Unit 12

BAMBOO FLOORING

There are many types of flooring available for people to choose from when they’re considering redoing their floors. Some of the more popular flooring options include carpeting, tiles, laminate, or traditional hardwood. Most professionals agree that bamboo flooring is some of the best flooring out there.

Bamboo is an incredibly strong wood. It is naturally tough when it grows wild no matter what soil it is grown in. The fact that the bamboo always undergoes further strengthening usually in a company's factory before it is shipped out to be used as flooring ensures that you have a very strong, durable wood. It is even stronger than oak.

Bamboo is technically a grass and grows extremely quickly compared to any other type of wood. In fact, it takes a bamboo tree only 3 years to reach full maturity while with most other trees, it is twice as or three times as long. It means that bamboo can be replaced much more easily, making its use better for the environment.

Unfortunately, there are currently no official certification standards for bamboo flooring. That means that quality or hardness of the bamboo flooring can actually vary, depending on the producing company.

Bamboo floors can be easy to scratch or dent if they are damaged by heavy furniture that is moved or jolted. Many people with rowdy children choose not to get bamboo flooring because children tend to be hard on floors.

Under direct sunlight, bamboo loses its colour easily especially if it is in naturally-lit rooms. That means it is better to use it in darker rooms where direct exposure to sunlight is kept at a minimum, which may not be an option for some people.

22 Topics for projects and presentations:

1. Types of subfloor construction.

2. Floating floor.

3. Floor vibration.

4. Underfloor heating.

5. Modern tendency: glass floor.

“Always design a thing by considering it in its next larger context —

a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan.”

Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen (architect)

GREEN and SUSTAINABLE BUILDINGS

Figure 12.1 LEED Green Buildings

LEAD-IN  

1 Match the columns:

1) nanotechnology	a) describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time, a necessary precondition for human well-being.
2) sustainability	b) provides building owners and operators with a framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions.
3) green building	c) deals with dimensions and tolerances of less than 100 nanometres, especially the manipulation of individual atoms and molecules.
4) LEED	d) refers to a structure and using process that is environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from siting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition.

2 Explain how the following words and expressions are connected with “green building”:

nanotechnology, sustainable, environmentally friendly, self-cleaning coatings, energy-saving production, air purification, lower water consumption.

3 Discuss the following:

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"It's not about the materials. It's about how you interact with the natural world." (Carol Venolia, architect)  

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“Green building is not aboutbuildings – it is about people.” (Sandy Wiggins, USGBC President)    

• Write a paraphrase. • Say whether you agree or not, and why.

READING  

4 a) Transcribe the following words:

Urgent, issues, acidification, conductivity, nano-enhanced, energy-conserving, versatility, toxicity, nanoparticles, unique, convergence.

b) In what context do you think the following words and phrases will appear in the text?

• the nano era • environmental pollution • ozone depletion • human health risks • environmental predicament • at the molecular level • nanotubes •nanotechnology • a boom • accrue • coatings and insulating materials • proliferation •declining coast

c) Read the text and check your answers:

Green is a nice color. It also is a buzzword that’s being used rather freely whenever people want to claim that their product or service is environmentally friendly.

Sustainability means designing structures that take advantage of technological advancements to create eco-friendly products.

The advent of the nano era in building could not have come at a better time, as the building industry moves aggressively toward sustainability. Green building is one of the most urgent environmental issues of our time. But for the building industry to achieve its potential as the leader in sustainable development, new materials are urgently needed.

Worldwide, buildings consume between 30 and 40 percent of the world’s electricity. Waste from building construction accounts for 40 percent of all landfill material in Russia annually. Deforestation, soil erosion, environmental pollution, acidification, ozone depletion, fossil fuel depletion, global climate change, and human health risks are all attributable in some measure to building construction and operation. Clearly, buildings play a leading role in our current environmental predicament. Now, however, a new frontier is opening in building materials as nanotechnology introduces new products and new possibilities.

By working at the molecular level, nanotechnology opens up new possibilities in material design. In the nanoscale world where quantum physics rules, objects can change color, shape, and phase much more easily than at the macroscale. Fundamental properties like strength, surface-to-mass ratio, conductivity, and elasticity can be designed in to create dramatically different materials.

Many nano-enhanced products and processes now on the market can help create more sustainable, energy-conserving buildings, providing materials that reduce waste and toxic outputs as well as dependence on non-renewable resources. Other products still in development offer even more promise for dramatically improving the environmental and energy performance of buildings. Nano-enabled advances for energy conservation in architecture include new materials like carbon nanotubes (can be up to 250 times stronger than steel and 10 times lighter, as well as electrically and thermally conductive (Figure 12.2) and insulating nanocoatings, as well as new processes including photocatalysis. Nanomaterials can improve the strength, durability, and versatility of structural and non-structural materials, reduce material toxicity, and improve building insulation.

Figure 12.2 Carbon Nanotubes

Nanoparticles have unique mechanical, electrical, optical and reactive properties distinct from larger particles. Their study (nanoscience) and manipulation (nanotechnology) also open up the convergence of synthetic and biological materials.

The examples of some of these materials are aerogel, thin-film insulation, self-cleaning coatings, air purification, and water purification.

Current nanomaterials and nano-products show demonstrable environmental improvements including energy savings and reduced reliance on non-renewable resources, as well as reduced waste, toxicity and carbon emissions. Some can even absorb and break down airborne pollutants. The benefits of nanotechnology for green building will accrue first from coatings and insulating materials available today, followed by advances in solar technology, lighting, air and water purification, and, eventually, structural materials and fire protection.

While the construction industry is generally slow to adopt new technologies, we believe five converging forces will accelerate the adoption of nanotechnology for green building:

1) increasing green building requirements;

2) $4 billion per year in nanotechnology research and development worldwide;

3) proliferation of nanotechnology products and materials;

4) demonstrated environmental benefits of nanotechnology products and materials;

5) declining costs of nanotechnology products and materials.

5 Read the text again and answer the questions that follow (1-10):

1. What does sustainability mean?

2. Why are green buildings one of the most urgent environmental issues of our time?

3. What level does nanotechnology operate?

4. What happens to objects in the nanoscale world?

5. What is the role of nano-enhanced products and processes?

6. Nanomaterials can increase material toxicity, and improve building insulation, cannot they?

7. What do nanoparticles open up?

8. Can you give the examples of nanomaterials?

9. What do current nanomaterials and nano-products show?

10. What converging forces will accelerate the adoption of nanotechnology for green building?

Follow-up

6 a) Find the synonyms in the text and rephrase the sentences using the given expressions:

progress, crucial problem, to be in great demand, yearly, modern ecological difficulties, to give new chances, basic features,exhaustible resource, to make heat isolation better, obvious betterments, advantages, rapid increase in numbers, to decrease cost.

Дата добавления: 2014-11-29