scholarly journals From the Efficiency of Nature to Parametric Design. A Holistic Approach for Sustainable Building Renovation in Seismic Regions

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastiano D’Urso ◽  
Bruno Cicero
Keyword(s):  
Seismic Vulnerability ◽  
Parametric Design ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Building Stock ◽  
Structural Shape ◽  
Sustainable Building ◽  
Existing Building ◽  
Low Performance ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Stability Energy

Cities are growing dramatically. At the same time, we are witnessing the obsolescence of the existing building stock due to its low performance in terms of structural stability, energy efficiency and, last but not least, beauty. Especially in Italy, a highly seismic country, most of the buildings erected between the 1950s and the 1980s are not only earthquake-prone but also aesthetically unpleasant. In this perspective, the urgency of improving the existing building stock in terms of seismic vulnerability opens up the opportunity to also work on its architectural image. This article draws from the assumption that the search for beauty represents an important and often neglected dimension of the search for sustainability. In particular, the presented study suggests and combines the use of parametric design and the structural shape of steel exoskeletons to renovate a typical earthquake-prone apartment block from the 1960s in Italy. The results show that the proposed parametric approach can provide and select different effective renovation solutions.

Clean construction and demolition waste material cycles through optimised pre-demolition waste audit documentation: A review on building material assessment tools

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (9) ◽  
pp. 923-941
Author(s):  
Melanie Rašković ◽  
Arne M Ragossnig ◽  
Krzysztof Kondracki ◽  
Michaela Ragossnig-Angst
Keyword(s):  
Waste Management ◽  
Building Material ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Construction And Demolition Waste ◽  
Waste Stream ◽  
Building Stock ◽  
Demolition Waste ◽  
Urban Mining ◽  
Existing Building

Waste from the construction sector poses huge challenges for sustainable waste management. This is not only due to the vast amount of waste produced in construction and demolition activities, but also due to pollutants potentially contained in these products. Subject to these conditions, waste management must ensure recovery of as many resources as possible, while making sure to keep material loops clean. This demanding task requires more knowledge about the existing building stock and an adaptation of current demolition processes. Innovative technologies, such as Building Information Modelling, or modern frameworks, such as Geographic Information Systems, offer a high potential to synoptically provide stock material information for future demolition activities for individual objects to be deconstructed as well as for whole cities as a basis for managing the anthropogenic stock and potential urban mining. Suitable methods of data collection allow for acquiring the desired input for the generation of building stock models enriched with demolition-related information. With the latter, selective deconstruction strategies as well as appropriate waste stream routing agendas can be planned and executed, thereby securing safety at work during the demolition process itself and a waste stream routing according to the waste hierarchy. This review article gives an overview of currently deployed building material assessment tools (data capture and visualisation), both a prerequisite for improved information on materials and geometry (and thereby mass/volume). In addition, this article describes workflows employable for the purpose of urban mining in end-of-life buildings, of which one holistic approach will be described in depth.

scholarly journals Sustainable Urban Regeneration through Densification Strategies: The Kallithea District in Athens as a Pilot Case Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (22) ◽  
pp. 9462
Author(s):  
Annarita Ferrante ◽  
Anastasia Fotopoulou ◽  
Cecilia Mazzoli
Keyword(s):  
Seismic Vulnerability ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Construction Sector ◽  
Existing Buildings ◽  
Zero Energy ◽  
Building Stock ◽  
Existing Building ◽  
Innovative Methods ◽  
European Policies

The current main issue in the construction sector in Europe concerns the energy refurbishment and the reactivation of investments in existing buildings. Guidance for enhancing energy efficiency and encouraging member states to create a market for deep renovation is provided by a number of European policies. Innovative methods and strategies are required to attract and involve citizens and main stakeholders to undertake buildings’ renovation processes, which actually account for just 1% of the total building stock. This contribution proposes technical and financial solutions for the promotion of energy efficient, safe, and attractive retrofit interventions based on the creation of volumetric additions combined with renewable energy sources. This paper focuses on the urban reality of Athens as being an important example of a degraded urban center with a heavy heat island, a quite important heating demand, and a strong seismic vulnerability. The design solutions presented here demonstrate that the strategy of additions, because of the consequent increased value of the buildings, could represent an effective densification policy for the renovation of existing urban settings. Hence, the aim is to trigger regulatory and market reforms with the aim to boost the revolution towards nearly zero energy buildings for the existing building stocks.

scholarly journals A Life Cycle Framework for the Identification of Optimal Building Renovation Strategies Considering Economic and Environmental Impacts

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (23) ◽  
pp. 10221
Author(s):  
Martina Caruso ◽  
Rui Pinho ◽  
Federica Bianchi ◽  
Francesco Cavalieri ◽  
Maria Teresa Lemmo
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Service Life ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Seismic Vulnerability ◽  
Resource Depletion ◽  
Renewable Resource ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
Building Stock ◽  
Existing Building

