Building for the future - раздел Иностранные языки, К30 Engineering The Future: пособие по английскому языку. /Н.Г. Качановская, Л.М. Морозова, О.А. Шалай. – Минск.: БНТУ, 2009. – 128 с Houses Without Heating? Long Considered Only A Subject For Research Projec...
Houses without heating? Long considered only a subject for research projects, this idea has now become a practical reality. Zero-energy houses obtain electricity and heat from the sun free of charge. Yet this still doesn’t go far enough for architects and builders like Hubert Fritz who are working on houses that are also power plants.
Hubert Fritz’s best ideas always come to him in bed. Between four and six o’clock in the morning, he contemplates new ways of sealing joints, intelligent assembly techniques, and innovative marketing approaches. And if, a few hours later, at around eight o’clock, he arrives at work in Erkheim, Bavaria, with a pile of paper under his arm, his employees know: “The boss has just had another night of inspiration. And we now have a strenuous day ahead of us”.
The proprietor of the Baufritz construction business feels: “We ought to use our brains more when we build.” He considers the vast majority of buildings “ridiculous, energy-wasting rubble.” In contrast, the houses of the future, believes the 59-year-old, will be intelligent and recyclable, and not use any energy. This is what Fritz works on both night and day, and a growing number of architects, engineers, and clients are following his lead. In many German towns, what are known as “low energy houses”, “ultra houses” or “passive houses” are gaining ground – buildings that need only a small fraction of the heating energy and electricity required by conventional structures. The apex of this building philosophy is represented by so-called “plus-energy houses”, small power plants that feed more electricity into the grid over a year than they take out. All these houses have good wall insulation and use the sun as a source of energy. That’s the only way to consume less than 40% of primary energy needs on heating, cooling, and lighting.
A generation of ecologically inspired architects and construction businesses have made it their credo: “Save Fossil Fuel, Use Solar Energy.” They believe that energy needs can be met entirely by using the sun, wind, water, and biomass – provided that current energy consumption levels can be reduced by roughly half. This has not only been achieved by the first “passive house”, which was built in Darmstadt in 1991. By 1995 it was estimated that some 5% of new houses in Germany already fulfilled low-energy standards. According to an optimistic scenario presented by the Freiburg-based Öko-Institut, all new houses will be low-energy buildings by the year 2015. It is quite possible that 10% of new buildings will then achieve the energy-saving standards of “passive houses” and only require emergency heating systems.
Although the planners and construction firms are unanimous about the need to strike electricity and heat squandering bungalows and housing blocks from their order books, they also differ on the materials that will enable them to achieve this. While some put their faith in stone, concrete or plastic, Hubert Fritz is a firm believer in the virtues of wood. Some 90% of each house he builds is made of the renewable material: walls, ceilings, roof shingles – if client wishes, even drainpipes – are made of spruce and fir from sustainably managed forests. The moustached entrepreneur is particularly proud of the insulation material he developed in conjunction with researchers at the college in Rosenheim, Bavaria. To improve fire safety characteristics, Fritz mixes wood chips, produced by the ton in his factory, with whey, a by-product of cheese production. With a portion of soda added to prevent fungal attack, the special material provides good insulation.
Not all wood construction firms employ the ecological building material as extensively as Hubert Fritz. Yet most are working at near full capacity. While other construction firms are laying off employees, the wood sector has began to boom. More and more clients can not only imagine living in a wooden house, but are actually having them built. Germany is still not a centre of wooden house building like North America or Scandinavia. But Armin Seidel of Arbeitsgemeinshaft Holz, a working group that promotes the use of wood, estimates that 14% of new buildings in Germany will be made of wood by the turn of the millennium – twice as many as at present.
Wood has a number of advantages. The production of the material itself causes low levels of emissions and requires low energy input, it is a renewable and carbon-storing material, and has excellent building characteristics. This is why Hubert Fritz calls his products “Voll-Wert-Häuser” (whole-value products). In German the term brings to mind images of health food, but Fritz is not a muesli manager” advocating a return to nature. “Houses ought to be oases where people can relax without chemicals,” says the skilled carpenter. “And relaxation also involves technology that makes life easier.”
5. Answer the questions to part 1:
1.What kind of person do you think is Hubert Fritz?
2.What is his opinion about conventional buildings?
