Bamboo Utilization as a Sustainable Building Material

The extraction of building materials from their resources through harvesting, preservation, and utilization has become a significant segment of human contribution to the global ecosystem since the industrial revolution. Bamboo is the world's fastest-growing woody plant, and bamboo grows multiple times quicker than most species. Housing is one of the focused demands for bamboo, and as a result of the current scarcity of home units, the demand for bamboo is increasing. Bamboo building construction is portrayed by a basic edge approach like that applied in traditional building design and construction. Applying bamboo as an environmentally friendly material is seen as a movement towards creating a sustainable environment and reducing greenhouse emissions. The need to employ government policy in addressing the production and application of bamboo is reported, and the challenges of bamboo in the global market are highlighted in this chapter.

Integration of Tellurism and Sacred Geometry in Professional Training

At present, the implementation of the concepts of tellurism and sacred geometry in the schools of architecture is neither obvious nor simple. It starts with the historical heritage of patterns that are shaped and molded according to professorships that have worked independently in territories at different scales within building and urbanism. Moreover, they share the same premise of the occupation of space and creation. In this study, the authors focus on the intrinsic value of the land, its energy, and how this affects not only the overall design of the building, but also the interior of a healthy dwelling. The psychological, psychosomatic, and symptomatic effects on the human being are related to the intrinsic use of a dwelling, as well as to the building's placement on the land. The work method in this investigation has implemented a comparative case study carried out in El Pardo and Carabanchel.

Environmental Awareness

University studies for the architecture degree in Spain give very little weight to considerations related to the design of a healthy interior environment. The low number of subjects related to interior comfort criteria may cause the student to underestimate the importance of environmental design of closed spaces in favor of aesthetic or merely functional aspects. However, there is a direct relationship between formal design decisions and environmental conditions in buildings, and future architects must understand those connections in order to make designs that combine efficiency and high aesthetic value. In this chapter, several pedagogical strategies are presented to get architecture students to learn and internalize the link between design and interior conditions, aiming at the acquisition of an adequate environmental awareness.

Sustainable Design for a Functional Reeducation of Senior Citizens About the Basic Activities of Daily Living

Developing useful objects for a functional reeducation of senior citizens persons about the basic activities of daily living must be conceptualized considering theories, techniques, and approaches in methodology, based on ecologically bearable structures, economically viable, and socially equitable. Consequently, the present chapter has the objective to state the criteria and strategies of a sustainable design, from a detailed study of applicability of 1) user-product interaction, observation, understanding, dimensional relationship, and evaluation; 2) creative process, identification, ideation, definition, prototypes, evaluation, and structuration; 3) technical specifications, structure, sustainability, ergonomics, aesthetics, and evaluation; 4) manufacture method, sustainability, production method, life cycle, capital assets, official norms, and optimization. A contextual and conceptual analysis is proposed for the beginning, development, and conclusion of the projects so as to reestablish the relationship between natural processes and human activity.

Indoor Lighting Workplaces

Office work has so far been carried out in company buildings and was largely based on the use of paper on a horizontal surface. Due to multiple reasons, more workers are working in their homes with electronic devices. As a result, both the working environment and personal tools are changing. Since the discovery about 20 years ago of the non-visual ways of light absorption, it was known that apart from the image forming effects (IF) of light from which the criteria for correct lighting have been developed, non-image forming effects (NIF) of light exist. The discovery of NIF has enhanced researcher belief in the importance of daylighting and has raised new criteria to be taken into account for proper interior lighting. Due to all the factors mentioned above, the parameters to be met by a luminaire and its environment for proper lighting of the workstation have been modified and expanded. The rapid advance in the development of new light-emitting diode (LED) luminaires with which the spectral power distribution (SPD) can be practically created opens the door to a genuine technological revolution comparable to the invention of electric lighting around 150 years ago. The authors of this study will review the latest published studies on the importance of light in our lives, IF and NIF effects of light, the parameters which from these effects are suggested to be taken into account for a correct indoor lighting, the regulations in force on indoor lighting workplaces, and proposals to improve indoor lighting and therefore the quality of life of workers.

Health and Well-Being

The older segments of the adult population in cities experience problems conditioned by the climate of each place. Since the 2003 heat wave which caused 70,000 heat deaths, the dramatic consequences of climate change and rising temperatures in Europe have led to the elderly being most at risk. Insufficient adaptability and economic resources among them also lead to repercussions on architecture, causing energy poverty issues as a result of a real consumption needed which is very different from the actual consumption. The demands of these people are determined by environmental stress, which differ greatly throughout the year. In addition, illnesses influence the daily health and the decrease in sensory capacity of the elderly, making them more vulnerable to constant changes. Faced with this problem, the main aim of this research is to analyse the degree of comfort and well-being of the elderly due to the environmental changes that occur in Andalusian rural homes in order to include some considerations in the design of indoor environments.

Acoustic Design of Ordinary Spaces

When designing for wellbeing, noise is usually not properly accounted for (if at all) during the design phase of a building. However, noise is often rated as the number one cause of dissatisfaction in offices; it negatively affects patients and staff in hospitals, prevents quality learning and teaching in schools, and bests poor service as the most irksome complaint for restaurants users. The question that arises is then, “How can we design to avoid the negative effects of noise on the end-users to enable wellbeing in indoor spaces?”

Beyond the Water Environmental Management in the Operational Building Phase for Its Application to the Peruvian Context

The world population is expected to be 9.3 billion by 2050, with a high increase in the urban population. It is worth considering that 71.7% of the surface of the earth covered by water, but only 3% of this water can be used as drinking water. In cities, buildings are recognized as one of the largest users of freshwater resources in construction and operation. The water use impact is different in some countries because some use conventional water treatments while other ones rely on advanced desalination. Climate change and population growth are clearly putting pressure on the world's water supply, so the first environmental assessment plan for buildings was launched in 1990 by the BRE in the United Kingdom where the water category is included in its environmental assessment.

Ground Air Temperature Control for Heat Pump Exchange. APTAE System

Heating and cooling consume a high amount of energy, which is today mainly provided by fossil fuels. To save fossil resources and simultaneously reduce pollutants and CO2, heating and cooling energy consumption should be reduced. Geothermal energy is a clean, inexhaustible source of energy that is available all year round because it does not depend on the weather. Nevertheless, the use of tempered subsoil air has been used as a traditional air conditioning strategy; however, nowadays, its use has been questioned by the discovery of the leaks of radon gas from the ground. The investigation searches a heat exchange system with the subsoil which prevents the introduction of radon gas into living spaces. The system that is exposed increases the performance of aerothermal heat pumps by means of thermal exchange with tempered air in the sanitary chamber. This exchange is more favorable than air at the outside temperature, increasing the COP of the machine. This system complies with the regulations for protection against radon, protecting the building from this radioactive gas.

Permeability in Bioclimatic Modular Facades

This study is based on the analysis of the facades of tobacco drying sheds located in the regions of Cáceres and Toledo in Spain as an example of bioclimatic production architecture. Using modular and permeable façade designs, it is possible to generate an interior space with specific hygrothermal conditions. The drying sheds are the places where the tobacco plant is cured with the air penetrating through the holes on their facades, and the tobacco dries under certain conditions of humidity and temperature. The design of these patterns based on a module, such as the brick, not only affects the composition but also determines the permeability characteristics, conditioning the interior space hygrothermally. Analysing the conceptual relationship, textures, patterns, and construction methods of the dryers with contemporary architecture, numerous examples can be found in other buildings in which modular patterns are used in the composition of the facades similar to those used in the dryers.