The Role of Systems Integration in the Design of Sustainable Skyscrapers

Ali, Mir M.,Armstrong, Paul J. Sustainable Building Research Center 2010 International journal of sustainable building tech Vol.1 No.2

This paper examines the process of integration of tall building systems with special emphasis on sustainable tall buildings. The design of such buildings warrants a multidisciplinary approach and requires the integration of architectural components, structure, vertical transportation, fire safety, energy conservation, and communication systems. "Technology transfer" is a concept that suggests that technical developments in one industry can be applied to another. Sustainable design of high-rise buildings has benefitted from technology transfers, which contribute new materials, systems, methods, and techniques. Developments in materials, systems, and design integration in the aerospace and automotive industries and lessons learned also can be applied to tall building systems. A major component of the paper entails case studies of buildings, which represent a new generation of sustainable high-rise buildings that are challenging conventional high-rise building practices and setting trends for such future projects incorporating innovations in materials and smart building systems. These buildings are seemingly well-tuned to their climate; and they provide a major portion of their own energy requirements through integrated passive design, daylighting, and intelligent control systems. Special attention is focused on the refinement and further development of an "Integration Web" that illustrates the relationships and interdependence of the physical systems in the design of sustainable tall buildings.

Decreasing CO₂ Emissions and Embodied Energy during the Construction Phase Using Sustainable Building Materials

Saadah, Yasmeen,AbuHijleh, Bassam Sustainable Building Research Center 2010 International journal of sustainable building tech Vol.1 No.2

A great quantity of $CO_2$ is emitted to the atmosphere during the different phases of a building's life cycle: in the production of materials and products, in the construction of the building itself, in the setting up of the site, in the exploitation, the renovations, the later rehabilitations, up to the final demolition. The present paper shows the possibility of reducing the embodied energy in building materials up to 55% and the $CO_2$ emissions produced up to 43% in the construction phase, through a careful selection of sustainable building materials. The purpose of this study is to quantify the total amount of $CO_2$ emissions and embodied energy that can be saved by the method presented in the particular phase of the material selection within the life cycle of a building. This material selection, as well as the bioclimatic characteristics, must be defined from the early design project phase. The research presented here has been carried out as a case study on an existing high-rise residential building in the UAE constructed in a conventional way and with no specific selection of materials. The building is compared to a hypothetically created building with similar characteristics but using sustainable building materials.

Volume Optimization (BVO) Using a Constraint Programming Approach for Life-Cycle Cost Based Sustainable Design

Schoch, Martin,Prakasvudhisarn, Chakguy,Praditsmanont, Apichat Sustainable Building Research Center 2011 International journal of sustainable building tech Vol.2 No.4

This paper extends existing research on building-volume optimization (BVO), evaluating the potential of the models practical implementation. It undertakes and discusses a representative building-volume design to examine the implementation of the BVO model as possible decision-support at an early design stage. In order to determine its usefulness to develop sustainable building designs, it focuses minimizing their foreseen life cycle cost (LCC), validating that, with the help of a proposed search strategy, the suggested BVO model can generate cost-effective and site-specific building-volume designs. In doing so, the approach underlines the ability to serve as a meaningful decision-support tool that allows designers to consider building-volume design alternatives at a design phase where design decisions in reference to their implied LCC are difficult to achieve. Results also confirmed the potential strengths of creating building-volume solutions, which can be used as a reference for ongoing development of architectural designs.

Zero Emission Building Concepts in Office Buildings in Norway

Haasea, Matthias,Andresena, Inger,Gustavsena, Arild,Dokkab, Tor Helge,Hestnesa, Anne Grete Sustainable Building Research Center 2011 International journal of sustainable building tech Vol.2 No.2

Zero emission buildings (ZEB) are buildings with a minimized energy consumption and renewable energy supply with zero greenhouse gas emissions. There is no common accepted definition of zero emission buildings. This is due to issues in defining the boundary of a balance in terms of building site and time frame of this balance. Further, there is no standard on accounting for emissions (on material, components, system, and building level) nor is there a standard for emissions from other building related environments. In this paper the goals for ZEB are specified and implications for components are discussed. $\bullet$ Short-term: ZEHB: Zero emissions from heating of building $\bullet$ Mid-Term: ZEB-OP: Zero emissions from operation of building $\bullet$ Long-term: ZEB-OP&MAT: Zero emissions from operation and materials $\bullet$ Focus on three building types: $\circ$ Residential (ZEHB-R; ZEB-OP-R; ZEB-OP&MAT-R) $\circ$ Office(ZEHB-O; ZEB-OP-O; ZEB-OP&MAT-O) $\circ$ Educational/School: (ZEHB-E; ZEB-OP-E; ZEB-OP&MAT-E) $\bullet$ All cases will be divided into new construction and retrofitting: $\circ$ ZEHB-RR, $\circ$ ZEHB-OR, $\circ$ ZEHB-ER. The main focus of this paper is on office buildings and shows reduction of heating energy use in office buildings as the first step towards the development of zero emission buildings. Two other low energy proposal are made and $CO_2$ emissions of different energy supply options are compared.

