LEED Certification

Energy & Atmosphere

According to Architecture 2030, three-fourths of all electrical energy in the U.S. is used to operate buildings. Reducing energy use in buildings through improved energy performance and energy-saving strategies like daylighting helps reduce the impact buildings have on our atmosphere.

How glass block can help:

Prerequisite 2: Minimum Energy Performance
Glass block’s daylighting properties can help achieve the required minimum energyperformance for LEED® certification.

Credit 1: Optimize Energy Performance
Glass block can support various strategies, including passive solar designs, to reduce a given building’s energy consumption. And because this credit includes interior lighting energy demands, glass block can improve energy performance even more.

Recent developments in glass block have significantly improved thermal performance. Pittsburgh Corning’s Energy Efficient Glass Block demonstrates up to a 43% improvement in U value and up to a 52% improvement in Solar Heat Gain Coefficient when compared to the baseline performance ratings for glass block specified in ASHRAE/IESNA 90.1-2007.

Materials & Resources

The production and transport of building materials can impact our environment in many ways. Conserving resources, using local materials and reducing construction waste reduces that impact.

How glass block can help:

Credits 2.1 and 2.2: Construction Waste Management
Both glass block scrap and its packaging can be recycled, nearly eliminating waste.

Credits 3.1 and 3.2: Resource Reuse
Salvaged glass block can be reused in some jurisdictions with careful consideration.

Credits 5.1 and 5.2: Regional Materials
Glass block manufactured in a facility within 500 miles of a project site can include that percent (by weight) of the raw materials that are also within 500 miles of the project site toward the calculation of the total regionally located content in all building materials.

With Pittsburgh Corning’s glass block manufacturing facility in Port Allegany, PA, architects can achieve credits for projects in several major metropolitan areas, such as Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Charlotte, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Columbus.

Indoor Environmental Quality

The U.S. EPA estimates that the average American spends over 80 percent of his/her time indoors. It is important for our own wellbeing to create indoor spaces that are healthy and comfortable.

How glass block can help:

Credit 4: Low Emitting Materials
Glass block meets the intent of eliminating VOCs from the indoor environment when used as interior walls or floors.

Credit 8: Daylight and Views
Glass block provides daylight and views without sacrificing sound control, security and privacy.

Suggested Applications: The Solar Wall Tube by Pittsburgh Corning offers a unique and creative way to maximize natural light entering the building.

Innovation & Design

The LEED® Rating System, while comprehensive, is not complete. Other aspects of sustainable design, not covered in LEED®, are also important. These can be recognized in the Innovation in Design credit. Suggested Applications: New LightWise® Architectural Systems from Pittsburgh Corning offer all of the benefits of glass blocks in easy-to-install windows and panels and can provide additional resistance to hurricane, blast, intruder or ballistic threats.

How glass block can help:

Credit 1 – up to three points
Glass block can help earn points for good acoustics, use of durable materials, and good indoor environmental quality (no VOC, no mold).

Regional Bonus Credits
Pittsburgh Corning will be happy to help you with glass block solutions that can be used to help fulfill specific regional credits. For example, the new LightWise® Architectural Hurricane Resistant window has been tested to the high-wind and large missile impact requirements of Dade County Florida.

Summary
It is important to recognize the value of a holistic approach to sustainable design, and to weigh social and economic considerations as well as environmental ones. Pittsburgh Corning is committed to helping architects and building planners design and construct projects that are both inspired and sustainable.

GFRC Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete and Sustainable Design

GFRC contains materials that, taken from the soil, have no adverse effect on the environment. Concrete’s components include Fly Ash, Silica Sand, Portland cement and aggregate. In GFRC we introduce the component of fiberglass as well as other natural chemicals in order to produce a super strong and flexible material. The process of producing the water based material produces no chemical off-gas or byproducts.

GFRC is a green material in many ways. Primarily, the use of recycled aggregates such as recycled glass, metals and other recycled materials give GFRC both a modern look as well.

The LEED rating system has become the basis for evaluating the claims for Green Architecture. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System® is a voluntary, consensus-based national standard for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings.

LEED was created to:

define “green building” by establishing a common standard of measurement, promote integrated, whole-building design practices recognize environmental leadership in the building industry, stimulate green competition raise consumer awareness of green building benefits transform the building market Members of the U.S. Green Building Council representing all segments of the building industry developed LEED and continue to contribute to its evolution. LEED standards are currently available or under development for, New commercial construction and major renovation projects as well as many other project typologies.

