by Noy Hildebrand

It synchronises our biological rhythms with Earth’s daily rotation. Our eyes have evolved to sense it. It’s easily accessible, yet its significance is not fully understood by many. It can be easily identified and experienced, yet just as easily taken for granted. Those deprived of it probably understand this most. It is daylight.

Why does daylight matter? This form of energy has the capacity to physically, chemically and biologically impact living beings, including humans. The word biophillia is one way to describe the love of life and the qualities that characterise it. From the biophillic view, many life qualities directly relate to light:

• Humans and other forms of life respond to light as a stimulus. Short term, light can aid visual legibility, the search for resources and the avoidance of danger. Longer term, the various daylight qualities and sensations can be a very pleasant experience, as evident from the many sunset landscape photos

  

  around.

• The circadian clock is a homeostatic regulatory feedback system within people and other living beings that is influenced by primarily light and other external factors. In humans, this can be described as physiological changes over a roughly 24-hour cycle that repeats over successive days. This can be measured in the level of some hormones in our saliva, such as melatonin, cortisol, leptin and ghrelin.

The absence of daylight can be associated with disruptions in sleep, metabolism, alertness, cognition and other physiological functions. Longer term disruptions to sleep have been linked to other ailments like cancer.

For the workplace, daylight is more appropriate than direct sunlight. What’s the difference? Daylight is essentially sunlight moderated by setting, or as as daylight enthusiast and architect Antony DiMase aptly describes, it is ‘a combination of sunlight, air, weather, time and place’. Since it is freely available during most business hours, daylight should be on the radar of anyone who is interested in passive, ‘free running’ built environments; these can be any environment from open space outdoor café seating to workplaces to living areas. A beautifully daylit space is a notable characteristic shared by many great buildings and rooms, such as Kahn’s National Parliament House in Dhaka and the Great Hall at the National Gallery of Victoria, amongst others.

Life-affirming light in the workplace

Think of a familiar workplace – only with no electric lights turned on. Could you walk around safely? Would it still be functional? Could you still perform tasks? We know that daylighting can contribute to energy savings and connect occupants to the outdoors. So why aren’t more workplaces daylit? The knowledgeable people at BuildingGreen describe it well:

‘Daylight has immense power that’s easy to lose control of … Even in some of the highest-profile green buildings designed … we hear story after story of glare, overheating, loss of productivity, and the most damning of all: blinds always down and lights always on. Re-learning how to use natural light in our buildings may be more difficult than we anticipated … While daylighting is as old as architecture itself, we must invent new strategies to respond to these new circumstances.’

What design can do

It is not always easy to design with daylight and especially to do it well. The authors of Tips for daylighting with windows suggest designers adopt ‘a holistic design approach, where the building is viewed as a whole and not just a collection of parts. Common practice often fails to address the critical interactions between the building façade (which admits heat and light) and the electric lighting system, resulting in an uncomfortable and inefficient building that is expensive and difficult to retrofit.’ From experience, the thresholds of an aperture are also important – so for windows this means both the frame and any surfaces near the window head, jambs and sill. And of course, the quality and quantity of light should be suitable for the main tasks in a space.

Here are some favourites from Tips for daylighting:

• Increase exposure to daylight – higher windows result in a deeper daylit zone
• Shape building for self-shading, noting that large windows need more control
• Take a ‘deep façade’ approach
• Capitalise on other building elements, i.e. gutters, cross bracing, etc. to integrate shading
• Use separate apertures for view, light and air
• Use horizontal window shapes
• Locate windows near room surfaces like ceilings, walls, beams for good distribution
• Distinguish between the control of glare (sun/sky brightness) and shading to control heat gain

Even if a project team structure is not embodying an integrated design approach, it may be worth having an honest chat about façade and window design with team members, consultants and contractors, to check the potential for collaborative input. This can lead to synergistic decisions that address multiple issues. It is often these types of design decisions that are harder to ‘value manage’ out.

