DH: Light up your garden

Light up your garden
http://deccanherald.com/Content/May182007/realty200705172186.asp

With proper lighting your garden can turn into a fantasy land in the night, writes Surabhi Johri.

Treating your garden as an outdoor room is now a central concept to garden design. Your garden is a valuable extra space so why should you forget it once its dark. Night is the time when you can choose what should be seen and what should remain behind the scene.

Lighting reverses the daylight effect and extends the hours of the day for your garden.
Outdoor lighting can be more dramatic than indoor illumination. Dramatic directional lighting gives opportunities to create a fantasy scene. In addition to providing a visual panorama, lighting alters the way outdoor space is used. A combination of ornamental and functional lighting can change the feel of even the most mundane space to create a totally different experience. Creative garden lighting concentrates on subtle schemes that create atmosphere and enhance the planting, garden features, and architecture providing stimulating night-time vistas. But remember fittings come last. The aim is to create the atmosphere where fittings are invisible and as far as possible there is no glare. Suitable lighting serves many purposes. Not only does it work as a theft deterrent but it can also give you a room to entertain, read or enjoy alfresco dinning. Perhaps you would like to enjoy your beautiful specimen planting or statues or the water feature at night too, just in a different light. Even the simplest of feature in a garden when lit properly can breath a new life to the outdoors.
The creative use of light and shadow is the key to achieving good results. Excessive lighting and indiscriminate use of floodlights is the most common error that results in garish illumination and a flat perspective. To be able to design an effective lighting system for your outdoor begin by understanding the role you want lights to play in the use and enjoyment of the exterior.

Depending on your needs lighting can be of various types. Ornamental lighting mainly lights up garden features that will increase the visual appeal. Remembering what not to light is as important as remembering what to light. Amenity lighting is done to ensure safety and serve practical purposes. Task lighting makes it possible to carry out specific jobs such as cooking and barbecue. Access lighting enables safe movement around the paths and steps. Security lighting deters intruders, creates illusion of occupation and reassures homeowners. Of course there may be overlapping of functions by certain lighting.

To determine your lighting needs begin with what you want to achieve. In case of ornamental lighting a good start is to focus on what effects you want to achieve and in which areas you want to apply it. Ask do I want to see lighting only when I am in the garden or from inside too, or both, if so then from which room? Do I want a welcoming view of the house? These may seem obvious but most homeowners see lighting in a limited perspective and miss significant potentials. Ornamental lighting is more than creating drama. Its main aim is to create a balanced view that is easy on the eye.

The next step is to establish viewpoints from which these areas of the garden and the features within them may be seen. If possible keep separate controls to allow lighting up as much as needed. Now determine the need points for amenity lighting that will enable you to perform a range of functions ranging from parking your car to inserting the key in the door. Area lighting may also serve this purpose. As the name implies area lighting diffuses light all around and downwards. Here choose a fixture style to reflect the style of your house. Floodlights are not a good choice and should be left to the stadiums. If you plan to do a barbecue at night with friends then you will need some task lighting at your work counter. Access lighting mainly guides movement but can also become ornamental if placed strategically around the vegetation or other features in the path. Nowhere is good lighting more important than lighting for access and safety for the sake of the homeowner and the visitor. Safety should be assessed from two viewpoints, one of the homeowner who knows the area and other a visitor who is unknown to the obstacles in the area.

Once garden lighting is installed the window opening into the garden becomes a frame to view the illuminated garden. But it will work only if there is balance between indoor and outdoor lighting. Insufficient outdoor lighting creates a black mirror effect where you will see your own reflection and that of the room around. Therefore outdoor lighting should be brighter from interior. Perhaps choosing dimmers in interior lighting can ensure that they do not become too bright when the mood is to enjoy garden illumination. Always set lighting priorities and aim to create a balance so that light and dark are easy on the eye. Plan to accommodate personal and seasonal variations by creating flexible lighting allowed by separate controls. When choosing fixtures select attractive ones where needed and keep as unobtrusive as possible for the most. Remember it is about the light not the fixture.
Give a new light to your outdoors and enjoy the experience.

DH: Beating the summer heat - the natural way

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Beating the summer heat - the natural way
Electric fans and air conditioners can keep you cool using stale air at best. With innumerable power cuts, even this cannot be guaranteed. Is there someway by which natural air can circulate through your house at the height of summer? Yes says K Jayaram.

