Literature Review_ a Sustainable Vernacular Architecture

Literature Review A Study of Sustainable Vernacular Architecture: Typology and Building Physics Resti Piutanti 146060500111004 Abstract Vernacular architecture is the source of essential knowledge for sustainable, energy efficient and climate responsive architectural design principles. There are a lot of knowledge that implied in vernacular architecture where people should learn from. This is best done by looking at vernacular design as a model system. This paper consist of a literature study with the main purpose is to gain an information and basic knowledge about a sustainable vernacular architecture, then describe the principles that used especially in typology and building physic. Keyword: Sustainable Vernacular Architecture, Sustainable Typology, Sustainable Building Physics Introduction Architecture, art and tradition of a vernacular settlements are the manifestation of great indigenous in the diverse culture. Peoples have through their efforts to create rich and colorful styles of vernacular architecture, responding to local environments. This reflects an thrive response to geography, climate, distribution of ethnic peoples and sustainable habitats. Vernacular buildings were built by local people using local material that available and affordable technology to deal with the local needs. The design of vernacular buildings is the outcome of the traditional knowledge based on trial and error approach (Singh, et al. 2010).This type of architecture try to response the local climate constraints. It shows maximum adaptability and flexibility towards the nature environment. Vernacular architecture is the source of essential knowledge for sustainable, energy efficient and climate responsive architectural design principles. It is significant and unique in terms of concept of balance within everyday life (Jayasudha P, et al. 2014). Sustainable architecture it self is a term that used to describe the movement associated with environmentally conscious architectural design or as known as environmentally responsive. It is also popular as a 'green' design in architecture. Basically, vernacular architecture does not rely on high-tech, energy-consuming systems for heating, cooling, ventilation and lighting. The buildings simply demonstrate

how climate can be modified through orientation, form, materiality and layout to achieve conditions for human comfort internally. To adopt passive environmental systems requires consideration in the early stages of design, when initial decisions about orientation, form and materiality are being taken. There are a lot of knowledge that implied in vernacular architecture where people should learn from. This is best done by looking at vernacular design as a model system. The principal purposes of this paper were to learn about a sustainable vernacular architecture and how to study or evaluate it. Methods This paper consist of a literature study from several source such as academic journals, conferece paper, books and other references. The methods used was a qualitative description. The main purpose is to gain an information and basic knowledge about a sustainable vernacular architecture, then describe the principles that used especially in typology and building physic. Sustainable Principles The definition of sustainability does not specify the ethical roles of humans for their everlasting existence on the planet. It also fails to embrace the value of all other constituents participating in the global ecosystem. The need for finding long-terms solutions that warrant continuing human existence and well-being is far more compelling than that of finding a proper terminology to describe the human need. In

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this respect, the debate on the terms “green,” “sustainable,” or “ecological” architecture is not terribly important (Kim, et al. 1998). The Green approach to architecture is not a new approach. It has existed since people first selected a south – facing cave rather than one facing north to achieve comfort in a temperate climate. Another definition of sustainable development is ″sustainable development is a kind of development that is able to protect human health and improve ecological orders for along period″ (Shohouhian, et al. 2005). There are three principles of sustainability in architecture. Economy of Resources is concerned with the reduction, reuse, and recycling of the natural resources that are input to a building. Life Cycle Design provides a methodology for analyzing the building process and its impact on the environment. Humane Design focuses on the interactions between humans and the natural world. These principles can provide a broad awareness of the environmental impact, both local and global, of architectural consumption. The goal of sustainable design is to find architectural solutions that guarantee the well-being and coexistence of these three constituent groups (Kim, et al. 1998). Economy

Human

Design (environment)

Figure 1. Relation between three principles in sustainability

There are also some principles about green architecture (Shohouhian, et al. 2005), such as: 1. Working with climate: Buildings should be designed to work with climate and natural energy sources. 2. Minimizing new resources: A building should be designed so as to minimize the use of new resources and at the end of its useful life, to form the resources for other architecture.

