Best before...Ecological building once had the stigma of back-to-nature and tree huggers, nowadays ecological building is often seen as the optimisation of of building technology. When the building design is completed, the correct materials and details are determined by using checklists and by consulting environmental experts. In the specification phase the design is worked up to get a good environmental score. The environmental impact is less and the client can be satisfied because he can label his building as environmentally friendly. The necessary improvement in energy- and material efficiency is seen as a positive development. But fundamental changes are only made when one considers the buildings and the city of tomorrow on a conceptual level. authors: Jacques Vink and Piet Vollaard Durability
Best before...Materials can be used more effectively by tuning the structural lifetime of a building to the functional lifetime of a building. Buildings that last long require solid detailing and materials that will withstand the test of time. On the other hand, temporary buildings ask for much less material-intensive solutions. Durable building is often automatically translated in building for the long haul. People sadly refer to that good old time in which bicycles were indestructible and your home still stood as a house. This strategy only makes sense when the structural lifetime actually connects to a long functional lifetime. This is certainly true for some of our buildings. Just look at a number of large houses in old city centres that have defied centuries. But by far the largest part of our buildings has a much shorter functional lifetime. The design-specifications of corporate buildings, schools and offices change every decade. Besides that there is also a difference in the life expectancy of the different parts from which the building is built. On average façades of offices do not last longer than 15 years and there are almost no buildings left which still use the installations of 30 years ago. The coal or oil burning installations have in the meantime been exchanged for gas burning installations. And in the future everything will have to be converted to using solar energy. Since 1970 the cabling of our buildings has broken the city open many times because of the growth of telecommunication.
Flexible construction and temporary architectureIn our rapidly changing society temporary buildings will probably perform better than the current buildings that last 30 to 50 years. The proposal for light and temporary construction is based on the idea of shortening of production cycles. Light and informal town planning advocates for a less heavy infrastructure and a larger contribution of its inhabitants. Throw away buildings that can be recycled after a decade. Deposit offices, moveable residence units or designs for biodegradable buildings. That this is not a 'modern' phenomenon is proven by the fact that half-timbered houses in the Alsace are viewed as moving goods. The buildings consist of wooden frames filled in with clay-based elements. Half-timbered houses are easy to disassemble; the filling is chopped away between the beams and the frame that remains can easily be disassembled to be assembled again in another place. By that it is a good example of a combination of temporary- and durable building in which the main carrying construction is designed for a long lifetime and the finishing is light and replaceable.
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Durability
is central in the discussion about the environment. Currently the word
is often taken literally: it must have a long duration. Translated to
building and building materials: you must be able to use it for a long
time. Translated to energy sources: it must take a long time before
they run out, or in other words we must sparsely use the (ending) energy
supply. This is a one-sided explanation of the theme that seems suggested
by the Dutch choice of summarising the environmental theme with the
term 'durable'. In English the word 'sustainable' is chosen and not
'durable'. In other words our lifestyle must be sustainable for many
generations. The idea behind durability is not that everything must
last longer but that we have to be more efficient with energy, materials
and the space that we have left. Since scarcity threatens and the byproducts
of our activities change our environment.
Another
argument against the new solidity is that due to the fast pace of our
technological advances projects which are now seen as extremely efficient
can waste relatively a lot of energy in the future. Washing machines
are designed based on those innovative predictions. Based on the expected
new technologies there is consciously chosen to build efficient 'the
state of the art' machines with just enough material to last to the
next development. The ING building in Amsterdam, by the architects Alberts
& van Huut, was for a long time the flagship of ecological building.
Compared to the newest ecological projects this building now has a mediocrity
performance. Because of it's solid construction this building will last
for decades, and will perhaps become a notorious waster of energy in
the future.
Immovables
and moveables