Passive Energy Design

Look around you. You’ll see a revolution. It’s in the built and natural environment and it’s being led by architects and designers. Energy efficiency is king. Function and form are equal partners.

Building hope

For built environments, passive design is about ensuring that the fabric of a building, and the spaces within it, respond effectively to local climate and site conditions. The objective is to maximize energy efficiency without compromising user comfort.

It is possible to factor most, if not all, of the following design principles and technical solutions into both original and retrofitted design and construction.

• Use sun to warm
• Use exposure to ventilate
• Use shade to cool
• Use shelter insulate
• Use building materials with high thermal mass value to store and radiate daytime heat through the night
• Use extensions and / or conservatories to bring solar gain
• Enlarge windows and roof lights to increase natural light

Passive design, active gains

By integrating passive design principles and focusing on function and form, rather than purely aesthetic concepts, golf businesses can greatly reduce the need for energy-hungry technology. By doing that, significant sums of money can be saved over years of fruitful operation.

Out on the course the same rules apply. Passive design can be a central principal in golf design and management. To slash costs and shrink your maintenance footprint there are some key principles:

• Work with the land
• Minimize the area of turfgrass
• Limit the amount of earth-shifting
• Naturalize pond edges, minimise the number of maintenance heavy bunkers
• Reduce the scale of horticultural beds around clubhouses

The cumulative result? Reduced fuel, machinery, staff time and water use.  Lower fixed and variable costs.