Green Rehabilitation

Syllabus

Statements

1. Green building is one of the fastest growing trends in home design and building for three excellent reasons:

• Green buildings help save money because they are more energy efficient in their operations.
• Green buildings help the earth because they are more environmentally sensitive in their material selection and construction
• Green buildings are healthier and safer for their occupants

1. We are faced with a changing resource climate – how do we support our current infrastructure to best serve the community for the next generations?
2. Traditional building is natural building.

Definitions/Concepts

1. What does it mean to be green and what is green building?

• The emergence of a movement and ideology that strives to create communities, buildings, products, etc. that makes sense ecologically and economically, now and for long-term periods.

1. Sustainability – the ability to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Achieving goals without depleting resources or harming natural cycles.
2. Renewability - equilibrium where resources are used at rates equal to their renewal.
3. Reusability – products that can be reused or recycled once they are no longer needed or operable. Could be materials, buildings or sites. History within HP of such adaptive re-use. Barns recycled into new structures as well as factory into loft
4. Durability – Select for characteristics that are long-lasting and require little maintenance.
5. Embodied energy – energy required to extract, process, package, transport, install and recycle or dispose of materials

• Up to 70% of total energy invested in a building’s construction is embodied in the materials themselves.

 Goals for Historic Preservation

1. National Register- a tool for recognizing historic properties – not for mandating how they must be treated

• State
• Local

1. Secretary of the Interior’s Standards

• Originally developed to help determine the appropriateness of proposed work on historic properties
• Preservation
• Restoration
• Reconstruction
• Rehabilitation – “the process of returning a property to a state of utility, through repair or alteration, which makes possible an efficient contemporary use while preserving those portions and features of the property which are significant to its historic, architectural, and cultural values.”
• Retains historic appearance and character-defining features.
• Recommended and not recommended practices.
• Standards can provide the flexibility for a building to be an evolving artifact.

1. Federal Historic Preservation Tax Credit = 20% of construction cost

• construction cost must exceed the building’s cost basis
• building must be income producing

 Goals of Green Building

1. LEED
2. Energy star
3. Local ordinances e.g. VTBG

So what is green about historic buildings?

1. “The greenest building is the one that is already built” – embodied energy and use of active infrastructure.
2. Older buildings are models of sustainability tend to be simpler, last longer and be more durable.

• Old windows of old growth vs. rapidly growing finger-jointed waste material of poor durability

1. Improving performance and efficiency without compromising integrity and significance

• Getting past the bias of green building that that if you want to achieve energy efficiency you must start over.
• Value = reuse of existing materials displaces energy and material expenditures for new production.
• The architectural features and workmanship that may be impossible to replace
• Societal and cultural value of maintaining artifacts
• in-kind replacement makes sense as green and historic

Goals / considerations for green building and historic preservation

1. Do no harm

• Gentlest means possible
• Both the environment and cultural heritage suffer when buildings are treated as disposable.

1. Reducing energy use/cost

• Modeling
• Move towards renewable energy sources

1. Low-impact retrofits – consider systems that reduce the size of the hvac unit and delivery
2. Daylighting – built when artificial lighting was less prevalent and thus feature large, well-placed windows that produce ample natural light.
3. Ventilation - operable windows and other natural ventilation features. These are often altered or sealed during renovations.
4. Embodied energy - in determining whether to rehabilitate or replace a building or buildings component, factor in its embodied energy compared with that of the replacement building or component = Life-cycle assessment.

Problems/challenges of differing perspective of green building and historic preservation.

1. Rehabilitation standards generally encourage the preservation of existing materials or replacement of them with similar materials that don’t disrupt a building’s character-defining appearance…recycled-content and otherwise green products increasingly available for roofing cladding and decking are unlikely to be approved under current rehabilitation standards.
2. Some in the green building movement that the historic value of a building should not be confused with the environmental value
3. if you preserve a historic building as an untouched object you cant use it anymore
4. Depending on the era of a building and construction type, it may not be very well built.
5. Performance based energy efficient benchmarks are usually expressed in terms of improvement over relevant standards.
6. Modern technologies such as hvac discourage the use of sensible, passive energy-saving design.

Strategies for green building and historic preservation

1. Non-destructive testing
2. Think globally, act locally
3. Take advantage of new technology, materials, and products not previously available when building was constructed
4. Overcome the short term thinking where buildings are designed and built for the moment, and not in tune with the long-term consequences of design choices
5. Reducing energy use/cost

• Modeling & Monitoring–
• Conduct environmental testing in order to understand how the building functions and what environmental impacts are affecting it.
• Continue monitoring after commissioning
• Windows
• Insulation
• Attic insulation is typically easier to install and contributes more effectively to reducing heat loss than adding wall insulation.
• Roofs – green, reflective, solar may not be possible on historic sloped … but maybe on flat.

1. Water consumption- consider replacing under-performing plumbing fixtures with modern more efficient fixture or upgrading existing fixtures with components that reduce water use.
2. Lighting fixtures – incorporate appropriate modern efficient lighting technology including lamps luminaries and daylighting with occupancy sensors.
3. Materials reuse and recycling – reuse structural elements, save building materials from areas that need to be gutted or demolished, and reuse them in a way that is consistent with their historic character. Sell or donate to a salvage house any historic materials that can’t be reused in the building.
4. Air quality – (IEQ)

• Look for ways to maintain the good indoor environment quality common in older buildings by specifying nontoxic, low-VOC (volatile organic compound) materials in all areas.
• Finishes – oil-based preferred for aesthetics and authenticity – choose just as good low-voc acrylic paints and finishes
• Strippers – avoid conventional paint strippers containing such hazardous materials as methylene chloride. Choose low-VOC, nontoxic, biodegradable products. Citrus strippers –
• Hazardous Materials – Remediate or encapsulate hazardous materials such as asbestos and lead paint according to relevant local statues.

1. Integrated design

• Expansion
• Durability
• Repairability
• Reversibility
• Passive survivability

 Benefits

1. Financial assistance for incorporating energy efficiency
2. Better performance and comfort
3. Savings on energy bills
4. Preservation of our natural resources to keep our environment green.

Review