Case Study: Redeveloped Property at Civil Lines: Ecofeatures

Case study : REDEVELOPED PROPERTY AT CIVIL LINES
ECOFEATURES
• Orientation
• Wind-driven evaporative cooling
• Courtyard roof
•Insulation materials
Architect : A. B. Lall Architects, 1997–1999

Location : Civil Lines, New Delhi, India;
28°N, 77°E; 220 m above sea
Level
Climate : Composite
Area : Total 1687 m2; each house
Kaushik naarayan.b (2011/a/2008) DESIGN:I.G.B.C competition

Navneethakrishnan.n (2005/a/2008)
Urban dense context.

Project includes 4 courtyard houses on a
street.
South side houses have north side gardens
and north side houses have south side
gardens.
East-west orientation
window openings on north south sides.
The windows on these faces look into

narrow protected alleys
or the small courtyard between the
houses.
Urban dense context.
Project includes 4 courtyard houses on a street.
South side houses have north side gardens and north side houses have south side gardens.
East-west orientation
window openings on
north south sides.
The windows on these

faces look into narrow
protected alleys
or the small courtyard
between the houses.
The West House takes advantage of
the prevailing northwesterly hot
winds that blow during the hot-dry
seasons. A vertical screen tower is
built on the west wall. This tower
houses khus evaporative pads on its
outer surface, fed by a water pump.
The inner side has adjustable
windows opening into the adjacent rooms.

The natural wind pressure will
drive air through the wet khus pads and will
then flow into the adjacent
rooms. This vertical arrangement would
spread the khus fragrance across
the two storeys of the house.
West wall, ‘khus’ cooling tower

In the summer, the combination of

ceiling fans and the evaporative
cooling gives a comfortable
environment, except
during the season of very high
temperatures (38ºC) and high
humidity
(65 per cent) before the monsoon in
mid-June to mid-July. But ‘if you wear
skimpy cottons and drink cool sherbet
– there is a refrigerator lurking
somewhere – you could be
comfortable enough’
The roofed courtyard of the two

courtyard houses is intended to
be the
main climate response device.
The hipped steel frame roof is
clad with a
20 mm glass sandwich with a
reflective film and frosted
underside for the
most part, with a panel of
transparent glass on the south
slope.
This is under-slung by a pair of razais (quilts), which can be pulled across to cover
the underside of the roof (for insulation) or allowed to hang down vertically
(to allow heat transfer). Above the roof is another frame in chicks
(bamboo severs), which can similarly be opened to shade the roof or rolled
up to catch the sun.
The ridge of the roof is a water channel from The dominant portion of the roofed courtyards with their
which water overflows on quilts of mirrors
to the thin roofing membrane of stone and and colourful cloth, the chicks and the possibility of
glass. Some water evaporates visible monsoon and
and excess water is collected at the foot of night sky – stars and moon – would become a strong
the slope and re-circulated. aesthetic experience
This makes the roof a large evaporative cooler of the idea of responding to the rhythm of seasonal
over the central space of cycles.
the house. All rooms communicate directly
with this central space.
This method of evaporative cooling will supplement a
conventional evaporative
cooler and, in the hot-humid period of July to August,
would give considerable
cooling when evaporative cooling is no longer effective.
The operation
of the roof component: chick, water, razai, is to be
adjusted from
winter to summer and for day and night. The roof
provides for:
1 shading from outside/insulation from inside;
2 roof evaporative cooling;
3 direct radiation.
Insulation/materials
The roofs are finished with broken marble mosaic, which is reflective in
nature. The roof construction sandwich contains 30-mm-thick polyurethane
board insulation above the concrete slab. For the courtyard houses the
western wall of the upper floor, the east and west walls of the courtyard
roof and the water tank walls are insulated using an innovative construction
sandwich of 115 mm brick + 15 mm plaster + 30 mm polystyrene
foam + 50 mm terracotta jalis, whose cavities are rendered with cement
sand mortar.
Their resultant construction expresses the special nature of

the wall as a decorative textured surface. This strategy shifts
the performance
to the fabric by spending a little on insulation where it makes
the
most difference. The windows are single glazed (heavy curtains
for
summer afternoons and winter nights but tight-fitting with
double rebates).
This proves that an economical solution can in fact be
implemented.

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Case study : REDEVELOPED PROPERTY AT CIVIL LINES

• Wind-driven evaporative cooling

Architect : A. B. Lall Architects, 1997–1999

Kaushik naarayan.b (2011/a/2008) DESIGN:I.G.B.C competition

Urban dense context.

window openings on north south sides.

The windows on these faces look into

The windows on these

windows opening into the adjacent rooms.

West wall, ‘khus’ cooling tower

In the summer, the combination of

The roofed courtyard of the two

Their resultant construction expresses the special nature of

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