The aspects of GFRC which make it a green material include its composition of natural materials such as sand, and other aggregates. Also, the inclusion of recycled content gives the design team to specify this material and garner LEED points for their projects.

yasuhiro yamashita / atelier tekuto

yasuhiro yamashita / atelier tekuto http://www.tekuto.comyasuhiro yamashita was born in kagoshima in 1960. he graduated in architecture from the shibaura institute of technology and received a master degree in 1986 through yutaka saito architect & associates, PANOM and shunji kondo architects. atelier tekuto was established in 1991 in tokyo. yamashita creates his architecture based on the system of society, the environment and the function. he now also focuses on the relationship with other countries and regions. increasingly, yamashita is using natural resources such as wood, soil, and brick in an effort to care for the environment. the busan eco center in korea is now in the designing process and will be completed in 2006. this project has opened the way to concentrate not only on houses but on public and larger scale architecture as well. awards include: 2005 good design award in japan, ‘lucky drops’. ar+d awards first prize winner in uk, ‘cell brick’. the 11th space design competition in japan, first prize, ‘crystal brick’. the 24th INAX design contest in japan, third prize, ‘ka-su-ri’. tokyo society of architects & building engineers, housing construction encouragement prize in japan, ‘penguin house’, 2003. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ we met yasuhiro yamashita at his office in tokyo on 2nd november, 2005 ----------------------------------- what is the best moment of the day? midnight, that when I heal my tired body, relax, and yes ... I drink maybe alcohol (I like wine). what kind of music do you listen to at the moment? I listen more to the sounds than the music - in its complexity (rythmn, words, meaning...). I prefer taking it in an abstract way. do you listen to the radio? no. what books do you have on your bed side table? mostly architecture books. poor me, because I would prefer to read some poetry. but recently I am working a lot and time is short. so I have had to concentrate on some architecture readings. ... honestly I like movies best. do you read design / architecture magazines? yes. where do you get your news from? from the people I meet, I meet a lot and so they give me a lot of ideas and information. do you notice how women are dressing? do you have any preferences? it doesn't matter what kind of fashion they wear as long as its suitable for the person. are there any clothes you would avoid wearing? tie! I never wear a tie! do you have any pets? only children! when you were a child did you always want to be an architect? no, I never thought of that. I was born in a very rural area, a small island, I had no ideas of architecture, or to become an architect. but I always wanted to be creative with my hands. where do you work on your architectural designs? 60-70% on the train, moving to the site where I am currently developing a building. I dont bring my computer, I sketch by hand. I usually dont do final drawrings from the begining, its more work in progress. verifying ideas alongside construction. describe your style, like a good friend of yours would describe it. I would say affordable housing and I think each architecture project has to be different and depends on the time, the place or the people. which project has given you the most satifaction? each time it is the project I’m working on. is there any architect from the past you admire? generally I prefer ‘no name’ architecture, but of course I like the work of many famous architects like louis kahn and le corbusier. what current architects do you appreciate? rem koolhaas, what I like about his work is that he doesn't concentrate on the ‘thing’. rather, he deforms the object through various interaction-mechanisms and visual interfaces - ‘work in progress’. please describe an evolution in your work, from your first projects to the present day yes, there is. I think that the japanese architecture system is very veiled, this means that the outside of a building does not neccessarily reveal how the inside is organised. after my first projects I have tried to change this approach. I came up with the idea of building at a ‘low cost’. I started collaborating with a lot of good structural engineers reduce costs by changing the construction system. do you have any advice for the young? I think everything is border-less, so don’t be limited, try to have a wide view and the most important thing is to contribute to society and not to justsatisfy yourself. what are you afraid of regarding the future? I fear natural disasters the most. in japan, 60% of the nature is damaged by architecture. this is a very scary thing, and I'm a part of it. therefore I have to be very careful in the future, and to take responsibility in my work.

yasuhiro yamashita © designboom ‘cell brick’, suginami-ku, tokyo, 2004. skin-house project no.5 ‘cell brick’, 2004 living space. ‘crystal brick’, bunkyo-ku, tokyo, 2004 skin-house project no.6 ‘crystal brick’, 2004. living space with the glass block structure. ‘lucky drops’, setagaya-ku, tokyo, 2005 skin-house project no.7 interior view of ‘lucky drops’. interior view of ‘lucky drops’. ‘waferse’, shinagawa-ku, tokyo, 2004 skin-house project no.8 ‘waferse’, 2004 interior view of the house with keystone panel. ‘aLuminum house’, kawasaki-city, kanagawa, 2005 pc-project. ‘aLuminium house’, 2005 open living space with the prestressed aluminum stucture. ‘ref-ring’, zushi-city, kanagawa, 2005 pc-project ‘ref-ring’, 2005 interior view of the house with prestressed wood panel.

Glass block

Glass block is a unique building material. It has a dynamic relationship with light-both natural and artificial. As light changes so do the material's appearance and the surrounding environment. A great range of light and privacy is available depending on the pattern and transparency of the glass block. Used creatively, this building material can produce dramatic aesthetic effects.

Twin-Bricks Glass Block House Design by Yasuhiro Yamashita

Thursday, December 11th 2008

Twin-Bricks, consists of two wings – the five rental dwelling units and the owner’s two-family house is located in a quiet residential area, just 20 minutes by train from Tokyo. In order to secure some space for the owner’s car collections, the Owner wing (RC Wing) stands nearer to the road than the Rental wing (S Wing). TheRental wing partly has ALC panels as well as glass blocks.

