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1NATURAL ENERGY EFFICIENCY OF CONSTRUCTIVE SOLUTIONS OF THE
OLDEST DWELLING Aitbayeva A.B.1, Priemets O.N.2
1Aitbayeva Akmaral Batyrbekkyzy - Bachelor of Engineering and Technology;
2Priemets Oksana Nickolaevna - Candidat of Architecture (PhD);
FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE, INTERNATIONAL EDUCATIONAL CORPORATION, ALMATY, REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN
Abstract: improving the energy efficiency of architecture is one of the problems of modern society development. The focus on the use of materials with a "small carbon footprint", the search for optimal layouts that reduce energy consumption, reasonably leads to a detailed study of ancient architecture. It was a period when a person who was at the primitive stages of technological and ideological development was forced to use the building materials available to him from the surrounding area. It was on the basis of these materials and gradually developing constructive skills that the space was formed, providing an optimal level ofprotection from adverse natural and climatic factors. Some of these techniques are still relevant.
Keywords: energy efficiency of architecture, constructive solution, ancient architecture, use of renewable energy sources.
The emergence of primitive man's needs and skills for forming a space for life has been the subject of constant and in-depth study for many years, including fundamental publications that serve as the basis for modern understanding of the multi-thousand-year-old global architectural process [1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6]. Moreover, of particular interest is that these studies (with the exception of some [7]) do not always consider the process of formation of a primitive dwelling in the context of further development of architecture. And they do not always draw parallels with the massive use of ancient techniques for the formation of a permanent home, which took place until the beginning of the twentieth century. Meanwhile, in the aspect of the current interest in improving the energy efficiency of architecture, it is advisable to emphasize some techniques of primitive shaping as a single process of ecological orientation of architecture, demonstrating the evolution from a natural necessity to a conscious need [8].
The emergence of an isolated space as a dwelling for primitive people is associated with two main, partially interdependent reasons. The first is the successful hunting of large animals, which formed the need for partially hidden butchering and storage of stocks, in conditions of possible attack by ordinary predators and scavengers. The second is a longer period of the need to protect and teach children skills in living conditions on earth than in other animals. In addition to its practical function, the dwelling performs a symbolic role - embodies the idea of a structured cultural space, protected from external chaos, and connects with previous generations of a family or clan.
In the prehistoric era, during the construction of buildings, they were forced to focus on the peculiarities of the climate and the specifics of local materials. Depending on the climatic zone, the buildings have various design features.
Initially, natural caves were actively developed. Cave dwellings were common in almost all regions of the world (with the possible exception of the Arctic). The oldest dwellings of the people who lived on the plains were dugouts and huts. The lack of suitable or sufficiently spacious caves has even caused, since the Neolithic era, their artificial hollowing out in malleable rocks.
Stones were used as piles or served to strengthen poles, branches or large bones stuck into the ground and forming a kind of wind barrier. In addition to dugouts with dirt walls, smart houses with walls reinforced with stones, logs or large bones are gradually beginning to appear.
Medium-thick tree branches that a person could break without tools and medium-sized natural stones were used as frame construction. They were installed in the form of a tent, connecting the buildings at the top, thereby creating an enclosed interior space. The skill of not placing a tree on the ground has been empirically formed. Stone and clay were used as the foundation, which was used to strengthen the branches. They also protected the hearth so that the fire would not spread throughout the house. After assembling the frame, it was covered with animal skins, dry grass and moss.
The dwellings of the Arctic and Subarctic zones are characterized by their frame construction, wind resistance, speed of assembly, low height, minimal surface area of contact with the surrounding air and their ability to preserve and maintain heat. Such dwellings include "a chum", "an yaranga", "an yurt", "a balagan", "an urasa" and "an igloo".
The "Chum" is a conical structure with a frame made of branches. The voids between the branches are filled with moss and shrub branches, the entire structure is covered with turf from above and covered with animal skins. The room is heated by a hearth in the center, ventilation is carried out through a hole in the top of the building. One type of dwelling in the northern circumpolar regions is a dwelling made of whale bones, hides and turf.
The "Yaranga" is structurally similar to the plague, but has a more squat, rounded shape, and also does not have a smoke outlet in the upper part. The hearth in the "yarang" is located in its first contour, and is shifted closer to the entrance. The smoke comes out through a door that never closes except during blizzards. Also, the difference from the "plague" is the division of the interior space into two types of rooms - an external contour and several internal ones. The internal volumes are residential and are presented in the form of light rectangular boxes covered with skins, the floor of which is lined with leather.
