Source: Richard 1xbet online games login , 785-532-1116, rgnat@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Kay Garrett, 785-532-3238, anuenue@k-state.edu

Thursday, April 23, 2009

K-STATE ARCHITECT STUDIES ENERGY-EFFICIENT DESIGN OF A CHICAGO 1xbet online games login STYLE FROM THE EARLY 1900S

MANHATTAN -- A 1xbet online games login architect who is a visiting assistant professor at Kansas State University is introducing his design students to a concept whose time may have come again in urban architecture: windows that can be opened for passive or natural 1xbet online games login .

Richard 1xbet online games login teaches about an architecture style historic to Chicago -- the courtyard apartment building, a low-rise multifamily dwelling built primarily between 1890 and 1930 and originally in response to tenement housing reforms.

At the time of their construction, every occupied room in a tenement building including bathrooms and kitchens was required by code to have at least one exterior window that opened directly upon a street, alley, yard or court. This requirement was well suited to passive ventilation design, 1xbet online games login said.

&1xbet online games login ;As energy becomes more expensive, the advantage of passive ventilation inherent in these pre-air conditioning designs becomes apparent,&1xbet online games login ; he said.

Air conditioning was not widely available until after World War II, so 1xbet online games login were planned to allow for cross-ventilation in every apartment, a feature seldom achieved in modern multiunit housing design, he said.

&1xbet online games login ;As air conditioning gained popularity it became possible to ignore passive ventilation and lighting strategies, and, as a result, building footprints became wider and larger,&1xbet online games login ; Gnat said. &1xbet online games login ;We either compromised or lost altogether the potential for passive ventilation and lighting. Instead, we imagined new technologies and used them in ways that allow the average homeowner to realize a complete and artificial climate within their home, regardless of the local climate or season.

&1xbet online games login ;I'm not saying we should begin to build without air conditioning,&1xbet online games login ; Gnat said. &1xbet online games login ;I do think, however, that as designers we ought to design buildings that allow for the possibility of natural ventilation when the weather permits and give people the option to not use air conditioning.&1xbet online games login ;

After two decades of interest in this architecture style, Gnat has identified more than 25 variants of the courtyard building type, neatly integrated into a striking array of urban conditions. He said more than 1,000 courtyard buildings dot the urban and suburban Chicago landscape, and that if you fly into the city you can spot them from the air -- they resemble the letters &1xbet online games login ;C,&1xbet online games login ; &1xbet online games login ;S&1xbet online games login ; or &1xbet online games login ;Z.&1xbet online games login ;

The buildings are characterized by their wide courts, shallow building width and low height. Typically, the buildings are three stories high and contain about 24 one- to three-bedroom apartments. The largest courtyard building 1xbet online games login has indentified so far has 78 units. Residents enter their homes from the street through a semipublic outside landscaped green space, lawn or court. Today, the buildings remain popular as rental units with Chicago's young professionals, and a number of buildings have been converted to condominiums.

Gnat has presented his studies of the Chicago courtyard buildings as a model for sustainable design. He gave the paper &1xbet online games login ;Chicago Courtyard Apartment Buildings: A Type/Varient Analysis&1xbet online games login ; at a conference in late 2008, and the poster &1xbet online games login ;Looking Backward in Order to Move Forward&1xbet online games login ; at the recent K-State Sustainability Conference.

1xbet online games login is a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design accredited professional, and a city of Chicago registered energy professional. He teaches both studio and seminar courses at K-State.

With regard to sustainability, the 1902 Chicago building code for ventilation -- intended to improve multiunit housing sanitation for the poor -- is, in some ways, more progressive than today's ventilation code, 1xbet online games login said.

&1xbet online games login ;The required ventilation was achieved passively and did not require the energy consumption of active mechanical ventilation systems,&1xbet online games login ; he said.

The requirement that every occupied room have at least one exterior window that opens directly upon a street, alley, yard or court was spelled out in detail about the design of windows, including size, height and manner of operation, 1xbet online games login said. For example, the top half of a window was to be not less than 7 feet above the floor; the upper half was to open to its full width. Such design facilitated passive ventilation and made it possible to use natural convection to vent the room, he said.

Energy efficient building design begins, for an architect, at what 1xbet online games login calls the planning stage.

&1xbet online games login ;There's a process to creating a building, and I think the planning stage is critical for making energy use or sustainability considerations, he said. &1xbet online games login ;That's what a designer considers: is this design going to be the most energy efficient one I can create? When a building is not properly planned, it's not enough to think that a fairly new building can be retrofitted for energy efficiency and that makes it sustainable.&1xbet online games login ;

Gnat thinks the Chicago courtyard style is an appropriate, sustainable precedent for multiunit housing projects designed in the future. &1xbet online games login ;My conclusion is that, with regard to integrating passive ventilation and lighting strategies for mid-rise, multiunit housing, we reached the height of such planning more than 70 years ago with courtyard buildings,&1xbet online games login ; he said.

1xbet online games login hopes that aspiring architects will consider giving people who live in multiunit apartment buildings the options and opportunities to refrain from using energy. That's his working definition of sustainability: to have choices, including not consuming any energy when possible.