In the paper, a new solution is proposed for reducing the seismic response of passive houses founded on layers of thermal insulation (TI) boards which, in such buildings, are usually installed beneath the RC foundations in order to prevent the occurrence of thermal bridges. This could be achieved by allowing controlled lateral sliding to occur along the horizontal surface between the individual layers of the TI boards, as a kind of seismic fuse. Depending on the size of the friction coefficient acting at this surface, three different seismic response scenarios can be foreseen: Scenario 1: Basic protection (“sliding prevention”), Scenario 2: Extended protection (“sliding controllable”), and Scenario 3: Full protection (“sliding isolation system”). Vertical and horizontal restraining elements are also introduced with the aim of preventing extreme lateral shifts or rocking phenomena. The nature of these three seismic response scenarios has been investigated by means of nonlinear dynamic analysis of some simplified parametric models, as well as of some realistic models of two, four and six storeyed RC passive house buildings. The results showed that the total base shear that might act on the superstructure could be reduced by permitting sliding between the layers of TI boards, thus reducing or even preventing the occurrence of damage. In the case of Scenario 2 the proposed seismic fuse could be used in modern energy-efficient houses practically without any additional costs.
F.09 Development of a new technological process or technology
COBISS.SI-ID: 3270020Our behaviour towards the environment depends on our beliefs about the environment. Beliefs, however, are a subject of change, particularly during important life transitions such as the transition to adolescence, because this is a period when an individual develops the ability of complex and abstract reasoning. Understanding this transition is therefore crucial for understanding and predicting the attitudes and courses of action in terms of sustainable development later in life. Due to many methodological constraints, the number of empirical studies examining these issues is very limited; the current study aimed to collect empirical data to explore the origins of our beliefs about the environment-related issues. We devised a picture association test and used it to compare childrens and adolescents beliefs about our environment in the context of the means of transportation. A large sample of 2264 participants aged 6-18 years took part in the study. The data supported the claim that childrens beliefs about environment share egocentric properties. The findings represent an important puzzle into the whole picture of childrens thinking and offer us great insight into the origins of beliefs about environment-related questions in adults. Educational implications are addressed.
F.27 Contribution to preserving/protecting natural and cultural heritage
COBISS.SI-ID: 6793057The main requirement for the design of modern family houses is a high energy performance. With the properly selected heat generation system, the primary energy consumption and CO2 emissions can be reduced over decades of building use. In addition to the service life of the building, the construction stage also constitutes a burden with regard to energy and environment. Houses have an embodied primary energy and CO2 emissions, which is why efforts are currently made to improve the thermal envelope, ventilation, and the heat generation system. An additional requirement for energy efficient buildings involves a minimum embodied energy.
F.13 Development of new production methods and tools or processes
COBISS.SI-ID: 3227268The purpose of this chapter is to show how important it is to use visualization techniques for enhancing public participation in creating smart cities. The chapter focuses on exploring people’ s opinions with regard to urban design, and on exploring new media and digital tools for public engagement. More specifically, it focuses on exploring the potential of using virtual worlds in the process of urban design from the first stages of the design process to the construction and maintenance phases. Quantitative and qualitative research methods have been used for the purposes of this chapter. The Terf virtual world is explored as a laboratory for interdisciplinary collaboration in urban design as well as an interface allowing involvement of different actors within a public participatory process. The final part of this chapter offers guidelines for future development of support tools for public engagement, especially concerning the Terf virtual world, and their potential use by municipalities.
