Expanding the 2030 Palette: Facades and Shared Streets
November 2014 | 2030 Palette
This week we added two new In-Depth Information pages and one new Swatch overview page to the 2030 Palette, our complete online framework for planning and designing decarbonized, resilient and sustainable built environments worldwide.
The In-Depth Information pages provide the background and strategies needed for planning a Shared Street – a public street that combines cycling, pedestrians, social activities, parking, and local car traffic. The new Swatch overview page looks at Building Facades, addressing climate-based component facade design strategies.
Shared Streets: Concepts
The Shared Streets: Concepts In-Depth Information page gives a brief history and overview of the development of shared streets. Sharing streets for a variety of transportation, pedestrian, and other purposes was pervasive in most cities worldwide before the advent of motorized traffic.
Today, conventional street design emphasizes separating pedestrians from motor vehicles, giving the latter priority and often ignoring other traditional street uses such as social encounters, rest, or play. In contrast, shared streets are designed to integrate rather than separate users, making the space simultaneously accessible to all on an equal basis. This strategy improves safety and ambience, and makes walking and biking more desirable and practical, encouraging other active and passive uses of the street as outdoor space.
Shared Streets: Implementation
The Shared Streets: Implementation In-Depth Information page provides a full assessment of the various features that impact the planning and designing of a shared street. Detailed photos highlight important features that are delineated through visual and physical indicators. Signage, bollards, plantings, sidewalk textures, and other elements can be combined to create an environment that is simultaneously congenial for pedestrians and cyclists, as well as for automobiles.
While In-Depth Information pages contain technical and detailed material, they are also highly visual, incorporating diagrams and photographs that give users a clear and graphic understanding of key design issues, principles, and applications. For the Swatches with In-Depth Information pages – Transit-Oriented Development, Shared Streets, Direct Gain Glazing, Solar Shading, and Stack Ventilation – links to the pages can be found below the images on the main Swatch page.
The 2030 Palette is a living platform, continually growing and evolving as new content and features are developed. In-Depth Information pages are a key component to this model and we’ll be releasing new pages regularly and discussing them on the 2030 Palette blog.
Register for the 2030 Palette to fully explore its potential, and receive notifications of new In-Depth Information pages, Swatches, and other features as they are released.
Building Facades Swatch
As well as the new In-Depth Information pages, we’ve also added a new Building Facades Swatch, which covers the basic design component considerations of a building’s envelope in various climates. Arguably the most important feature of a building’s energy consumption, facade design is a rapidly evolving field, often approached entirely separately from the rest of the building’s design. However, in order to successfully function as a climate-based filter, facade strategies must be considered as part of whole building design.
