Pilotproject for Sustainable settlement

Pilotprojekt for Bredygtig bostning

Client: Sopiro Foundation Sopiro is esperanto for longing Sopiro er esperanto for lngsel Klient: Sopiro Fonden

Pilotproject for sustainable settlement

Contents

Pilotproject for sustainable settlement

Enghavevej 61 DK-1674 Kbenhavn V T +45 3322 7282 E hhc@cnco.dk www.cnco.dk

Introduction Building with loam

with Skaarup & Jespersen A/S

2 pages 2 pages

Recirculation of wastewater
with Vandteknologi Aps

2 pages

Renewable energy supply

with ESBENSEN A/S

3 pages

Self sufciency gardening

with Jens Holmegaard

2 pages

Pilot project for a sustainable settlement

Pilot project for a sustainable settlement

Introduction In various aspects of our daily life we are observing an increasing need for new approaches and thinking. In our building and housing policies, the way our food is grown and handled, sustainability in our daily life and geography of the population. It is difcult in our thoroughly regulated and built-up communities to create a full scale new approach or example of alternative solutions. The present pilot project is such an attempt at creating a new building, housing and localization possibility, which is truly sustainable and very exible with regard to the very different demands to our housing, dwellings and their surroundings. At the same time this model includes recycling of household wastewater, renewable energy from solar and wind power and self-sufciency with vegetables, fruits and berries. The pilot projects unit for 20 persons will be realized on the borderline between rural and urban zoning and adjacent to a small declining village population in Oerby on the island of Samsoe. The project will be developed in close cooperation with the local village residents. It will be integrated into and around the existing build-up area thus stimulating the future growth of the village to between an ideal 300-600 inhabitants from the present less than 100. Furthermore the project will be duplicated with a 200-room conference and resort facility in nearby larger shing village and tourist resort - Ballen - along the exact same lines as the pilot project, which will function as teaching and demonstration institution for the ideas behind the pilot settlement. The concept can be used in renewing existing residential suburban areas on a small scale as well as large scale developments. The
Pilot project for a sustainable settlement Introduction

land requirements, even with self-sufciency in vegetables and energy, are equal to that of a normal Danish suburban neighbourhood of single family homes with garden. The concept can be used all over the world because of its exibility and sustainability. With relatively few high technology components local craftsmen everywhere with only little further training can implement it. Denmark provides the optimal conditions for developing the concept. We have a need ourselves, but also have a structure and technical knowledge, which can speed up the process of development. A fast expansion of the concept worldwide will be supported by the use here in Denmark and in the European Union. The four elements of the model are described in brief in corporation with the individual partners. Each element can of course be developed on its own, but here they are integrated to exploit and investigate their optimal dimensioning and coherence. There are no new inventions as such in the concepts various components, but rather a new approach in the combination of the different parts, their use and dimensioning in relation to the whole of the concept.
Hans H. Christensen Arkitekt MAA

Pilot project for a sustainable settlement

Introduction

Building with loam

Building with loam

Building with unburned loam is the oldest and most widely used way of building worldwide and has, up to our time, also been a generally used method in Denmark. While various building methods with soil are used today around the world, this pilot project will test a technique, which has not yet been used in Denmark. The reason being to investigate whether the obvious advantages of the method are also suitable in our climate and culture - here especially the ability to insulate and regulate humidity and to judge whether the simplicity in form and construction meets with success. Loam in abundance and building quality is found everywhere on earth. Also in Denmark. Formed and dried in brick form it becomes so-called adobe-bricks. The self-supporting shapes of the cupola and the parable are used for the buildings allowing the use of only one material to form both walls and roong and thus avoiding the problems of joining different materials.The thickness of the wall/roof creates insulation as well as constructive self-support. One or more coatings of plaster nish the walls inside and out. The plaster is clay based as well. The surface is secured by a coating of a diffusion open polymer material hitherto not used in construction for this purpose. It has the quality besides being weatherproof of not being broken down by ultra violet light but rather, over time, hardens and increases in strength. Dimensions tested for wall- and roof thicknesses will be the common norms for adobe in the USA: 16 and 20 or 40 and 50 cm. An Iranian double cupola technique for the roofconstruction will be tested for its insolating properties. Several cupola and parables have been built in red bricks without problems in the 1990s by several technical schools and the Masons Union in Denmark. These projects illustrate the aesthetic
Pilot project for a sustainable settlement Building with loam

