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Sustainable Engineering Design
Published in J.K. Yates, Daniel Castro-Lacouture, Sustainability in Engineering Design and Construction, 2018
J.K. Yates, Daniel Castro-Lacouture
Another sustainability design consideration is designing for passive survivability in buildings. The intent of passive survivability is to ensure a safe environment in the event of severe weather events, electrical power grid failures, or terrorist attacks. Passive survivability designs consider cooling load avoidance, capabilities for natural ventilation, high-efficiency thermal envelopes (physical separators between the conditioned and unconditioned environments of a building including the resistance to air, water, heat, light, and noise transfer), passive solar gain, and daylighting. Many of the elements designed into structures for passive survivability are similar to the elements recommended for green structures. Strategies for designing for survivability include the following (Kibert 2008, p. 349): Configure heating equipment to operate on photovoltaic cell power.Create a high-performance envelope.Create storm-resilient structures.Incorporate passive solar heating.Install composting toilets and waterless urinals.Limit building heights.Minimize cooling loads.Provide for food production in the site plan.Provide for natural ventilation.Provide natural daylighting.Provide photovoltaic power.Provide solar water heating.Store water on site: consider using rainwater to maintain a cistern.Where appropriate, consider wood heat.
Toward a standardized framework for thermal resilience modelling and its practical application to futureproofing
Published in Science and Technology for the Built Environment, 2022
Ted Kesik, William O’brien, Aylin Ozkan
Resilience of our built environment hinges on a large number of interrelated factors that differ across geographic and climatic regions, as well as between cities, towns and rural communities. One critical determinant of resilience is passive survivability—a building's ability to maintain critical life-support conditions in the event of extended loss of power, heating fuel, or water. Passive survivability involves a number of aspects including thermal moderation, water, food and emergency medical supplies—it speaks to a prolonged power outage resulting from an extreme condition which could be related to a severe climate event, infrastructure crisis or conflict situation (Wilson 2005). Examples of outcomes stemming from inadequate passive survivability include hypothermia, heat stroke, water shortage, food spoilage, freezing/bursting of water pipes, computer system meltdowns/flooding, etc. It is an extreme condition with serious negative consequences for the occupants, the building, its equipment and contents.
Editorial: Smart and healthy within the two-degree limit
Published in Architectural Science Review, 2021
Kevin Ka-Lun Lau, Kwong Fai Fong
Nowadays climate-sensitive building design receives wide recognition for its capability of adapting to local climate and contribute to the target of net zero carbon emission. Buildings are designed for “passive survivability” so that they will stay habitable without external power for an extended period. Givoni’s work laid down the foundation and inspired numerous designers and researchers in the last five decades. The modern architectural field requires new directions and practical solutions to deal with modern challenges. Each paper in this special issue highlights a current issue we must conquer in order to create a more resilient and sustainable built environment. It also identifies the opportunities for pioneering thinking and emerging new design.