GREEN

BUILDING
ENVELOPE

SHUBHAM KHANVE (U12CH041)

UTKARSH SAXENA (U12CH079)
RAHUL PARMAR (U12CH043)

11/23/2015

BASIC CONCEPT OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN:

Sustainable design is a holistic way of designing buildings to minimize their environmental
impact through:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)

Reduced dependency on non-renewable resources.

A more bio-regional response to climate and site.
Increased efficiency in the design of the building envelope and energy systems.
An environmentally sensitive use of material.
Focus on healthy interior environments.
Characterized by buildings that aim to live lightly on the earth.

A Near Zero Energy building produces at least 75% of its required energy through the use of
onsite renewable energy. Off-grid buildings that use some non-renewable energy generation
for backup are considered near zero energy buildings because they typically cannot export
excess renewable generation to account for fossil fuel energy use.
A Carbon Neutral Building derives 100% of its energy from non-fossil fuel based
renewables.
DESIGN:
Sustainability recommendations regarding the design of building envelope.
1) Optimize Site Potentiala. Climatic Conditions Climatic factors such as temperature, moisture and
wind have impact on the materials of construction to be used in the building
envelope, the quantity and performance of glazing used with respect to each
orientation and the overall energy efficiency of the building.
b. Reduce Urban Heat Islands Design of the horizontal elements (roof) of the
building envelope should consider the impact on the site's urban heat island.
The roof should be finished with either vegetated components or light colored
finish materials in order to reduce energy loads and extend the life of the roof
particularly in tropical and warmer regions. Roofing products should be
meeting or exceeding Energy Star Standards.

Roof-compliant, high-reflectance, and high emissivity roofing can lower roof surface temperature by up to
100F, decreasing the amount of heat transferred into a building.

2) Optimize Energy Usea. The thermal insulation of the envelope should be optimized performance wise.
This should be done for the seasons all around the year keeping in focus
especially the cooling and heating season.
b. Incorporate High Performance, Spectrally Selective GlazingOrientation,
amount and performance of vertical and horizontal glazing should be
appropriate for the climate of the building. The thermal (U-factor), solar (solar

c.
d.
e.
f.

heat gain factorSHGF) and daylighting (visible transmittanceVT)

performance of glazing on each elevation of the building. The performance
criteria will vary depending upon orientation and dominant strategy (e.g. solar
performance or daylighting performance).
Employ Effective Solar Shading Devices Exterior shading devices such as
overhangs, vertical fins and light shelves as energy efficiency measures (with
consideration of maintenance and security/safety issues).
Lighting sensors to control perimeter lighting levels when adequate daylight is
available to reduce power and HVAC loads, particularly at peak demand
periods which often coincides with times for high daylight availability.
Integrate Photovoltaic Panels Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV)
panels as part of the building envelope system or solar shading system as a
way of generating on-site, renewable energy.
Analyze Envelope Performance with Energy SimulationEnergy simulation
and life-cycle analysis tools to optimize the performance of all components of
the building envelope. Make informed decisions about the components of the
building envelope based on life-cycle performance.

A PV skylight entryway
(Courtesy of DOE/NREL)

3) Protect and Conserve Watera. Water Managementa vegetated roof should be used as a means of capturing,
filtering and reusing rain water on site.
b. Captured rainwater on the roof or faade can also be collected, filtered/treated,
and then reused on-site for landscape irrigation or toilet flushing, or held and
released after a delay to municipal storm water systems.
4) Use Environmentally Preferable Productsa. Evaluate Environmental Preferability Using LCA Life-cycle assessment
(LCA) should be employed by tools like ATHENA and BEES to analyse
environmental performance of building envelope components or products.
Embodied energy (energy required to acquire, manufacture, transport,
assemble, install) should be minimized wherever possible.
b. Use of materials that pollute or are toxic during their manufacture, use or reuse
(VOCs, lead, asbestos, PCBs, CFC or HCFC blowing agents for insulation
materials) should be avoided. Wherever possible, evaluate and consider the
use of building envelope assemblies that can be easily "de-constructed" at the
end of their useful lives.
c. Maximize Recycled Content Recycled content in building envelope
construction materials should be incorporated wherever possible, especially
post-consumer recycled content

d. Use Wood from Sustainably Managed Forests whenever wood is to be used

as a part of the buiding envelope, their supply should be from the forests that
are certified for their sustainable management practices. Forest Stewardship
Council (FSC) certification is mandatory for LEED projects certified under
U.S. Green Building Council programs.

