I chose to analyze an old three-story row house in Clifton. It happens to be the place I am subleasing currently. Although I have not had too much time to spend in it, since I spend all of my time in studio, I have noticed some major problems in the design and implementation of the environmental systems. I will go through some of these environmental issues and how they relate or don't relate to the architecture and recommend an improvement.

The House is in a moderate climate, which means that you have to consider adequate heating for the cold parts of winter and enough cooling for the dog days of summer also. The orientation of the house was not considered at all for any environmental reasons. The narrow facade of the row house faces west, while the southern side is totally blocked from any sunlight by the adjacent row house. The shadow that is cast in between the buildings presents a few problems. One of them being no solar gain on the southern side of the house and the other is the walkway to the sidewalk takes so much longer for the ic

The acoustics of the house aren't the best either. My roommate who lives right above me can hear me talking on the telephone and vice versa. The sound travels directly through the ductwork. This could be solved with some sound dampening insulation in the ducts or a silencer. The main furnace for the whole house is right next to my bedroom and it makes it's presence known with it's rumbling of the wall every time it turns on. It is a forced air unit that works rather poorly mainly because of the placement of the supply and return vents. The return duct sucks out all of the warm air in my room. I have slightly modified the system by covering up most of the return vent and that seemed to great increase the heat in the space.

There is absolutely no vegetation around my house, so it can't provide any protection from the cold northwesterly winds that blow right through the glass in my bedroom windows. If my house were n the other side of the street, then the bedrooms would be shielded from the cold winter winds and the staircases in the back of the house would be the buffer.

As I was s

Some common words found in the essay are:
Flora St, , row house, environmental systems, cold winter, orientation house, solar gain, environmental issues, bedroom windows,
Approximate Word count = 741
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)