Further reading

• Tips for daylighting with windows: an integrated approach 2nd edition
• Daylight in an airport – EDG News March 2014 issue, see ‘From the editor’
• EDG News July 2013 issue, see ‘Light in buildings’
• DAYLIGHT & ARCHITECTURE magazine by VELUX group autumn 2014 issue 22 -SLEEP, WORK, LIVE
• Light and Heatlh | Lighting Research Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• Human Centric Lighting Society

by Noy Hildebrand

 

The Environment Design Guide was launched in 1995 by the Natural Environment and Energy Group of the Institute’s NSW Chapter (NSW NEEG). For many years, the group had been promoting environmental sustainability in the profession. EDG was envisioned to be a robust resource for built environment design practitioners at a time when such resources were scarce or non-existent.

The first set of papers was written, sourced and reviewed by NSW NEEG. The group was chaired by David Baggs and comprised Gareth Cole, John Gelder, Neal Mortensen, the late Bill Lawson, Caroline Pidcock, Tim Waldock, Mahalath Halperin, Garry Wallace, John Ballinger, Nigel Bell, Harry Partridge and Jason Veale. Besides NSW NEEG, the National Environment Committee (NEC) also assisted in reviewing Design Notes. Those early reviewers included Roger Fay, Allan Rodger, Richard Sale, the late David Oppenheim and others.

Through the hard work and planning of NSW NEEG, with funding from the Energy Research and Development Corporation (ERDC) and the Commonwealth Environment Protection Agency Environment, the first issue of EDG was published in February 1995 – 20 years ago this month! Since then, EDG has helped foster sustainable design thinking for many practitioners. We acknowledge the generosity and dedication of all those who played a part in bringing EDG into existence!

The continuation of EDG also relies on the expertise and contributions from numerous authors, peer reviewers, editors and proof readers. We thank all those who have given their time and expertise and acknowledge them as a part of this publication’s lineage of advocacy. If you know anyone who would like to author, review or get involved, let us know at edg[at]architecture[dot]com[dot]au.

On this 20th anniversary of EDG’s founding, we asked some of these pioneers and early contributors about their take on the past, present and future of EDG and environmental advocacy. Here is what they had to say.

Background and early days

Tim Waldock: I joined NSW NEEG just as they were starting to plan the notes in 1992. I remember David Baggs, Neil Mortensen, John Gelder, Bill Lawson, Garry Wallace and Roger Mostyn being involved early on, deciding subjects and criteria for the notes and who to ask to write them. We had some good notes that had already been published by the NZ Institute as an idea on how to model them (NZIA Environmental Policy Position Papers). Some of us volunteered to write some of the EDG notes ourselves – I did the first ‘Water sensitive design’ note, which became a starting point for many more detailed notes published later. I had a lot of support and interest from Roger Wood at Sydney Water during my research.

We also had some architectural sustainability documents that had been published internationally, including the ‘Declaration of Interdependence for a Sustainable Future’ from the UIA/AIA World Congress of Architecture in June 1993. These became the basis of the first environment policy adopted by the Institute in 1993, subsequently published as an important EDG note in 1995. Later, we decided to rewrite the policy in a way that architects might be better able to act on it. I took on the role of editing the new version while working alongside Juliet Byrnes, Caroline Pidcock and Harry Partridge on this. The final edited version was then adopted by the National Institute and then republished as an updated EDG  note (GEN 01, August 2001).

Allan Rodger: Although EDG came into being in 1995 it came out of a lot of activity that had been going on for many years. About twenty five years earlier Alan and Beth Coldicutt had started modelling energy flows through buildings. By the 1980’s there was extensive work on how buildings and the built environment interacted with wider environmental issues. In 1990 John Davidson, the Australian Vice-President of the UIA, established the first Working Group on the Implications of the Greenhouse Effect for Architecture and the Built Environment that led directly to the 1993 Chicago UIA Congress and the Chicago Declaration of Interdependence for a Sustainable Future. This then became the international manifesto for the profession and set the context for the [Institute’s] own environment policy.

