The Environment and the Future
Why are the buildings starting to be certified?
The construction sector also joined the global environmental preventions taken by all sectors and the damage buildings create during their building, utilization and demolishing phases becomes an issue in the sense that their whole life cycle is prevented through a series of studies. One of these studies is the “Environmental Effect Assessment Methods for the Buildings” developed for the current and prospective buildings. These are the certificate programs that assess the buildings based on some titles and criteria under these titles that are significant in terms of environmental systems.
What are the certificate awarding bodies?
The first of the certificate programs based on criteria is the BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method) that was put forth by the Building Research Entity (BRE) in 1990 in the UK.
Later, LEED was offered to the market by the American Green Buildings Foundation. Following that, the Breeam based national certificate programs were developed in Germany (SB Tool), in the Netherlands (Green Star), and in Japan (CASBEE).
What are the purposes of issuing the BREEAM certificate?
- Reducing the environmental effects of the buildings,
- Reducing the CO2 emission resulting from the buildings,
- Providing a healthier and more comfortable atmosphere for the residents,
- Encouraging the market to produce more innovative solutions,
- Increasing demand for sustainable buildings,
- Ensuring that buildings can be compared in a transparent way,
- Pulling the buildings above the current legal standards in the countries they are used.
What are the advantages of a BREEAM Certificate for the residents of 35th Street?
The benefits of a BREEAM certificate for users are as follow: reducing the environmental footprints of residences, users’ paying less energy and water bills, providing indoor air quality with natural light and air conditioning and offering comfortable living conditions.
What type of houses will be certified on 35th Street?
In the 35th street Project, which is in the application phase, it is decided that the BREEAM certificate application will be made for five types of houses that represent different plans and sizes of houses. Several innovative solutions have been developed in this project that will be the first BREEAM certified houses in Turkey in the sustainable houses category, in order for the people to live in maximum comfort, security and environmental sensitivity.
What are the socialisation and environmental focused ideas that become prominent in the 35th Street project?
The most important part of the innovative solutions in the project becomes prominent in the architectural design. The minimalist and contemporary structure of Aegean culture is reflected on the project and the opportunity to “touch the soil” is offered to the user through independent residences while three quarters of the land is foreseen as the green area. Along with a less storeyed structure and the terrace houses approach, the concept of “single street” appears as a product. The project offers wide space opportunity to the user with different types of houses.
What are the contributions of 35th Street worksite construction management to environment?
It is foreseen that established environmental neighborhoods are not affected in the light steel construction process. Furthermore, some significant environmental benefits are the aim as the short duration of the construction and the construction materials’ allow dry manufacturing.
Are there any transportation opportunities in the 35th Street project that will reduce the damage to environment to a minimum?
- Pedestrian use is supported by making all vehicle roads underground. Moreover, a closed garage facility is provided based on the user capacity foreseen in the project.
- As encouraged by the European Union, public transportation use is supported in the Project. It is 300 meters from the bus stop and 1 km from the subway station.
- The transportation opportunities among the residences and social location within the project supports pedestrians and bicycle use.
Is there a possibility of residents of 35th street paying a lower electricity bill?
It is foreseen that 10% of the electricity of the whole project will be met by means of solar panels. Hence, users are offered more economical electricity usage than the network usage, which will create a low utilization advantage.
Is reducing carbon emissions into the air-conditioning system considered for the 35th Street Project?
It is estimated that heat pump from air to water is used in the project. In this way, it is aimed that the CO emissions in the atmosphere are reduced, the use of fossil fuels or other non-renewable energy sources is limited, proper usage of cooling in summer and heating in winter times is ensured and finally, creating lower utilization costs.
Is the Energy Performance Regulation in Buildings followed in the 35th Street Project?
The selection of covering and finishing materials that increase indoor comfort conditions and high structure physics opportunities in the buildings will be made as foreseen in the Energy Performance Regulation and light steel building system.
Are healthy life comfort conditions provided in the 35th Street project?
- Natural air conditioning and lightning is provided in all living spaces of the residences.
- System usage that provides an indoor climate based on outdoor weather conditions is foreseen.
- We aim to provide privacy for each home owner with the sound isolation application.
Is water saving foreseen in the 35th Street Project?
Given that a 4-people family consumes 7 tons of water monthly on wet volume under normal conditions, it is foreseen in the project that there will be 40 % water saving with grey water usage. The grey water obtained as a result of all sink and bath usage will be collected, apart from the sewage system and reused in the toilet reservoir by means of a simple purification system.
What is the most prominent idea for land usage in the 35th Street Project?
The project is located suitably for the topography of the land it is on and it is foreseen that the opportunity to be close to nature, which is expected to be a new trend in the near future, is provided by planning maximum usage of green areas.
What is the 35th Street project’s earthquake resistivity performance?
Lighter and earthquake resistant structures will be built by the estimation that living spaces of the project are constructed with light steel building systems. Since the upper structure of the 35th Street Project is considered as light steel, it appears that the static calculations of the whole project is eight times lighter when compared to a solution with concrete building systems. This shows that the earthquake resistivity of the light steel building of the project is three times more than concrete.
What is the prominent idea for material selection in the 35th Street project?
A settlement respectful to nature is foreseen both in the selection of the building system and the materials used.