Vista rosa

UNITEC NEW ZEALAND 2012 LAND6334 SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES

Vista Rosa

Erin Hodges 1097894

Cover: Vista Rosa entrance, Norrie Ave, Mount Albert, Auckland Fig 1: Official plaque

CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Summary of Findings 3. Discussion Summary 4. Model examples 5. Recommendations for Environmental Solutions 6. Conclusion 7. References

Fig 2: Zones of Auckland

Fig 3: Mount Albert, Auckland

Fig 4:Vista Rosa, Norrie Ave, Mount Albert, Auckland

1. Introduction AIM To investigate Vista Rosa from a point of view of its resource generation, consumption and management and how these processes depended on the physical (spatial) arrangement of the surround community of Mt Albert.

Recommendations for changes needed to shift Vista Rosa to a higher level of sustainability and resilience and to reduce its ecological footprint.

GOALS To describe the physical technological transformation at various levels by producing a master plan for Vista Rosa highlighting energy options on the buildings, open space, infrastructure and the technologies that support the design.

CHOICE OF THE CASE The community that I have based this study on is Vista Rosa, a gated community located on Norrie Avenue, Mount Albert, Auckland. Vista Rosa is located 7 km from Auckland CBD, approximately 10 minutes by car. The community is home to approximately 180 people with 63 apartments on site.

I moved to this community in February 2012 and saw this as an opportunity to help a community that is exploiting their resources.

METHODS AND SOURCES For the purpose of this study I will use a variety of web sources to gather data including statistics NZ, Auckland City Council, Alggi Maps. My main source of information has been based on my personal observation of the community.

Fig 5: Vista Rosa, Norrie Ave, Mount Albert, Auckland

2. Summary of Findings TODAY: From the first assignment it was evident the key areas of concern was the consumption of water, energy, waste and land use. A high consumption rate of non renewable resources, as currently each apartment is highly dependent on all key resources including water and power per person.

Vista Rosa contains a high level of impermeable surface with only a few small gardens for amenity purposes. With the lack of permeable areas and heavily reliant on private motor vehicles as a means of transport, even though are in close proximity to public transport Vista Rosa has a high ecological footprint.

All apartments are constructed with non renewable materials and don’t contain any renewable energy solutions such as solar panels, water collection etc. The only evidence of being sustainable was the recycling collection of separate bins for glass, plastic and paper.

Currently Vista Rosa has a linear metabolism with a high level of inputs and a high level of outputs. Due to the lifestyle choices and demands and pressures of the world today, people have forgotten to stop and think about where things come from.

TOMORROW: To reduce the ecological footprint at Vista Rosa I feel a synthesis of all four eco-city models are required to manage the resources for this community. This entails:

• The Green city brings more nature into the area, living nature

such as trees, flowers, fruit and vegetable plants.

• The Solar city limits the fossil fuels and to encourage buildings

to install solar panels as well as utilising wind.

• The Compact City is designing with short distances, walking,

cycling and driving within a close location.

• The Smart city is being well connected ‘cyber city’ using

technology and wireless internet to connect and improve the

behaviour of residents with high tech gadget.

As Vista Rosa is a huge consumer of resources including energy, waste and

transport this is an instant retro fit programme. By implementing energy efficient devices in the apartments make small changes but offer big solutions.

Solutions such as: • Solar thermal panels will use the energy from the sun to heat the water • Solar photo voltaic (PV) panels will generate electricity by using the

energy from the sun • Double glazing windows will trap in heat • Insulation fitted in roof and floors capture the heat in winter and keep

apartments cool in summer.

• Changing to energy efficient bulbs • Changing to long curtains that cover the windows from roof to floor • Change amenity gardens to edible gardens • Clothes lines to limit the use of dryer • Compost/worm farms to reduce waste to the landfill and offer garden

fertiliser alternatives • Outdoor sensors to avoid lights running all night.

These are all easy affordable solutions that can encourage a community to share the dream for a brighter future.

Linear Metabolism

Circular Metabolism

Fig 6: Metabolism cities. (Rogers, 1997)

Fig 7: Primary energy source

3. Discussion Summary WHAT ARE THE MAIN CONCERNS? Analysis of Vista Rosa highlighted the main concerns to be resource consumption more specifically for water, energy, waste and transport. They have a large ecological footprint and a reliant on non renewable fossil fuels.

To reduce the ecological footprint at Vista Rosa these are key areas that are needing improvement. By reducing the overall usage/wastage of resources, improving the design of each apartment in conjunction with the laws and codes and changing the behaviour of the residence by making them more aware of there actions, this could change a city from a linear to a circular metabolism.