Caroline Pidcock: I decided to join [NSW NEEG] when I started my own practice and decided to focus on sustainability. This was 1992–93. I wanted to meet and talk with people interested and expert in this area and I thought this would be a good place to start. I was delighted to find they were focused on producing something useful with their knowledge, which became EDG. As a relative novice to the area, I helped out where I could – proofread some papers and helped source appropriate people for future papers.

Has EDG met its core objectives of fostering sustainability in the built environment? 

Caroline Pidcock: I think it helped foster a community of interested people and delivers useful advice to the profession of architecture – something that had not been available prior to EDG.

Allan Rodger: Just by existing EDG has had a positive effect. It demonstrated a commitment by the Institute to an emerging challenge and it did so in a way that could be used as a direct influence on architectural practice. Apart from its immediate use [EDG] focused the attention and the creative capacities of the profession on the emerging sustainability challenge.

Advice and hopes for the future of EDG

Mahalath Halprin: Case studies are always good, though [the] content is sometimes biased or unbalanced. Ten years ago, a building with north sun, solar hot water and PVs was pretty exciting; now it’s nothing special. So the case studies need to be more and more innovative or unusual or progressive.

David Baggs: If I had one hope for the future of [EDG] it would be that it engenders the development and coming together of an enlivened, active community  of architects and designers who take sustainability to heart and work it into every design and every decision right from the very outset of their thinking about the design and materials selection.

What advice might you offer to the next generation of sustainable design practitioners and advocates?

Caroline Pidcock: This is the most exciting and interesting focus for architecture – it is critical for everyone to help realise its great potential and excite all design practitioners to desire to know more and incorporate real advice into their work.

Allan Rodger: The overall sustainability challenge will require that the design professions focus more and more on the long term performance and use of the facilities that they design. This will almost certainly involve extending the scope of ‘design’ to encompass designing the patterns of use that complement the performance of their physical products. Put another way, the design product of the future will have to be a functioning system that is at least compatible with – or even contributing to the repair – of the carrying capacities of the local and global environment.

Neil Mortensen: All the tools are available to achieve sustainable design. Unfortunately the real problem is not technical but a social one. It is critical to connect with other professions and bodies involved in sustainable design and support awareness campaigns.

By Noy Hildebrand

AusIndoArch – Tropfix was a cross-cultural conference on tropical architecture hosted by the Northern Territory Chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects and held over 7 and 8 November 2014. The speakers and work represented various parts Indonesia, Australia, other parts of Southeast Asia and beyond. Presentations were peppered with inspiration and material richness on tropical built environments from tropical Jakarta to subtropical Brisbane. For anyone who wanted to attend, who did attend or who are simply curious, this article reports on two days of dynamic presentations and discussions from the event.

The Australian Institute of Architect’s National President David Karotkin asked early in the conference, ‘How do we and should we respond to climate?’ Whether stated explicitly or not, building fabric and air conditioning were very hot topics on both days. In this conference more than most others, it was easier to be corporeally aware of the ever-present air-conditioning, simultaneously providing relief and disconnecting delegates from the local setting.

Tropfix: Palimpsest – layers of inhabitation

The history of international relations in northern Australia is linked to sea cucumbers. The peoples of the lands now a part of Indonesia and Australia had active international relations well before European settlement. The relations between the Indigenous Australians in the Darwin area (Larrakia and others) and the Makassar people of Sulawesi date back to the 1700s – or even as far back as the 1600s or 1400s some historians argue. The Makkasans came to the Top End to harvest sea cucumber, sometimes with the help of the Larrakia and other indigenous people and there is abundant evidence of this contact.