The "yurt", the dwelling of the Turkic nomads, also has a domed shape and a wooden frame. The construction of the "yurt" is a ring made of a wooden crate, turning into a dome made of wooden slats, which are attached to the central lattice hole in the roof. This frame is covered with felt, which does not allow moisture, wind and cold to pass through, and the hole in the top of the structure can also be closed at night to preserve heat. Also, in hot weather, the lower edge of the felt coating can be bent, providing free ventilation of the room.
The "Balagan" is a winter dwelling of the Yakuts, has a trapezoidal shape and a wooden frame. The frame of the structure is presented in the form of a rack-and-beam system made of logs. Columns were placed at the four corners of the building, and log beams rested on them. The walls of the booth are made of logs thinner than the frame, mounted at an angle to the ground and supported on ceiling beams. The ceiling was also lined with thin wood at a slight slope. Next, the entire surface was coated with clay or adobe mortar, which was then covered with bark to prevent water leakage. The next layer of turf was laid on the roof and the earth was filled in with a thickness of 60-70 cm. This design ensured the germination of grass, which increased the thermal insulation properties of the coating. Also, to retain heat, an embankment was built along the contour of the base of the building.
The summer dwelling of the Yakuts - "urasa", as well as the chum had a conical shape, but its walls were covered with layers of birch bark. The design of the urasa was vertical tables stuck into the ground and girdled with a hoop from above. A frame of tall poles assembled in several tiers was built around the hoop. Rings of birch bark were attached to this frame, in the bottom-up direction - this arrangement made it possible to apply birch bark with an overlap of the upper layers on the lower ones, which prevented water from entering the structure even during heavy rains.
The "Igloo" is a traditional dwelling of the Eskimos, characterized by the material used in construction. The structure is built entirely of snow blocks and blocks of ice, and has a hemispherical shape. Regional peculiarities of the area are the reason for the specifics of the igloo design. One of the specific features is the construction of a corridor with a domed roof or a walled trench in front of the entrance. The choice of a way to protect the entrance from wind and snow drift depends on the base of the igloo - it is built on a high snowdrift or on a thin snow cover. The spherical shape of the surface provides the smallest area of contact with the atmosphere with the largest effective internal volume of the structure. Accordingly, with a smaller contact area, the heat transfer is also less relative to the surfaces of other shapes. Another factor that increases the ability of a structure to save heat is the construction of a snow shaft along the contour of the structure. The presence of a hole in the upper part of the igloo dome allows for constant ventilation of the room. The interaction of warm, warmed-up indoor air and a stream of fresh, cooled air coming from the entrance trench turns the structure into an ejector.
The buildings of a warmer climate than the previous one, namely the temperate climate zone, include the "izba" (hut). The "izba" is divided into several types depending on the country of origin, but all these types have common design features. Such features include the use of local renewable material - wood, a high porch, similar layouts, the overall dimensions of the building are 4x5 m, height 2-3 meters and consideration of orientation to the cardinal directions. The features that make it possible to increase the energy efficiency of the structure include: the construction of external walls made of vapor-permeable materials, the installation of a thermal buffer and the presence of a furnace that heats most of the premises. The constructive system of the "izba" is a log cabin. The most widely used materials for construction are larch, spruce and pine. The direct orientation of the fibers of these varieties and the absence of hollow logs make it possible both to lay out walls of logs and to divide trunks into boards and plates. The resinous nature of the wood gave it resistance to rotting. Also, due to the method of attaching logs to each other by laying in grooves, there were completely no metal elements - nails and braces, and, accordingly, there were no cold bridges.
The subtropical climate zone is represented by such traditional dwellings as "saklya", "pagliaso", "trullo" and "minka". The "Saklya" is a traditional structure of the peoples of the Caucasus, it could be built from a wooden log house, stones, or from wicker structures. Masonry was most often used. The windows are small in size, which prevents heat loss in winter and an increase in internal temperature in summer. The roofs are flat or with a slight slope, depending on the region and snow load. Often the roofs were covered with an earthen layer and subsequently overgrown with grass, which created an additional layer of thermal insulation.
The "Pagliaso" is a traditional Spanish dwelling, had a round shape, low masonry walls and a high conical roof. The roof structure consists of wooden crossbars and a layer of straw laid on them. The edges of the roof hung below the level of the walls, which prevents rainwater from flowing through the joints of the roof and walls.