qualities as well as the positive interior climate inherent in these construction forms. It is estimated that insolating value of the dry loam in these interior shapes is sufcient to achieve an insolating value against cold as well as heat which will reduce the need for energy for both heating and cooling. This is the case under climatic conditions comparable to ours. Deposits of usable loam are found everywhere in Denmark. Thus transportation and manufacturing costs are very little, compared with traditional building materials. Preliminary calculations of the production energy needed to be only 5% of that needed for traditional building materials. Further more, the loam is totally reusable. A building being demolished can be formed into a new building or be given back to the earth without problems or pollution or excessive energy demands. Finally, the interior climatic qualities of loam are superior both as a regulator of humidity and due to its air cleansing properties. The architectural idiom will be new, for Danish architecture, but its wealth of combinational possibilities gives many new formal solutions with attractive results. These new building forms will be using natures own form language. The cupola and parable are geometric parts of the egg form. Architects will be presented with an exciting challenge in an innitely variable combination of organic volumes. In the pilot project a housing cluster for 20 persons is a prelude to a 200 room hotel project and furthermore will be extended into and around the village adjacent to the pilot site. Planning could be for various forms of collective households as well, with varying proportional sizes of private, semi-private and common rooms. The versatility of the building form will be apparent in the detail in the pilot project and later in the different designs of clusters of various sizes in the hotel project and in the planned extension of the village. Loam, as a building material, has almost innite possibilities for shapes and will inspire architects and artists to experiment with varied and artistically new expression both with the format and the different ornamentation possibilities for the ornamentation the pilot project will take its inspiration in the Nordic cultures in as well inner as outer surfaces.
Pilot project for a sustainable settlement Building with loam

Recirculation of wastewater

VandTeknologi Aps

Recirculation of wastewater

The goal is to purify the grey and the black household wastewater and recycle it for use in the toilet cisterns, dishwashers and washing machines. Below is a ow diagram for the purication of the wastewater. The waste waster will be puried in a biological treatment system, which is designed as follows: * The grey and black wastewater is led to one or more septic tanks where the rst sediment of the faeces, toilet paper, detergents etc. is decomposed.
Flowdiagram for biologisk rensning af spildevand fra boliger og vaskerier
Spildevand fra boliger og vaskerier Granderudstyr Supplering af vand Tilstning af bakteriedrber Trykpumpe Preskontrol

Septik tank
Overl b til kloak

Aquakul turomr.

Rentvand tank
Overlb til faskine

Til forbrugende enheder

From the septic tanks the water is led into the tanks with mineral/biological lters. The rst tanks have an aquaculture part, which is built with lava as grow medium for the bacteria, shes and plants. By using airlift pumps the water is aerated and forced to run through the lter material in which the bacteria brake down the nutrients in the water. The plants are able to use the nutrients and thereby purifying the water. The sh feed on the nutrients in the water and their urine and faeces provide fodder for the bacteria in the lava lters. After the aquaculture tanks the water is let to a constructed wetland system, mostly lled with lava stones and green plants. The plants are immersed 5 - 8 cm into the water. After this last biological treatment the water is clear as drinking water (very few suspended solids) and is led into a holding tank. Before re-use, the water is further puried to drinking water quality, as far as the microbiological parameters are concerned (no pathogens), by running it through a sand lter, Grander Technology and a UV-ltration.
Pilotprojekt for bredygtig bostning Recirkulering af brugsvand

VandTeknologi Aps

To avoid unpleasant odours from the septic tanks, the methane gas is led to an earth lung system. An earth lung is a tank lled with 1/3 of biodegradable material at the bottom such as bark, grass, leaves, saw dust, wood chops, 1/3 of a mixture of sand, gravel, lava stones, zeolite, bentonite and clay and on top 1/3 is a layer of topsoil with living plants. The biological treatment system can be built in many ways and can be placed on the ground, partly dug into the ground, in a greenhouse or inside a building. If the treatment system is placed outside, indigenous evergreen plants are used. The water tanks must be over 1.3 meters deep and aerated in order to avoid freezing in the winter. Recirculation of water in the swimming-pool area Is somewhat simpler than the description above. The water from the swimming pool will be pumped through a constructed wetland in order to be ltrated and puried. The Grander Technology combined with an active carbon lter enriched with a polymer will treat the water so that the water purity reaches drinking quality
Flowdiagram for biologisk rensning af badevand i badeomrde
Granderudstyr Supplering af vand Tils tning af bakteriedrber Cirkulationspumpe

Septik tank

Aquakul turomr.