3.What is the apex of his building philosophy?
4.Are his ideas popular in Germany?
5.Can you explain the difference between “zero-energy houses”, “low-energy houses” and “plus-energy houses”?
6.What can satisfy energy needs according to eco-architects?
7.Is a “passive house” still a dream?
8.When and where was the first passive house built?
9.Can you describe the optimistic scenario of the eco-construction sector development?
10. What building materials are mentioned in this part?
11. Is there the one and only material accepted by all construction managers?
12. What is Hubert Fritz’s favourite building material and why?
13. What material did he develop?
14. What sector in German construction industry has begun to boom and why?
15. What countries are the centres of wooden house building?
16. Can you prove that wood has a number of advantages?
17. What is Hubert Fritz’s opinion of what houses should be?
Все темы данного раздела:
Read the following information about sustainability, matching questions to the answers.
1) What is sustainability in an ecological point of view?
2) What is the definition of sustainability in the broad sense?
"What
Sustainability
“Our work embraces infrastructure, architecture and product design.
We design by challenging – by asking the right questions.
We believe the quali
Read the following news and try to guess what ideas they have in common and what problems they deal with.
Eco-terraces: Urban jungle
Eco-terraces are the next big thing in rooftop developments – but, says Stephen Kennett, it pays to have green fingers.
Ov
Sustainable Architecture Questions and Answers
1. Read some information about Kelly Hart – a green building professional. Then think of some questions you would like to ask him.
Kelly Ha
Read the first part of the text and answer the questions after it.
Spanning 25 years in the work of Jim Olson of Olson Sundberg Architects, these houses illustrate the evolution of a sustainable design sensibility rooted in the 1960s.
The beginnings.
The first of the three Olson houses, designed in the late 1960s, is on a steep, densely wooded cliff (near a beach where Olson played as a youth) overlooking south Puget Sound and, in the distance,
The Next Generation
The second house, built in 1992 in the suburb of Kirkland east of Seattle, bursts cheerfully from the landscape instead of hunkering into it. Yet the principle of prospect and refuge is at work her
The 1960s Revisited.
Yet the third house discussed here returns to many of the themes of the first – a “return to roots” brought about in not a small part by the client’s close collaboration in its design.
Lik
Keeping it Simple
The client would have none of it – no illusions, no architectural tricks. She wanted simplicity; the living room roof would be flat, its windows perceptible as such. The cross axis would be straigh
Decide whether the following statements are true or false according to the text.
1. These three houses are interesting both for their commonalities and their differences.
2. One thing the houses have in common is relevance to the theory of energy conser
Language development
14. Fill in the gaps with the words below:
a) inserted b) refuge
c) elaborate d) low-key
e) ingrained f) watchwords
Complete the sentences with the suitable preposition, if necessary.
1. respond … the images
2. affinity … a place
3. to be interesting … their commonalities
4. to burst … the landscape
5. suffused … light
Follow-up
18. Look through some information about underground construction and answer the following questions:
1. Is it possible to build underground
Advantages of building underground
Houses can be built on steep surfaces and can maximize space in small areas by going below the ground. In addition the materials excavated in construction can be used in the buildin
Do this questionnaire to find out how green you are. Make use of the list of unknown words at the end of it. Then discuss the results in class.
"Going green" has become as mainstream as baseball and apple pie, and Earth Day has morphed from an also-ran government holiday to a full-fledged internati
Builder in Hell
A builder dies and reports to the pearly gates. St. Peter checks his dossier and says, "Ah sorry, you're in the wrong place." So the builder reports to the gates
Read the following news and try to guess what ideas they have in common and what problems they deal with.
A 13th Century village church is aiming to install solar panels as part of an environmentally friendly fund-raising scheme.
Parish officials hope the panels will produce
Read the text and check your answers.
Renewable energy is energy generated from natural resources — such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides and geothermal heat — which are renewable (naturally replenished).
In 2006, about 18% of g
Read the text and answer the questions after it.
What is a passive house?
“Maximising the use of solar energy
and minimising heat loss is our credo.”
R
Elements of passive solar design
Every passive solar building includes five distinct design elements (see diagram 1):
1. An aperture or collector — the large glass area through which sunlight enters the building.
Lighting and electrical appliances
To minimize the total primary energy consumption, low-energy lighting (such as compact fluorescent lamps), and high-efficiency electrical appliances are normally used.