In the middle of summer the heat can be unbearable. With innumerable power cuts the little relief that ceiling fans afford while turning at high speed is denied too. Is there no way to reduce the dependence on electric fans? Or at least reduce the dependence on the electro-mechanical ventilating and cooling systems like air conditioners?
The answer is yes, provided we give the fickle minded devil - the weather it's due! During the summer months we get cool breeze essentially from the South and West. Whereas it is a little difficult to control the sun and heat entering the house from the West through the windows, it can be quite easily controlled in the South. By merely having big windows in the South, lots of cool air can be got into the house provided we also have some openings in the North or East for this air to pass out, carrying the heat to the outside. During the summer months the air pressure will be less in the North and East directions compared to the West and South. By strategically placing windows on opposite or adjacent sides of air entry, cool summer breeze can be made to pass through the house.(See figure)

Natural ventilation v/s artificial ventilation
Apart from saving energy bill, natural ventilation provides safe, fresh, cool breeze that is at the right temperature and speed. Many times it is found that the fans run too fast drying the mucous membranes of the respiratory system and cause nasal blocks and dry throats. Some people get dry coughs if they stay under fans for any length of time. Whereas ceiling fans churn in the same stale air again and again inside the room natural ventilation causes frequent air changes by bringing in the cool breeze which is fresh from outside.
Another advantage of natural ventilation is that it is not a continuous stream.
There are natural breaks when the body can adjust to the changing air temperature and humidity. It is advisable for those sensitive to sudden changes in air temperature and humidity, not to keep their beds directly in the flow of the breeze. During some seasons, there will be too much of climatic variations during the night, when they are sleeping and they may not be in a position to get up and reduce the air flow by closing some of the shutters of the windows. Too much of cold draft of air, passing over a sleeping person may cause some discomfort in the morning.
Even though in summer, the general breeze direction is from south and west,as the south-west monsoon starts in summer months, it does not set immediately. Due to local variations, cyclones and turbulence the summer breeze may be blowing from the opposite direction some time, but by and large it blows from the south and west.
Summer monsoon, incidentally is not just the three months of actual summer, but it also includes the rainy season immediately after summer. In fact in India, monsoon usually means the South-West monsoon rainy season, during which, even though it rains, the in between period can be quite warm and humid Therefore it becomes essential to provide suitable sun and rain protection devices for all openings in the south and west, other wise the benefits of cool summer breeze entering the house may be cancelled by the rain and sharp afternoon sun entering the house.
Once we provide big windows in the South and West, with suitable sun and rain protection devices, it becomes equally important for this breeze to go out carrying with it all the heat from inside the house.
Hot air can be sent out by providing smaller openings in the East and North. Smaller openings in the east and north are sufficient to draw off the breeze entering the house from the South and the West, since the breeze will be at higher pressure in these directions and naturally it will easily flow towards the East and North as these are at low pressure compared to the South and West.

Ventilation requirement of different rooms
Of all rooms, providing suitable natural ventilation for the bed room of adult couples is very important. Here the special requirement is that we have to provide the privacy along with window openings for good cross-ventilation. The adult couple lead an active life and the heat generated needs to be taken off and they naturally prefer a well ventilated cool room. This becomes more complex as we have to maintain privacy too at the same time. It is comparatively easy to cross ventilate or make the breeze flow through or cross the children's room or elderly couple's room. Children and elders may not close their bedroom doors and curtains will ensure what little privacy they need. Infact children and elders expect the adult members to be within calling distance and this is easily done in a room where the door is not closed and curtains ensure privacy.
We can beat the summer heat,the natural way provided we take care of all known physical aspects like summer breeze direction, difference in air pressure around the house and the heat gain from the direct rays of sun.

DH : Build them Green

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Build them green

There is much more to green buildings than mere rainwater harvesting, waste-water recycling and solar power, writes Nandhini Sundar.


