Hoogland's Comfort Canopy

2 Briefing
2.1 Texts
Each group was supposed to read 2 texts (paper,
journal article, etc.) written by environmental theorists
and technological visionaries to get insights
into how designers can interact and be inspired by
their environment. The important feature of academic
texts of having a clear structure was to be
benefited from it. This also makes it easier for the
designer to organise their own material. The first
texts were given to the groups by the course coordinator
and the second ones were to be chosen by
the groups themselves.
2.1.1 Design for deconstruction: Or why
aluminium and glass is better than
wood?
by Ulrich Knaack
In this article, Knaack addresses the energy source
used in the industry and how it can be used reasonably
when it comes from different sources. Although
solar may be the most sustainable source of
energy, the industry is not limited to the current solar
radiation but is also using stored solar radiation
in the form of coal oil, gas, biomass/wood and
geothermal energy. How fast the flow of energy is
can be questioned. It takes several million years to
get ready for use with coal, oil, and gas, or just
years or decades as with biomass/wood. Actually,
energy cannot be created or lost, but it can only be
transformed into other energy types.
In addition to energy conservation, he explores
what might be the most practical way to determine
how much energy in the construction sector should
be put into each component. He notes that the
building's short life means the lowest possible energy
use for construction. In this situation, it is possible
that operating power will not be used for the
proper function of the building in an optimal way.
On the other hand, putting a lot of energy into a
building that is designed to have a long life to reduce
operating energy is more prudent. The only
question is how this can be determined and how in
terms of the choice of materials and construction
these criteria, which have a significant influence on
the design of the building, can be incorporated into
the design accurately and early enough.
A significant amount of energy, compared to wood,
is used in aluminium processing since the raw material
must first be extracted in opencast mining,
then smelting takes place and the raw material
must then be transformed into components.
Transport is not insignificant either, because aluminium
is not as common in the area as wood.
Similar considerations are valid to glass as well.
Nevertheless, with the use of aluminium and glass,
reuse is possible at the same level of quality and
this is important if we are to take a fundamental position
on the subject of circularity.
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