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Solar Passive Design
Hundreds of years ago designers, through experience, understood how to make a building thermally comfortable. This was referred to as 'building conditioning'.
With the invention of air-conditioning, the art of designing was virtually lost. Air-conditioning has become both acceptable and accessible to achieving thermal comfort. Today, there is indisputable evidence the effects of air-conditioning has had and is having disastrous impact on our environment. There has been a resurgence in designing properties to reduce or eliminate the need for artificial heating and cooling. This is known as solar passive design. Four key criteria must be satisfied to achieve thermal comfort:
- Orientation
- Thermal Mass
- Ventilation
- Insulation
Clay bricks are one of the very few building materials which have 'thermal mass' properties. The industry however, has the opportunity to demonstrate leadership in achieving thermal comfort given it is one of the only building materials (besides concrete) that can achieve the thermal mass criteria and is the only building material industry group that is advanced in its R&D.
Solar passive design has been reinvigorated with the focus of climate change/global warming, so there is an ideal window of opportunity to demonstrate leadership. There is little resource available to architectural students and practitioners - what is available is very old or very complicated to decipher. Many architects, designers and industry bodies who have been shown this information have been extremely excited by Think Brick's leadership in this area.
Related Information:
Read our research papers on Climate Design recently presented by Think Brick CEO, Linda Ginger at Congress and Industry Conferences
Climate Responsive Design Strategies
This paper presents climate studies of four different locations (Sydney, Bankstown, Camden and Penrith) within Sydney Metropolitan Region.
Understanding Climate for Energy Efficient or Sustainable Design – presented to Housing Congress 2008
Understanding climate is a pre-requisite for energy efficient or sustainable architecture. This paper provides vital information to optimize natural energies to create comfortable living conditions.
Full Paper_Housing congress.pdf (971 kb)
Thermal Mass Requirement for Building Envelope in Different Climatic Conditions – presented to IBMAC 2008
This study investigates the thermal mass requirement at three different places: Mackay, Brisbane and Amberley in Queensland, Australia.
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Climate Control
Based on decades of climate data, our interactive wizard helps you plan the most climate friendly building for your location.