The "Trullo" in Italy is similar in shape to "Pagliaso", but completely structurally consists of stone or brick. Vertically standing walls gradually turn into a conical shape so that when even one roofing stone is pulled out, the entire structure collapses. The thickness of the walls was sufficient to maintain the temperature regime inside the room, regardless of the external weather conditions. Such houses could be either one-room or multi-room, in which case the house had several conical roofs, their number was equal to the number of rooms.
The "Minka" is a traditional Japanese dwelling. The construction of the tenant is a stable-beam system made of wood. The outer walls are constructed of wooden planks, while the rooms in the "minka" are separated by sliding doors and wooden framed partitions covered with paper. This solution allows you to freely change the layout of the house. The floor in the residential part of the house is earthen, half a meter from which a wooden flooring is installed. In the kitchen and workshops area, adobe flooring was most often used.
The dwellings of the subequatorial climate zone are the Asian "sarifa", the American straw hut, the African "rondavel" and the Australian hut. Due to the climatic features of the subequatorial zone, namely hot and humid
summers and hot dry winters, the dwellings of this area are light in their construction, and are able to withstand prolonged humidity.
The thatched American hut - the traditional dwelling of the forest Indians - is called the "wigwam". The frame of this building is made of thin, flexible tree trunks and has a round or oval shape. The walls were covered with either thin branches or straw bundles and had a slight inclination inward. The roof had a rounded conical shape with one or more smoke holes and was also constructed of twigs or straw.
The Asian "sarifa" is a traditional dwelling of the lake areas of Iraq. The frame of the building is made of bundles of reeds, which determines the elasticity of the structure. Such bundles are dug in two parallel lines, with one end into the ground with a distance of 1 meter. Further, the upper ends are connected to each other, forming a semicircular structure, which is then layered with reeds and mats. The top layer of the coating is short reed bundles, which are laid out according to a similar principle to "urasa" — in layers, with an overlap of the upper rows on the lower ones. This method of laying ensures the tightness of the coating without compromising the elastic properties of the entire structure, which together allows it to withstand wind and rain loads during storms and storms.
The "Rondavel" is a traditional dwelling of the peoples of South Africa. The building is circular in plan and has stone-lined walls held together with a solution of sand, earth and occasionally their mixture with manure. The floor of the building is also covered with a manure-containing mixture in order to level the surface. A frame of wooden round bars is installed on this coating, followed by rubbing with a reed. The roof has a frame of wooden beams laid at one end on the walls, and connected at an angle in the center. The roof is also covered with layered bundles of reeds.
The Australian hut is a dwelling common on the northern side of the Australian mainland. The domed structure has a frame made of reeds, and is covered with dry palm or banana leaves, grass or a combination of them. This design made it possible to avoid the penetration of rain into the dwelling, and windproof arcs served as protection from the wind for the settlement. Such arcs were constructed from branches of acacia and grass of the spinifex endemic, and were located downwind in the shape of a crescent.
A peculiar type of ancient dwelling is a pile dwelling on reservoirs, which, depending on the region, consisted of log or reed huts. Another type of dwelling is huts on floating reed islands of natural or artificial origin. Islands are built from strong reed roots, building pallets from them and fastening them together. The reed is laid out on top in several layers and the top is regularly updated, since it rots quite quickly. There are stones attached to the bottom of each island, which are laid on the bottom: they serve as a kind of anchor. In case of danger, the anchor was untied and it was possible to sail away.
The most ancient thermal insulation or overheating compensation - massive stone walls provide a controlled temperature inside. The green roof provides additional insulation for both heat and sound. Thatched roofs provide excellent heat and sound insulation, and also remove precipitation from the roof well. The aspen ploughshare is equally effective from the point of view of drainage. The walls were insulated with juniper, lined with shavings and dried algae. Grain husks are used as insulation.
Some of the described methods of forming a dwelling from improvised materials are still used in various regions. For the most part, this is not a permanent dwelling of the inhabitants, but a historical attraction for tourists.
Thus, the architecture of the ancient dwelling is a peculiar phenomenon. The territories inhabited by ancient man and their multiethnic population over the millennia of prehistory have repeatedly been involved in intertribal and interclan conflicts and natural disasters, alternating with periods of relatively stable development. This was naturally reflected in the formation of the dwelling. Moreover, each time this process was adjusted taking into account the factors of natural and climatic conditions of a particular part of the territory with varying degrees of stability, the availability of local building materials, the level of development of productive forces, the specifics of economic activity, the way of life and the worldview of local residents with different periods of residence in a given area. That is, the factors determining the originality of architecture came into force.
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