Sustainability issues in building design – case study EFdeN prototype

EFdeN – we adapt an energy

efficient solar house, to the city’s key
points, taking a sustainable step
towards nature

 Our mission is to offer a new

perspective regarding urban lifestyle
and responsibility towards nature.
 We design and build an energy
efficient solar house, sustainable and
intelligent, intended for the former
industrial spaces which nowadays are
not used in Bucharest.
 Our goal is to improve
Bucharest’s density of habitation by
supporting a polycentric development
of the metropolis, growth of mobility
within the town and the creation of
sustainable communities, by reuniting
the individual with the nature.

“The first rule of sustainability is to align with natural forces, or at

least not try to defy them.”
Paul Hawken
1 General Concept of the Project and Sustainability
2. Urban Design and Transportation
3. Bioclimatic strategies
4. Construction System
5. Materials
6. Active Systems and Equipment
7. Solar Systems
8. Water
9. Solid Waste
10. Life Cycle Analysis

Abstract
EFdeN is an energy efficient solar house designed for the urban environment
as a solution to the Bucharest’s issues of low density and mobility, an adaptable
housing unit both to the environmental parameters and to the inhabitants’ necessities
and desires. Dedicated to the “urban farming” concept, this component is the central
architectural element of the house being both a source of a spectacle of light on the
inside and a community’s generator on the outside.
Sustainability is a social challenge that entails urban planning and transport,
local and individual lifestyles, ethical consumerism, green technologies, renewable
energy and adjustments in individual lifestyles that conserve natural resources. Not only
that EFdeN has understood these things, but we have also tried to apply them in
everyday life. EFdeN meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs and we have created a house entirely
dedicated to the concept of sustainability.
In order to achieve sustainability, we have adopted the urban farming concept.
This activity will determine a more economic, environmental and social aware habitat
and it also changes the mentality on productivity and consumption. Sustainability is also
achieved by adopting the concept of reducing large distance mobility for different day by
day needs. Going on, all the materials and equipment used in the construction of the
prototype are carefully selected not to harm the environment. They are either recyclable,
have a low grade of volatile organic compounds or are even recycled.