Eco-friendly Apartment

Introduction

This project I produced is a sustainable apartment building inspired by termite mounds, which is called biomimicry, and its function. The goal for this eco-friendly apartment building is to reduce pollution, save electricity, lower costs and energy, improve air quality, promote comfort, and create a healthier environment for people and the ecosystem. Overall, the creation of the sustainable building helps reduce the promotion of global warming! In the future, it is critical to use eco-friendly materials to prevent any detrimental events that wipe out species on Earth such as huge hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and floods.

What does the building possess that contributes to the environment and what is its function?

The eco-friendly apartment comprises many materials that are beneficial to cost, surrounding environment, comfort, and humans and living things. For instance, the design incorporates an underground tunnel that's made of clay. This underground tunnel is imperative for saving money from HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning), and is essential for promoting comfort for the interior of the building. Moreover, the underground tunnel comprises clay, which is highly eco-friendly, that won't rust like most metal does. Clay is a temperature stabilizer that is also durable; this causes it to be highly efficient annually. The air will start entering the tunnel opening from underground - where it's usually cooler during the summer time and warmer during the winter time - and will ascend through the building from vents and openings. The bottom side vent inside of the apartment rooms will have cool air entering the spacious room. The warm air inside of the room will exit through the top side vent, for the warm air will automatically rise. The warm air then would exit from the top vents. To get the trapped hot air out of the building more briskly, I implemented wind catchers on the roof to remove the trapped hot air more efficiently. This helps the building to stay cool during the summer without consistently utilizing AC.

The windows on the apartment are heat resistant windows. The windows are double pane, which are designed for reducing heat transferring. The interior of the apartment room will stay cool and simultaneously still receive light from the sun rays. The window also provides cross ventilation: a natural air ventilation. The windows would be across from each other, so the wind can travel through tiny openings to cool the room. In addition, the wind provides fresh air; therefore, it has the ability to remove stale indoor air that can be trapped inside of a room.

The trees and the plants on top of the roof and on the landscape promotes greenery, and this implementation helps contribute to a healthier environment and nature. The trees would provide shade, which will cool the surrounding air. If the apartment is located in an urban area, it's capable of significantly reducing surrounding temperatures by an estimated 1 degree to 2 degree fahrenheit overtime. Without the implementation of trees and plants, it can produce an urban heat island effect: worsening air quality, amplifying extreme heat, and harming nature.

Lastly, the solar panels also absorb sun rays for energy; this is called renewable energy. Solar panels can significantly contribute to a reduction of electricity bills, so it saves tons of money. Moreover, carbon emission reduces significantly (around 35%). It helps prevent the promotion of global warming - or a greenhouse effect - because of less electricity usage due to using solar power. Overall, the reduction of carbon emission advocates better air quality to many surrounding areas.

Problems that arose (with solution):

During the winter, wind catchers can remove heat during the winter times. However, during the winter times, we need trapped heat for optimal comfort for people living inside of the buildings. The wind catchers help the wind go through from the side of the tall vent on the roof. Therefore, we need to close wind catchers during the winter, so the top is the only opening during the winter. The wind can’t enter there, so it avoid cold air from entering from the top of the building. The glass on the tall vent would rise to close the wind catchers.

During the winter, the vents inside of the apartment would be designed for the summer time. For example, the bottom side vent would trigger a cooler room inside the building. To tackle this problem, we would mitigate the opening of the bottom side vents less, so cold air doesn’t come in. In addition, the stale indoor air has to exit, the top side vents would open for the filthy air, carbon, to exit. During the summer, open both vents for more coolness.

Electricity savings (for a typical sized apartment):

1. Underground tunnels: HVAC (heating, ventilation, and Air conditioning) estimated savings are 20 percent
2. Natural air ventilation and wind catcher - around 10 percent savings
3. Trees/greenery and shading: cooling savings around 15 percent
4. Solar panels offset typically around 40%

Saving both electricity bills and energy! Energy usage can be reduced to approximately 30-50%!

Money can be saved utilizing the solar panels, the greenery effect, natural air ventilation, wind catcher, and underground tunnels over time.

Conclusion

This project combines architecture, environmental science, renewable energy, and biomimicry into one eco-friendly apartment building system. The design uses natural airflow from wind, underground tunnels, solar power, and greenery to construct a healthier and a more sustainable future. It's also very feasible to construct! This building system can affect many generations and help prevent global warming. Using this design can prevent our only inhabitable planet from getting destroyed. I personally would not be happy to see an inhabitable planet transform into an uninhabitable planet from human impact.

Tinkercad (3D design)

Eco-friendly material (clay) for underground tunnels

Double Pane Glass for heat resistant window

Solar panel

Metals for the structure of the building

Trees and plants

Vents placed inside of the building and on the roof

Wind catchers

The underground tunnels promote cool air, during the summer, through the apartment from the help of vents. The underground tunnels are made out of clay, a durable and eco-friendly material, which helps stabilize air temperature.

The vents help the air flow from underground to the top, the roof, where it will exit to the atmosphere. The vents are connected with the underground tunnels.

The trees on the base would promote a greenery effect, and produce a "fresher" environment. The trees would grant shading which can potentially cool the surrounding area.

The 4 floors are the structure of the apartment. It connects all the vents and the underground tunnel to the roof where there are openings for hot air to depart.

The solar panels promote renewable energy, which helps reduce bills and save energy. The solar panel reduces the carbon emission due to a mitigation of electricity use.

The plants help cool the surrounding area on the roof from its shading. It helps promote greenery for a better environment.

The wind catchers help push the trapped heat- that's still inside of the building - to the atmosphere or outside world. It helps the efficiency of the air flow inside of the apartment; wind catchers prevents any discomfort inside of the building.

The vents inside the apartment is a component where it helps the actual airflow travel inside the rooms of the building. The vents help the warm out to actually exit and the cool air enter.

The balconies contribute to a better environment by providing shading and serving as an "environmental filter". The balconies act like natural ventilation by dispersing the stale indoor air and extracting fresh outdoor air.

The windows are double pane; thus, it has the ability to slow heat transfer. For example, during the summer, the interior of the building would be cooler, and during the winter, the interior of the building would be warmer than the exterior/outside.

The arrows help indicate where the direction of the airflow is moving throughout the whole building system. It helps understand how the air is actually maneuvering to achieve the comfort in the building - prevents overheating or freezing temperature from occurring inside the building.

This is the finalized version or the final result. The synergy between all the components work perfectly to construct a beautiful, eco-friendly, and futuristic building/apartment.

This kind of apartment is very feasible to construct. The future is this apartment design; global warming will be prevented. We have seen a rise in temperature and rise in sea level which can be detrimental to the future. With the construction of these apartments we can prevent high levels of carbon emission and high frequency of natural disasters. Simultaneously, bills will be reduced, energy will be saved, and offer comfortability.