WHAT ARE THE KEY RESOURCES THIS COMMUNITY SEEMS TO BE OVER DRAFTING AND THE KEY SINKS IT SEEMS TO BE OVERPOLLUTION? Renewable resources are a key consumption pattern at Vista Rosa. This plays a large part in the design of the buildings and construction materials rather than the residents themselves, although we now play a role in this as changes have not been made to improve the situation at any of the apartments.

for water, collecting rain water and using grey water to flush the toilet/water the garden are all small changes that can make a world of difference if we all play a part.

HOW IMPORTANT IS DESIGN IN ALL THIS? I see design as a critical factor to the problem at Vista Rosa, I feel if the apartments were designed as a sustainable self sufficient model that the occupants would follow this through in their day to day living patterns with the same outlook.

WHAT SHOULD THE ROLE OF ARCHITECTS/LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS BE IN THIS URGENT TRANSFORMATION? I feel people change with the times, if we were to introduce methods of sustainable and efficient living we would all adapt to the change. If constructed required for all buildings to have solar panels, water collection tanks, permeable paving, edible gardens etc, this would put less pressure on our resources.

ARE THESE CONSUMPTIONS PATTERNS TYPICAL OF AUCKLAND AS A WHOLE? I feel consumption patterns are evident in all areas of central Auckland as Âź acre sections are now a thing of the past. Sub-divided land and limited space in the central Auckland region is contributing to the demands on resources as a whole. With demands and high pressure lifestyles we take our valuable resources for granted. As for the wider Auckland they have a slightly different pattern, while they may save in one way such as growing their own food and collection of water they fall in others areas such as transport as they are further out on the city fringe and rely on a higher fossil fuel for transport.

WHAT ARE THE PRIORITIES FOR ACTION THEN? By utilising our elements such as sun we can not only power our own houses but feed this power /energy back to the grid for others to use. This is the same Fig 8: Vista Rosa, Norrie Ave, Mount Albert, Auckland

Fig 9: Zero Energy Building

Fig 10: Power Station

4. Model examples ZEB, A ZERO ENERGY BUILDING ZEB, a zero energy building (Fig ) is a residential or commercial building with greatly reduced energy needs through efficiency gains such that the balance of energy needs can be supplied with renewable technologies. (ZEB, 2012) A project like this encompass more than just energy, it is also about: • Heath, comfort and lifestyle • Resilience to increased energy costs/shortages • Wide effects on the environment including resources, climate change and pollution • Low embodied energy ZEB provides the whole package for a community such as Vista Rosa, with communal areas as well as each apartment containing a private area this is the perfect opportunity to implement a cost effective solution to save on resource consumption Water collection from the roof could be collected and stored with water from public supply being used for emergencies only. Grey water recycling of the bathroom and kitchen and all water appliances in the house will be water efficient which will further reduce water consumption.

Currently Vista Rosa apartments dispose of rubbish through the local rubbish collection but more can be done such as organic waste could be deposed of on site using an organic farm which will provide fertilizer for the internal garden.

By implementing these improvements the ecological footprint will be reduced and the metabolism of the community will change from linear to circular (fig 6) in an effort to become a sustainable community.

POWER STATION A Power Station is an economic and intelligent strategy that allows businesses, schools, and municipalities across the country to unlock profits from their solar resources.

The Power Station creates electricity converting the sun’s energy into electricity.

With no moving parts, no fuel inputs, no pollutants, no noise, and no additional costs – the Power Station is a simple and cost effective addition to structures such as the apartment at Vista Rosa.

Electricity is fed into the client’s electrical system. The electricity from the Power Station is directed into the client’s existing electrical systems to meet energy demand at any given time. When the supply of energy from the Power Station exceeds client demand, the excess electricity is sold back to the utility grid at retail rates and credited to the client’s bill. When the demand by the client is greater than what the Power Station supplies, the additional energy is seamlessly drawn from the utility grid.

Better decision making through information. Clients are provided with interactive web-based views demonstrating solar electricity consumed and used, as well as emissions offset by the Power Station. Econavi monitors your usage patterns and automatically adjusts cooling to match your lifestyle. By reducing cooling over periods where the refrigerator is not used, you can save energy and ultimately reduce your power bill.

Fig 11: Edible cities

Fig 12: Sustainable architecture ‘green roof ’

EDIBLE CITIES Edible Cities focuses on the complex relationship between food, cities, and urban design, with a particular emphasis on how urban design can contribute to the development of a more sustainable urban food system. The Lab aligns with the recent Wellington City Council ‘Towards 2040: Smart Capital’ strategy that sets out a vision for a more socially connected and innovative eco-city. Working with WCC and local communities we use the city as a living laboratory in which to test out more sustainable or resilient urban design strategies.

Installed in March 2012 this project models at the small scale, a rooftop garden system. The Civic square pop-up garden was relocated to the rooftop to provide the start of a garden that provides herbs and salad vegetables for the Café below. I feel this could provide the same affects in a residential situation such as Vista Rosa.