This building, based on the “Crystal Brick” completed previously, enables these ALC panels, not only glass blocks, as aseismatic elements in order to improve cost-effectiveness. The physical similarity of glass blocks and ALC panels was focused and this structure was realized after a series of experiments. As a result of these experiments, it is concluded that the safety of the building is advanced because ALC panels are destroyed before glass blocks. With ALC panels randomly located, walls, columns and beams cannot be clearly distinguished, therefore, an intriguing spatial composition is materialized.

The RC wing adopted the “RC structure + exterior thermal insulation” construction method developed at the Atelier Tekuto Co., Ltd., with the purpose of alleviating working noise at the garage and securing privacy and performance of the Owner wing. A huge cost reduction was attempted by using enhanced high-pressure woodwool cement boards and integrating the boards as formworks. Also, original tiles were developed after careful consideration.

The contrast between heavy RC wing and light S wing and between glass blocks and ALC panels, both of which show similar physicality while different materials. The spatial contrast generated here is making the space more exciting.

Architect: Atelier Tekuto / Yasuhiro Yamashita, Source: DesignBoom, japan-architects.com, Photos by: Makoto Yoshida

Architecture Glass & Sustainable Design

Sustainable design: What can you make with old glass?

Most U. S. communities have recycling programs. So it should be easy to reuse common materials such as glass and plastic, right? Not quite, at least when it comes to glass. A recent industry report claims that 40% of glass chucked into recycling bins ends up in landfills. But experts say that almost all glass is recyclable, so why does so much of it just get added to the waste pile?

Many municipalities now collect recyclables such as newspaper, glass bottles, plastic pouches, and aluminum cans in the same receptacle, using a method called single-stream collection. This lowers collection costs compared to separating glass, plastic, and so forth into their own collection containers. But by the time the mixture reaches a material-recovery facility (MRF), much of the glass is broken into particles too small to handle and, therefore, too expensive to separate for remelting into fiberglass or new glass containers. Also, any large pieces of glass that remain are typically not sorted by color, a necessity for making glass containers.

“After trucks dump their loads at an MRF, the facility uses magnets to pull steel out of the garbage, leaving everything else on the conveyor,” says Curt Bucey, president of materials processor Strategic Materials Inc., Houston. “Nonferrous magnets capture aluminum, and screens sort cardboard and paper. Lastly, air jets blow off the plastic. MRFs make individual economic decisions and sell high-value materials such as aluminum, but dump glass — typically considered a commodity — in landfills. When the MRF sells what’s left on the conveyor, we purchase the remaining mixture of glass shards, paper shreds, banana peels, and whatnot. We separate out the glass with specialized equipment and sell it to glass-container companies and fiberglass manufacturers. At this point the glass is called cullet.”

Glass recycling is mostly a free-for-all because there is no uniform definition of recycling and no meaningful way to track of discarded glass, according to Bucey. “Most people think recycling means keeping material circulating through as many product lives as possible,” he says. “But some might be surprised by uses for reclaimed glass. For example, certain cities equate the diversion of glass with recycling, as when crushed shards are sprinkled on top of a landfill to form a cover. Contrast that with the example of old bottles being remelted, over and over, almost an unlimited number of times, with the result always being a pristine bottle.”

Also, depending on a variety of factors, there are obvious differences in recycling rates from city to city, and state to state. “For example, Wisconsin has made it a goal that all materials going through MRFs must get reused and not placed in landfills,” says Bucey. “And areas with mandatory deposit laws, such as the New England states and Michigan, have much higher recycling rates — up to 90%. Contrast that with Ohio, where rates are about 5 or 10%,” he claims.

Many bottle companies are desperate for recycled glass, says vice president of Product Development Sam Wilson of glass-container manufacturer Anchor Glass Container Corp., Tampa, Fla. “Part of the problem is the lack of color processors,” he says. “Different colors of crushed glass all mixed up is almost worthless to us. Even if an MRF could remove just the glass from the other waste materials, if it’s mixed brown, green, and clear, what we call tricolor, we can only use a little of it for amber bottles — maybe 2 or 3%. But we can’t use it to make clear or green bottles. There is iron in amber glass and chrome in green glass and they cannot be mixed. When we buy cullet from Strategic Materials, it comes in separate colors.”

According to Wilson, in many areas of the country it is cheaper to buy the raw materials — sand, soda ash, and limestone — and melt them, than it is to buy good clean cullet. “If we could get cullet, we would definitely take it,” he says. “Crushed glass melts at about 2,100°F, but melting raw materials takes 2,800 to 3,000°F. So cullet reduces costs and cuts particle pollution, which helps the environment.”

The glass-container industry has shrunk substantially over the last 10 years, with 68 plants closing, according to Wilson. “So there are not as many places to recycle glass. And when the transportation costs become too high, recycling becomes uneconomical. In contrast, recyclables in Europe are collected and kept separated, and there are lots of returnable bottles. You see little plastic packaging in Europe. And, interestingly, Canada has more glass than it knows what to do with, probably because of transportation costs. There are only four glass-container plants in Canada, not many for a whole country.”