Viewed over a 30 year period, initial building costs account for approximately just 2% of the total, while
operations and maintenance costs equal 6%, and personnel costs equal 92%.
Source: Sustainable Building Technical Manual

CASE STUDIES:
1. SPRINGFIELD BOULDER:
Boulder is offering next to no utility bills. Residents will experience stylish, contemporary
architecture paired with optional sleek solar and geothermal systems. Most months, the
Springleaf home will generate more energy than is consumed, actually making the
homeowner money. Imagine no utility
bills. These are eco-friendly homes that
are easy to live in, with technologies that
require very little maintenance and the
highest energy efficiencies.
LEED promotes a whole-building
approach to sustainability by recognizing
performance in key areas of human and
environmental health: sustainable site
development, water savings, energy
efficiency, materials selection, and indoor
environmental quality. LEED-Platinum
buildings represent the highest quality and
energy efficiency, and far exceed
Boulders Green Points standard for
construction.

2. CLIMATIC ENVELOPES:
A well-designed envelope responds to the
local climate. There are many classifications
of climate around the globe but four
common extremes that people design for areArid Climate Envelope, Tropical Climate
Envelope, Cold Climate Envelope and
Mixed Cold/Hot Climate Envelope. Of
these, Mixed Cold/Hot Climate Envelope is
the most desired and focused.
Many temperate inland climates actually
have two extremes--cold in winter, hot and
humid in summer. Flexibility is the key to
designing for these climates. The Aldo
Leopold Center in Wisconsin, first building
to be LEED certified as carbon-neutral, uses deep overhangs to allow low winter sun in
through the windows to heat up a high-mass concrete slab inside, while blocking high
summer sun. It also uses a light roof and darker walls to repel summer sun but absorb winter
sun. Extra insulation retains heat in winter, but operable windows passively cool it in
summer.

3. zHOME:
zHome is a revolutionary, 10-unit townhome
development that uses smart design and
cutting edge technologies to radically reduce
its environmental impacts. zHome will prove
that homes that use zero net energy and 60%
less water, emit net zero carbon emissions,
have clean indoor air and use only lowtoxicity materials are possible and scalable to
mainstream home production.
The development offers 800 to 1,700 squarefoot townhouses, priced between $365,000
and $599,000. The homes include highly
insulated walls, double-paned windows, a
ground-source heat pump, efficient lighting
and appliances and an energy feedback
monitor, among other things. Most interestingly, the development features a rainwater
collection and pumping system, working in tandem with water-conserving toilets and
efficient shower heads to save water.

4. TECHNION CORNELL CAMPUS:

Cornell University and the TechnionIsrael Institute of Technology won a
bid late last year to build a graduate
science and engineering campus on
Roosevelt Island in New York City.
In December, architecture firm SOM
(Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP is
one of the largest and most influential
architecture, interior design,
engineering, and urban planning
firms in the world), working in
conjunction with landscaping and
urban design firm Field Operations,
introduced its proposal for the campus, including a net-zero energy academic campus.
The campus will benefit from passive heating and cooling strategies and feature a 150,000square-foot photovoltaic array the largest in New York City, according to the architects.
While the campus does include housing units, the net-zero part of the plan will not include
this area, as the current plan isn't efficient enough to create enough energy for the proposed
housing units and hotel.

5. AQUA TOWER:
Buildings that are purporting to be sustainable routinely ignore key issues of detailing to
achieve energy efficiency in this building, continuous thermal bridges at every slab edge and
90% wall glazing albeit 6 different types to respond to varying conditions that are created by
the uneven balconies. It is shown in a Chicago Residential Skyscraper (going for LEED). We
can here compare thermographic and traditional photographic view of the building.
Thermography is here used to enlighten thermal bridge of balcony's structure.