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SoLo House
The SoLo House is an atypical alpine home designed by architecture firm Perkins and Will for Delta Land Development, a Vancouver-based real estate firm. The 4090 square foot (380 m2) complex is situated on an isolated forested knoll overlooking the Soo Valley on the coast of British Columbia. The main house contains an open living and kitchen space, dining area, bathroom, and master bedroom on the main floor and two additional bedrooms and bathrooms on the loft level. The auxiliary building houses the battery system and hydrogen fuel cell is placed just to the south of the main house. Perkins and Will expressed that the SoLo House was created as a prototype intended to inform larger projects. It acts as an example of a future way to build for the environment while still maintaining function and aesthetic.Martin Michael, “SoLo - A Performance-Led Approach.” December 11, 2020. Project video of architect and client, 11:25. https://perkinswill.com/project/solo/ Its design demonstrat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, forests, lakes, mountains, inland deserts and grassy plains, and borders the province of Alberta to the east and the Yukon and Northwest Territories to the north. With an estimated population of 5.3million as of 2022, it is Canada's third-most populous province. The capital of British Columbia is Victoria and its largest city is Vancouver. Vancouver is the third-largest metropolitan area in Canada; the 2021 census recorded 2.6million people in Metro Vancouver. The first known human inhabitants of the area settled in British Columbia at least 10,000 years ago. Such groups include the Coast Salish, Tsilhqotʼin, and Haida peoples, among many others. One of the earliest British settlements in the area was Fort Victoria, established ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Perkins And Will
Perkins&Will is a global design practice founded in 1935. Since 1986, the group has been a subsidiary of Lebanon-based Dar Al-Handasah (Arabic: دار الهندسة). Phil Harrison has been the firm's CEO since 2006. History The firm was established in by Lawrence Perkins (1907–1998) and Philip Will (1906–1985). Perkins and Will met while studying architecture at Cornell University. The company was founded in Chicago. The company attracted national attention in 1940 with the Crow Island School in Winnetka, Illinois, designed in association with Eliel Saarinen and Eero Saarinen. In 1986, Dar Al-Handasah, a Lebanese consulting firm, purchased Perkins&Will. In 2016, the company had 24 global offices and 2,000 employees. In March 2014, Perkins&Will announced its planned acquisition of The Freelon Group, led by Philip Freelon. After the close of the transaction, Freelon joined Perkins and Will's board of directors and became managing and design director of the firm's North Carol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Off-the-grid
Off-the-grid or off-grid is a characteristic of buildings and a lifestyle designed in an independent manner without reliance on one or more public utilities. The term "off-the-grid" traditionally refers to not being connected to the electrical grid, but can also include other utilities like water, gas, and sewer systems, and can scale from residential homes to small communities. Off-the-grid living allows for buildings and people to be self-sufficient, which is advantageous in isolated locations where normal utilities cannot reach and is attractive to those who want to reduce environmental impact and cost of living. Generally, an off-grid building must be able to supply energy and potable water for itself, as well as manage food, waste and wastewater. Energy Energy for electrical power and heating can be generated on-site with renewable energy sources such as solar (particularly with photovoltaics), wind, or micro hydro. Additional forms of energy include biomass, commonly in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sustainable Design
Environmentally sustainable design (also called environmentally conscious design, eco-design, etc.) is the philosophy of designing physical objects, the built environment, and services to comply with the principles of ecological sustainability and also aimed at improving the health and comfortability of occupants in a building.McLennan, J. F. (2004), The Philosophy of Sustainable Design Sustainable design seeks to reduce negative impacts on the environment, the health and well-being of building occupants, thereby improving building performance. The basic objectives of sustainability are to reduce the consumption of non-renewable resources, minimize waste, and create healthy, productive environments. Theory The sustainable design intends to "eliminate negative environmental impact through skillful sensitive design". Manifestations of sustainable design require renewable resources and innovation to impact the environment minimally, and connect people with the natural environment. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Squamish First Nation
The Squamish Nation, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw () in Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Sníchim (Squamish language), is an Indian Act government originally imposed on the Squamish (''Sḵwx̱wú7mesh'') by the Federal Government of Canada in the late 19th century. The Squamish are Indigenous to British Columbia, Canada. Their band government comprises 8 elected councillors, serving four-year terms, with an elected band manager. Their main reserves are near the town of Squamish, British Columbia and around the mouths of the Capilano River, Mosquito Creek, and Seymour River on the north shore of Burrard Inlet in North Vancouver, British Columbia. History The 'Squamish Nation', is an amalgamation of different villages, which became reserves under the Indian Act which the Canadian government imposed on the Squamish people. The origin of the Squamish Nation dates back to the late 19th century, when missionaries and Canadian government officials created a puppet government under the Indian Act ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second Growth Forest