Three dimensions of sustainability and floating architecture

Sustainable Building Research Center 2014 International journal of sustainable building tech Vol.5 No.2

<P> This paper focuses on the sustainability of floating architecture. Compared to usual buildings on land, floating buildings on water have great advantages in terms of sustainability. Sustainability in architecture has primarily dealt with physical aspects, but discussions of sustainability need to be extended to non-physical aspects because buildings are to be used by people with various purposes and meanings. Sustainability of floating architecture in three dimensions can be summarised as durability to a rise in water level, long term usage due to movability and relocation, use of local material, and various applications of renewable energy sources in the environmental dimension; economic advantages due to prefabrication and modular construction, and economic efficiency due to high utilisation rate through global mobility in the economic dimension; and residents’ psychological comfort, strengthened security against crime, and high sense of community in the social dimension. </P>

Material-Neutral Building: Closed Cycle Accounting for Buildings Construction - A new practical way to measure improvements in creating a balanced resource use for construction

Rovers, Ronald Sustainable Building Research Center 2010 International journal of sustainable building tech Vol.1 No.2

The attention paid to climate change due to energy consumption from fossil fuels leaves unaddressed other issues that might even be more threatening to global welfare. First of all we have the global depletion of fossil fuels. This, and the related economic effects, can put the world in direct disorder and leave many areas and cities without (a distribution of) resources (energy but also food). The second issue is that of materials. Many materials also face shortages or depletion and a transition to renewable source materials is just as urgently needed as are renewable energy sources. In both cases, depletion is the issue that must be tackled and which automatically will require us to develop a resource management structure that can be maintained in future. Such an approach will require the treatment of resources in a closed loop related to the time frame of use. The questions that should be addressed in this context are: How would a closed loop approach for the building sector look like? How could we assess building performance in this closed loop approach?

Framework for Evaluating Co₂ Emissions of Buildings within Singapore's Building Sector: A Review Article

Teo, Evelyn Ai-Lin,Lin, Guangming Sustainable Building Research Center 2010 International journal of sustainable building tech Vol.1 No.2

Carbon dioxide emitted from the building industry contributes significantly to anthropogenic greenhouse gases emissions. No consensus on the magnitude of building-related $CO_2$ emissions, however, was reached in the literature. This research aims to develop a Carbon Database Management System for evaluating carbon emissions of buildings in Singapore. This study presents a comprehensive literature survey pertinent to building-related carbon emissions. The findings show that different $CO_2$ estimation approaches, variance in the definition of system boundaries, and variance in the use of functional units are instrumental in explaining the disagreement of $CO_2$ estimation results. A conceptual framework for predicting the environmental performance (carbon index) and the economic performance (carbon tender price index) for new construction is then presented. The proposed framework may inspire the local government and environmental agencies to update Singapore's construction codes and environmental policies, with the aim to encourage the application of low-carbon practices and technologies to the building sector in Singapore. It would also offer an implication for other countries that encounter similar challenges.

Cradle to Cradle-REHABILITATION OF INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE: The opportunities for Cradle to Cradle in the Netherlands

Van De Westerlo, Bas,Ketelaars, Joris,Roders, Ana Pereira Sustainable Building Research Center 2011 International journal of sustainable building tech Vol.2 No.3

Throughout the Netherlands, the impact of the Industrial Revolution is still very apparent by its numerous industrial buildings. However lately new strategies of industrial development have made them become more and more functionally obsolete. Rehabilitation is often considered as sustainable for allowing the reuse of existing buildings. Though, that is not always the case, not even in rehabilitations targeting durability. This assumption can be clearly evidenced, when an accurate evaluation is done taking as base the Cradle to Cradle-principles. This paper shall present the results of a MSc. Thesis and the conclusions reached when determining the opportunities of Cradle to Cradle in the Netherlands within the perspective of rehabilitating a complex of industrial buildings. Functionally obsolete industrial buildings could be easily considered as waste. But Cradle to Cradle perceives them as food. We believe there is much more potential on rehabilitating them, than simply wasting them. But, as believing isnot enough, we shall verify and present our conclusions, based on evidences and a newly-developed Cradle to Cradle guidelines for the built environment.

High Performance Concrete as a Sustainable Material

Kynclova, Magdalena,Fiala, Ctislav,Hajek, Petr Sustainable Building Research Center 2011 International journal of sustainable building tech Vol.2 No.1

Concrete is after water the second mostly used material and the most widely used construction material in the world. The production of cement creates more than 7% (calculated from WBCSD data) [7] of worldwide man-made $CO_2$ emissions. Therefore optimization of concrete structures can lead to the significant environmental savings. Experimental investigation and case studies performed by authors in the frame of long term research, focused on environmental optimization of building structures, support the expectation that it will be possible to reach factor 3 or even more through utilization of high performance concrete (HPC) while keeping structural reliability on the needed high level. Developed structural concepts have been proved not only by theoretical and experimental results, but also by practical application in construction of several buildings. Paper presents three case studies - ribbed / waffle floor structure with minimized thickness of upper deck to 30 mm, light precast RC balcony element and light precast RC frame for passive house.

Sustainable Design of Braced Tube Structures: The Role of Geometric Configuration

Moon, Kyoung-Sun Sustainable Building Research Center 2011 International journal of sustainable building tech Vol.2 No.3

Sustainability is one of the most important design issues today, especially for tall buildings, the construction of which requires an abundant amount of resources. Selecting and designing a particular structural system for a tall building does an important role in determining its sustainability in terms of structural material usage. The braced tube, developed in the late twentieth century for tall buildings, is a very efficient structural system because it carries lateral loads primarily by axial actions of the perimeter columns and bracings, and still prevalently used for contemporary tall buildings. This paper studies various geometric configurations of the braced tube to determine more efficient ones which use less amount of structural material to meet design requirements and consequently save our limited resources. Braced tubes of different perimeter column spacings, bracing shapes and bracing densities are studied comparatively. Based on the study results, more sustainable geometric configurations of the braced tube are presented.