Student Projects
Principles of bio climatic design and construction.
The subject “Principles of bio climatic design and construction” was a part of a course that I have chosen between ten optional groups during the fourth year of my studying.
Passive Solar House, Site Plan, Lazarevac, Belgrade |
 Ground and First Floor Plan |
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Passive Solar House, Rear Elevation |
 Passive Solar House, Front Elevation |
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 Passive Solar House, Sections |
 Aplied principles of Bio Climatic Architecture Scheme |
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I’ve taken the course named “Designing of Bio climatic Architecture”, because I believe that bio climatic architecture can be a part of a solution for everyday worsening of ecological state of our Planet: global heating, ozone’s hols, cutting of big forests, rapid disappearance of oil, coal and other heating materials, etc.
Passive solar houses can save up to 70% of fuel used for heating during winter periods; they use diffuse radiation of the sun as well as the direct sun rays and they do not release any extra heat into the environment (increasing the problem of south and north pole ice melting, raising of levels of oceans and seas).
At the same time, these houses are bringing us into one level up of the accommodation comfort. The temperature of floors and walls is constantly around 18 degrees, so that the temperature of the air doesn’t need to be as high as when the floors and the walls’ surfaces are cold. Furthermore the air in solar houses doesn’t get dry quickly but it is pleasantly humid.
The cost of construction of these houses can be and usually is up to 30% higher than of classic houses because of the request for better thermal insulation, cost of the thermal-insulative glass that is used for ‘winter garden solariums’ (collectors of the sun heat), better attention for constructive details, etc. However the extra cost is refundable during the first 3 to 5 years of living in the house, any savings after that become directly profitable.
The interiors of these houses can be designed beautifully because a model of a space that confirms with the natural circulation of warm air uses different inner levels and makes a very interesting shape.
All this lead to a conclusion that these houses are INTELLIGENT: they are working as sensitive organisms that are in harmony with the environment; they are economical, ecological, comfortable, cosy and beautiful.
The following is a project of a passive solar house in Lazarevac, small settlement 70 km away from Belgrade.
There are five groups of five to six terraced houses set in a row.
The site is on a hill side sloped towards the river Lukavac, that is responsible for its beautiful view and at the same time giving the settlement its south direction , which is the best position for solar houses.
Houses are designed in a way that all rooms that do not require high or constantly high temperature (such as: garage, entrance hall, box rooms, etc.) are gathered on the north side and they present a specific “ temperature-buffer” zone.
The south side is where all living areas are: living room, dinning room and bedrooms on the first floor. On the top, south facing, there is a "winter garden ", or a solarium, a sun-heating collector. Sun heat is collecting inside this solarium and is stored partly within "Tromb" wall, painted in dark colour - black is the best, and within stone thermal storage under the winter garden floor.
While one part of the heat is radiated directly into rooms through the Tromb wall, there are circled openings in the middle and the top of this wall that lead the warm air through the channels in the ceilings, to the vertical channels within the house middle-wall where the air is coming down (this process is also helped by small-power ventilators placed in the basement).
The part of heat that stays after this circulation is stored inside of the main stone thermal storage placed under the floor of living area at the ground floor, and is circled back into the solarium to be heated again.
Because it is possible to heat the water using the sun energy too, there is an optional water tank below the roof surface.
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"I have always believed that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value. " Hermann Hesse