Design and operation of individual greenhouses in modern housing

Candidate of Technical Sciences V. P. Kalinina. Edited by Doctor of Technical Sciences N. V. Obolensky

Moscow Stroyizdat 1994. BBK 38.752

The book by authors from Finland provides advice on the design, construction, and operation of greenhouses and conservatories. It covers types of greenhouses, including a description of greenhouse installations for individual houses, as well as on balconies or loggias of multi-story residential buildings. Recommendations on plant growing and care are provided. The 1st edition was published in 1987 under the title "Individual Greenhouses in the Modern Home".

The book by Finnish specialists B. Erat and D. Woolston is devoted to the topical issue of using greenhouses in the modern home. The appearance of this book is very timely, as many questions have arisen in housing construction in recent decades to which the idea of mass greenhouse use is directly related: social interaction of families, energy savings from non-renewable sources, increasing the health-promoting effects of solar energy on humans and their living environment in all climatic regions, increasing the expressiveness and diversity of mass residential development, combating the spontaneous amateur glazing of balconies and loggias that disfigures many new microdistricts, the lack of contact between city dwellers and the natural environment, etc., up to finding additional sources for providing the urban population with fresh produce — greens and certain vegetables.

The book presents many specialized issues professionally and yet popularly, related to the efficient functioning of individual-type greenhouses depending on specific climatic conditions, with accessible design solutions for greenhouses in both planned and existing houses (low-rise and high-rise), with the accumulation of thermal solar energy, and plant cultivation.

The emotional tone of the language did not prevent the authors from achieving scientific seriousness and grounding in the presentation of the material. Of particular interest are the authors' considerations regarding the progressiveness of glazing balconies and loggias for hygienic reasons: one can spend more time in these additional spaces without catching a cold and receive much more healing ultraviolet radiation throughout the year, which compensates many times over for the slight reduction in apartment illumination. This issue represents an important topic of com-

1*. 3 plex scientific research that must be conducted by architects, hygienists, and lighting engineers to develop appropriate proposals for improving natural home lighting standards (e=0.5 $), which, as is known, do not yet have sufficient scientific justification.

Design and operation of individual greenhouses

Any progressive proposal can be ruined if left to take its own course or used beyond the bounds of common sense. Therefore, it is very important to have an engaged attitude toward this book not only from relevant specialists but also from various departments directly related to this topical problem, in order to solve it at a modern level while taking into account the following factors:

• industrialization of structures;
• airtightness of structures;
• use of new materials.

Greenhouses always give houses an individual appearance — after all, their interior equipment and greenery, clearly visible from the outside, are unique in every case. They breathe life even into gray, dull typical facades, and each apartment is enriched with additional space perceived in unity with its interior.

Broad opportunities are opening up for using roofs and building covers for greenhouses, which will turn them into energy-saving structures. Such greenhouses can be considered an integral element of a dwelling in central, southern, and, as the authors of the book have convincingly shown, northern regions.

Doctor of Technical Sciences, Prof. N. V. Obolensky