vegetable and herb garden. The landscaping around the house consists of newly planted native groundcover, shrubs, and trees.

The house was built in a dense neighborhood with single-family and multifamily houses in the surrounding blocks. Because the neighborhood was originally sited on sand dunes that were paved over for development, creating hills, the project site is sloped. Site drainage, stormwater use, and stormwater infiltration on site are important issues in this ecology. Rainwater collected from the roof, combined with stormwater diverted from site drains and swales, is stored in a cistern and used to irrigate the gardens.

There are public transportation stops within a quarter-mile of the house, and the use of bicycles for transportation is common in the neighborhood. Grocery stores, restaurants, banks, schools, parks, a theater, and other conveniences are all available within short walking distance of the house. Regardless, local code requires the house to have a two-car garage.

Environmental Aspects

A commitment to minimizing the project's ecological footprint informed all aspects of the home's design. The project team used the phrase "six zeroes" to describe the goals of the project: zero waste, zero energy, zero water, zero carbon, zero emissions, and zero ignorance.

The design maximizes the opportunities of the mild, marine climate with a passive cooling strategy using cross-ventilation and a thermal chimney. A 2.4-kilowatt photovoltaic array and a solar hot-water collector take advantage of the sunny location, as does the daylight strategy for the interior.

To create flexible interior spaces, all bedrooms have moveable wall partitions that can be opened to common areas for more space. Large exterior doors and large expanses of glass connect the inside to the outside, allowing the living space to expand to the outdoors. This flexibility between indoor and outdoor living spaces is traditional in southern California architecture.

Bioclimatic Design

The most important climatic issue to address for a residence in this climate is mild heating in the winter. Air-conditioning is generally not needed, but it is important to have good passive solar orientation and shading and to take advantage of natural ventilation. The breezes from the coast, from the southwest and northwest, are fairly constant and predictable.

The home is oriented 45 degrees from a north-south axis. There are operable windows and doors on the southwest, southeast, and northeast faces that provide natural ventilation. The design incorporates an open plan and two-story volume that helps the air move throughout the house. A whole-house fan located at the top of the stair tower leading to the roof helps draw hot air out of the building. The chimney effect is in evidence on a warm day.

Each of the southwest, southeast and northeast facades also have large deck overhangs to prevent solar heat gain from the summer sun. In the winter, the southeast glazing admits direct sun, which heats up the concrete floors at the first level; this warms the house into early evening on a sunny day. Glass ceilings in the upstairs bathrooms capture heat from the sun in the winter and shading devices divert the heat in the summer months.

The house has an evacuated-tube solar hot water collector. This collector runs to a heat exchanger that heats water for domestic use and for a radiant floor heating system. There is no air conditioning. The climate is dry and humidity control is not a concern. Natural ventilation and the whole house fan are effective in cooling the house.

Light & Air

As the building envelope is 73% glazing, by area, all rooms receive plenty of daylight. Operable windows or exterior sliding doors provide every room with natural ventilation and views to the exterior. Skylights bring light into the two upstairs bathrooms. The southwest, southeast, and northeast facades have operable windows and doors, while the northwest facade has a translucent insulated panel for daylight transmission in a direction without desirable views.

Protecting occupant health and comfort was among the goals for the project, so the team selected paints and sealants with low levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). No carpet was used, and the house features an indoor garden to improve air quality.

Water Cycle

The 13.250 liters water cistern sits below grade; collected water is pumped up to irrigate the roof garden. The irrigation system on the roof consists of boxes lined with an EPDM membrane and filled with evaporative-control-system chambers that help keep moisture in the planting medium, which is a mixture of sand and perlite. The bottom 8 centimeters of each box is kept moist; water is pumped up to the roof as needed to maintain this level. Excess water flows out of the boxes and back to the cistern.

The ground-level landscaping is watered with graywater from the showers, tubs, bathroom sinks, and clothes washer, via a subterranean irrigation system. All irrigation is controlled by a device that monitors humidity in the atmosphere and prevents irrigation when it is raining.

Low-flow plumbing fixtures throughout the house further reduce the home's use of potable water.

The owner of the residence has installed a monitoring system that tracks the performance of the photovoltaic array and solar hot-water collector as well as the building's use of water and energy.

Energy

The Z6 house has a very low energy profile in part because it has no forced-air heating or cooling. The building takes advantage of natural ventilation from the prevailing breezes, with an open plan and a whole-house fan drawing air up through the top of the home. The house was designed to optimize passive solar heating, with glazing to admit winter sun and balconies placed to shade the house from summer sun. A radiant floor heating system is powered by a solar hot water collector.

All of the appliances are Energy Star rated and the lighting system is a low energy usage LED system that is controlled by an integrated home automation system. A 2.4-kilowatt photovoltaic (PV) array above the roof acts as a shade canopy for the roof stair access. The PV array was designed to provide 60-75% of the homes energy usage, and includes battery storage. This, and the operable windows and doors in every room, will make the house habitable during a blackout. Architects expect the energy-efficient features, such as PV arrays, to save the owners enough money in energy bills to pay for themselves eventually. In this case, that payback should take 8 to 10 years.

Most daytime lighting is handled with natural light from skylights and floor-to-ceiling glass.

Materials

Building the home in a factory and assembling it on site significantly reduced the project's use of material resources. In a conventional wood-framed home, 30%–40% of the materials used end up in a landfill; the construction waste for the Z6 House was 10% of that for a comparable, conventional home.

Because the goals for the project included maximizing views, daylighting, and passive solar heating, the home features large areas of glass; to maintain a high level of energy efficiency, the team selected high-performance, low-emissivity glass.

Other materials in the house were chosen based on the environmental impact of their manufacture or harvest. Wood certified according to Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards was used for exterior siding, exterior decking, interior wood ceilings, and millwork veneers. Cork, a rapidly renewable material, was used for the floor. The structural steel frame, countertops, and porcelain tiles include recycled content. Aggregate was used in the concrete floor slab and foundation.

Sources:

http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/curiosity/topics/9-z6-house/

http://www.buildinggreen.com/hpb/mtxview.cfm?CFID=42848283&CFTOKEN=84801276

http://www.aiatopten.org/node/136

http://www.public.asu.edu/~kroel/www558/Living%20home%20model%20home.pdf