The Energy Research Institute building in Bangalore, India was established in 1974. It houses approximately 75 workstations and a small guest house. It utilizes various passive design strategies to reduce energy usage, including orientation to maximize northern light, a double wall on the south side for insulation, ventilated cavities to promote air flow, skylights, and a rainwater collection system. Passive design elements like a terraced garden, hollow walls, and an underground earth berm also help moderate temperatures without mechanical cooling.

1. The Energy Research
Institute
Jatin Hukkeri
Sirisha
Madhumitha Srinivasan
Sarvesh Srinivasan

2. INTRODUCTION
 Established in 1974
 Project is designed to house an
office block with approx. 75
workstations & a small guest
house attached to it
 Conducts energy services for
major corporate’s
 Concerned with effective
utilization of energy,
sustainable uses of natural
resources, large scale adoption
of renewable energy
technology.

3. BANGALORE
 Garden city
 Location: 12* 58’ N 177* 35’ E
 Altitude: 919 m
 Green cover: 40 %
 Rainfall: 97 cm
 Climate: moderate temperature
 Temperature:
mean max mean min
summer
35*c 20*c
winter
28*c 14*c

4. LOCATION
 Located at domlur bus stop
( 3 kms from Bangalore airport rd) ,
amidst a residential area, park and temple
 Long narrow site with roads on the eastern and
northern sides
 Western side has an open ground
 Southern side has an open drain ( 9m wide)
 Site located adjacent to a foul smelling drain on
south which dictates design development as wind
comes from south.

5. BUILDING DETAILS
 The building has been
divided into individual and
common areas
 75 intimate small spaces
are provided for individual
work
 Common areas refer to the
atriums, courts, nodes and
corridors meant for wider
interaction

6. ORIENTATION
 Building is oriented along NE-
SW direction
 SW is the primary wind and light
direction for Bangalore
 Along SW façade is a foul
smelling drain.Hence entrance is
towards NE direction
 All window openings are in this
direction
 South wall is a double wall to
provide insulation from southern
sun.

7. Floor Plans

9. LIGHT
 Main source of light- SUN
 Building opens on northern side to
take advantage of glare free light
( north light)
 Atrium spaces and sky lights
ensure enough lighting
 Presence of light shafts to transmit
light from skylight above into
meeting rooms and parking below
through a photo sensitive glass
 Artificial lighting used only for work
stations

10. Light

11. Sun
 Photo voltaic cells are used to capture the suns energy thus
generating electrical energy for the various stations.
 These photovoltaic cells have been arranged in line with the
primary orbit of the sun ( about 22-22.5 degrees from the
west ccw)
 The panel are integrated with dynamic truss to optimize the
generation of energy
 The suns energy is further used in the form of solar heaters
which is used to generate all the hot water in the guest
house
 The thermal comfort levels are mainted by the use of filler
slabs which provides insulation between the inside and the
outside of the building.
 Filler slabs are designed with alternate panel of concrete
and hollow blocks,
 The holow blocks help in reducing the transimission of heat
from outside to inside of the building.

12. RADIATION
 Use of double glazed windows with
coating
 Use of cavity wall construction with
kadappa stone which is a heat
retentive material
 Terrace garden helps in insulation ,
reducing radiation as well as
moderating temperature fluctuations
 Roof consists of a hollow loft space
which reduces conduction of heat to
work areas

13. AIR
 Primary wind direction along SW
 A long SW façade is a foul smelling drain
 Wall towards south is blank allowing the breeze to flow over the
building which in turn creates negative pressure and pulls in
fresh air from the north.
 South wall is a double wall so as to heat up the void between
the two walls creating negative pressure thereby enhancing
convection currents
 Ventilation is enhanced by the use of solar chimneys and vents
 Allows breeze to flow over building
 Creates negative pressure
 Starts pulling fresh air flow at body level to provide thermal
comfort
 Hot air rises towards the top on southern façade

14. Ventilation - analysis
The primary winds blow from the south to north over the
nallah, hence the building needs to react to this if,the foul
unhygienic air has to be prevented from entering the
building .
Thus the development of the south wall was a prime
design factor in achieving this purpose.
Here the south wall has was treated as an independent
system linking the rear walls of the building over a cavity
This cavity creates a negative pressure setting up the
convectional currents. The entire systems works very
effectively in generating the desired reverse wind
circulation.
The blank wall carries a system of cudappa.The colour
black was deliberately chosen because of its heat
absorptive power which is the highest among all colours.

15. •The working of the system is very
simple
•The sun’s rays heat the black south wall
increasing the temperature of the
immediate environment around.
•This causes the air in the cavity to rise
upwards naturally. These convectional
currents are blown away by the winds
blowing south to north.
•This creates a vacuum at the at the top
core structure. To fill this vacuum, air
from inside is drawn up.
•This system of hot air rising and
drawing in of cool fresh air is a
continuous process.

16. Hence reverse wind circulation is
established by bringing in the fresh air
from the north open face of the building,
and drawing it through the entire section
of the structure and removing it by
convectional means up through solar
wind vents.

17. Water
The central court which connects the
office complex and the guest house
section plays an important role as a
space generator .
The spaces around it follow the age old
concept of the verandah that are outside
but are shaded, hence giving a feel of
‘withinness’ to it .
The central court houses an amphitheatre
that’s acts as an informal gathering … but
more importantly it holds within it the
rainwater harvesting sump for the whole
complex.
the rainwater is collected through
downtake pipes at the various levels of
terraces. Thus rain water harvesting plays
an effective role in water management

18. Earth

19. Earth berm
As thermal capacity of earth is high, daily and
annual temperature fluctuations keep
decreasing with increasing depth of earth
At depth of 4m below ground, temperature
remains constant and equal to annual average
temperature

20. CONCLUSION
 Sets a new standard of energy efficient,
environmentally conscious office space
 Building conveys skillful interplay of natural
elements with the building form to reduce
energy demand