3. Respect for users: green architecture recognizes the importance of all the people involved with it. 4. Respect for site: A building will ″touch – this – earth – lightly″ 5. Holism: All the green principles need to be embodied in a holistic approach to the built environment. Understanding Climate Condition The climate varies from place to place with physiographic features, so that it is needed to understanding the climate condition. Peoples are not passive in relation to their environmment, but they express direct response to make themselves comfortable. The response to climate condition is an active approach that peoples did by trial and error, especially those that could be seen in vernacular architecture. The climate at micro-region is more important for study as the thick vegetation, water body and topography plays a significant role on habitat (Dhote KK, et al. 2012). Climate has a major effect on the performance of the building and its energy consumption. At the small scale of an environment, the local conditions are further diversified according to the topography, the altitude and the sea distance. Those conditions is influencing the temperatures and the precipitation, besides that, the remaining factor is the influences of season (Bouillot, Jean. 2008). Various climatic zones affected by topography, altitudes and latitudes are distributed according to season and location forging a complex tri-dimensional climatic character (Renping, et al. 2006). There are several elements that make up climate. The major of these elements are (Anna, 2009): 1. Temperature, is a degrees range of hot or cold the atmosphere is. Temperature is a very important factor in determining the weather, because it influences or controls other elements of the weather, such as precipitation, humidity, clouds and atmospheric pressure. 2. Humidity, is the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere. 3. Precipitation, is the product of a rapid condensation process (if this process is

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slow, it only causes cloudy skies). It may include snow, hail, sleet, drizzle, fog, mist and rain. 4. Atmospheric pressure (or air pressure), is the weight of air resting on the earth's surface. 5. Wind, is the movement of air masses, especially on the Earth's surface. Architectural typology and building physics Typology of a vernacular settlement is a response to orientation, wind direction, and topography of the site. Vernacular dwellings could be evaluated in terms of building physics criteria that pertain to solar geometry, thermal mass, heat transfer, air movement, and solar geometry. There are variables that usually used to evaluate the responsiveness to the cimate with a purpose of sustainability (Habib F, 2012): a) the layout of the buildings Based on the layout we could determine about the orientation in relation to sun and wind, aspect ratio. Basically, vernacular building usually have a socio-culture factors that also affected the orientation, but despite of that, it was an indigenous knowledge as a response of a climate condition.

flowerbeds,vine trellises, soft ground surfaces) and their appropriate placing serves as an additional climate modifier, ensuring human comfort both indoors and outdoors (Anna, 2009).

Figure 3. Plan of the settlement in Sernikaki, Greece Source: Anna, Vissilia -Maria. 2009.

Courtyard defines a relationship between the house and passage part outside, it is also a place for daily activities of people in the house such as children’s play, cooking in summer, preparing agricultural products and garden-grown products for own consumption or offering in market, activities related to farm animals and some other activities like; producing handicrafts and other activities.

Figure 2. layout of vernacular settlement in Central India Source: Dhote KK, et al. 2012

b) spacing (site planning); Site planning detach dwellings between compact geometry (massive building) and extensive courtyards (open space). These were designed considering climate conditions. In Sernikaki, a vernacular settlement in Greece, gardens provide shady and cool places that become the main living units of the summer months. The use of gardens along with their associated landscape features (trees,

Figure4. Compact geometry and extensive courtyards in Lahijan, Iran Source: Habib F, et al. 2012.

Courtyard is important regarding climate as well, in the way that considering the distance between construction and limit of residential part, sun shine and wind circulation will be possible and it has a

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huge influence on repelling moisture from construction and making comfort for the person. Besides, courtyard preserves the limits of house and it separates movement paths of human and animals. Regarding culture, courtyard width both protects spatial limits of house and is a place for neighbors to visit each other and exchange information and sustain friendship (Habib F, et al. 2012). c) air movement; Provision of fresh air: The rooms of the dwellings are need to provided with sufficient natural ventilation through the appropriate placement of the openings to take advantage of breezes as well as through their sizes in relation to the size of the room. In the tropical area, wooden external shutters are often used as controlled natural ventilation. In addition, with the shutters people are able to control the sunlight (Anna, 2009).

curtains, vertical shafts, external horizontal shades, and shutters. Since openings are directly related to thermal comfort in dwellings that have walls of high thermal inertia, the way to handled is of vital importance. Windows are supposed to have their shutters totally closed during the warmest hours of the day, not letting in either the light or the heat from the outside. Other protecting shading devices used along with the external ones are: blinds, lattices, and curtains (Anna, 2009). Wind catcher is also one of the important elements of hot & humid architecture which is used for cooling and ventilation of internal spaces.

