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House R 128 is a modernist single-family house in Stuttgart, Germany, built in 1999/2000 by architect Werner Sobek. The house features a modular and recyclable design, is completely glazed and has no interior dividing walls. It is computerized and meets its own energy requirements completely. [1]
The name of the house is derived from its location at Römerstrasse 128, which is a small and steep piece of land at the edge of the vale of Stuttgart. When the house was built, it was paid a great amount of attention in the architectural world. The building is shaped like a cube, has four levels and is wrapped by a glass shield. All components can be segregated for recycling. There are no walls or closed rooms (apart from the bathrooms) and only few pieces of furniture. The transparency is supposed to create the impression that one lives outdoors exposed to nature. Owing to its passive solar architecture with triple-glazed walls, the house needs no energy for heating. Seasonal temperature shifts are balanced by a seasonal thermal energy store. Electricity is generated by solar cells. Every item in the house is computer-controlled.
A building or edifice is an enclosed structure with a roof and walls, usually standing permanently in one place, such as a house or factory. Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and functions, and have been adapted throughout history for numerous factors, from building materials available, to weather conditions, land prices, ground conditions, specific uses, prestige, and aesthetic reasons. To better understand the concept, see Nonbuilding structure for contrast.
In passive solar building design, windows, walls, and floors are made to collect, store, reflect, and distribute solar energy, in the form of heat in the winter and reject solar heat in the summer. This is called passive solar design because, unlike active solar heating systems, it does not involve the use of mechanical and electrical devices.
An earth shelter, also called an earth house, earth bermed house, or underground house, is a structure with earth (soil) against the walls, on the roof, or that is entirely buried underground.
A greenhouse is a structure that allows people to regulate climatic conditions, such as temperature and humidity. There are many different designs of greenhouses; however, in general these buildings include large areas of transparent material to capture the light and heat of the sun. The three most common transparent materials used in the roof and walls of modern greenhouses are rigid plastics made of polycarbonate, plastic films made of polyethylene or glass panes. When the interior of a greenhouse is exposed to sunlight, the internal temperature rises and shelters the plants from cold weather.
Sustainable living describes a lifestyle that attempts to reduce the use of Earth's natural resources by an individual or society. Its practitioners often attempt to reduce their ecological footprint by altering their home designs and methods of transportation, energy consumption and diet. Its proponents aim to conduct their lives in ways that are consistent with sustainability, naturally balanced, and respectful of humanity's symbiotic relationship with the Earth's natural ecology. The practice and general philosophy of ecological living closely follows the overall principles of sustainable development.
A solar thermal collector collects heat by absorbing sunlight. The term "solar collector" commonly refers to a device for solar hot water heating, but may refer to large power generating installations such as solar parabolic troughs and solar towers or non water heating devices such as solar cooker, solar air heaters.
An Earthship is a style of architecture developed in the late 20th century to early 21st century by architect Michael Reynolds. Earthships are designed to behave as passive solar earth shelters made of both natural and upcycled materials such as earth-packed tires. Earthships may feature a variety of amenities and aesthetics, and are designed to withstand the extreme temperatures of a desert, managing to stay close to 70 °F (21 °C) regardless of outside weather conditions. Earthship communities were originally built in the desert of northern New Mexico, near the Rio Grande, and the style has spread to small pockets of communities around the globe, in some cases in spite of legal opposition to its construction and adoption.
A concrete block, also known as a cinder block in North American English, breeze block in British English, concrete masonry unit (CMU), or by various other terms, is a standard-size rectangular block used in building construction. The use of blockwork allows structures to be built in the traditional masonry style with layers of staggered blocks.
Modular design, or modularity in design, is a design principle that subdivides a system into smaller parts called modules, which can be independently created, modified, replaced, or exchanged with other modules or between different systems.
Sustainable architecture is architecture that seeks to minimize the negative environmental impact of buildings through improved efficiency and moderation in the use of materials, energy, development space and the ecosystem at large. Sustainable architecture uses a conscious approach to energy and ecological conservation in the design of the built environment.
A Zero-Energy Building (ZEB), also known as a Net Zero-Energy (NZE) building, is a building with net zero energy consumption, meaning the total amount of energy used by the building on an annual basis is equal to the amount of renewable energy created on the site or in other definitions by renewable energy sources offsite, using technology such as heat pumps, high efficiency windows and insulation, and solar panels.
Werner Sobek is a German architect and structural engineer.
The Exelon Pavilions are four buildings that generate electricity from solar energy and provide access to underground parking in Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The Northeast Exelon Pavilion and Northwest Exelon Pavilion are located on the northern edge of the park along Randolph Street, and flank the Harris Theater. The Southeast Exelon Pavilion and Southwest Exelon Pavilion are located on the southern edge of the park along Monroe Street, and flank the Lurie Garden. Together the pavilions generate 19,840 kilowatt-hours (71,400 MJ) of electricity annually, worth about $2,350 per year.
Solar architecture is an architectural approach that takes in account the Sun to harness clean and renewable solar power. It is related to the fields of optics, thermics, electronics and materials science. Both active and passive solar housing skills are involved in solar architecture.
The ITC Grand Chola is a 5-star luxury hotel in Chennai, India. It is located in Guindy, opposite SPIC building and along the same row of buildings as Ashok Leyland Towers. The building, designed by Singapore-based SRSS Architects, is of mixed-use development with three separate wings and is themed after traditional Dravidian architecture of the Chola dynasty. The hotel is the ninth hotel in The Luxury Collection brand.
Glazing, which derives from the Middle English for 'glass', is a part of a wall or window, made of glass. Glazing also describes the work done by a professional "glazier". Glazing is also less commonly used to describe the insertion of ophthalmic lenses into an eyeglass frame.
The RMIT Design Hub is a research, archive, exhibition, and studio space of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Australia located on the historic Carlton & United Breweries site.
The Iset Tower is a 52-story skyscraper in the Yekaterinburg-City business district of Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk Oblast. It is the tallest building in Yekaterinburg and the 16th tallest building in Russia, with a record height of 212.8 metres (698 ft). It was also the tallest building outside Moscow until it was surpassed by the Lakhta Center of Saint Petersburg. It became the tallest structure of Yekaterinburg on 24 March 2018 when the unfinished TV Tower nearby was demolished as part of the city’s beautification program in preparation for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Zero-heating building or nearly zero-heating building (nZHB) is a building having essentially zero heating demand, defined as having heating demand, Q’NH, less than 3 kWh/(m2a). The zero-heating building is intended for use in heating-dominated areas. The purpose of the zero-heating building is to supersede net-zero energy buildings as a way to bring building-related greenhouse gas emissions to zero in the EU. Zero-heating buildings address flawed net-zero energy buildings: the requirement for seasonal energy storage, in some cases poor comfort of living and narrow design options.