Although many real estate developers claim that their products are
environmentally friendly, environment protection experts say that
some claims are just business hype and that it takes more than
planting grass and using some "green" construction materials to
meet standards.
An
eco-friendly house is one that saves energy and water while
offering high comfort and no pollution. It takes advantage of
various natural energies, such as solar energy, wind power,
geothermal and marsh gases, as well as new technologies and
designs. For instance, awnings with solar batteries can transform
solar energy to electricity, which can provide lighting for
basements and rooms facing north. Natural air-conditioning
technology can warm or cool the house by adjusting surface and
underground temperatures. Rain-collection and wastewater disposal
technology can provide water for fire protection, gardening and
washing cars, thus saving much water. To assure a safe environment,
a house should use environment friendly building materials and
household electric appliances, and owners should divide and recycle
garbage or burn it to create heat or energy.
The demonstration base will be jointly developed by the Beijing
Order Center for Research and Development of Urban Eco-friendly
Housing and the Beijing Institute of Science and Technology.
According to Yan Peijin, president of the Order Group, the site
covering 120 mu (20 acres) will be comprised of public
service and housing demonstration areas. The public service area
will include a 2,000-square-meter (2,390-square-yard) multi-purpose
exhibition hall and a 400-square-meter (478-square-yard)
eco-friendly classroom. The demonstration area will introduce 50
eco-friendly houses each covering 1,000 square meters (1,196 square
yards) and featuring different countries, regions, climates and
environmental protection technologies. The first 20 will be built
through international cooperation and the remainder will use
domestic bidders. The project will cost over 100 million yuan
(US$12 million) and be finished within two years.
The base will become the first exhibition of eco-friendly
residences; but the planning, technology and material used in the
houses have no limits. Ecological buildings have sprung up over the
past 20 years, and many countries have built various kinds of
eco-friendly residences. The demonstration base hopes to collect
the most distinctive ones for exhibition and research.
The Beijing Order Center for Research and Development of Urban
Eco-friendly Housing has invited domestic experts on environmental
protection to collect and research information on foreign
eco-friendly residences, and they have brought forward
main-technologies for the 50 houses to ensure that the houses save
energy and water, are pollution-free and highly comfortable.
Professor Xia Qing with the China Academy of Environmental Science
said an eco-friendly residence should be safe for the environment
in its planning, its construction, its use and eventually its
disposal of waste. Such houses involve much more than just having a
nice lawn. And because they need the latest technologies and
materials, with garbage and water disposing facilities -- ordinary
real estate developers cannot afford them. Nevertheless, although
eco-friendly residences may be ahead of their time, they may also
serve as models for future home development.
Each eco-friendly residence is unique -- different from others --
and has a specialty.
American house
An
American university built a four-bedroom eco-friendly house with
rainwater recovery and water filtration systems that were also
installed with a wind dynamotor, solar batteries and a sewage and
night soil disposal pit, which provided fermented waste as
fertilizer for an attached garden.
A
building in Chicago was walled with plants instead of bricks and
concrete. An American construction company built housing frames
with recycled steel and the American State Resource Protection
Commission built their headquarters with recycled materials
including used newspaper, glass and wheat.
German house
The first eco-friendly office building in Berlin was installed with
a 64-square meter solar battery in its facade. The building was
also equipped with a water-storage facility on its roof to collect
and store rainwater, which was used to irrigate grass on the roof.
Water not used by the grass filtered down to a storage facility and
was used to flush toilets. German architect Sader Terhols devised a
house that tracks the sun, with a floor that revolves 3 cm (1.18
inches) per minute to follow the sun and absorb twice the solar
energy as an ordinary floor. A new highway with small holes
appeared in a resident zone in Hanoverian. The grass growing in the
holes protect the highway from wear and absorb sunshine reflection,
noise and the smell of gasoline.
Another house's energy is fueled completely from the sun. The
southern exposure of the house is set to absorb more solar energy,
and its walls are built by heat insulation materials that hold more
heat. The house is warmed by sun in the day and then the walls send
out heat in the night.
Netherlands house
A
number of houses in the Netherlands are covered with grass on the
roof and equipped with solar batteries in the walls and detectors
inside to monitor temperature, dust, chemicals and radiation.
Toilets are flushed with rainwater.
Japanese house
The "healthy residence" built in Japan in 1997 tried to use
materials harmless to people. Its every room has a ventilation cave
and the air is circulated by a heat exchanger and dehumidifier. The
heat exchanger can reclaim heat effectively and its filter can
collect dust in the air to prevent mildew and growth of other
bacteria. In a new eco-friendly residence in Kyushu, electricity is
provided by a windmill, water is heated by solar energy, garbage is
transformed to plant fertilizer by a disposal machine installed in
balcony and the walls have ventilation machinery to ensure fresh
air in the house. The parking lot is built with concrete that is
easy for rainwater to soak through. The rainwater is stored
underground makes a recycling system for watering the trees
there.
(Sun Haidong for 北京晚報[Beijing
Evening News], translated by Feng Yikun for china.org.cn April 18,
2002)