master of architecture

[mehdinus]

sry but I have no idea what you are talking about !

[AldenG]

So those ridges on the roof face south and gather sunlight?

Looks like a cool design, very bright inside.

What about clearing leaves and especially conifer needles off the roof? Is that an issue?

[mehdinus]

Yea obviously the shades on the ground mean the roof light collerctors are facing the sun ( south if the site is on the northern hemosphere )
But what makes me amazed is why do those 2 PV panels below the small wind turbines are facing north !!! Are there two suns there?

[mehdinus]

If I were the designer I would place the PV panels on the roof facing the sun ( this way at least 100X more sunlight would be available to them ) and since the nuilding is a public building I'm sure direct sunlight is not really acceptable and a profit, I would let those roof light collectors face north and let gentle north light get in.

[Cod]

..are you guys winding me up or what ..

Heres another pic of it..ie the failed green building. Put it right up there with Bill Dunsters Bed-Z development...



PV is not viable in UK. It needs government subsidy...ie taxes, gained by, say taxing petrol or diesel, or taxing import duties on goods from china..etc etc. There is no PV on this scheme...the PV on the windmills + the windmills themselves + generate enough sähkö to run 1, yes one, yes yksi...light, which is in the sign.

The ridges on the roof are for daylight, but hey, guess what...the customer is always right. The customers said it was too dark inside, so they now leave the sähkö lighting on, always, day after day...just like any normal store.

Notice also the massive car park out front. Big eh. Because nobody wants to bus with 5 massive bags of groceries, so we all take cars...to our green supermarket.

Note also that can't extend this store...the earth walls make it too complicated. Oops. Sainsbury's is not happy about that - so their revenue on this store is maxed out...and now they lose customers to Tesco's around the corner...

..hence..the store was a one hit wonder...it wont happen again like this. Paul Hinkin and his mate Steve Burr were the guys behind it not to mention a willing client. Really clever guys.

Now, for your Marketing minor - ie back to the original topic which is good one - you'ld compare the folly of a green supermarket with the idea of home delivery in UK...ie Tesco.com I would bet my granny that the result would be that online shopping runs circles around the efficiencies gained in the above supermarket. A green supermarket is where people buy less, buy simple, buy less often and have the delivery made, in bulk, alongside the neighbors delivery. Tesco.com does that. I used it for years...saved a fortune, wasted less, ate less.

The question is this - what is really going on here, and then ask, Who is John Galt?

..that's an Ayn Rand line...she wrote The Fountain Head which is a must read for every architect...and she wrote Atlas Shrugged...which is compulsary reading for anyone who wants to a take ideas and see them through and wants to be well paid for it.

Perhaps the point to be made is this (the John Galt reference)...there is something distinctly uncomfortable about the way sustainability has been embraced since it was coined in the Bruntland Report.....and commercial life seems convinced of the form of sustainable management being handed down to it because it appears to feel powerless in the face of it. The supermarket above is case and point.

[Cod]

So those ridges on the roof face south and gather sunlight?

Looks like a cool design, very bright inside.

What about clearing leaves and especially conifer needles off the roof? Is that an issue?

..you have to have a cleaning strategy for every surface of a building...things have come a long way since as a uni student desperate for cash, I tied myself to a chimney with a rope and slid down the steep pitch roofs to clean gutters on lovely house in the nice part of town.