Including Sustainability Criteria in Architectural Completion: A Critical Case Study of Current Practices

2013 ◽  
Vol 649 ◽  
pp. 159-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Kiesel ◽  
Ulrich Pont ◽  
Ardeshir Mahdavi
Keyword(s):  
Natural Ventilation ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Embodied Energy ◽  
Sufficient Information ◽  
Present Contribution ◽  
Fundamental Factor ◽  
Recycling Potential ◽  
Architectural Competitions ◽  
Critical Case Study

The Architectural competition announcements in Austria, as well as in most other European countries, regularly mention sustainability as a fundamental factor for decision-making. The consideration of energy performance, environmental performance of materials (embodied energy, reuse or recycling potential, toxicity), natural ventilation, and daylight availability are typically mentioned in the list of project requirements. In this context, the present contribution considers three actual architectural competition cases. Thereby, we investigated the kinds and depth of sustainability-related criteria as included in the competition announcements (e.g., hard versus soft requirements, qualitative versus quantitative benchmarks) . Moreover, we explored the level to which competition entries actually responded to the sustainability-related competition criteria. Thus, the submission materials (project narratives, posters and simple calculations if existing) available to the jury were analysed in detail. Toward this end, two approaches were selected: A qualitative approach focused on the use of certain terminology within the documentation of the projects. The second approach took certain numeric indicators into consideration such as heating demand and OI3 Index (sustainability). In those cases where the indicator values were not submitted by the participants, they were calculated by the authors based on available documentation. The study implies the need for a reconsideration of the process of formulating architectural competitions and evaluating the related submissions. It appears that currently the sustainability-related requirements in competition documentations do not lead to entries, which provide sufficient information for accountable jury evaluation. Rather, alternative and/or additional comprehensive indicators of sustainability and ecological performance must be included in a clear and systematic fashion in architectural competition narratives.

Subjective Evaluation of Sustainability and Attractiveness Criteria of Planned Buildings: A Case Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 887 ◽  
pp. 374-381
Author(s):  
Ulrich Pont ◽  
Ardeshir Mahdavi
Keyword(s):  
Subjective Evaluation ◽  
Building Design ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Residential Housing ◽  
Present Contribution ◽  
Sustainability Criteria ◽  
Competition Result ◽  
High Level ◽  
Architectural Competitions ◽  
Empirical Experiment

Architectural competitions are regarded an important way to find close-to-optimal solutions for given building design tasks. In recent years, sustainability criteria within architectural competitions increased in importance. However, the question how to cleverly integrate sustainability criteria into the required deliverables that architects have to provide in competition entries remains widely unsolved. Even if energy calculations or tabular data are stipulated, both meaningfulness and impact on the jury decision seem to be highly doubtful. This might be due to a number of reasons: First of all, architectural competitions regularly address early design stages. In other words, large uncertainties regarding construction assemblies, glazing properties, and HVAC-systems (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning) persist at this moment, thus energy evaluations come with a high level of inaccuracy. Moreover, juries that evaluate competition entries regularly consist of domain specialists for the later building usage and architects, but not necessarily encompass energy efficiency specialists. This is understandable, given the multitude of requirements within building design, where sustainability is only one out of many. Furthermore, there is no common understanding regarding clear decision criteria pertaining to sustainability. Even if certain scalar KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are demanded, these numbers can regularly not describe the overall performance of a building design. Another important aspect is that entries to architectural competitions regularly are checked onto formal issues, but not regarding the plausibility of their content. As such, it cannot be expected that the winning and running-up projects of competitions automatically resemble the most sustainable projects. Literally, any sustainability or energy performance description has to be taken for granted, but can rarely be validated. Commonly it is argued that the winning projects of competitions are regularly the competition entries that show the most balanced mix of different attributes. This, however, is difficult to evaluate. In the present contribution we illustrate the methodology and results of a recently conducted empirical experiment. Thereby, we asked undergraduate and graduate students of architecture to subjectively evaluate a set of competition entries of a recent architectural competition for a high-density, low-energy residential housing project. The project entries were the winning project as well as the five runner-up projects. The students were provided with principle information about the competition and its principle goals and then had to rank the projects regarding different criteria. The comparison of this subjective evaluation was then compared with the competition result. Some differences between the jury’s ranking and the subjective evaluation could be observed.