Figure 6. Aplied openings (windows in Rumah Gadang) Source: wikipedia.org

Figure5. Air movement in vernacular houses of Yunnan, china Source: Renping, Wang and Cai Zhenyu. 2006

d) openings (size–position, protection); Size–position of openings: the place of the opening is according to sun orientation, topography, views, and wind patterns. Their types, proportions and sizes are determined by the orientation of their wall. Thus, optimum views, natural lighting and cooling breezes are achieved with suitable orientation, design and geometry of the openings as well as their juxtaposition. Protection of the openings: Protection of the openings from solar radiation during summer is also achieved with the use of movable shading devices such as wooden external shutters that permit the dwelling to be fully shaded during the summer but fully exposed to solar radiation in winter. Such devices are: blinds and lattices,

e) building envelope (walls: construction materials-thickness, roof construction detailing) Due to the climate condition and the wather in locaton of settlement was built, there are importants thing that have to be considered, such as the material that used in sructure. The thickness of wall affect the temperature inside the building. In the hot-humid area, thin wall usually used so that the temperature inside and outside did not have too much different range. In hot and cold climate, usually used thick wall to protect the temperature inside the building.

Figure 7. thick wall in Sernikaki house in Greece Source: Anna, Vissilia -Maria. 2009.

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Roof construction have to built considered by climate as well. In tropical climate, roofing is the major need of the building. The roof protect whole body of the building from both rain and sun. The space inside the roof is also important to maintain temperature inside the bulding.

Figure 8. Roofing in Rumah Batak Toba Source: wikipedia.org/rumah batak toba

Conclusion Vernacular architecture is the source of essential knowledge for sustainable, energy efficient and climate responsive architectural design principles . There are three principles of sustainability in architecture; economy, life cycle design , and humane design. Climate has a major effect on the performance of the building and its energy consumption. Various climatic zones affected by topography, altitudes and latitudes are distributed according to season and location. There are several elements that make up climate. The major of these elements are; temperature, humidity, precipitation, atmospheric pressure, and wind. There are variables that usually used to evaluate the responsiveness to the cimate with a purpose of sustainability, such as: 1)the layout of the buildings , 2)spacing (site planning), 3)air movement, 4)openings (size– position, protection), and 5) building envelope (walls: construction materials-thickness, roof construction detailing.

Bouillot, Jean. 2008. Climatic design of vernacular housing in different provinces of China. Journal of Environmental Management; 87:287–299 Dhote KK, Onkara P, Dasb S. 2012. Identifying the Sustainable Practices from the Vernacular Architecture of Tribes of Central India. American Transactions on Engineering & Applied Sciences; 1(3): 237251 Habib F, Ensieh, Nia G, Nejad HH. 2012. Evaluation of a Sustainable Lahijan Vernacular Settlement (N Iran) and its Landscape: Architectural Typology and Building Physics. World Applied Sciences Journal 20 (4): 527-531 Jayasudha P, Dhanasekaran M, Devadas MD, Ramachandran N. 2014. A Study on Sustainable Design Principles: A Case Study of a Vernacular Dwelling in Thanjavur Region of Tamil Nadu, India. Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge; 13(4): 762-770 Kim, Jong-Jin and Brenda Rigdon, Project. 1998. Sustainable Architecture Module: Introduction to Sustainable Design. University Ave., Ann Arbor, MI Renping, Wang and Cai Zhenyu. 2006. An ecological assessment of the vernacular architecture and of its embodied energy in Yunnan, China. Building and Environment; 41:687–697 Singh MK, Mahapatra S, Atreya SK. 2010. Thermal performance study and evaluation of comfort temperatures in vernacular buildings of North-East India. Building and Environment;45(2):320–329 Shohouhian, M and F. Soflaee. 2005. Environmental sustainable Iranian traditional architecture in hot-humid regions. International Conference “Passive and Low Energy Cooling for the Built Environment”, Santorini, Greece

References Anna, Vissilia -Maria. 2009. Evaluation of a sustainable Greek vernacular settlement and its landscape: Architectural typology and building physics. Building and Environment; 44 ; 1095–1106

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