Many a time there is confusion about the concept of what encompasses a green building. It is quite common to consider a building termed green to simply incorporate factors like rainwater harvesting, waste-water recycling and perhaps use solar power to supplement its energy source. Anything beyond that is neither conceptualised nor expected.
What is hence overlooked is the green concept extends way beyond these to include a gamut of issues that are addressed not just to make buildings sustainable but also its immediate local environment while extending to the global level in the long run.
Rating systems have been developed in US and Europe to judge the extent of sustainable features that a green building has incorporated. The most popular of these and one that is actively adopted in India is the LEED system (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) of the US Green Building Council based at Washington.
Under this system points are awarded to projects based on the features that they have incorporated. The maximum number of points awarded is 69. A project receiving 52-69 points is awarded the platinum rating.
The concept of sustainable buildings encompasses four main issues that need addressing. These pertain to water, waste generation and recycling, energy consumption and site ecology.
When a building comes up on a site, the ecology of the site gets disturbed. For instance, the site may be a rocky one and hence require blasting to accommodate the building. Such blasting invariably impacts the site besides harming the foundations of adjoining buildings as well as upsetting the natural habitat of the site. A sustainable building takes into account the inherent nature of the site and accordingly takes steps to preserve it.
Thus, the rocks will be removed without blasting and used in the building. The quantum of the rocky terrain disturbed too will be minimal, just enough to accommodate the building with landscaping done around the existing rocks. Proper soil and sedimentation control will be in place with the landscaping structured to take care of rain water harvesting.
The second aspect is water, the quantum of fresh water used, the volume of waste water generation and the extent of rain water harvesting put in place. The CII-Godrej Green Business Centre, which is the first green building to have achieved the coveted platinum rating under the version 2 of the LEED rating system, has zero water discharge. This means that its structure is designed in such a way that not a drop of water goes waste. Waterless urinals, collection of every drop of rainwater in the campus besides recycling of waste water are some of its unique features.
It is estimated that nearly 35% of the energy generated are consumed by commercial buildings. Says SC Kumar, Senior Advisor, CII, “By changing the orientation of the building and its design, the lighting load as well as thermal comfort can be addressed leading to very significant savings in energy consumption.” The CII has achieved 90% energy efficiency in terms of lighting load through its design and orientation.
Energy efficiency is also achieved by using appropriate materials for insulating walls and roof. According to Kumar, double glazing of glass with Argon filling keeps out noise and heat. Here, 70 to 80% of light comes in but only 20% of heat enters. Kumar however, cautions against using too much glass in the building. “The extent of glass used should not exceed 40%.”
Maximising North-oriented glazing also helps in energy savings as North orientation minimises the heat gains from windows while allowing maximum daylight into the interiors.
The CII has used the Super Efficient Chiller which uses only one-third of energy that a conventional air conditioner would consume. The energy requirement too is supplemented with solar energy thereby reducing further the actual energy drawn.
It is important to use inputs that are capable of being recycled or are themselves recycled items. This indirectly saves energy besides being more eco-friendly. Thus, items such as fly-ash, recyclable steel and aluminium, Eco-board which is compressed sugarcane husk mixed with other wood products are some of the examples of recycled and recyclable products that can be used in construction to make buildings sustainable.
Apart from the above, there are other factors such as indoor environment, efficiency of space management that add to the green concept. It is important to ensure that the level of humidity, lighting, thermal comfort is right inside the building. The quality of fresh air inside the building is again important. Volatile compounds such as those released from the chemical components of paints should be totally absent in the air. To ensure this, Kumar advocates going in for water based distemper.
Similarly, the level of carbon-dioxide in the air can significantly go up especially when there is a large gathering. Sensors need to be deployed to keep its level low. The CII has sensors to monitor carbon dioxide levels in its conference hall.
Apart from the above features, certain external factors such as location of the building, accessibility to public transport, too have a say in determining the green factor. A building fed by an efficient public transport automatically gains points as it represents use of lesser number of private vehicles by employees, thus indirectly reducing the carbon emissions.
Besides conforming to the environment, green buildings have benefits that directly affect the occupants of the buildings. For instance, it is estimated that the interior comfort factor increases individual occupant’s productivity by 6-26%. It reduces respiratory illnesses by 9-20% while the level of absenteeism is less by 15%.
While a green building is all about sustainability and addressing environmental concerns, at times what is left unaddressed in the final product is the fact that buildings, besides being sustainable are also pieces of art, their architecture needing to reflect creativity and a finesse that is worthy of preservation.
Thus, you can have a building that is totally green, fulfilling all criteria, yet looking simply as a piece of brick and mortar, brought together to house an enterprise, a function. But there is nothing about it that sets it apart as unique or as a structure that has an individual character. It is also often misinterpreted that a green building, because of its unique features cannot successfully address art.
However, it would do well to keep in mind that creativity and art do not feature on the opposite side of sustainable architecture, the presence of one eliminating the prevalence of the other. One would simply have to browse through some of the green buildings that have come up around the world, their creativity and artistic character manifesting in all its unrestricted glory, to recognise this.

The writer can be contacted at nandy6488@yahoo.com