Ecological Design
BO Brien

As building creators we all carry out our work in a physical environment. Most of the time in the building sector we treat the physical setting of our projects as an impediment, a problem to overcome so that we can create the building our client (and we, as designers) desire. This assumption that there is a conflict between the project and the site immediately sets us up for massive inefficiencies in the construction and management of the building and eliminates many opportunities to create healthy, enjoyable and cheap-to-run workplaces and homes.

Ecological Design is a professional discipline that creates quality buildings looking on their physical environment as an opportunity right through the design process. Much of the time in buildings the very problems we try to solve in the development, construction and management phases has been created by first design sketch. ED then attempts to design out these wasteful practises ('muda' as the Japanese call them) in each stage of the process of creating and running buildings.

Most good designers will of course always take account of the site's orientation and view, will be aware of the sites geology and drainage but ecological design goes much further than this. It looks at the building as a dynamic extension of the site's biological, climatic and physical processes and tries to 'compose' a building that protects them and even extends them into the workings of the building.

Ecologically designed buildings feel different to conventional buildings; they are less polluted inside, less stressful and have a subtle inevitability about their visual presence. They also feel better because they are cheaper to run and because they are comprehensible; we can understand how they work and feel like we are part of them. Their other benefit and one we are more familiar with is that they are better for the environment than conventional buildings.

Ecology being science based is different to 'sustainability'. It deals with the 'life' of an entity and the 'relationship' of that entity to its environment. Ecological design looks at the composition of a building or product as a system that is in an ongoing balanced relationship with the whole environment.

This means that it should be as light as possible in its impact on the environment or have no negative impact at all. An ecologically designed building or town would provide for all of its own energy and treat its own waste within its own confines, the way a living entity (forest or river) in nature does. In reality the building mimics a living system in nature. Its as if the site is made up of a dense web of relationships; rainfall affects the stream levels, flooding, water retention times and soil fertility while sunlight affect's light levels, the position of tree canopies, shade and thus plant growth and presence of wildlife. Composing the ecological building then is the art of gently prising apart some of this web's threads to insert the building in it so that its flows and cycles become continuous with the site's. Most importantly all of these biological actions; energy creation, waste recovery etc happen in the ongoing operation of the building throughout its life.

It's obvious then that the ecological building must be designed differently to a building that consumes energy from outside itself, for example the national grid, and ejects its waste to be disposed of outside itself eg. by the local authority. Its useful to look at a few examples to see how an ecologically designed building differs.

In designing an ecological building energy efficiency and the accompanying savings in pollution is the first objective. At Solearth we try to ask ourselves how to match the building's energy appetite to its capacity to produce energy from its own site. The best way of doing this is to design out the need for energy to as large an extent as possible. Designing smaller buildings that are used more creatively can reduce the need for heating large, sparsely used spaces. Creating a highly insulated envelope, using natural insulation materials and high performance windows reduces heat loss while locating a space that creates excess heat adjacent to one that needs heat can produce a zero energy sum. Once the appetite has been reduced, renewable energy techniques such as wind turbines, solar thermal energy, and even small scale hydro can be used to power the building's from the natural energy of the site.

A new project we are currently designing for the south inner city of Dublin will sit, almost immersed, in the shallow water table under it, which is naturally at a higher temperature than the surrounding air. Heat pumps will be used to stitch the buildings energy system into this hydrostatic energy source. The building also enjoys a long south facing elevation and the sun's rays falling on the building are another natural energy source to which the buildings energy system will be connected via solar panels. The heat pump system will be powered by renewable energy to create a near energy neutral heating system. A truly ecological building would be energy neutral, and obviously if a building is powered by renewable energy it is also neutral in terms of emissions.

Materials are another important factor in ecological buildings. Materials impact the environment in their extraction, processing, transport and use (when assembled as building elements) and then again in their disposal. Also of course they affect the health of building users (both human and animal !) because of their emissions, affect on the natural electro-climate and through their affect on sound, light and air. The Solar Living Centre in northern California is a good example of a building designed based on the materials of its hinterland. It uses materials that improve the interior environment for its users rather than making them feel lethargic or moody. It also respects Nature through using materials that are produced and absorbed easily by the local ecology. Natural finishes and uplifting textures are applied to locally sourced natural (stabilised earth), renewable (straw bale and wood) and recycled (heat pressed plastic worktops and counters) to knit the building into the region's materials cycles.

Water systems are another natural process that an ecological building must address. In a real sense the building's own water systems must interconnect with the water that falls onto or flows through the site. The ING Bank near Amsterdam collects the majority of its own rainwater for irrigation it's gardens. It also makes use of water flowing through the building's interior to dampen the air, create pleasant background sound, and to absorb dust, as it would in a forest. This remarkable building achieves impressive rates of presentism (the opposite to absenteeism) and productivity in the employees there and uses 50% less energy than conventional buildings of its type.

Ecologically designed buildings also mimic living systems in that they treat their own waste through the buildings operations. Our new project in Dublin is designed to pre-treat all its liquid waste naturally in a 'living machine'. This is a biological system of algae, microscopic water creatures, fish and sunlight that works like a wetland in nature but is designed for dense urban areas. Organic waste from kitchens will be turned into soil in the compost chambers designed as part of the architecture of the scheme.

A quick look at the illustrations here will tell us two other things about ecological design. It is not an architectural style with its own aesthetic or architectural expression; any size, shape, or type of building can be designed ecologically given sufficient knowledge and an adequate budget, and many are being designed and realized right here in Ireland. .