Badomr. de

Pilot project for a sustainable settlement

Recirculation of wastewater

Renewable energy supply

Renewable energy supply

The village and hotel concepts will be founded in an environmental and sustainable fundamental view. Both in the construction as well as in the operation, sustainability will be illustrated with the greatest possible regard for the environment. In order to integrate the sustainable thinking it is important to visualize various energy and sustainable ideas in an architectural and aesthetically beautiful manner as inspiration for the inhabitants of the village and guests of the hotel. Allowance must be made for a number of local conditions e.g. use of the surrounding areas, the character of the infrastructure / supply systems and especially for the ideas on the buildings constructions. (Design of the buildings, engineering, installations, choice of materials a.o.). The following description contains the use of solar heating, thermally as well as passive, solar assisted natural ventilation, photovoltaic solar energy, solar cooling, accumulation and recycling of rainwater and cleaning of grey as well as black waste water. Active solar heating In connection with the settlement a large solar heating plant will be placed centrally or near the communal building and not at the individual houses. This allows the solar heating plant to be connected to a common automatic stoker run on wooden pellets.The solar heating plant will contribute to the heating of the warm water and to the oor heating in the dwellings (low temperature). The size of the solar heating plant will be constructed so that the covering degree will be at 60% on an annually basis. The water in the solar collector system well, as well as the water used for oor heating will be Grander water. Passive solar heating Through the passive solar heating, the free warmth of the sun is accumulated in the heavy construction of the buildings in this case
Pilot project for a sustainable settlement Renewable energy supply

the walls made of clay. The loss of heat from the clay houses is reduced by the use of super low energy windows. In addition to the heating as described above, there will be a Finnish mass-oven placed in every house. In this way the whole heating system will be based on renewable energy sources. Solar assisted natural ventilation In connection with the roof integrated windows, openings will be placed at the top of every loam house. This secures the advantages of natural ventilation and optimal daylight in the houses. In connection with the low energy windows, opening will be placed to secure replacement air. Photovoltaic solar energy The electricity supply will be connected with the local electricity supply company. The aim is to have a photovoltaic plant (solar cell plant) that covers the majority of the electricity consumption in the dwellings, the communal house and the hotel. The aim is that the size of the photovoltaic plant will cover approximately 25% of the electricity consumption in each dwelling. Windmills will cover the remaining 75% and during peak load situations, electricity will be bought from the public electricity grid. Solar cooling for vegetables Solar heating will also be used for the production of ice used for cooling of the local vegetable production. This ice bank will be made after the cooling by absorption principle. Consequently the temo perature in the storeroom has to be high at least 80 90 C in order to be effective. The solar collector must therefore be highly effective, and therefore not a regular solar collector. The solar collector cannot cover the cooling demand for the entire year, and that is why there has to be a back up e.g. a small automatic stoker. Wind energy A windmill will be placed close to the village.The windmill will cover the remaining 75% of the electricity consumption in the dwellings and the electricity consumption of the future hotel. The windmill will also be connected to the electricity grid. The remaining electricity will be sold.
Pilot project for a sustainable settlement Renewable energy supply

Self sufciency gardening

Self sufciency gardening

A gardening activity will be established immediately beside the settlement. Its purpose is to demonstrate and document the areas necessary and desirable which will guarantee a varied supply of healthy food to the settlement. The gardens will produce vegetables, berries, fruit, herbs and ornamental plants. The gardens will create beautiful and exciting surroundings for the dwellings. The gardens are laid out so that they support such sustainable elements of the settlement as energy supply and water circulation. This also applies to the social aspect of sustainability.

Food production
Area requirements and cropping Species and vegetable sorts, root crops, fruit and berries are selected focusing on their value for healthy nutrition. Practical experience shows that an area of 200 square meters per person is adequate. The total area needed for the unit of 20 persons in the experiment then requires a total of 4000 square meters. In the rst stage the project will work without animal husbandry, grain cultivation, oil plants or other biomass production, but the perspective will be included and the space needed will be estimated. Method and workload The objective is to make the best possible use of the positive interaction between plants and conduct research to nd the physical and biological proportions, which guarantee an optimal production and a community with aesthetic qualities. It is estimated that the working capacity of a single person will
Pilot project for a sustainable settlement Self sufciency gardening

be sufcient to run the gardening. The rest of the residents have the opportunity to participate out of a more creative motivation.

The overall objective in landscape planning The many individual elements and smaller components will be located and scaled in a way that forms part of the settlement and landscape in a visually pleasing way. The golden section will be the major planning principle.

Evolution of the System Nature has its own rhythm and the gardens will, with time, show us its own evolutionary process, but within a year there will be a fairly good idea of the future structure. Documentation and dissemination Agriculture and horticulture has a long tradition in Denmark. Therefore it is remarkable that research or investigations into the productive capacity of theself-sufciency garden are so spare. Over the last few years experience has been gleaned in gardens at alternative settlements. There is also documentation from an experiment conducted by an institution for adult education. Further historical sources will supply the fundament of knowledge, which will be the documented basis for this practical example. The project will test, document and disseminate knowledge on the general principles of sustainable food production. Constitution of space, elements and interaction - carried out in a Samsoe-model- will illustrate the relative proportions in a sustainable food production, irrespective of its geographical localization. The project will teach and publish information on the practice and the experience gained. The spectrum of measures will extend from information technology to examples of practical gardening.

Pilot project for a sustainable settlement

Self sufciency gardening