F.23 Development of new system-wide, normative and programme solutions, and methods
COBISS.SI-ID: 3181444The built environment has direct and indirect adverse impacts on the environment and human beings. It directly affects us through contaminated air, soil and groundwater, while indirectly through emissions of harmful substances released from the materials. The most of the negative potential comes from materials that buildings consist of and from energy to which the buildings are linked to throughout the life cycle. Negative potentials of materials are: a) environmental interventions (mines, erosion, cleaning of virgin forest, exploitation of forest…), b) great consumption of energy (exploitation of sources of energy, atmospheric warming, acid rain, smog, ), c) harmful emissions (fumes, dust, fibers and poisonous or radioactive substances), d) waste. Mentioned negative potentials are sufficient grounds for ecological assessment of materials. A large part of negative impacts on the environment and human beings arise from energy needs. Energy can be bound to a building in two forms: 1) embodied energy – energy is used to obtain the raw materials and manufacture the materials necessary to make the building and its technical installations functional; 2) operational energy – energy is needed in the construction, use and maintenance (heating, cooling, lighting…) Sustainable buildings There are various concepts that determine the building as sustainable. Ecological house is built from materials that do not pollute the environment. An important measure to reduce the amount of required operating energy is to increase the energy efficiency of the building: with greater thickness of thermal insulation and windows with higher thermal insulation, air-tight building envelope, building envelope without thermal bridges and a system of controlled ventilation with heat recuperation. Numerous types of energy-efficient houses have been developed. All of them can be labeled as sustainable buildings. • Low energy house • Passive house • Zero energy house • Self-sufficient house • Plusenergy house Designing of sustainable buildings Sustainable buildings must be designed in such a way that during their life cycle, the amount of negative impacts on human beings and the environment will be minimal. The architectural design should include the following principles: Use of ecological building materials Ecological building materials are materials with no harmful effects on the environment and man. The following four principles are known in the ecological selection of building materials: • building materials are based on building materials that use minimal quantities of raw material sources, can be recycled or re-installed, • energy required for the production, working and installation should be minimal, • use of local building materials is very suitable, since it does not require any transport and contributes to regional identification of a building, • building materials used should not release any hazardous emissions. Use of ecological technologies • Active consumption of the sun is transformation of energy of direct solar radiation to other kinds of energy by means of special transformers built in (windows, walls, roofs, collectors along a house, etc.) • Passive consumption of natural resources dictates such concept of a building that allows exploitation of advantages in the location selected. • Use of decomposable building materials and constructions. The background of this phenomenon is the ecological judgment of recycling principle and re-use. • Re-use of building material exploited after a building has been pulled down some of the elements can still serve their purpose. Some elements can be reused without preliminary working (e.g. clay, full brick, cubes and blocks of solid stone, some metal elements), some can be recycled and then built in again (wooden elements serve as raw material for fiber panels, chip-boards, ... metal, glass, partially plastics can be recycled).
F.17 Transfer of existing technologies, know-how, methods and procedures into practice
COBISS.SI-ID: 3089284In 2014, the third scientific conference SMART URBANISM explores the theme Teaching for sustainable architecture and urbanism. The starting position has been previously well defined in the UNESCO programme TEACHING AND LEARNING FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE, which has been established for the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development in 2002 and is a major contribution to the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg, September 2002). “… The programme can be used as it is, or adapted to local, national or regional needs. It provides professional development for student teachers, teachers, curriculum developers, education policy makers, and authors of educational materials. The modules are divided into 4 themes: Curriculum rationale, Sustainable Development across the curriculum, Contemporary issues and Teaching & learning strategies.” In the frame of improving architectural and urban studies, the fourth theme “TEACHING AND LEARNING STRATEGIES” is particularly important. We have decided to use some of the starting points from the UNESCO programme to kick off this year’s discussion on how to implement the general guidelines in urban and architectural education. The set of modules TEACHING & LEARNING STRATEGIES develops professional skills for using teaching and learning strategies that can help students achieve the wide range of knowledge, skill and values objectives of Education for Sustainable Development. The UNESCO programme proposes eight important strategies: experiential learning, storytelling, values education, enquiry learning, appropriate assessment, future problem solving, learning outside the classroom and community problem solving. For empirical learning the ‘experience’ itself is just as important as the process of the reflection and the transmission of experience into a new process of thinking, researching, exploring, creating new ideas etc. With experiential learning, an individual forms values, skills and knowledge through daily work and social experience develop. This manner of education deepens the knowledge when students and all those included in the educational process are given an opportunity to discuss or verify the experience which was obtained through practical work. At the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Architecture (UL FA), student urban design and architectural workshops have had a long tradition of more than 40 years. Students of different years and study programmes (architecture, urban design, spatial planning, landscape architecture etc.) are included together in the research and experiential work, where the classical meaning of education comes in second. One of the main starting points, containing the description of methods in experiential learning, was David Kolb’s highly influential book entitled ‘Experiential Learning: Experience as the source of learning and development’ (1984). Of course, David Kolb’s work can be traced back to the famous dictum of Confucius around 450 BC: “Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand.” For empirical learning the “experience” itself is just as important as the process of the reflection, observation with thinking and the transmission of experience into a new process of thinking. This is only possible when we have something to think about, when our thoughts can be connected to the recognitions, own experience or with someone else’s recognized situation. Creativity is tightly connected to empirical methods of learning, where the involvement of an individual in the experience and thinking is important. Creativity is considered more important than productivity, whereby the latter is the result of the former (Mulej, 1994). Creativity is often confused with originality, which is not the same, nevertheless, it is its constituent part, (...) however, creative things are more than just original (...) (Guštin, 2007).
