Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Construction Materials, 2020
Earth has been used as a building material for millennia, and several structures built in antiqui... more Earth has been used as a building material for millennia, and several structures built in antiquity still exist today. Recently, there has been renewed interest in earth-block masonry as it offers some benefits over more traditional materials, including sustainability, low embodied carbon dioxide and energy, good thermal performance and affordability. Additional benefits may be achieved by utilising shells for roof or structure. Of particular focus in this paper is a shell house built in Johannesburg, South Africa. It is a double-storey house, comprising interlocking masonry walls, earth-block vaults and a rib and block slab. This paper presents some in situ experimental results from a long-term thermal evaluation of the prototype house. The effectiveness of several passive design strategies was also examined. Natural ventilation and painting external surfaces white were especially effective at reducing late afternoon and evening temperatures during summer. Another important finding...
Poverty and unemployment are extremely high in rural areas, which also suffer from low levels of ... more Poverty and unemployment are extremely high in rural areas, which also suffer from low levels of infrastructure. The government has begun to address this through a nationwide job creation programme with a focus on civil engineering works; however, this has not extended into the field of building, which is assumed to be already employment-intensive.
This is GCRO's third major Research Report on green infrastructure. It builds on the previous... more This is GCRO's third major Research Report on green infrastructure. It builds on the previous two studies by providing detailed practical case studies of how green infrastructure could be applied to solve sustainability and urban infrastructure challenges facing different settlement types in the Gauteng City-Region (GCR)
The process of setting objectives, function definition and function evaluation, as introduced in ... more The process of setting objectives, function definition and function evaluation, as introduced in a value analysis workshop, could be the breakthrough in redefining architectural conceptions of function. Moreover, by bringing all key role players into the group, social, economic and design aspects can be evaluated holistically. Likewise, creative techniques commonly used in value analysis such as morphological analysis, brainstorming and random word technique could be valuable in transforming the identified priority functions into a new reality. This approach stands as a considerable challenge to the traditional model of the designer as creative genius,12 but the challenge has already been posed to this way of thinking in key areas of the discipline. Only by introducing radically different techniques can these shortcomings be substantially and satisfactorily addressed.
Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Construction Materials, 2020
Earth has been used as a building material for millennia, and several structures built in antiqui... more Earth has been used as a building material for millennia, and several structures built in antiquity still exist today. Recently, there has been renewed interest in earth-block masonry as it offers some benefits over more traditional materials, including sustainability, low embodied carbon dioxide and energy, good thermal performance and affordability. Additional benefits may be achieved by utilising shells for roof or structure. Of particular focus in this paper is a shell house built in Johannesburg, South Africa. It is a double-storey house, comprising interlocking masonry walls, earth-block vaults and a rib and block slab. This paper presents some in situ experimental results from a long-term thermal evaluation of the prototype house. The effectiveness of several passive design strategies was also examined. Natural ventilation and painting external surfaces white were especially effective at reducing late afternoon and evening temperatures during summer. Another important finding...
Poverty and unemployment are extremely high in rural areas, which also suffer from low levels of ... more Poverty and unemployment are extremely high in rural areas, which also suffer from low levels of infrastructure. The government has begun to address this through a nationwide job creation programme with a focus on civil engineering works; however, this has not extended into the field of building, which is assumed to be already employment-intensive.
This is GCRO's third major Research Report on green infrastructure. It builds on the previous... more This is GCRO's third major Research Report on green infrastructure. It builds on the previous two studies by providing detailed practical case studies of how green infrastructure could be applied to solve sustainability and urban infrastructure challenges facing different settlement types in the Gauteng City-Region (GCR)
The process of setting objectives, function definition and function evaluation, as introduced in ... more The process of setting objectives, function definition and function evaluation, as introduced in a value analysis workshop, could be the breakthrough in redefining architectural conceptions of function. Moreover, by bringing all key role players into the group, social, economic and design aspects can be evaluated holistically. Likewise, creative techniques commonly used in value analysis such as morphological analysis, brainstorming and random word technique could be valuable in transforming the identified priority functions into a new reality. This approach stands as a considerable challenge to the traditional model of the designer as creative genius,12 but the challenge has already been posed to this way of thinking in key areas of the discipline. Only by introducing radically different techniques can these shortcomings be substantially and satisfactorily addressed.
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Papers by Anne Fitchett