Certain Design Principles at www.japanese-home-gardens.com

'03/'04 Leading Edge Design Competition by New Buildigns Institute. Registration deadline: 2 April 2004. Submission deadline: 11 June 2004. Entry fee: None. Awards: US$7,500 total. Jury: Gregg Ander, Stephen Castellanos, Vivian Loftness, Randall Higa, Rob Hudler and Tony Pierce. The Competition provides teaching and applied learning experience on principles and requirements of energy-efficient design for tomorrow's design professionals. Open to all students currently enrolled in architecture or environmental design programs.

This year, the competition will focus on public buildings in the coastal environment of Southern California. Students entering Challenge 1 will design an Environmental Museum and Interpretative Center and students entering Challenge 2 will design a Park Office and Snack Bar. Both buildings will be located in the new Orange County Great Park, in Irvine, California. The competition objectives are to encourage and reward excellence in architectural planning and design that integrates environmentally responsive design strategies. Competition participants will have the opportunity to explore energy efficiency as a basic standard of building design, incorporate principles of sustainability in the choice of building materials, water use, building design, and building site, investigate new building materials & methodologies that

Certain design principles are common to all types of heating systems and buildings. First, the heat loss of the building and its rooms must be determined for a design day. This is the typical winter day at the building location for which the heating system must produce comfortable room temperatures under normal operation. For commercial and public buildings or houses designed by architects, the heat loss is calculated from data taken from the architectural plans.