Neighborhood and Housing Innovations

I live on campus, at the dorms. I think that my building and most part of building here are not ecofriendly. There is a lot energy being wasted all the time. The heater, the air conditioner, the washing and drying machines are the most responsible for that. The indiscriminate use of such equipment is a big issue, in view of all we know about not-renewable energies which are used here. It would be interesting if it were adopted the concept of "passive house" as was done in Freiburg which the building has thermal insulation, which keeps the temperature constant, and large windows with three layers of glass and balconies designed to illuminate the environments without injure them by sun rays too much. Buildings of this type are 10% more expensive for joint works, but consume only 10% of that spend regular. This is incredible. The Vauban district in Freiburg is also an example amazing. The Vauban properties have similar thermal structures of Freiburg, however, have solar panels on their roofs, which supply at least 20% of the electricity demanded by the local population. The houses are designed to function as power plants, that is, the excess energy is transferred to the public, such action reduces price fixing by the energy company. There is a Brazilian government project to do the same there.

               Another point in comparison to the videos presented in class and the city of Freiburg in my building there is not a place where we can come together to pass the time and be in contact with the earth. While we are in the building we stay most of the time confined to our rooms and we don't have other places to spend time in the building.

               On campus there are several places to lie on the grass and stay in the shade of a tree, but I believe it would be more interesting if they had these types of spaces also in the building.

               Living here on campus is good and has a lot of cool things, but anything can improve a lot. If they made these changes as we have seen in these examples in long-term we would have much better quality of life and more benefits. Spending on energy would be reduced and thus the values to live here also decrease, it would be a huge benefit to the university and to the residents.