C.01 Editorial board of a foreign/international collection of papers/book
COBISS.SI-ID: 274206720A considerable number of papers have already been published on land use changes in the past 200 years on the territory of Central Europe. All these studies basically draw on the Franciscan Cadastre, made in the first half of the 19th century for the area of the then Austrian Empire. Some of them clearly present land use changes in the area of entire states or regions of today; the most often studied countries are Bohemia, Slovenia and Austria. Land use changes in the current research were studied on terraced terrains which predominantly mark the image of the Mediterranean landscape. Special factors of land-use changes are related exactly to terraces. The village Ostrožno Brdo, which is located in the transition zone between the Mediterranean and the Dinaric world, was one of the villages selected for the case study. Land use of the studied area was significantly influenced by political changes, since after the collapse of Austria-Hungary, the studied area was, in turn, part of three different states. The terraced area in the cadastral municipality of Ostrožno Brdo accounts for mere 10% of the total area or 93.6 ha of land. A typical feature of the Brkini terraces is the length of terrace platform or the whole terrace; terraces are usually about 150 m long, while in the landscape most expressive areas, terraces are even longer than 300 meters. During almost 200 years the terraces and their slopes have preserved the same forms. Afforestation is an explicitly recognizable process of land-use changes in the entire cadastral municipality. The present forest cover amounts to as much as 82%. The percentage of woodland increased even on terraces, i.e. from 1% to 8%; the data show the overgrowing of cultural terraces. Due to the changes in demography, the land-use category of grassland has decreased more than four times since the Franciscan Cadastre, and also fields and gardens do not exceed 2% today. The present terrace orchards represent an important land category, since they amount up to 12%. In past times, more than two-thirds of terraced land were used for fields and gardens, but their percentage is now slightly lower than that of orchards. In addition to the increase in orchards and woodland, the percentage of grassland also increased, almost three times. Insulation of terraces is important information with regard to land use, since most of the terraces are oriented towards the north. At Ostrožno Brdo landforms mainly influence the distribution of terraces, and altitude above sea level influences the selection of farming cultures. Though the data on the current actual land use determine the utilisation of individual parcels more precisely than the Franciscan Cadastre did, the present interpretation key for determining the use in terraced areas is not completely accurate. The rules for specifying land use on terrace slopes in the Register of Actual Utilisation of Farming and Woodland have not been formulated consistently. In the case of vineyards, intensive orchards and olive groves, the provision applies that overgrown and grassed terrace slopes are also included in land use, while in the case of fields the provision says that it only relates to terrace slopes with the maximum ground plan width of 2 metres. In the case of other types of utilisation, land use on terrace slopes should be mapped separately in accordance with instructions. With the known methodologies of mapping and inventorying terraced areas and their use, any exclusion of parts of terraces is all but impossible.
F.27 Contribution to preserving/protecting natural and cultural heritage
COBISS.SI-ID: 37561645The patent proposes a new system for founding of passive and low energy buildings in seismic prone areas on the thermal insulation under the foundation slab. The proposed solution of seismic fuse is effective in terms of buildings’ thermal protection, while its added value is improved safety in the event of earthquakes. The solution is carried out with the help of vertical and horizontal restrainers, which still allow the use of existing, well-established thermal insulation materials and details. In particular, to improve the seismic response of passive houses, the phenomenon of rocking is limited, and the event of uncontrolled sliding of the building is prevented. In the case of stronger earthquakes, the system allows small and controlled displacements at the foundation base. Thus, the system acts as a seismic fuse, which protects the superstructure from excessive damage. The solution can be applied for majority of existing details of thermal insulation under the foundation slab with sufficient compressive strength and present an excellent niche in the building market.
