With properly applied green strategies, sites with steep slopes can offer good passive design and innovative solutions that are not possible with conventional flat sites.
(First of 2 parts)
There are few things more daunting than having to design a home on a challenging site with a steep slope. And when the client specifies that the house be as green as possible, the project becomes much more challenging.
The project called for the design of a green retirement house on a farm meant to keep them physically and mentally active while enjoying the produce from the farm.
The chosen site has a steep slope which presents some stringent constraints, affecting the structure and the building area, such as minimizing the amount of cut and fill to accommodate the structure. A thorough soil analysis was translated into a sound structural design to ensure that the building and the soil are stable.
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With properly applied strategies, sites with steep slopes can offer good passive design and innovative solutions that are not possible with conventional flat sites.
Passive design principles were applied in the project. Passive design is design that takes advantage of local climatic conditions to maintain comfortable level of temperature indoors. Passive design reduces dependence on electro-mechanical equipment to cool a home, which would normally account for about 40 percent or more of energy cost in most tropical climates.
