I am working in a research to study resilient buildings. I would like to know if is possible develop a new technology that gives buildings some resilient property.
It depends if you mean mitigation or adaptation.
If you mean mitigation, this might involve energy efficient buildings or those using "low carbon" materials, or even incorporating some sort of CO2 draw-down technology to reduce atmospheric CO2.
If you mean adaptation, that depends on the local risks. In a situation where sea level rise and increasing tropical storm intensity risk flooding, then the technology might involve making buildings more resistant to flooding. If water scarcity is likely to be an increasing regional problem, then technologies which incorporate water recycling would be relevant.
It depends on what the specific question is...
I think evaporative cooling is among the most promising LOW tech solutions. Some people argue that in humid areas such as western Europe, the UK or eastern North America that will not work, or minimally contribute.
I differ. The reason is that during summer, peak electricity demand is almost always related to cooling systems, which peak during day time. At that time, any roof in New York, London or Tel Aviv, all very humid places, can reach such astronomical temperatures (55-80 degree C is not unusual), that, by appeal to the Clausius-Capeyron equation, evaporation will be massive from those surfaces, even into an overlaying ambient air that is, say, 30 C and 90% relative humidity. The calculation is simple, and shows this unequivocally. And finally - the savings are phenomenal, for an investment of a couple hundred Dollars.
Hard to top!
All the best, Gidon
1) Try out some passive approaches; depending on your climatic region, artificial or natural water bodies at the windward side of building can help reduce your dependence on energy for cooling, adequate openings can allow in sufficient daylighting and in turn reduce your dependence of energy for lighting in the day. A lot more strategies abound.
2) Adopting the active systems which will require your use of an appropriate technology, will need to be carefully done. One aspect building designers often neglect is asking ourselves how these technologies will be operated, what the operational challenges are? How they could be maintained and how often? Maintainability is an issue we cannot ignor if we must reduce the anthropogenic effect on the climate.
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