Each of the speakers in this first segment acknowledged the physical, cultural and historic links between the two modern nations. In addition to retelling the story of the region’s shared past, each speaker also shared their personal experiences. Larrakia elder Bilawara Lee, one of two Indigenous Australian speakers at this architecture conference, spoke of Indigenous Australian paradigms and languages, noting that many Makassan words have been embedded into the region’s Indigenous Australian languages. Bilawara Lee also described her childhood home which had gaps between the floors and walls for cooling – both with airflow and when washed down with water.

Professor Baharuddin Hamzah sampled an ambitiously wide range of topics, from the Bugis-Makassar exchange with the Top End, to the thermal comfort of Indonesian vernacular architecture, to daylighting research. One highlight included a study of Indonesian Toraja buildings evolving over time and the thermal comfort impacts of replacing traditional bamboo roofs with modern day zinc-tin roofs.

Tropfix: Urban

A few hundred years after the early exchange, we now have two tropical regions with very similar climates, some similarities in culture and a very different population density. In the segment on tropical urbanisation, NT Government Architect Lawrence Nield suggested that good streets or ‘complete streets’ provide the music of a city; to separate people from the street is to create a ‘toxic’ place. Streets in tropical cities suffer from expanses of asphalt leading to a heat island effect over an already warm, humid city. Encouraging canopy cover over the street and reflective materials for street paving were cited as ways of improving thermal conditions.

Mahditia Paramita presented work by the Housing Resource Centre Indonesia on affordable urban housing projects, including creative ways of managing seasonal flooding and dwelling organisation in these often low-lying or hillside communities.

Steve Thorne of Design Urban in Melbourne presented urban design research from the UK on how people move through cities. He described how the newer street typologies (ie collector roads and freeways which replaced high streets and regional roads respectively) separate people from streets, which then become devoid of street life. From here, he shared a proposed master plan for Darwin and also began to explore what urban design means in the tropics.

Tropfix: Fabric

In the segment Tropfix Fabric, Jo Best of Troppo Architects questioned the use of materials like concrete block in tropical climate. She also observed that of our buildings codes appear to be biased toward the ‘air-conditioned Esky’ rather than breathing buildings with fans.

The work of Adi Purnomo of Mamostudio seemed to approach architecture as strategic interventions with an urban-scale impact. Starting with an examination of what’s missing in an urban site context, the Bogor based studio’s work introduces smart moves like rainwater collection pools, green roofs, walls and grass berms into cities that have very limited green space and use vast amounts of electricity for cooling. It is not every day one gets to observe such creative ways of addressing energy use reduction, urban ecology and rainwater harvesting.

Ninotchka Titschkosky of BVN presented a number of large, institutional buildings around Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast, many of which explored the brise soleil (or sun shade) as a ‘dissolved’ wall of an outdoor room. Most notable was an auditorium that opened out into a large terrace space, where it appeared that the stage floor doubles as a part of a larger function space.

2014 Gold Medal AS Hook Address

Air conditioning was ever present both in the discussions on buildings and physically in the convention centre venue. The charmingly rebellious exception to the otherwise mechanically cooled conference was Christ Church Cathedral, the venue of the 2014 AS Hook Address entitled ‘From Me to You’ by the 2014 Gold Medalists Adrian Welke and Phil Harris. (The church has very large, well-appreciated ceiling fans.) It was refreshing to hear of AS Hook’s advocacy work in a naturally ventilated, daylit environment. A remarkably inspiring, intelligent and humorous talk.

Tropfix: Responsible

Eko Prawato presented his own work, which appears to have found a remarkable balance between architecture and craft. The buildings of Yogyakarta based Eko Prawato Architecture Workshop reflected a deep understanding of the virtues of local craftsmen, local materials and reused materials.

In presenting the work of Sydney based Marrah + Yeh, Carol Marra showed how their buildings reinterpret, rather than simply reproduce, vernacular methods passive cooling, such as by detailing ventilation slots into floors.

