Designing Ecological Habitats - Gaia Education

Roshni Udyavar takes us to India with this account of passive design considerations, opening
our eyes to the fact that intelligent design produces energy efficiency and comfort for
the inhabitants. What’s more, vernacular knowledge everywhere was sensitive to microclimatic
conditions; therefore, there is much to learn from the store of traditional building.
While grounded in the past, Roshni points knowingly to the future: “Design of buildings
with respect to climate, thermal comfort and energy efficiency is the most definitive
future trend in architecture.” Indeed, this is the synthesis of ecology and architecture.
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Designing Buildings for Thermal
Comfort & Low Energy Footprint
Roshni Udyavar Yehuda – Rachana Sansad’s Institute
of Environmental Architecture, Mumbai
Introduction
It is logical that a building’s design will influence its energy consumption
and the thermal comfort of its inhabitants. Building design here refers to
form, orientation, design of architectural elements such as openings, shades,
roof, etc., use of materials and massing – all of these ‘passive’ features of a
structure. These passive features influence a building’s energy consumption
for heating or cooling, ventilation and day-lighting. Unlike active elements
such as fan, air conditioning or artificial lighting, they are an integral part
of the structure. They are passive features which use solar energy to provide
thermal comfort to inhabitants by using principles of heat and energy flow
in the immediate environment.
Passive solar architecture is a holistic approach to design, which relies
on knowledge of basic building physics to evolve technology which can be
applied to architectural elements. It produces a design which is responsive to
local climate, and therefore has social and environmental relevance as well
as global appeal for its energy and resource conservation principles.
Energy Efficiency in Buildings
Energy efficiency in buildings can be achieved by:
i. Passive solar design of buildings
ii. Use of renewable sources of energy
iii. User-end measures in energy conservation