The marvels of green construction (36)

Green Tomorrow is a sustainable building that maintains ??or ?1?number in the overall annual energy balance by reducing energy consumption through implementation of optimized energy performance strategies and by generating more energy than the energy required through on-site renewable systems. Green Tomorrow is designed to reduce the building energy use up to 56 percent when compared to other conventional houses. Such a high number could be achieved due to appropriate building orientation, high-efficiency insulated walls, windows and doors. The remaining 44 percent of the required energy can be obtained from on-site renewable energy systems such as photovoltaic panels, which makes Green Tomorrow consume no fossil fuel energy in result. Especially, Green Tomorrow received the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) for the first time in South Korea, through not only zero energy consumption but also zero carbon emission with using sustainable materials such as recycled woods, bio-fusion materials etc. and sustainable landscape designed with the ecological restoration concept.

By Kim Keung-hwan

A green home is more than a house built in an eco-friendly way that uses less energy. It is a comprehensive concept that also includes eco-friendly architecture as well as maintenance for low-energy use.

The emergence of the green home era is closely related to the active eco-friendly lifestyles of residents. The advent of green homes will likely lead to the full reflection of energy-reducing habits in all aspects of daily life, including the use of automobiles, thus going beyond the architecture and housing sectors.

Green homes are no longer an option but a must. They are forecast to become an indispensable factor in consumers’ selection of housing, as a result of their appropriateness and economic feasibility. Companies are expected to double their efforts to assume leadership in the eco-friendly green home market.

They will likely achieve joint growth with partner companies that have eco-friendly, green home technologies. Samsung C&T Corporation is planning to unveil a low-energy model house that includes all aspects of an eco-friendly green home in September based on collaboration with partner companies.

Eco-friendly buildings

Demand for eco-friendly buildings is on the rise among order-placing organizations, in addition to strengthened regulations that encourage the construction of such buildings. In the case of buildings for which orders are placed overseas, there is a need to receive a certain level of LEED certification and there is a rise in requests for pre-construction services for increased building eco-friendliness.

In Korea as well, there is a rise in the number of projects that specify the eco-friendliness of buildings as an owner’s requirement. From the perspective of the order-placing organization, a building’s eco-friendliness can lead to various effects. They include an enhancement of the corporate image, a reduction in operation expenses, and an improvement in the productivity of those inside the building.

This tendency will likely become stronger. To stay one step ahead of this trend, our company will continually engage in research and development activities on eco-friendly buildings and will strive to become a leading company in eco-friendly construction.

Technologies involved with improving a building’s energy efficiency can be categorized into technologies that boost energy performance of the building itself and new and renewable energy and water usage efficiency.

Improving buildings’ energy efficiency can be divided into the residential and non-residential sectors. Most homes in Korea are apartment buildings, which consist of multi-story and line-type buildings.

Energy efficiency

Only a small area touches the envelope. For this reason, apartment buildings are more energy efficient than individual houses. Koreans tend to be more sensitive to the cold weather. This is why heating energy accounts for approximately 95 percent of annual heating and cooling energy even though the country has four distinct seasons.

Koreans also like large, extensive views. This is why windows in Korean homes have a higher area ratio than general homes in the West. To increase energy efficiency in this type of home, various research programs are underway. Research is being conducted on developing new insulation materials, improving window and door performance, and building a uniquely Korean, ultra-energy reduction house that includes such materials, windows and doors.

Office buildings indicate diverse energy-consumption characteristics according to the building form, envelope composition characteristics, and purpose of use. This is why an individual approach is needed for each building.

This is what is different from housing. As a basic research program aimed at improving the energy efficiency of buildings, our company analyzed the amount of energy used by buildings owned by the Samsung Group in 2006, together with the Energy Systems Research Unit (ESRU) of Britain’s University of Strathclyde, Japan’s Building Performance Consulting (BPC), and the Korea Institute of Construction Technology.

Energy performance evaluation

Our company also surveyed the energy-consumption status at Raemian, a brand of Samsung C&T apartments. For energy performance optimization through energy performance analyses in the housing and office design phase, we have been developing a building energy performance evaluation tool together with Britain’s ESRU since 2007.

In addition, Dr. Jon Hand, a prominent expert in the field, was dispatched to our company for eight months to conduct joint work and for technology transfers. In addition, consulting is being provided to optimize energy performance for several building projects that our company is conducting.

To reduce energy use also in the operation phase after construction, in addition to the design phase, we installed a BEMS (building energy management system) system at the company’s headquarters and the Samsung Electronics building and are monitoring them. This research activity is aimed at energy reduction in the operation phase.

Reduction of fossil energy

We are carrying out basic research on the use of new and renewable energy for the reduction of fossil energy. We are also applying geothermal heat, photovoltaic, solar heat, and wind power systems, and have relevant design, construction, and maintenance technologies. We will apply geothermal systems totaling 2,883 RT at 15 construction sites.

This includes apartment complexes that have already been built – Seocho Garden Sweet, Daegu Dalseong Raemian, and Nuritkum Square. This is expected to lead to oil replacement effects of an annual 1,838 TOE (tons of oil equivalent) as well as carbon dioxide reduction effects of 5,588 TOE.

There are also activities to move forward with the application of photovoltaic and solar heat systems.

We plan to apply a hot-water supply system based on solar heat at a national athletics training center which was completed in 2011 and use photovoltaic power generation, solar heat and cool tube systems at the Parc 1 site, where a high-rise building with 72 floors above ground is planned for completion in 2011 in Yeouido. This is expected to lead to oil reduction effects of an annual 14.2 TOE.

Environment Info Ecological construction

Eco-friendly or ecological construction is building a structure that is beneficial or non-harmful to the environment, and resource efficient. Otherwise known as green building, this type of construction is efficient in its use of local and renewable materials, and in the energy required to build it, and the energy generated while within it.

Eco-friendly construction has developed in response to the knowledge that buildings often have a negative impact upon our environment and our natural resources. This includes transporting materials hundreds or thousands of miles, thereby harmful in the energy required to move them, and also in the emissions of hazardous chemicals from poorly designed buildings that create and trap them.

Many options are now available to those wishing to design and build an

eco-friendly dwelling. Architects, engineers and builders worldwide currently use construction techniques that have been developed throughout human history. This is in response to local environmental concerns and the physical resource opportunities available, coupled with 21st century technological refinements.

Kim Keung-hwan is executive vice president and head of the Technology Development Center at Samsung C&T. Prior to joining Samsung, Kim took a number of assignments including the position of chairman of the Korea Recycled Construction Resource Institute in 2006. He studied at the architecture department of Seoul National University and earned his Ph.D. in structural science at the University of Texas in Austin.