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Thessaloniki-based Ellie
Georgiadou was one of seven architects awarded the Ministry
of the Environment's 1999 Antonis Tritsis Prize for
Architecture. Winners were honoured for the creation of bio-climatic
houses, which exploit solar heat and natural air flow, thus
limiting the use of costly and polluting heaters and air-conditioners.
Emphasis is also placed on the use of natural and non-toxic
building materials. Georgiadou, who has been interested in
bio-climatic design since 1985, built her prize-winning house
for personal use as a pilot study.
How
did you come up with the idea of a grass roof?
Grass
rooves are being increasingly used in Europe for buildings
in densely populated areas, as a way of compensating for the
lost ecosystems on the ground. In this case, I used it so
that the house would blend in more harmoniously with its rural
surroundings.
How
does the house achieve passive thermo-regulation?
One of
the basic techniques that I used were "trombe"
walls [named after their French inventor]. These consist of
two layers - a dense black cement layer overlaid with a layer
of plate glass. Between the two layers is an air space. Heat
from the sun is absorbed by the black surface and heats up
the air in the pocket. The warm air then flows upward, entering
the building via holes at the top of the wall. Conversely,
cold air inside the house flows out through holes located
at the base of the wall.
How
expensive is it to build a bio-climatic house?
Most
of the extra time and expense is only at the planning and
design stages. The actual construction is as cheap or even
cheaper than conventional building. Many of the natural materials
that we use, such as the plant fiber wool used for insulation,
are actually less expensive than their synthetic counterparts.
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