HARVESTING RAIN Harvesting Rain Water is a system and solution which is to capture of rain water from each roof and backyard and the use of this water to supplement main water for non-potable applications. Rain Water Harvesting offers many advantages to the homes, community, developers, government and corporations. The benefits of rain water harvesting at Vista Rosa is: • Rain water harvesting reduces main water consumption • Rain water harvesting reduces water supply infrastructure costs • Rain water harvesting improves water security of supply • Rain water harvesting improves asset protection (eg gardens and motor vehicles) • Rain water harvesting improves performance of Water Urban Design measures

SUSTAINABLE LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE Sustainable landscape architecture can mean different things to many people, so the best way to describe sustainable landscape architecture is to explain it as a category of sustainable design involving the planning and design of outdoor spaces. It includes ecological, social and economic aspects and challenges the relationships between site factors and how those factors will adapt to change.

Understanding these relationships also clarifies how development impacts from one area of a site to another.

Sustainable design is the ‘Key’ to our future as healthy ecosystems provide vital goods and services to humans and other organisms, and explains the importance of designing landscapes with the future in mind . There is also a need to provide a healthy, productive, and meaningful life for all members of society, so that the needs of our future generations are not compromised.

Fig 13: Harvesting Rain

Fig 14: The Living Campus

THE LIVING CAMPUS The Living Campus celebrates a sustainable model of urban agriculture for the ownership and benefit of the Dunedin community.  The aim of the Living Campus is to inspire curiosity and capability in sustainability to change attitudes to how we use land. This will be achieved through the development of an interactive sustainability museum and education programmes within a productive garden integrating sustainability into individual and community practice.

This project will involve the complete renovation of the Polytechnic’s existing city campus, re-inventing the current, unsustainable outdoors environment as an open-air interactive museum, vibrant community garden and visionary hub for sustainability-oriented community education services.

In achieving these three goals together we believe this will be a first in Australasia, a major step in bringing sustainable living right into the community. This is a great model to show how a community can work together to achieve great things which could also benefit a community such as Vista Rosa.

Also on top of models are products we can either have installed or use within the house that contribute to the overall saving

1. Door Sensor - Detects the frequency of door opening/closing 2. Light Sensor - Detects surrounding brightness. When lights are switched off, the sensor determines that the refrigerator is not being used.

3. Room Temperature Sensor - Detects surrounding temperature.

4. Internal Temperature Sensor Detects temperature inside refrigerator to determine the required cooling power.

The highly intelligent microcomputer memorizes and analyses information from the sensors. Using tens of thousands of processing patterns, it provides the optimum Fig 15: Econavi

ECONAVI - INTELLIGENT SENSORS Econavi monitors your usage patterns and automatically adjusts cooling to match your lifestyle. By reducing cooling over periods where the refrigerator is not used, you can save energy and ultimately reduce your power bill.

Panasonic’s Econavi technology uses a combination of four sensors to detect your usage patterns, and automatically adjusts energy usage to ensure efficient operation and a smaller power bill.

Visa Rosa could use these devices to add to the overall savings of energy on site.

Fig 16: Econavi

KNAUF’S EARTHWOOL Knauf ’s EarthWool insulation is a high-quality product that is safer and more environmentally friendly than other traditional glass-wool products on the market. And, what’s more, it is an energy-saving product that has been used in some of the world’s coldest climates in Europe, North America and Russia.

EarthWool is a high performance glass wool insulation product and is not a wool-based product.

With construction costs in New Zealand on the rise, EarthWool is more costeffective for builders, installers and homeowners (fig 17).

GRID CONNECTED SYSTEMS Grid connected systems allow you to generate your own electricity without needing a battery bank. At times when your micro-generation doesn’t meet your electricity needs, or you aren’t using all the electricity you are generating, the grid provides a back-up, acting as a battery. These systems are also called grid-tied, or grid-interactive, and can use one or a combination of any small scale generation technologies.

GENERATION TECHNOLOGIES The generation technologies that you can use are the same for both types of system and include solar PV, micro hydro and small wind turbines.

Micro-hydro systems for houses and buildings are less than 5kW, and in many cases less than 1kW. Small-scale hydro is best suited to rural areas on streams or waterways that flow all year round. The more vertical distance (head) you have between the point where you take the water and where the turbine is located the more electricity you can generate.

