Case Studies

There are many designs today which use advanced passive and active technology. Unfortunately the general public do not know what is available. The Boomerang House, which was proposed by a group of architects from Italy, is an advanced design composed of both technology and more traditional concepts. It was designed to be flexible which allows the building to have many usages and replacements in various environmental contexts. It is a single family unit which is built on an abandoned mining cave. The building itself is composed of two separate aerodynamic volumes sharpened to adapt to strong winds and also to fit into the ground. One structure is the living space and the other contains the technological elements and a small greenhouse which are uses as passive and active strategies. The surface of the structure consists of two layers, one made of Photovoltaic panels and the other consisting of solar cylindrical panels. These Two layers work together with the shape of the buildings that follows the solar journey of the sun. The house is cooled by a water wall which cools the water during the summer nights and draws it over the wall during the day to cool the interior of the building. Another self-sustaining house, but hasn’t been built yet is called Saving Resources. The building makes use of photovoltaic panels in a way which provides a 24 hour use of electricity. The building is heated and cooled according to the climatic season. It contains septic tanks which can also be used for recycled gas the winter. The building holds several hand wind tower fans for cooling in the summer. Many of the main materials used for construction are supplied by recycled materials from the everyday garbage. This reduces the energy used to import non-local materials to the building site. Another building which uses some of the state of the art passive and active systems is the Jalousie house. This house is designed by two Russian architects, Nikita Barinov and Komba Bakh. The house was based off the idea behind the “sunflower. The way in which the sunflower follows the sun during the day, so does the house. The defending constructions of the house are built so that they capture the suns movement. The design allows sunlight to penetrate the house while it accumulates the sun energy at the same time. Water is stored under the ground to keep cool and pumped up to the upper floor with a pump that is powered by the suns energy. The water is then passed through the wall which has the form of a hollow transparent construction. The water falls down the wall, rotating a mini-turbine which produces power for the winter months when there is no sun. These buildings, being technologically advanced and saving considerable amount of money on energy, have not gained much interest in the public.