F.33 Slovenian patent
COBISS.SI-ID: 3089540An advanced primary traffic system and a favourable traffic position of the "object of observation" result in openness of space and connection to the outside world. A dense network of local roads can be an additional advantage when developing the network of cultural routes, where the primary goal of visiting a specific object of observation, can now be expanded to other areas (cuisine, natural sites of special interest etc.). Since our primary intention was to represent, and systematically contextualize the specific points of discussion, we tried to select routes that best describe the area, the ideology and the environment/time of building a structure. The criteria of selecting the route, in designing the new “heritage” network, should be chosen in accordance with the guidelines of sustainable tourism. In doing this, it is essential that the design of the system is simple, yet giving everyone the choice of alternatives, decisions and visits.
F.03 Increased qualifications of the research and development staff
COBISS.SI-ID: 2848644An increasing trend of energy efficient buildings transferring from non earthquake-prone regions of northern and central Europe with cold continental climate to earthquake-prone regions has thrown out the question about the seismic safety of such buildings. The thesis describes the most commonly used details of energy efficient buildings, which could be critical from the point of view of earthquake resistance. The literature review was used to identify the common characteristics of details on the building envelope, which are used to limit the negative consequences of thermal bridges. In order to ensure the continuous thermal envelope, in some cases the structural system of the building is interrupted, which could lead to solutions not applicable on earthquake prone regions. Among the details with a possible negative impact on the earthquake resistance of buildings we highlight the following: details with thermal insulation under the foundation slab, precast load-bearing thermal insulation elements for cantilevers, insulation base blocks for masonry load-bearing structures, interruptions in the structural system due to the new requirements of the controlled mechanical ventilation system, façade substructures and anchoring, and reduced dimensions of the concrete and masonry load-bearing structures on the account of increased thickness of thermal insulation. The most detailed analyses are given for the building detail with thermal insulation under the foundation slab and for precast load-bearing thermal insulation elements for prevention of cantilever thermal bridges, while for other details only descriptive assessment of their seismic resistance is shown. In the thesis a parametric seismic analyses of buildings founded on extruded polystyrene (XPS) boards is performed. The results of analyses have shown that the insertion of XPS under the foundation slab causes an increase in the building’s fundamental vibrational period, which could lead to higher displacements and in some cases greater structural damage. Furthermore, the nonlinear dynamic analyses showed also other potentially negative influences on seismic response, such as uncontrolled rocking and sliding of the building on the XPS layer. As a solution to these negative effects, we have proposed a concept of thermally insulated foundation slab detail with horizontal stoppers and vertical restrainers. The proposed solution is designed to control the sliding mechanism and limit maximal base displacements, while it could also be used to reduce the horizontal seismic forces induced on the superstructure. The response of RC cantilevers with precast load-bearing thermal insulation elements was analysed on vertical seismic load. Based on analyses results we have defined the maximum length of RC cantilevers with precast elements on the account of their end deflection. Additionally the seismic risk analysis showed a relatively large probability for the occurrence of cantilever uplift in the assumed structure life span of 50 years, where the simplified seismic hazard function was adopted for the region of Ljubljana. In order to avoid possible greater damage of precast elements subjected to strong earthquakes, we have proposed to improve these precast elements, since they are lacking in lower reinforcement, which is needed to prevent damage in the case of cantilever uplift. In the last part of the thesis, a simplified methodology for evaluating building details was proposed according to the existing guidelines of earthquake resistant and energy efficient buildings. The methodology could be used in the building design phase to recognize substantial changes in load-bearing structure, stiffness reductions, asymmetries in structural elements and other important characteristics, which could affect the quality of building details from the point of view of their earthquake resistance. At the same time, we can also evaluate the quality of the detail in terms of its energy efficiency and env
D.09 Tutoring for postgraduate students
COBISS.SI-ID: 3329668