A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has re-grown after a timber harvest or clearing for agriculture, until a long enough period has passed so that the effects of the disturbance are no longer evident. It is distinguished from an old-growth forest (primary or primeval forest), which has not recently undergone such disruption, and complex early seral forest, as well as third-growth forests that result from harvest in second growth forests. Secondary forest regrowing after timber harvest differs from forest regrowing after natural disturbances such as fire, insect infestation, or windthrow because the dead trees remain to provide nutrients, structure, and water retention after natural disturbances. However, often after natural disturbance the timber is harvested and removed from the system, in which case the system more closely resembles secondary forest rather than seral forest. Description Depending on the forest, the development of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fossil Fuel
A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels may be burned to provide heat for use directly (such as for cooking or heating), to power engines (such as internal combustion engines in motor vehicles), or to generate electricity. Some fossil fuels are refined into derivatives such as kerosene, gasoline and propane before burning. The origin of fossil fuels is the anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms, containing organic molecules created by photosynthesis. The conversion from these materials to high-carbon fossil fuels typically require a geological process of millions of years. In 2019, 84% of primary energy consumption in the world and 64% of its electricity was from fossil fuels. The large-scale burning of fossil fuels causes serious environmental damage. Over 80% of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Passivhaus-Institut
The Passivhaus-Institut (PHI) is responsible for promoting and maintaining the Passivhaus building program. The ''"Passivhaus Institute"'' was founded in 1996, and is based and active in Darmstadt, Germany. The English spelling was used for the Passive House Institute US (PHIUS) when it formed in 2007 originally under the umbrella of the Passivhaus Institute. The two separated in 2012. Though PHI and PHIUS sustainable design standards are different, they both share common goals for drastic energy conservation and carbon reduction through Sustainable architecture design techniques and specifications to create Low-energy houses and other structures with Low energy building practices for the public benefit worldwide. See also * List of low-energy building techniques * History of passive solar building design * Energy-efficient landscaping Energy-efficient landscaping is a type of landscaping designed for the purpose of conserving energy. There is a distinction between the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Net-zero Energy Building
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. The goal is that these buildings contribute less overall greenhouse gas to the atmosphere during operations than similar non-ZNE buildings. They do at times consume non-renewable energy and produce greenhouse gases, but at other times reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas production elsewhere by the same amount. The development of zero-energy buildings is encouraged by the desire to have less of an impact on the environment, and by tax breaks and savings on energy costs that make zero-energy buildings financially viable. Terminology tends to vary between cou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Building Envelope
A building envelope is the physical separator between the conditioned and unconditioned environment of a building including the resistance to air, water, heat, light, and noiseSyed, Asif. ''Advanced building technologies for sustainability''. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2012. 115. Print. transfer. Discussion The building envelope (or the more modern term, building enclosure) is all of the elements of the outer shell that maintain a dry, heated, or cooled indoor environment and facilitate its climate control. Building envelope design is a specialized area of architectural and engineering practice that draws from all areas of building science and indoor climate control. The many functions of the building envelope can be separated into three categories:Straube, J.F., Burnett, E.F.P. ''Building Science for Building Enclosures''. Building Science Press, Westford, 2005. * Support (to resist and transfer structural and dynamic loads) * Control (the flow of matter and energy of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hydrogen Fuel Cell
A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most batteries in requiring a continuous source of fuel and oxygen (usually from air) to sustain the chemical reaction, whereas in a battery the chemical energy usually comes from substances that are already present in the battery. Fuel cells can produce electricity continuously for as long as fuel and oxygen are supplied. The first fuel cells were invented by Sir William Grove in 1838. The first commercial use of fuel cells came more than a century later following the invention of the hydrogen–oxygen fuel cell by Francis Thomas Bacon in 1932. The alkaline fuel cell, also known as the Bacon fuel cell after its inventor, has been used in NASA space programs since the mid-1960s to generate power for satellites and space capsules. Since then, fuel cells have b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geothermal Heating
Geothermal heating is the direct use of geothermal energy for some heating applications. Humans have taken advantage of geothermal heat this way since the Paleolithic era. Approximately seventy countries made direct use of a total of 270 PJ of geothermal heating in 2004. As of 2007, 28 GW of geothermal heating capacity is installed around the world, satisfying 0.07% of global primary energy consumption. Thermal efficiency is high since no energy conversion is needed, but capacity factors tend to be low (around 20%) since the heat is mostly needed in the winter. Geothermal energy originates from the heat retained within the Earth since the original formation of the planet, from radioactive decay of minerals, and from solar energy absorbed at the surface. Most high temperature geothermal heat is harvested in regions close to tectonic plate boundaries where volcanic activity rises close to the surface of the Earth. In these areas, ground and groundwater can be found with temper ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
