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Project Concept

The following pages detail the concept response from Arup Engineers to our project brief.  Carbon Challenge thanks Arup sincerely for their insights and the opportunity to make them public.

Introduction

The invitation to design the Carbon Challenge Boathouse is an exciting opportunity for the team to generate a building that seeks to practice what the Carbon Challenge Academy intends to preach. All buildings are prototypes. This prototype becomes almost an experiment with the additional fourth dimension of mobility.

Brief

The simplified brief for the Carbon Challenge Boathouse is to design a 1500m² building that is itself a model of sustainability, which will not only accommodate the Carbon Challenge Academy but also form part of the curriculum.

Inspiration

The inspiration of the design is to liken the building to a living thing that can adapt to the different climatic environments in which the building will be erected. This is a significant step away from the historic image of buildings that are likened to a machine that will overcome the environment in which it is in. We seek to tread lightly on this journey leaving the lightest touch in every port that we visit. If we leave a legacy then we should aspire that this will be a positive one which will remain as a reminder of our visit.

Design Concepts


We seek to integrate the following into the design of the Boathouse:

Mobility

 

  • Accelerate the erection and strike so that any renewable technologies applied to this building can begin operating at the earliest opportunity.
  • Design the building as modular rather than mobile and when erected it should appear homogeneous.
  • Create technology pods which will be the backbone of the buildings systems, these pods will contain, central services and inflexible facilities like toilets, showers.
  • Generate regularity in the design a “kit of parts” that makes up the building allowing the building to be erected in different ways in response to differing climatic environments and site spatial constraints.  
  • Simple to erect requiring limited skilled labour and using a limited number of heavy moving vehicles.

Design Approach

 

  • The building’s context and environment is important and should influence form and orientation.
  • Maximise the use of the site’s inherent opportunities, daylight, natural ventilation.
  • Minimise the building’s consumption of natural resources (water, air, light, energy, raw materials).
  • Rationalise the accommodation spaces to minimise those requiring mechanical ventilation, artificial light or comfort cooling.
  • Encourage the occupants to adapt themselves, just as the building does. This might include dressing appropriately for the local climate.  
  • Capitalise on historic Port building design principles like wind catchers, evaporative pools.  
  • Use materials in the building’s construction that have a low embodied energy, generate a hierarchy of materials that will inform the projects pallet from which the building will be constructed. 
  • Apply low energy and renewable technologies to the building to provide light, ventilation, heat and cooling. 
  • Allow flexibility within the design for new emerging technologies.

Water


The Water Hierarchy
The mantra “reduce, reuse, recycle” is well known. We have attempted to refine this with regard to water consumption; The Water Hierarchy.

The Water Hierarchy seeks to reduce water usage firstly by changing people’s behaviour – societal subjects that include education, monitoring and targeting, and formal legislation. These points should be considered and adopted, where applicable, before the “hard” Engineering is brought into play.

Water efficient technologies that will be considered include the following:

  • Dual flush and very low flush volume WCs
  • Waterless urinals
  • Infrared actuated and flow restricted basin taps
  •  Aerating showers

Once demand is minimised, an alternative water source will be sought. This could be from rainwater or the ocean itself.

We will also consider whether waste water can be reprocessed through greywater recycling and used again. Finally, we review what will happen to our final effluent, with the aspiration that our ultimate waste product will be of benefit to others. 

Light


The introduction of daylight into spaces through windows and roof openings will improve the visual environment and also reduce energy consumption.  A series of studies would be carried out to optimise daylighting while minimising solar gains within the boathouse, an example of which is below:
 
The artificial lighting controls will be daylight linked automatically switching the artificial lighting off when daylighting levels are acceptable.

Operation

It is important that the building delivered not only considers its initial delivery but also its on going operation as an academy. This objective could be met by:-

  • Use of low energy lighting systems and appliances
  • Use of smart metering
  • Provision of a building user guide

Air


Air within the building is used to revitalise the space for respiration, purge contaminants and provide a means of heating and cooling the space. We seek to influence these by the building we design and the systems we install.

Efficient strategies and systems that will be considered include the following:

  • Control infiltration in the Boathouse
  • Utilise materials with low emissions (VOCs). 
  • Locate spaces where odours are generated through human activities close to openable windows. 
  • Utilise stack and wind driven natural ventilation in Ports that have suitable ambient condition.
  • Passive cooling using exposed thermal mass with night cooling to supplement the natural ventilation.

Once demand is minimised, low energy systems will sought, including:

  • Slow running, low pressure mechanical ventilation systems like displacement ventilation in Ports, which prevent the use of naturally ventilation.
  • Provide low energy mechanical ventilation with energy recovery for internal areas where odours are generated through human activities. 
  • Activate thermal mass in conjunction with sea water cooling.  


Teaching spaces will require a greater level of comfort to improve concentration levels and productivity (like the main seminar audio visual facilities), these will be provided with greater environmental control.

  • Provide localised cooling utilising sea water as a medium, alternatively cooling plant powered by bio fuel generators.
  • Energy will be recovered from mechanical ventilation systems.

We would consider carefully the operation of any active system and minimise their operation linking them to occupancy and CO2 sensors. We would seek to reclaim any residual energy before air is exhausted from the building.

Energy


The primary source of energy will be delivered by renewable technologies the following technologies are being considered.

Photovoltaics
PV systems convert energy from the sun directly into electricity through semi-conductor cells. The carbon challenge boathouse would exploit the use of solar energy by use of high efficiency photovoltaic cells to supply a percentage its energy requirements. Integration of PV cells within shading devices would also be investigated in addition to any roof or building integrated systems that may be used.

 Wind Turbines
The driving force for the teams powers the boathouse. The use of vertical axis wind turbines would be investigated to further exploit the natural resources. The rotating blades of a wind turbine would drive an generator via a gearbox to produce electricity. An inverter would then convert the DC output into AC electricity for us in the boathouse.

Biofuel Generators
The use of power generators fuelled by bio-fuel would be investigated to ‘top-up’ any additional power requirements. This low carbon energy system would only be utilised when the potential of natural resources has been fully exploited.

 Maritime Systems
Tidal power exploits the movement of water caused by tidal currents or the rise and fall of sea levels. The resultant water movement drives turbines and a connected inverter produces AC electricity. The use of tidal turbines in ports would be investigated where appropriate. The electrical infrastructure would be designed for these new and emerging technologies to be incorporated at a future date should it not be viable at present.

Materials

The application of sustainable construction materials is an emerging science. The Carbon Challenge project seeks to make informed choices in the materials used. The materials will be evaluated against the following BRE (Building Research Establishment) criteria:

  • Climate Change Potential
  • ossil Fuel depletion
  • Ozone Depletion
  • Human Toxicity
  • Final Disposal 
  • Natural resource consumption
  • Acid release 
  • Ecotoxicity
  • Eutrophication
  • Atmospheric pollutant
  • Mineral Extraction 
  • Life 
  • Recyclability

The detailed data required to evaluate this criteria is predominantly held by manufacturers and suppliers. The team will carryout an evaluation of each material used against this criteria. This evaluation will be supplemented and validate with information provided from the projects supply chain. Suppliers will be asked to provide more detailed information on their products including manufacturing procedures.