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When faced with an action where you have nothing to lose and everything to gain, why would you not do it? This is the situation with passive Eco-Design. Every
single building should be designed to make the best use of natural climatic conditions. Not only does it reduce the never ending running costs of the building for all time, but it creates a more friendly and
pleasant living or working environment. It is maintenance free and also places less load on our earth's natural resources. And it does all this, without adding extra costs to the construction budget!
How to design more effective windows than Bill Gates This is called passive
solar planning, and top architects work this way almost without thinking. Here, building spaces (rooms or areas) are designed to make the very best use of daylight, sunlight and natural ventilation. This is
achieved by the careful arrangement and design of windows, doors and other openings. Generally, architects match the use of spaces with the type light needed. For example: A department store cafeteria,
catering mainly for lunchtime shoppers, might enjoy the cheerfulness of controlled midday sunlight streaming in through clerestorey (high level) windows. A senior school classroom however, would bitterly
complain about the distracting glare from their books, in the same situation. In this case, teachers and students would welcome the shadowless, even light from windows facing precisely the opposite
direction. How to design effective window shading Leading architects are
careful to protect sun-facing windows from direct sunlight in hotter seasons or hotter regions. Sometimes this is done by simply minimising the area of glass facing the most oppressive sides of the
building. Other methods involve the often clever use of shading devices. These can take the form of pergolas, external louvred roofing, shading cloth sails, timber lattice (Criss-crossing timber straps)
expanded metal meshes of all sorts, even the growth of deciduous (winter leaf shedding) vines or other plantings. In other cases, the type of glass used may be specially chosen: tinted, frosted, double or
triple glazed etc.Because the sun is so low in the mornings and evenings, shading to the East and West aspects of the building cannot effectively be achieved with overhangs. Clever architects employ some
vertical (upright) device. Funny enough, sometimes a neighbouring building does the trick. Otherwise, a form of fencing or hedge planting must be used. Rarely will leading architects simply build a
wide eaves (roof overhang), or canvas awning, or louvred shutters etc over windows (as builders might do). Nor would they rely on interior curtains. All these block out precious daylight or seriously alter
the quality of the light altogether. Architects simply love the feeling of light, airy building structures.
How to calculate extent of shading needed There is a general rule of thumb architects use to calculate the shade overhang needed to properly shield a clear glass
window from the midday sun. It applies only if the shade is close to the top of the window. This is it. The shade width is equal to half the height of the glass of the window. Therefore, an 8 foot
(2400mm) high picture window can be effectively protected with a 4 foot (1200 mm) wide horizontal shade. While a 5 foot (1500mm) high window can be effectively protected with a 2'6" (750mm) wide horizontal
shade. This design fully shelters the window from, direct hot summer sun, yet allows most lower-angle warming winter sun into the area. How to design for effective natural cooling Breeze way design, or natural ventilation planning, provides cooling to the
building in warmer weather. It behaves in a similar manner to the flow-through ventilation in your car. For this to be the most effective, architects design the path of the cooling breezes to take the
longest distance from one wall opening to another. This usually forms a diagonal line across the space. the opening windows and doors are specially directed to catch the prevailing cooling winds of the
geographic region.Another little known technique is architects' use of a breezeway tunnel. This might take the form of a lengthy walkway (corridor), with openings at each end, to catch the main
cooling breezes. As this breeze travels down this tunnel, it creates a sucking or Venturi effect
upon the hot air, in every room opening into it. It's as if this fast moving body of air magnetically attracts the warm air in the spaces off it, and drags them all, out of the building. At the same time, it amplifies the flow-through ventilation as descibed above.
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