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Published online 2 April 2008 | Nature 452, 520-523 (2008) | doi:10.1038/452520a
News Feature
Architecture: Architects of a low-energy future
Low- and zero-energy buildings could have a huge impact on energy use and carbon emissions. We have the technologies, but if they are to mitigate climate change, green-building design must hit the mass market, says Declan Butler.
“It felt surreal,” says Karsten Voss, thinking back to January 2008 and the winter meeting of the 50,000-member international heating, cooling and ventilation research association, ASHRAE. “Here we were sitting talking about zero-energy buildings, one of the biggest topics on the programme, inside a hotel that had no proper glazing or insulation — while it was −10 °C outside.
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I'm not an architect, but I do design preliminary floor plans for houses, with some component specifications. I'm working on my concept of "vernacular green," an affordable approach which gives priority to what lowers the operating costs. Solar thermal panels to heat water is one example. I design to minimize costs wherever I can; e.g. simple footprints. In much of the USA, the need [see FEMA 320 on the Internet for free] for high wind-resistance happily coincides with lower operating costs in the options of Insulating Concrete Forms and Monolithic Dome. Greensburg, Kansas, hit by an EF5 tornado last May, should become a prime example of both vernacular green and the best tornado-resistance, but so far leaders have chosen to omit the latter from their priority list.