Urban infill house, Japan
Living in daylight
Urban infill house, Japan
Living in daylight
Infill house
Daylight and fresh air in the home.
The house design is specially tailored to Japanese conditions in terms of climate, urban environment, traditions and culture. Natural ventilation and the benefits of daylight are the main design principles of this sustainable house design, focusing on health and well-being in the home.
Osaka. Japan 34°42 N 135°30 E
Chosen site: An empty plot in a street with 2-3-storeyed houses. Currently used for parking. Situated in a dense urban area close to public transport. It represents a common building situation in a Japanese city like Osaka, an infill where a single house is built on a narrow plot between existing houses.
Urban infill
Sustainable planning solution
Infill housing is insertion of additional housing into an existing structure in a neighbourhood. Situated in dense urban areas, existing infrastructure and local services can be used. The infill solution does not require the parcelling out green areas and prevents urban sprawl and decentralization of cities.
The Challenge
Healthy indoor climate
Maximum daylight and ventilation are preconditions to ensure optimal indoor comfort and minimal energy consumption consistent with the standards of the future.
In a world with increasing health problems (partly due to the rise in incidence of allergies, for example), the indoor climate is an essential factor to be considered when designing a house.
This house is specially designed for family life with fresh air and daylight in dense urban areas in Japan.
The challenge of the house design is to deal with very narrow building plots where the neighbouring houses can be very close. The high angle sunlight and the big seasonal climate changes in Japan are factors that have been taken into account. The skylights provide an efficient solution to the creation of a safe and healthy living environment, providing daylight and natural ventilation.
The question of privacy is an important factor in the context of dense Japanese cities. The surrounding houses are blocking out the light so only a very limited amount of it gets through the façade windows. The building design is dealing with these challenges by focusing on getting daylight and fresh air through the skylights.
A Solution
Comfortable living
Designing with daylight
The variation in the roof pitches is a benefit for the creation of good daylight conditions during the day and the year when receiving daylight through skylights.
The interior of the house is designed to optimize the natural daylight in the house. Cut-outs in the first floor are used to create double high spaces where daylight from the skylights can reach the ground floor. This effect helps to create a beautiful and functional family home where communication is easy.
Plot size approx. 230 m2. Single-family house. “Infill”.
Family life
The skylights create a certain and bright atmosphere where everyday life with the family becomes an even greater pleasure with daylight and fresh air. The issue of privacy plays an important role in a dense urban situation where there is little distance to the next house. The view and daylight from the façade windows are very limited. That is why the focus of the “Urban infill house” is on the sky. The visual contact with the blue sky and the greenery in the garden is in focus throughout the house.
Family life
The skylights create a certain and bright atmosphere where everyday life with the family becomes an even greater pleasure with daylight and fresh air. The issue of privacy plays an important role in a dense urban situation where there is little distance to the next house. The view and daylight from the façade windows are very limited. That is why the focus of the “Urban infill house” is on the sky. The visual contact with the blue sky and the greenery in the garden is in focus throughout the house.
Family life
The skylights create a certain and bright atmosphere where everyday life with the family becomes an even greater pleasure with daylight and fresh air. The issue of privacy plays an important role in a dense urban situation where there is little distance to the next house. The view and daylight from the façade windows are very limited. That is why the focus of the “Urban infill house” is on the sky. The visual contact with the blue sky and the greenery in the garden is in focus throughout the house.
A Solution
Comfortable living
Active House
An initiative supported by the VELUX Group
An »Active House« meets the future demands for sustainable buildings and has been developed with focus on health and comfort for the people living in it.
It has been designed to interact with local conditions and will to a wide extent use natural resources to make the house CO2 neutral.
Energy challenge
is that buildings consume approximately 40% of all produced energy (European figures). Considering the total energy consumption throughout the whole life cycle of the building is an important tool in the concern for climate changes, security of supply and for reducing global energy consumption.
Indoor Climate challenge
is that we spend 90% of our time indoors, but less than 30% of the building mass contributes to or provides a healthy indoor climate. We humans need fresh air and daylight when we are indoors. It has a positive effect on our health and well-being as well as our ability to learn.
Environment challenge
is that although the challenges we face are global, the local environment differs greatly, and many present solutions are only viable within fixed parameters. We need an open-minded approach to flexible solutions that take into account local cultural and infrastructural differences.
Energy
A sustainable building is the outcome of a design, which focuses on increasing the efficiency of the used resources:
- energy and water
- daylight in terms of energy savings
- indoor climate
- materials
That means reducing the building’s impact on human health and the environment during its lifecycle through better design, construction, operation, maintenance and demolition.
Energy efficiency and CO2 reductions
To reduce CO2 emissions and optimize energy performance, it is necessary to consider the building as a whole, not just the sum of its components.
Energy efficiency needs to be incorporated into the very design of the building and natural available resources, such as sun and wind, should be exploited to a maximum. For instance, windows should be considered as energy contributors. They should be placed strategically to allow for solar heat gain and optimum natural ventilation.
The combined effect of these two factors can be enhanced by adding roller shutters and awning blinds that will provide a flexible building envelope keeping the heat inside on cold winter nights and out in summer.
Intelligent houses of the future will be designed to control the indoor climate automatically; smart enough to know when to insulate from cold, when to protect from heat and when to provide ventilation.
|
|