scholarly journals Numerical Assessment of Zebra-Stripes-Based Strategies in Buildings Energy Performance: A Case Study under Tropical Climate

Biomimetics ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 14
Author(s):  
Miguel Chen Austin ◽  
Kevin Araque ◽  
Paola Palacios ◽  
Katherine Rodríguez Maure ◽  
Dafni Mora
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Thermal Comfort ◽  
Natural Ventilation ◽  
Heat Dissipation ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Base Case ◽  
Energy Needs ◽  
Numerical Assessment ◽  
Lower Temperature

Urban growth has increased the risk of over-heating both in the microclimate and inside buildings, affecting thermal comfort and energy efficiency. That is why this research aims to evaluate the energy performance of buildings in terms of thermal comfort (operative temperature (OP) levels, satisfied hours of natural ventilation SHNV, thermal lag), and energy efficiency (roof heat gains and surface temperatures) in an urban area in Panama City, using superficial-heat-dissipation biomimetic strategies. Two case studies, a base case and a proposed case, were evaluated using the Designbuilder software through dynamic simulation. The proposed case is based on a combined biomimetic strategy; the reflective characteristics of the Saharan ant applied as a coating on the roofs through a segmented pattern such as the Zebra’s stripes (one section with coating, and another without). Results showed that the OP decreased from 8 to 10 °C for the entire urban zone throughout the year. A reduction of 3.13% corresponding to 8790 kWh per year was achieved for cooling energy consumption. A difference of 5 °C in external surface temperature was obtained, having a lower temperature in which the biomimetic strategy was applied. Besides, it was evidenced that a contrasted-reflectivity-stripes pitched roof performed better than a fully reflective roof. Thus, the functionality of Zebra stripes, together with the reflective characteristics of the Saharan ant, provide better performance for buildings’ thermal regulation and energy needs for cooling.

Assessment of the Life Cycle Energy Efficiency of a Primary School Building in Turkey

2019 ◽  
Vol 887 ◽  
pp. 335-343
Author(s):  
Nazanin Moazzen ◽  
Mustafa Erkan Karaguler ◽  
Touraj Ashrafian
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Building Envelope ◽  
Embodied Energy

Energy efficiency has become a crucial part of human life, which has an adverse impact on the social and economic development of any country. In Turkey, it is a critical issue especially in the construction sector due to increase in the dependency on the fuel demands. The energy consumption, which is used during the life cycle of a building, is a huge amount affected by the energy demand for material and building construction, HVAC and lighting systems, maintenance, equipment, and demolition. In general, the Life Cycle Energy (LCE) needs of the building can be summarised as the operational and embodied energy together with the energy use for demolition and recycling processes.Besides, schools alone are responsible for about 15% of the total energy consumption of the commercial building sector. To reduce the energy use and CO2 emission, the operational and embodied energy of the buildings must be minimised. Overall, it seems that choosing proper architectural measures for the envelope and using low emitting material can be a logical step for reducing operational and embodied energy consumptions.This paper is concentrated on the operating and embodied energy consumptions resulting from the application of different architectural measures through the building envelope. It proposes an educational building with low CO2 emission and proper energy performance in Turkey. To illustrate the method of the approach, this contribution illustrates a case study, which was performed on a representative schoold building in Istanbul, Turkey. Energy used for HVAC and lighting in the operating phase and the energy used for the manufacture of the materials are the most significant parts of embodied energy in the LCE analyses. This case study building’s primary energy consumption was calculated with the help of dynamic simulation tools, EnergyPlus and DesignBuilder. Then, different architectural energy efficiency measures were applied to the envelope of the case study building. Then, the influence of proposed actions on LCE consumption and Life Cycle CO2 (LCCO2) emissions were assessed according to the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method.

