Design of low-cost environmental housing: Case study for Cuenca, Ecuador

Authors

  • Antonio Barragán Carrera de Ingeniería Ambiental, Universidad Politécnica Salesiana, Cuenca, Ecuador.Unidad Académica de Ingeniería, Facultad de Ingeniería Eléctrica, Universidad Católica de Cuenca, Cuenca, Ecuador.
  • Pablo Ochoa Ochoa y Contreras Arquitectos, Cuenca, Ecuador.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18537/mskn.05.01.06

Keywords:

homes, green homes, passive design, modular low cost home, efficient use of water energy and materials

Abstract

The main objective of green homes is to minimize the overall environmental impact by using as much as possible local materials and reducing the water and energy consumption, both during the construction and the lifetime of the home. This paper presents the design of a low cost sustainable home guaranteeing the quality of life of the residents. The result is a modular house with a total habitable (built-up) area of 81 m2, taking optimal advantage of local climate. The Autodesk ECOTECT 3D simulation software was used to validate the concept. The analysis revealed that it is feasible to build in the city of Cuenca, Ecuador, social homes meeting the basic bioclimatic requirements given the local economic and environmental conditions. The approach is easy extrapolatable to other locations using the regional climate parameters and local available building materials.

 

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

References

Abdel, A., I. Aboulgheit, 2012. Assessing housing interior sustainability in a new Egyptian city. Procedia Soc. Behav. Sci., 564-577.

Assefa, G., M. Glaumann, T. Malmqvist, O. Eriksson, 2010. Quality versus impact: Comparing the environmental efficiency of building properties using the EcoEffect tool. Build. Environ., 45(5), 1095-1103.

Basbagill, J., F. Flager, M. Lepech, M. Fischer, 2013. Application of life-cycle assessment to early stage building design for reduced. Build. Environ., 60, 81-92.

Bodach, S., 2010. Energy in social housing: Opportunities and barriers from a case study in Brazil. Energ. Policy, 38(12), 7898-7910.

Cabeza, L., C. Barreneche, L. Miro, F.I. Martínez Mónica, D. Urge-Vorsatz, 2013. Affordable construction towards sustainable buildings: review on embodied energy in building materials. Curr. Opin. Env. Sust., 5(12), 229-236.

Cerón, I., E. Sanyé, J. Oliver, N. Motero, C. Ponce, J. Rieradevall, 2013. Towards a green sustaninable strategy for social neighbourhoods in Latin America: Case from social housing in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. Habitat Int., 38, 47-56.

Edwards, B., 2013. Guía básica de la sostenibilidad (2ª edicion, 4ª tirada). Editorial Gustavo Gilo, Barcelona, España, 224 pp.

Gonzalez, J.N., 2004. Arquitectura bioclimática. Editorial Munilla-Leira, Madrid, España, 443 pp.

Higueras, E., 2006. Urbanismo bioclimático (1ª Edición). Editorial GG, Barcelona, España, 242 pp.

GhaffarianHoseini, A.H., N.D. Dahlan, U. Berardi, A. GhaffarianHoseini, N. Makaremi, M. GhaffarianHoseini, 2013. Sustainable energy performances of green buildings: A review of current theories, implementations and challenges. Renew. Sust. Energ. Rev., 25, 1-17.

Larrea, C., 2010. La situación habitacional en Pichincha y en el Ecuador: 2001-2010. Unidad de Información Socio-ambiental, Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar sede Quito, Ecuador, 19 pp. Descargado de http://www.campusvirtual.uasb.edu.ec/uisa/images/publicaciones/ 2011_larrea_habpich.pdf en 2013.

Malmqvist, T., M. Glaumann, 2009. Environmental efficiency in residential buildings. A simplified communication approach. Build. Environ., 44(5), 937-947.

Martinez, P., 2010. Usos finales de energía eléctrica y GLP en el cantón Cuenca. Escenarios al año 2015. Tesis previa para obtener el Título de Master en Gestión Tecnológica, Universidad de Cuenca, Cuenca, Ecuador, 139 pp.

MEER, 2008. Matriz energética del Ecuador. Ministerio de Electricidad y Energías Renovables, Quito, Ecuador.

Murillo, R., 2011. Metodología para el diseño arquitectónico bioclimático en zonas de clima caliente y húmedo. Facultad de Arquitectura y Diseño, Universidad Católica de Santiago de Guayaquil, Guayaquil, Ecuador, 82-91. Descargado de http://www2.ucsg.edu.ec/dmdocuments/AUC-31.pdf. el 31 de agosto del 2013.

Neila, G., 2001. Arquitectura bioclimática en un entorno sostenible. Editorial Munilla-Leira, Madrid, España, 440 pp.

Pacheco-Torga, F., S. Jalali, 2012. Earth construction: Lessons from the past for future eco-efficient construction. Constr. Build. Mater., 29, 512-519.

Paz Jácome, J.F., F.V. Ulloa López, 2006. La vivienda de interés social. Revista Ingenius, 3, 8 pp.

Peuportier, B., S. Thiers, A. Guiavarch, 2013. Eco-design of buildings using thermal simulation and life cycle assessment. J. Clean Prod., 39, 73-78.

Ramón, F., Morales-Pinzón, T., Guisasola, A., Taya, C., Rieradevall, J., & Gabarrell, X. 2011. Roof selection for rainwater harvesting: Quantity and quality assessments in Spain. Water Res., 45(10), 324 5 - 3254.

Serra, R., 2002. Arquitectura y clima. Editorial Gustavo Gili S.A., Barcelona, España, 7-94.

Seyfang, G., 2010. Community action for sustainable housing: Building a low-carbon future. Energ. Policy, 38(12), 7624-7633.

Wekesa, B.S.G., 2010. The response of common building construction technologies to the urban poor and their environment. Buil. and Environ., 45(10), 2327-2335.

Zabalza, I., A. Valero, A. Aranda, 2011. Life cycle assessment of building materials: Comparative analysis of energy and environmental impacts and evaluation of the eco-efficiency improvement potential. Build. Environ., 46(5), 1133-1140.

Zander, J., R. Sandström, 2012. Materials selection with several sizing variables taking environmental impact into account. Mater. Des., 37, 243-250.

Zhang, X., L. Shen, Y. Wu, 2011. Green strategy for gaining competitive advantage in housing development: a China study. J. Clean Prod., 2(19), 157-167.

Downloads

Published

2014-06-25

How to Cite

Barragán, A., & Ochoa, P. (2014). Design of low-cost environmental housing: Case study for Cuenca, Ecuador. Maskana, 5(1), 81–98. https://doi.org/10.18537/mskn.05.01.06

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 1 (2014)

Section

Research articles

License

Copyright © Autors. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. for any article submitted from 6 June 2017 onwards. For manuscripts submitted before, the CC BY 3.0 License was used.

You are free to:

Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.

Under the following conditions:

Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the licence, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licenser endorses you or your use.
  No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the licence permits.
  
Detailed information about copyright and license agreement, copyright transfers and reproduction requests, can be found here.