Read the following information and try to guess what type of house is described in each paragraph.
The term passive house refers to the rigorous, voluntary, Passivhaus standard for energy efficiency in buildings. This can be achieved by a mixture of energy conservation technolog
Reading task C
1. Go over the vocabulary list. Consult a dictionary if you need.
assembly (n)
proprietor (n)
r
Read part two and answer the questions after it.
In conjunction with the local college and other businesses, Fritz is attempting to combine high-technology and ecology in an “intelligent house” in Rosenheim. The windows close when
Comprehension check
9. Decide whether the following statements are true or false according to the text:
1. Hubert Fritz is a famous German economist.
Language focus
Match the words to their synonyms:
1) proprietor 6) breakthrough a) overlook f) support
2) estimate 7) squander b) stab
Language development
Fill in the gaps with the words below making all necessary changes to them:
a) to fulfill low-energy standards b) to lay off
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A project manager, a superintendent, and a field engineer are in Ft. Lauderdale for a two-week period helping out on a project. About midweek they decide to walk up and do
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Warming up
1. Work with a partner. Which of these people have you heard of? Why are they famous?
2. Read their quotations. Which do you agree with?
The History of Skyscrapers
The word skyscraper often carries a connotation of pride and achievement. The skyscraper, in name and social function, is a modern expression of the age-old symbol of the world cent
Choose any of them to describe. Use additional information.
Building
City
Height
Floors
Built
Burj Dubai
Dubai, UAE
Sustainability
The skyscraper as a concept is a product of the industrialized age, made possible by cheap energy and raw materials. The amount of steel, concrete and glass needed to construct a skyscraper is vast
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Europe's Tallest Skyscraper Bid
A proposal for the tallest residential skyscraper in Europe to be built in Leeds has been submitted to planners.
The pl
Translate the following word-combinations from the text. Consult a dictionary if you need.
To rise majestically, to enjoy breathtaking views, to express concern, to whisk up, to come up with something, to lead the way in skyscraper building, downtown Chicago, a proud and
Buildings that Scrape the Sky
One of the wonders of the modern American city is that architectural marvel called the skyscraper. From New York to Miami from Chicago to Dallas, from Seattle to Los Angeles, these
Read the dialogue and fill in the blanks using the words from the box below.
antenna gargoyles marshy elevator excavated architecture skyscrapers decorated observatory tallest population
Go over the vocabulary list. Consult a dictionary if you need.
Developer(s) joint venture step down
Walk-up(s) affiliate u-shaped pattern
Predecessor partner townhouses
Crowd-pleaser neighborhood of impact ring
Large-scale e
Adding a Notch to the City Skyline
Commercial-residential complex in Manhattan steps down to nearby walk-ups
Introduction. The developers of a $545-million complex on
Read part III and answer the questions after it.
Demolition. A three-story brick building in a corner of the site was quickly demolished in two days. But when excavation of the rest of the 200 x 800-ft site began,
Read part IV and answer the questions after it
Bracing. Gary R. Steficek, SOM's project engineer for the commercial tower, adds that not all of the core bracing continues to the top of the building, either. Some
Read part V and answer the questions after it
Wind forces. Most skyscrapers have an impermeable envelope. This building project is unusual because both the arcade at grade level and the copper-clad roof are ope
Comprehension check
15. Decide whether the following statements are true or false according to the text:
1. The commercial-residential complex in Manhattan is
Make sure you can explain the following terms and word combinations from the part called Wind Forces
Impermeable envelope
Wind forces
Research director
Wind tunnel
Boundary layer
Round dormers
Roof space
A four-sto
Language focus
Match the words to their synonyms:
1) walk-up 6) surround a) access f) tenement
2) design 7) adjacent b) beam g) reflec
Language development
Fill in the gaps with the words below making all necessary changes to them:
a) to fulfill low-energy standards b) to lay off
Questions Regarding Skyscrapers
The dictionary says (and I trust it’s no lie),
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Would twenty-si
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In its final form, as waste, concrete is far from being either biodegradable or environmentally friendly. It generally has to be smashed up and removed in chunks. One of the benefits of working wit
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· Global cement production in 2007 =
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