scholarly journals Energy Modelling and Calibration of Building Simulations: A Case Study of a Domestic Building with Natural Ventilation

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 3360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolina Aparicio-Fernández ◽  
José-Luis Vivancos ◽  
Paula Cosar-Jorda ◽  
Richard A. Buswell
Keyword(s):  
Energy Demand ◽  
Natural Ventilation ◽  
Transient Flow ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Infiltration Rate ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Performance Modelling ◽  
Change Rate ◽  
Air Change Rate

In this paper, the building energy performance modelling tools TRNSYS (TRaNsient SYstem Simulation program) and TRNFlow (TRaNsient Flow) have been used to obtain the energy demand of a domestic building that includes the air infiltration rate and the effect of natural ventilation by using window operation data. An initial model has been fitted to monitoring data from the case study, building over a period when there were no heat gains in the building in order to obtain the building infiltration air change rate. After this calibration, a constant air-change rate model was established alongside two further models developed in the calibration process. Air change rate has been explored in order to determine air infiltrations caused by natural ventilation due to windows being opened. These results were compared to estimates gained through a previously published method and were found to be in good agreement. The main conclusion from the work was that the modelling ventilation rate in naturally ventilated residential buildings using TRNSYS and TRNSFlow can improve the simulation-based energy assessment.

scholarly journals A Comprehensive Framework for Standardising System Boundary Definition in Life Cycle Energy Assessments

Buildings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 230
Author(s):  
Hossein Omrany ◽  
Veronica Soebarto ◽  
Jian Zuo ◽  
Ruidong Chang
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Embodied Energy ◽  
Building Energy Efficiency ◽  
System Boundary ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Energy Assessment ◽  
Boundary Definition ◽  
Comprehensive Framework

This paper aims to propose a comprehensive framework for a clear description of system boundary conditions in life cycle energy assessment (LCEA) analysis in order to promote the incorporation of embodied energy impacts into building energy-efficiency regulations (BEERs). The proposed framework was developed based on an extensive review of 66 studies representing 243 case studies in over 15 countries. The framework consists of six distinctive dimensions, i.e., temporal, physical, methodological, hypothetical, spatial, and functional. These dimensions encapsulate 15 components collectively. The proposed framework possesses two key characteristics; first, its application facilitates defining the conditions of a system boundary within a transparent context. This consequently leads to increasing reliability of obtained LCEA results for decision-making purposes since any particular conditions (e.g., truncation or assumption) considered in establishing the boundaries of a system under study can be revealed. Second, the use of a framework can also provide a meaningful basis for cross comparing cases within a global context. This characteristic can further result in identifying best practices for the design of buildings with low life cycle energy use performance. Furthermore, this paper applies the proposed framework to analyse the LCEA performance of a case study in Adelaide, Australia. Thereafter, the framework is utilised to cross compare the achieved LCEA results with a case study retrieved from literature in order to demonstrate the framework’s capacity for cross comparison. The results indicate the capability of the framework for maintaining transparency in establishing a system boundary in an LCEA analysis, as well as a standardised basis for cross comparing cases. This study also offers recommendations for policy makers in the building sector to incorporate embodied energy into BEERs.

scholarly journals Experimental Data and Simulations of Performance and Thermal Comfort in a Typical Mediterranean House

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 3311
Author(s):  
Víctor Pérez-Andreu ◽  
Carolina Aparicio-Fernández ◽  
José-Luis Vivancos ◽  
Javier Cárcel-Carrasco
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Thermal Comfort ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Natural Ventilation ◽  
Thermal Characterization ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Building Stock ◽  
Energy Demands ◽  
Dwelling House ◽  
Account Standard