It is well-known that the existing building stock is responsible for non-renewable resource depletion, energy and material consumption, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Life cycle analysis (LCA) procedures have thus been developed, in recent years, to assess the environmental impact of construction and operational phases through the entire building life cycle. Furthermore, the economic, environmental, and social consequences of recent natural disasters have encouraged the additional integration of hazard-induced impacts into common LCA procedures for buildings. Buildings are however expected to provide the population with safe living and working conditions, even when hit by different types of hazards during their service life, such as earthquakes. Hence, next-generation LCA procedures should include not only hazard-induced impacts, but also the contribution of potential retrofitting strategies that may alter the structural and energy performances of buildings throughout their remaining service life. This study presents a life cycle framework that accounts for the contributions of initial construction, operational energy consumption, earthquake-induced damage repair activities, potential retrofitting interventions, and demolition (considering also its associated potential material recycling), in terms of both monetary costs and environmental impacts. The proposed methodology can be used to undertake cost-benefit analyses aimed at identifying building renovation strategies that lead to an optimal balance, considering both economic and environmental impacts, between reduction of seismic vulnerability and increase of energy efficiency of a building, depending on the climatic conditions and the seismic hazard at the site of interest.

Is relative sustainability relevant?

2007 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jess Hrivnak
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Emissions ◽  
Building Stock ◽  
Mineral Extraction ◽  
Sustainable Building ◽  
Existing Building ◽  
Guiding Principle ◽  
Wide Range

The term ‘sustainability’ is often used as a woolly term for everything that is good and desirable. Besides, ‘sustainability’ is a subjective area, which can be difficult to quantify. Any construction project has a wide range of environmental impacts, each of which may have been measured in a different way. Energy may have been measured in terms of carbon dioxide emissions, whereas wood or mineral extraction is generally measured volumetrically, making comparisons between environmental impacts difficult to determine. Various methodologies seek to standardise impacts for comparative purposes and the guiding principle for any environmental assessment is a comparison to the existing building stock, and a result is invariably in terms of a building's relative sustainability. However, to some it is not a matter of being ‘more’ or ‘less’ sustainable. You either are or you are not, therefore relative sustainability is not a valid concept. The discussion of sustainability in this paper is not a debate on the semantics of the term, but ultimately the purist's view does lead to the question whether there can ever be such a thing as a sustainable building and indeed what the role of architecture in the context of sustainability is.

scholarly journals Simulation-based optimization of energy performance with focus on sustainable building services engineering

2021 ◽  
Vol 2042 (1) ◽  
pp. 012077
Author(s):  
Daniel Kierdorf ◽  
Farzan Banihashemi ◽  
Hannes Harter ◽  
Michael Vollmer ◽  
Werner Lang
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Supply ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Time Data ◽  
Building Stock ◽  
Time Saving ◽  
Sustainable Building ◽  
Existing Building ◽  
Scientific Innovation ◽  
Building Services Engineering

Abstract The aim of this study is to compare and validate a building energy simulation model of a university building with monitored data. In addition, different building services engineering concepts are compared with each other regarding their ecological life cycle-based performance using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methods. Optimizing these performances regarding sustainability indicators plays an essential role in realizing a climate-neutral building stock. A university building from the 90s, which consists of almost 900 thermal zones, is used as a case study. Detailed heating consumption data are available for the inspected building and are compared to the simulation results. Different energy supply concepts are first subjected to conducting LCA and then to a detailed energy performance simulation. This paper presents a procedure that enables decision-makers to examine building services engineering issues and to derive conclusions in a time-saving manner regarding appropriate sustainable actions. The focus on sustainable energy supply systems is an essential milestone for the realization of climate-neutral building stocks. The scientific innovation is in the detailed reproduction of the existing building and the comparison between simulation data and real-time data as well as an innovative and experimental approach to building and Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system simulation.

scholarly journals Seismic Vulnerability Assessment and Fragility Analysis of Pre-Code Masonry Buildings in Portugal

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vasco Bernardo ◽  
Alfredo Campos Costa ◽  
Paulo Candeias ◽  
Aníbal Costa
Keyword(s):  
Seismic Risk ◽  
Seismic Vulnerability ◽  
Fragility Curves ◽  
Construction Materials ◽  
Geographic Location ◽  
Nonlinear Static Analysis ◽  
Masonry Buildings ◽  
Urban Centers ◽  
Building Stock ◽  
The 1960S