Yogi Ferdinand of Jakarta based SHAU architecture + urbanism presented a particularly interesting example of (unbuilt) tropical urban density in a project called Muara Angke Social Housing. This multi-unit housing project consolidates a Jakarta fishing village into mid-rise ‘vertical villages’ with shared courtyards, shared open spaces and roof gardens; these shared open spaces relate to the community’s specific activities and livelihood.

Tropfix: Collaborative

Wendy Djuhara opened her talk by sharing that she is part of a minority group – Indonesian female architects. The small projects of djuhara+djuhara included a kindergarten and an elevated house, both of which packed quite a punch. Innovative uses of standard materials and features – ceramic block and an existing parti wall – demonstrated her work’s sensibility and ingenuity toward craft and construction.

In many architectural presentations, the speaker directs the audience’s attention to a place and time other than the present setting. This was not the case when listening to Tania Dennis of Townsville based Insideout Architects and her client Tom E Lewis describe the process of client education and designing the Djakanimba Pavilions. The pavilions in Wugularr (or Beswick) are elevated and designed work in both the tropical dry and wet seasons, where site access can be by car or boat respectively.

Richard Leplastrier closed the this segment of the conference with a beautiful description of the regional wind currents and sail boats that helped the Makassan voyages between the Indonesian archipelago and the Australian northeast coasts.

Tropfix: Resilient – responding to disaster

Conference creative director Andrea Nield opened this segment by highlighting the tendency of the Torrid Zone (or tropical zone between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn) to experience monsoons, cyclones, flooding and in some cases, earthquakes and tsunamis. Each architect discussed how they have responded to disaster via community engagement.

Co-founder of Architectes de l’Urgence (or Emergency Architects) Patrick Coulombel shared the organisation’s work assessing the post-disaster safety of buildings, the process of reconstruction and where they work around the world.

Eko Prawoto shared his reconstruction efforts from various communities and disasters around Indonesia. He wrapped up his story of awaking the morning after an earthquake to find that his own town of had been flattened. Reconstruction efforts that included himself and around 50 people rebuilt over 100 physical structures in the town in 90 days. He shared many lessons learned from the process of rebuilding in general and for a community of which he is a part.

Ninotschka Titchkosky shared the story the Narbethong Community Hall, Victoria. The process of planning and building the hall was critical to the community’s social and physical recovery from the 2009 bushfires in Victoria, which for the Shire of Murrindindi, took numerous lives and destroyed nearly half of the area, including many dwellings and community facilities.

Out there – social media and architectural discourse to a wider public

Imelda Akmal, editor-in-chief of Archinesia presented research on the different ways that Indonesians architects (and politicians) use social media to connect people across an archipelago of 17,000 islands, over long distances of water and difficult terrain. One architect mentioned – Gede Kresna – managed to attract an international following despite living very remotely. Cameron Bruhn, editorial director of Architecture Media relayed how the less formal channels of social media can be a rich source for leads in traditional forms of media, such as magazine like Architecture Australia.

In closing

What could one take away from the the AusIndoArch conference and events?

1. There are so many ways of practising architecture. Designing built environments is one way; others include various types of advocacy, teaching, making and researching.
2. Interesting architectural projects are not determined by size alone. Small projects can embody interesting and meaningful responses to the urban, environmental and cultural context, depending on the design approach and contributions to place. Large projects are not necessarily more interesting or meaningful or useful simply due to their size.
3. Problems not understood holistically cannot be addressed holistically. Thermal comfort in the tropics is not only an engineering or even only an intellectual problem. First and foremost, it is a corporeal issue.
4. Inspiration can come from anywhere – our new methods of social media can connect people across distance and time; the important thing is to keep looking, learning and reflecting.

Despite this vast expanse of geography, scale, culture and modes of practice, it seems that it was the balanced use of the hand, head and heart in design which has produced incredibly engaging work – as well as an unbelievably rich conference. This abundance was also reflected in the impeccable organisation of the diverse streams by the very capable conference organisers and events team alike. I look forward to seeing where the conversations take off from here.