The recycled content of materials should be maximised without significantly impacting the technical characteristics of the material..
To survive and exploit this, we needed to be able to travel, develop technologies (fire and tools), problem solve, and adapt.Homo erectus, our earlier cousin, could do all these things and spread out globally surviving and developing for a million years.
Interestingly, Homo sapiens, us, developing later and in parallel were a bit smaller.The current view is that the advantage was size and reduced testosterone leading to less aggression and the ability to create and work in large social groups.. Mammals, themselves really came into their own after the last mass-extinction event some 65 million years ago.They were overall much smaller than the dominant animals - the dinosaurs - and their size and adaptability is seen as a key feature for their survival and thriving.. Moving away from the natural world into the world designed by Homo sapiens, there is a very different approach to scale.
Things are scaled up and down from the size of a human.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..A compact shape with low building envelope to volume ratios.. Building orientation to benefit from useful solar gains.. Optimised window sizes to capitalise on useful solar gains, reduce heat losses and deliver exemplary levels of natural light into the building..
Highly insulated walls, floors and roofs.. Site specific shading to mitigate summertime overheating, whilst allowing winter solar heat gains.. High performance triple glazing with thermally bridge- free heads, jams and sills.. A thermal bridge-free building via detailed design of junctions, and clear and easily buildable air seal lines, to deliver the specified air permeability..Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) and low-pressure loss duct systems to minimise heating demand..
High-performance air source heat pumps for heating and DHW.. Renewable technology, including building mounted photovoltaics, solar thermal or small-scale generators and consider the use of battery storage for improving payback periods of building mounted renewables..Recommended design measures for the achievement of Passivhaus performance.
(Editor: Magnetic Locks)