The Administration Building of the Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research (BIDR) has been chosen by the Israel Ministry of Construction and Housing to represent Israel at the World Habitat Day organized by the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Housing and Land Management Unit.
To celebrate World Habitat Day and to stress the importance of buildings for a sustainable future, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Housing and Land Management Unit organized a photo exhibition entitled, “Building the Future We Want”. Pictures of sustainable buildings and green designs from all over the region are showcased at the Palais des Nations, where delegates, guests and meeting participants were able to enjoy the exhibition for almost an entire month (24 September- 15 October 2012). The entries can be viewed here.
This pilot project is located at the BIDR on BGU’s Sede-Boqer Campus in the arid Negev Highlands of southern Israel. From 1990 to 1992 this project was originally designed as a multifunctional complex housing a cafeteria and lounge, classrooms, administration, library, student and visiting faculty accommodation, and a large central patio (approximately 1500m2 in total). It was renovated (2007) for use as the main administration building of the campus.
The local climate is characterized by wide daily and seasonal thermal fluctuations, low relative humidity during the day, clear night skies and intense solar radiation. Prevailing winds are north-westerly and often laden with dust.
The building integrates a number of climatic response strategies:
• underground and earth-bermed construction, minimizing envelope exposure to the environment and providing thermal insulation
• internal thermal mass (concrete and masonry structure) for heat storage and external thermal insulation (with 5 cm of rigid polystyrene) to minimize heat losses
• an internal sunken patio acting as a greenhouse during winter; hot air from its apex (25-32 Cº day temperature) is pumped into the north wing offices by operating 250 Watt fans (one per office) providing the equivalent of 2,500 Watt convectors, maintaining a rather stable indoor temperature (19-23 Cº)
• the same patio is shaded in summer by internal moveable reflective shading meshes, while windows which can be opened allow the passive ventilation and exhausting of hot air
• evaporative cooling through a downdraft tower enables the reduction of ambient air temperature by 12-25 Cº, maintaining an indoor temperature of 22-24 Cº (lower patio level) and 23-26 Cº (first floor); the evaporation of approximately 1 m3 of water per day provides a cooling capacity of 1000 kWh/day.
Excess water spills into terraced pools around which vegetation also promotes evaporative cooling, but first and foremost creates a green environment with all the positive psychological effects the sound of running water can have in a desert. The efficiency of the evaporative cooling tower system which, like the passive heating system, is fully integrated with the architectural design of the project has been refined through a series of research studies documented in peer-reviewed journals. Long term monitoring, fine tuning of the various systems and a post-occupancy evaluation study have allowed improvements to the performance of the building as a fully integrated system.
