Positive energy homes enable people to live healthy and comfortable lives with energy left over to share. Creating a house you love that produces surplus energy is surprisingly easy with a thorough understanding of how buildings work and careful attention to detail in construction. The Passive House standard, with its well-proven track record, forms the basis for creating positive energy homes. This book explores the Passive House ‘fabric first’ approach, as well as the science and practic...

The objective of this book is to provide engineers with the necessary tools and techniques for formulating plans, designs, cost estimates and specifications for pipeline construction and field maintenance and modernization programs. Packed with easy to read and understand tables, pipeline schematics, bullet lists and "what to do next" checklists. This easy to use book covers the design, construction, and operation of onshore pipeline systems. The incorporate construction methods, commissio...

This book draws on the author’s considerable expertise in land development processes and planning, and planning education. It takes a learning-by-doing studio approach and shows how to undertake a development feasibility study in three main stages: the preliminary proposal, a design and finally, a full report with a financially appraised proposal.Understanding Land Development shows how to tackle a real life project where there are situations of uncertainty and where there...

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has developed in Australia over the last 20 years into a technique for systematically identifying the resource flows and environmental impacts associated with the provision of products and services. Interest in LCA has accelerated alongside growing demand to assess and reduce greenhouse gas emissions across different manufacturing and service sectors. Life Cycle Assessment focuses on the reflective practice of LCA, and provides critical insight into the technique a...

The book presents Slovenia’s contemporary timber architecture. Thanks to its abundant forests, Slovenia has preserved the tradition of wood construction. As much as 60% of its surface is covered by forests. Slovenia is also the third most forested country in Europe. The high share of forest-covered surface allows for a sustainable production of high-quality wood. In the past, wood was used primarily in the construction of farm buildings, but now timber architecture is used for everything f...

Essentials of Urban Design explains the fundamental concepts of urban design, providing the understanding and tools needed to achieve better design outcomes. It is equally useful for designing places and evaluating designs. Each chapter outlines the key steps in designing or assessing a different type of development. All common types of urban development are addressed, from infill buildings to whole urban growth areas, residential to employment uses, and centres to public transport interchang...

Fundamentals of Structural Engineering provides a balanced, seamless treatment of both classic, analytic methods and contemporary, computer-based techniques for conceptualizing and designing a structure. The book?s principle goal is to foster an intuitive understanding of structural behavior based on problem solving experience for students of civil engineering and architecture who have been exposed to the basic concepts of engineering mechanics and mechanics of materials.D...

Presenting an overview of the use of Phase Change Materials (PCMs) within buildings, this book discusses the performance of PCM-enhanced building envelopes. It reviews the most common PCMs suitable for building applications, and discusses PCM encapsulation and packaging methods. In addition to this, it examines a range of PCM-enhanced building products in the process of development as well as examples of whole-building-scale field demonstrations. Further chapters discuss experimental and t...

This work discusses the impact of the life of buildings on sustainable development methods. The study of the lifespan of the building is used to assess and manage the environmental impacts associated with all the stages of a product's life, from raw material extraction through to repair, maintenance and 'end of life' scenarios. While several papers have discussed thegreenhouse gas emissions of buildings, less research has been done on how these are affected by the lifespan of the bu...

This book considers the potential of new, smart materials and their use in architecture. It begins with an overview of current global tendencies (technological, demographic, and socio-anthropological) and their relevance for architectural design. Expanding upon approaches for flexible design solutions to address change and uncertainty, Dr. Kretzer begins by exploring adaptive architecture and proceeds to introduce the topic of “information materials,” which encompasses smart and functional...

Recent years have seen enormous advances in the technology of concrete as a material, through which its strength, compactness and ductility can reach levels never dreamed of before. Thanks to these improved material properties, the strength and durability of concrete structures is greatly improved, their weight and dimensions reduced, the scope of concrete as a structural material is widened and – despite the higher material costs – overall economy is possible, with positive impacts on sus...

Offering readers essential insights into the relationship between ancient buildings, their original and current indoor microclimates, this book details how the (generally) virtuous relationship between buildings and their typical microclimate changed due to the introduction of new heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in historic buildings.The new approach to the study of their Historic Indoor Microclimate (HIM) put forward in this book is an essential component...