SBE Design
Sustainable Architecture
Architecture that seeks to minimise the negative environmental impact of buildings by efficiency and moderation in the use of materials, energy, developmental space and the ecosystem. Our practice revolves around the major concepts like Passive Sustainable Design (taking into consideration the sunpath and other available climate data for the year when designing), Active Sustainable Design (all systems like electrical, plumbing, HVAC should have the least environmental footprint), Renewable Energy Systems (solar, wind and other natural energy sources used to harness energy demand of other systems), Green Building Materials and Finishes (materials used are from businesses that use environmentally responsible manufacturing techniques and recycled materials), Native Landscaping (using trees and plants native to the regiona nd area) and Stormwater Management and Water Harvesting Techniques.
The process that we follow at SBEG is a basic analysis and visualizing technique which uses the weather of the site as a basic parameter of design combined with other specifications provided by the client. The technique uses Ladybug Tools to evaluate
- Weather Analysis is a study of the weather conditions on the site and evaluate basic parameters like temperature, humidity, wind etc and decide what parameters to base the design on.
- Radiation Analysis is the total amount of radiation recieved on the surfaces of the site taking into account surrounding buildings, trees etc. This in turn is then used to design the volume of the building, orientation based on the radiation each facade recieves and estimation of the surface available for renewable energy generators.
- A quick Shadow Range Study and UTCI (Universal Thermal Climate Index) can also be performed to design internal open spaces within buildings or between volumes of two buildings to understand the difference in temperatures due to sading and to get an idea of the microclimate inside those spaces.
After the preliminary design phase finishes, the team usually brainstorms for the sustainable materials to be used for the project, also focusing on acquiring all the materials from the vicinity of the project site.
Energy Efficient Design
Energy efficient buildings (new constructions or renovated existing buildings) can be defined as buildings that are designed to provide a significant reduction of the energy need for heating and cooling, independently of the energy and of the equipments that will be chosen to heat or cool the building. this is generally done by taking into account the energy balance (the balance of energy coming in from outside- the external heat gains, and the energy gained from inside- the internal heat gains) for each part of the building. To make sure the building incurs minimum losses the following technical specifications may be included in the building:
- Thermal Insulation in the Building Envelope
- Passive house windows that keep energy in while allowing radiation to enter.
- Adequate ventilation strategies
- Airtight envelope to lower thermal losses through envelope
- Reduced thermal bridge in design of envelope and windows.
At SBEG,after the preliminary designs are completed, they are checked for their satisfactory performance in terms of the environmental parameters decided at the beginning of the project. these can be any specific parameters, but usually, in a general sence, illuminance in terms of Daylight autonomy is checked for the project. Our process involves modelling the project in Rhinoceros 6 and modelling shading devices and systems with Grasshopper.
Using Honeybee further analysis is carried out using DAYSIM+Radiance for illumination analysis i.e. Daylight Autonomy, Illuminance analysis and Glare analysis (usually for the period of year where the angle of the sun is lower). Further heating and cooling loads are calculated with OpenStudio and Energy plus in honeybee.
Special care is taken while designing the envelope of the building, including facade if present, condensation risk analysis is carried out to check no condensation occurs on the internal surface of the internal spaces.
Structural Engineering
After the architectural designs are ready the structural design part starts. At SBEG we design the buildings with relevant codes or without code (performance based design). the essential services that we provide in this regard are
1) Structural Design
- Structural Steel/ Concrete Frame analysis
- Structural Steel Detailing
- Reinforcement Detailing
- Steel/ Concrete structural design
2) Other works
- Earthquake and Wind Engineering
- Performance-Based and code based Building Design
- Structural Diagnosis and Safety Repairs
- Tender Drawings, cost and Quantity Estimation
- Building Information Modeling
- Structural Renovation and Rehabilitation
- Third Party proof checking of Structural Designs