Solar PV systems convert solar energy to electricity. Arrays of solar PV (PhotoVoltaic) panels can be sized to suit the space available. Domestic PV systems tend to be in the 1 to 3 kW range, with each kW covering an area of roughly eight square metres. (http://www.energywise.govt.nz/your-home/ generating-your-own-energy)

The electricity grid acting as a battery isn’t a free service though. You will buy electricity from the grid at retail prices, but generally get less than retail for excess electricity you sell back into the grid. The amount you get for excess electricity you sell, the “buy back” price, is set by the electricity retailer you use, and is the main factor that determines the economics of a grid connected system. (http://www.energywise.govt.nz/your-home/generating-your-ownenergy) STAND-ALONE POWER SYSTEMS (SAPS) In situations where connecting to the grid is very expensive, it can cost as much $25,000 per kilometre, a stand-alone power system can be an attractive economic alternative. Stand-alone power systems generally use a combination of renewable generation sources, a battery bank, smart controller/inverter and often some kind of back-up like a diesel generator. (http://www.energywise. govt.nz/your-home/generating-your-own-energy)

Fig 17: Knaufs EarthWool

CASE STUDY Clean Energy Centre explores possibility of off-grid housing community, Taupo could be in for a new eco-sustainable housing community, reshaping the way houses receive heat, electricity, water, and use wastewater (fig 18).

The community would use geothermal or biomass heat to heat homes; generate electricity from solar and wind sources; and reuse wastewater by drip irrigating it to energy crops to provide future fuel for the community.

“The New Zealand public has demonstrated a keen interest in adapting their lifestyles to live in ways that are friendlier to the environment. They want to do their part to help maintain NZ’s 100% Pure, clean green image, they want to find ways of reducing their energy bills, and they want to increase their control over energy supply security,” says chief executive Rob McEwen. (http://micro-architecture.shac.org.nz/wp/category/featured/)

Fig 18: Clean Energy Centre

Rainwater tanks Green Roof Edible Planting Solar panel Permeable paving PhotoVoltaic panel Fig: 19: Vista Rosa Master Pan, Norrie Ave, Mount Albert, Auckland

5. Recommendations for Environmental Solutions Implementing the models suggested works toward lowering the ecological footprint currently at Vista Rosa, from these models I have taken elements that I feel would work towards a reduction in the current ecological footprint.

The first strategy would be to fit the apartments with solar panels to start producing their own energy as well as connecting to the grid to feed any extra back to the wider community. Approximately 43 roof panels are exposed to the sun making this a high energy source for the community. This is shown in yellow with 17 panels for solar panels to produce hot water is shown on the Master Plan (fig 19).

Photo Voltaic panels are placed on the roof of the apartments to provide electricity (fig 19). In summer the apartments will generate more than they need but will feed back to the grid as in winter they may need to top up using the grid.

According to my analysis 90% of the community area is impermeable surface, this is a huge disadvantage to the community as they are heavily reliant on waster water drains and connections out of the community area. Introducing permeable paving to the area will offer a relief. This is shown in grey on the Master Plan (fig 19).

Planting is an efficient way to use plants for heating and cooling the apartments as well as introducing edible for the community to access. Green roofs are a new technology that as proven to show benefits of cooling the house as well as filtering the rain water. Roof gardens are shown in light green with 25 roof panels covered and the edible planting shown in dark green (fig 19).

Harvesting Rain Water is a system and solution which is to capture of rain water from each apartment roof and backyard and the use of this water to

supplement main water for non-potable applications. This is to be stored in the area shaded blue shown in (fig 19).

Transport is another issue as Vista Rosa is in close proximity to the buses, trains and short walking distance to shops I’m unsure why people are not currently using the public transport. In our current society it is just a easy option to just hop in the car.

These are all contributing to the overall reduction of the footprint and by implementing these devices the community will become more self sufficient.

Each apartment could also add to their savings individually if they have money by installing the energy efficient appliances, double or triple glazing windows, lengthening the curtains, using composts and worm farms, hanging washing on the line , energy efficient light bulbs etc...

There is more to the solution so unless each individual makes the shift towards lowering the use of resources this makes it hard as a community to lower the overall footprint.

6. Conclusion I think that this is a cost effective solution that will shift Vista Rosa into a self sufficient community with a much smaller ecological footprint. There is no quick fix in the solutions but if each individual play a role in becoming sustainable, Vista Rosa can work towards shifting to a zero energy community.

Since the Apartments are already existing the Zero Energy Building solution will need to adapt to the apartments structures and materials to make this work. Solar panels, photovotaic panels and green roofs can be installed with no interruption to the apartments current day to day living.

I feel that these small improvements can be installed immediately and have Vista Rosa fully functioing as working towards a self sufficient community by 2014. These technologies are always an up front cost but looking over a long period of time will be rewarding.

Green space is limited on this site so I feel that unless each apartment makes an individual contribution to producing edible gardens, there would be no shared space for this. I would have ideally like to see more edible areas but unless a apartment was to be demolished the space is very tight.

Transport was a bit of a puzzle to me as Vista Rosa is a TOD community but still has limited users as they all prefer to drive their own cars.

Over all I think even with just simple solutions such as the solar panels and photo voltaic panels this would make a world of difference in the way this community consumers resources in the future.

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