Abstract Despite the fact that in recent years Portugal has not seen the occurrence of high-magnitude earthquakes, it remains threatened by these events due to its geographic location. Since the 1960s, reinforced concrete has been the most used material for new constructions, however the historic urban centers are dominated by old unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings which techniques and construction materials have evolved since the Great Lisbon earthquake that occurred in 1755 with a magnitude around 8.5. Given the presence of these buildings in areas of significant seismicity, a comprehensive research is needed to assess the seismic risk and define mitigation policies. This kind of studies are often supported by empirical methods and based on expert judgment due to the high variability of the building stock and lack of information. The main purpose of this work is: i) to provide analytical fragility curves, supported by nonlinear static analysis, for the entire population of old masonry buildings, built before the introduction of the first design code for building safety against earthquakes (RSSCS) in 1958; ii) define vulnerability curves to be used by the technical community for seismic risk assessment of pre code URM buildings. The characterization of the building stock geometry and material properties is based on the previous information collected, which was useful to define representative archetypes and typologies.

scholarly journals Urban development and negative differential rent [Lo sviluppo urbano e la rendita differenziale negativa]

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 111-120
Author(s):  
Cristian Cannaos
Keyword(s):  
Urban Expansion ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Building Stock ◽  
Existing Building ◽  
The Real Estate ◽  
Total Absence ◽  
Advanced Phase ◽  
Differential Rent ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The City

The growth of building land does not always produce a positive differential rent on the existing building stock. The essay aims to discuss the case where urban expansion has negative effects on the rent of existing building plots and constructions. In other words, the differential rent assumes negative values that increase over time, lowering the value of existing properties. This occurs when the expansion of the city does not correspond to a real need for new housing. Generally, it happens in the presence of urban centres already in an advanced phase of demographic contraction, when the existing building stock would be sufficient to satisfy the real estate demand. This expansion (sometimes achieved through urban plans or building programs, others in the total absence of plans) is a phenomenon that, since the 1960s, has affected (and still affects) many smaller towns in Italy. While in the cities that attract population, urban expansion led to the creation of a positive and growing rent (absolute and differential), in the centres suffering from depopulation the same type of expansion had adverse effects on the existing building stock.

scholarly journals Fragility curves for Italian URM buildings based on a hybrid method

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Sandoli ◽  
G. P. Lignola ◽  
B. Calderoni ◽  
A. Prota
Keyword(s):  
Seismic Vulnerability ◽  
Fragility Curves ◽  
Limit State ◽  
Ultimate Limit State ◽  
Masonry Building ◽  
Masonry Buildings ◽  
Seismic Behaviour ◽  
Building Stock ◽  
Ground Acceleration ◽  
Damage Scenario

AbstractA hybrid seismic fragility model for territorial-scale seismic vulnerability assessment of masonry buildings is developed and presented in this paper. The method combines expert-judgment and mechanical approaches to derive typological fragility curves for Italian residential masonry building stock. The first classifies Italian masonry buildings in five different typological classes as function of age of construction, structural typology, and seismic behaviour and damaging of buildings observed following the most severe earthquakes occurred in Italy. The second, based on numerical analyses results conducted on building prototypes, provides all the parameters necessary for developing fragility functions. Peak-Ground Acceleration (PGA) at Ultimate Limit State attainable by each building’s class has been chosen as an Intensity Measure to represent fragility curves: three types of curve have been developed, each referred to mean, maximum and minimum value of PGAs defined for each building class. To represent the expected damage scenario for increasing earthquake intensities, a correlation between PGAs and Mercalli-Cancani-Sieber macroseismic intensity scale has been used and the corresponding fragility curves developed. Results show that the proposed building’s classes are representative of the Italian masonry building stock and that fragility curves are effective for predicting both seismic vulnerability and expected damage scenarios for seismic-prone areas. Finally, the fragility curves have been compared with empirical curves obtained through a macroseismic approach on Italian masonry buildings available in literature, underlining the differences between the methods.

scholarly journals Proposal for a Methodology for Sustainable Rehabilitation Strategies of the Existing Building Stock—The Ponte Gêa Neighborhood

Designs ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Michael M. Santos ◽  
João C. G. Lanzinha ◽  
Ana Vaz Ferreira
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Construction And Demolition Waste ◽  
Expected Improvement ◽  
Water Efficiency ◽  
Building Stock ◽  
Demolition Waste ◽  
Existing Building ◽  
Agenda 2030 ◽  
Development Agenda ◽  
The City

Having in mind the objectives of the United Nations Development Agenda 2030, which refers to the sustainable principles of a circular economy, it is urgent to improve the performance of the built environment. The existing buildings must be preserved and improved in order to reduce their environmental impact, in line with the need to revert climate change and reduce the occurrence of natural disasters. This work had as its main goal to identify and define a methodology for promoting the rehabilitation of buildings in the Ponte Gêa neighborhood, in the city of Beira, Mozambique, with an emphasis on energy efficiency, water efficiency, and construction and demolition waste management. The proposed methodology aims to create a decision support method for creating strategic measures to be implemented by considering the three specific domains—energy, water, and waste. This model allows for analyzing the expected improvement according to the action to be performed, exploring both individual and community solutions. It encompasses systems of standard supply that can reveal greater efficiency and profitability. Thus, the in-depth knowledge of the characteristics of urban space and buildings allows for establishing guidelines for the renovation process of the neighborhood.

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