Thick friendly walls: why are the opportunities underutilised?

Abstract

Having worked in older commercial buildings, I have enjoyed the benefits of plenty of natural daylight and sitting next to an open window. In contrast, I have also spent time working in newer buildings and suffered the stuffiness of totally artificial internal environments. I accepted, at the time, that new high-rise buildings had to totally rely on HVAC systems and that it was impractical to have openable windows, eight storeys up, in windy Wellington conditions and too expensive to increase fresh air amounts to a higher level, in winter. Since a working holiday in Germany in 1990 / 1991, increased my awareness of the importance of environmental sustainability, I have had an ever growing interest in environmentally friendly architecture and eco-design. When Graham Robertson, lecturer on sustainability at Auckland University, School of Architecture, spoke to us about "thick friendly walls", the options these walls offered, to utilise natural environmental control in high-rise buildings, while saving energy and being environmentally friendly, seemed to be the answer to the increasing instances of poor indoor air quality in New Zealand commercial buildings. After this initial introduction, I noticed an increasing number of the new commercial high-rise designs in Europe included the use of "thick friendly walls". While their use overseas increased, New Zealand new commercial architecture showed no use of "thick friendly walls" at all. I realised that there must be some fundamental obstacles, in New Zealand, to the use of "thick friendly walls" and the Arch 389 research report has given me the opportunity to investigate what some of these major obstacles are. I have approached this research from a New Zealand point of view. I was interested in the differences in conditions between here and overseas and how these impacted on the response to "thick friendly walls" by the New Zealand building industry. A major part of my research was discussing the obstacles with local architects and establishing why buildings using "thick friendly walls" overseas, could not have been built in that way, in New Zealand. For most of the obstacles identified, I have been able to provide several different solutions to overcoming them. I hope that this information will be assist, in a small way, to enable greater use of "thick friendly walls" in new or refurbished, New Zealand commercial buildings.