GREEN vs GREY

University of Plymouth, School of Architecture, Design and Environment, Plymouth

Project idea

"We don't have time to think, let's act now! Save our planet."

Project description

Since time immemorial there have been debates about what kind of residential building is better - wooden or concrete. This question can be approached from different sides and in the end the decision about the main material used for construction will depend only on the desire of the customer, the builder, the investor.
In this paper I have tried to analyze this issue of the eternal opposition of wood and concrete from a theoretical, analytical and practical point of view.
The theoretical part is aimed at a more detailed analysis of different concrete products - new concrete substitutes, their characteristics and their possible applications.
The analytical part includes a comparison of concrete and wood on several parameters the most important of which are economic and environmental. The prototype mobile application for any audience, where I have clearly shown the comparative analysis of concrete and wood, helps to understand the thinking of the population and their needs. In the future, this app will be used to monitor the trend of increasing or decreasing demand for certain residential homes for potential buyers.
The practical part involves applying all the information collected not only about concrete and wood, but also about trends in housing and development in general. I have created a prototype of a sustainable residential block in the village of Lopotovo, Istrinsky district of Moscow, the owners of which are my father and a group of investors (who wished not to mention their names).
I have worked with the leading experts in the field of concrete construction in Italy (DLC and Bianchi companies), visited numerous exhibitions dedicated to wood building, interviewed representatives of business and politics and held meetings with two leading wood construction companies in Russia - Holz House and Wood House to understand the suitability of my design solution and to learn about the latest trends in architecture and sustainable housing construction.
The Lopotovo prototype of a sustainable housing block may serve as a guide for investors and builders in Russia in the future. Now many construction companies in Russia will move to the world standards and certificates LEED and ESG. But the main problem today for Russia is the unresolved issue of standards for high-rise residential buildings using wooden constructions, and all the regulations and fire standards are quite outdated and do not correspond to the technologies that already exist.
Largely in order to begin a discussion of this issue, the layout of the residential block, after its detailed elaboration and urban planning with the accompanying economic and legal justification will be presented at the end of the summer of 2022 in an open all-Russian competition "RF House" - a meeting of architects, politicians, deputies and deputy ministers of construction. The members of the jury were announced 4.01.2022.

Technical information

Meaning of sustainability and green buildings - TED talk
A. Buzzwords - “green” and “sustainable”
B. Numbers never lie
C. We need to act now!
D. Link for video
2. The sustainability of tall building developments
A. What is a tall building?
B. The Tall Building Construction Boom
C. Sustainability as a Framework
D. Disparity in Quality of Life
E. People’s Choice
F. Health and Well-Being
G. Environmental Dimension
H. Sub-conclusion
3. Design, think, make, break, repeat
A. Working team and problematic question
B. Future of wood renovation in Russia – Russian forests
C. Concrete renovation in Russia - Lego modeling ( prototype 1 ) and 5 different iterated versions of concrete villa.
D. Constant war – wood or concrete house
E. Prototype 2 - mobile app – analytical data collection
4. Implementation of gain knowledges to development are in Moscow region – Lopotovo. Sustainable block prototype 3
A. Lopotovo documentation
B. Sustainability - Lopotovo. Cycle implementation scheme
C. Key aspects of design, structure and materials for self-sufficient building D. Main metabolic aspects for advanced ecological buildings
5. Sustainable block - designed parts
6. Preview - draft visualization
7. User journey’s
A. Customers
B. Developers (real estate) C. Government
8. Future of the project - positive trend
9. References and prizes
10. Sub conclusion ( economical part and fin-models will follow)
and DEMO video

Documentation

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