This direct client contact has given us the opportunity to create a distinct identity as a team, and a distinct position within the industry.
Houses and buildings are sized to wrap around humans and floor heights set to allow humans to walk upright.The first factories were simply extensions on houses and the machines and equipment were generally sized to fit into slightly large rooms.
Of course, technology has pushed these boundaries to some degree and there are now large process plants like refineries or mega-factories..The railway system of the world is scaled around the size of a horse and cart as that was the predominant transport technology when they came into existence.. Moving down in scale, we scale craft and industrial laboratory equipment so that humans can interact with it using their hands.. Evolution is an excellent process to improve and adapt size and function to meet the demands of survival.Its downside for humans is that in the context of the human lifespan it is very slow.
We do not have the luxury of a million years to size our factories.However, neither should we now be constrained by the size of a human, a building or by the relatively recent economic dogma..
I don’t think we can credibly argue that capitalism has not been a key enabler in the rapid technological advancements of the last two to three hundred years.
And when we talk about capitalism, we cannot ignore the name Adam Smith.This additional material volume becomes additional embodied carbon.. On the other hand, a Passivhaus design tends to be a more compact shape, thus less materials used.
Due to its more efficient envelope performance, a Passivhaus building needs a small heating system, and due to its reduced energy demand, it requires a smaller PV array.These characteristics, when coupled with a focus on procuring low embodied carbon materials and equipment, can deliver objectively low embodied carbon designs, despite the additional material volume.. Based on the above, it can be observed that some of the inherent characteristics of Passivhaus increase embodied carbon whilst others reduce it.
Taking a 200 m2 house, (10 m x 10 m x 2 storeys, 40 % WWR) as an example, Bryden Wood has done a rough estimation of the impact that Passivhaus distinctive strategies have on embodied carbon:.Adding triple glazing instead of double glazing would increase carbon around 6 kgCO2/m2 over its lifetime.
(Editor: Portable Towels)