Figure 6	Figure 7	Figure 8	Figure 9
Figure 10	Figure 11	Figure 12	Figure 13
Figure 14	Figure 15	Figure 16	Figure 17
Figure 18	Figure 19	Figure 20	Figure 21
Figure 22	Figure 23	Figure 24	Figure 25
Figure 26	Figure 27	Figure 28	Figure 29
Figure 30	Figure 31	Figure 32	Figure 33
Figure 34	Figure 35	Figure 36	Figure 37

THE 2015 PROGRAMME ACTIVITIES

Hands-on Activities with Students

     In 2015 the Eco-Center hosted over 30 METU students participating in Hands-on sessions for the Architecture in situ course, Arch 325 and Arch 326. These students were hosted for a 6 day program that included visits to local factories (Fig. 06) and geothermal facilities. Accommodation and meals were provided in the newly rehabilitated school (Fig. 07). As the solar space has only been finished in the late autumn 2015, the school could only be used during the summer. However, in 2016 a higher number of smaller groups may be hosted thanks to the new equipment (water solar heater, cooker, fridges) installed in the building.

     In the spring semester a group of 24 students were enrolled in the Arch 325 course. Firstly the students were given presentations regarding Kerkenes Eco-Center's past activities, status and its mission (Fig. 08) and also ongoing archaeology research in the ancient city on the Kerkenes Dag (Fig. 09-10).

     During Hands-on sessions at the Kerkenes Eco-Center students took part in building and research activities focusing on environmental design and energy efficiency. The students worked mostly on preparing the school to be fully functional such as plastering the walls of the solar space (Fig. 11), designing and building shelves and partition walls (Fig. 12). There were plenty of aerial concrete pieces left from construction of sunspace at village school, thanks Akg Gazbeton, thus the students were asked to design and build some of needed furniture (Fig. 13-14) i.e. shelves to organize tools, (Fig. 15) water bottles (Fig. 16) and boxes for separating trash for recycling purpose (Fig. 17). Other students were involved in the design of the yard (Fig. 18) as well as creating a recreational area. Finally, a group of students started a work on straw-bale construction and earthen plaster to help the Kerkenes team involved in a large study on the impact of additives on earthen plasters. In the fall semester students registered for Arch 325 and 326 continued the same work in order to prepare the school for the year 2016.

Solar space interior design and fitting

     During the same hands-on session, students have been able to design and create furniture in the solar space together with experimenting plaster on the walls. The eastern part of the solar space has been arranged as a greenhouse with raise-beds designed and started by the students. Unfortunately, due to time constraint, these raise-beds have not been finished and the greenhouse cannot yet be used in the spring 2016 (Fig. 19). The western part of the solar space has been transformed into a drying space where villagers will be able to come and dry their products in the summer (Fig. 20). More arrangement are needed in this space to make it fully functional.

Outdoor space practices

     A team of students have dedicated them-self to planning the outdoor space of the school and building some elements such as a barbecue (Fig. 21) and a pergola (Fig. 22) to provide shading during the hot hours of the summer.

Construction of a straw-bale test wall

     The students also participated to the construction of a straw-bale wall (Fig. 23-24) that the Kerkenes team is using to conduct experiments on appropriate earth plasters. Through the construction of this wall, the students have been able to experiment different construction method such as rammed tires for the foundations or load-bearing straw-bale for the wall.

     After finishing the wall, the students also have been able to apply plaster on it (Fig. 25) and understand the shrinkage test allowing to determine the good mix of fiber, earth and sand to apply on the wall.

     Incidentally, students and visitor have also been able to test the resistance of straw-bale to fire (Fig. 26). Only the surface fibers of the bales have been burned when one of the researcher started to burn the fibers to demonstrate the resistance of the bale.

Other activities conducted in the Kerkenes Eco-Center

     Addition of a Solar Space to the School Building of the School Building
The construction of a solar space on the south façade of the Sahmuratli School Building was started in June 2014. The construction was stopped before full completion before the winter but restarted in the spring thanks to the support of the Kaymakam. The roof and windows were build according to the design of the Kerkenes team (Fig. 27-28) in order to provide a warm area in spring and winter but avoid overheating in the summer. However, despite all effort, the construction has not been achieved as designed because of a lack of possibility for the team members to be present during the construction.

     Establishing the school as a visitor center
Due to the growing number of students coming for Hands-on courses, appropriate accommodation has been provided. A solar water heater (Fig. 29) has been installed to provide hot water for the showers and the kitchen, kitchenware, tables and chairs have been bought and fridge and cookers have been installed to provide full facilities for the groups staying along during Hands-on courses or other workshops.

     Reparation of the Solar House roof (personal donation of Francoise Summers)
The summer 2015 has also seen the reparation of the flat roof of the Solar House. Despite the previous roof having been completed in 2011, poor workmanship and harsh winter have destroyed the waterproofing of the roof (Fig .30). A new systems have then been used to provide better waterproofing of the roof. Interior beams and rafters damaged by the water infiltration have been changed (Fig. 31) and the heat insulation has been improved by creating a new layer of AAC blocks (Fig. 32).

     International visitors
In October 2015 Andante travel group visited Kerkenes Archeology site and also Eco-Center. They were hosted by Kerkenes team for the Eco-Center visit and lunch which was prepared by local women in the village.

Research Conducted by the Kerkenes Team

     During the year 2015, the Kerkenes team has been working on 2 axes. The first axe has been the continuation of monitoring of building, especially the newly built solar space to understand its impact on the thermal comfort of the school. The second axe has been the study of appropriate earthen plasters for straw-bale walls as a part of the PhD research of one of the team members.

     Thermal comfort of solar space
Along the year, the temperature and humidity in the solar space of the school have been taken during more than 6 months and compared with measurement made before adding the sunspace to understand the difference of interior temperature in terms of thermal comfort. Figure 35 shows data loggers and sensors installed in different rooms to record temperature and humidity. Comparison results prove the feasibility of incorporating sunspace into existing building in order to harvest solar energy for passive space heating since, the building's performance has increased after adding the south facing sunspace. An article has been written and will be presented to the Passive and Low Energy Architecture (PLEA) conference in 2016.

     Appropriate earthen plasters (supported by BAP)
From May 2015, materials from Sahmuratli village and surroundings (earth, straw, dung, molasses…) have been collected to be used as additives for earthen plasters. The straw-bale wall built by the students during the 2015 hands-on session has been used for this research and different mixes of plasters have been applied on it to determine the most suitable ones, in parallel with experiment made in the Civil Engineering Material Laboratory in METU. Results of some of the experiments will be published and presented during the Terra 2016 conference.

The straw-bale walls has also been fully plastered on the rain exposed surface and equipped with humidity and temperature sensors (Fig. 36) to determine the transfers through the plaster according to the climatic conditions. Erosion and plaster deterioration is also studied.

     Appropriate natural materials
As illustrated in Figure 37, several composition of different materials were built as boxes and their interior ambient temperature was recorded with data loggers. It was aimed to analyse which composition is a better solution in terms of heat insulation; however, it is an ongoing research and results has not been analysed yet.