The number of buildings renovated following the introduction of European energy-efficiency policy represents a small number of buildings in Spain. So, the main Spanish building stock needs an urgent energy renovation. Using passive strategies is essential, and thermal characterization and predictive tests of the energy-efficiency improvements achieving acceptable levels of comfort for their users are urgently necessary. This study analyzes the energy performance and thermal comfort of the users in a typical Mediterranean dwelling house. A transient simulation has been used to acquire the scope of Spanish standards for its energy rehabilitation, taking into account standard comfort conditions. The work is based on thermal monitoring of the building and a numerical validated model developed in TRNSYS. Energy demands for different models have been calculated considering different passive constructive measures combined with real wind site conditions and the behavior of users related to natural ventilation. This methodology has given us the necessary information to decide the best solution in relation to energy demand and facility of implementation. The thermal comfort for different models is not directly related to energy demand and has allowed checking when and where the measures need to be done.

scholarly journals The Budget as a Basis for Ecological Management of Urbanization Projects. Case Study in Seville, Spain

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 4078
Author(s):  
María Rocío Ruiz-Pérez ◽  
María Desirée Alba-Rodríguez ◽  
Cristina Rivero-Camacho ◽  
Jaime Solís-Guzmán ◽  
Madelyn Marrero
Keyword(s):  
Public Procurement ◽  
Embodied Energy ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Sewer System ◽  
Communication Services ◽  
Concrete Aggregates ◽  
The Public ◽  
Basic Services ◽  
Total Impact

Urbanization projects, understood as those supplying basic services for cities, such as drinking water, sewers, communication services, power, and lighting, are normally short-term extremely scattered actions, and it can be difficult to track their environmental impact. The present article’s main contribution is to employ the project budgets of public urbanization work to provide an instrument for environmental improvement, thereby helping public procurement, including sustainability criteria. Two urban projects in Seville, Spain are studied: the first substitutes existing services, and the second also includes gardens and playgrounds in the street margins. The methodology finds the construction elements that must be controlled in each project from the perspective of three indicators: carbon, water footprints, and embodied energy. The main impacts found are due to only four construction units: concrete, aggregates, asphalt, and ceramic pipes for the sewer system, that represent 70% or more of the total impact in all indicators studied. The public developer can focus procurement on those few elements in order to exert a lower impact and to significantly reduce the environmental burden of urbanization projects.

scholarly journals Neighborhood Energy Modeling and Monitoring: A Case Study

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (12) ◽  
pp. 3716
Author(s):  
Francesco Causone ◽  
Rossano Scoccia ◽  
Martina Pelle ◽  
Paola Colombo ◽  
Mario Motta ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Performance ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Monitoring Plan ◽  
Performance Targets ◽  
Carrier Energy ◽  
Zero Carbon ◽  
Energy Grid

Cities and nations worldwide are pledging to energy and carbon neutral objectives that imply a huge contribution from buildings. High-performance targets, either zero energy or zero carbon, are typically difficult to be reached by single buildings, but groups of properly-managed buildings might reach these ambitious goals. For this purpose we need tools and experiences to model, monitor, manage and optimize buildings and their neighborhood-level systems. The paper describes the activities pursued for the deployment of an advanced energy management system for a multi-carrier energy grid of an existing neighborhood in the area of Milan. The activities included: (i) development of a detailed monitoring plan, (ii) deployment of the monitoring plan, (iii) development of a virtual model of the neighborhood and simulation of the energy performance. Comparisons against early-stage energy monitoring data proved promising and the generation system showed high efficiency (EER equal to 5.84), to be further exploited.

scholarly journals Decision-Making Processes in Controlling Exposure to Sunlight Supported by Simulation Tools: A Case Study in Warm Weather

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (14) ◽  
pp. 4100
Author(s):  
Mariana Huskinson ◽  
Antonio Galiano-Garrigós ◽  
Ángel Benigno González-Avilés ◽  
M. Isabel Pérez-Millán
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Global Analysis ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Information Modeling ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Evaluation Tool ◽  
Simulation Tools ◽  
Building Information ◽  
The Impact

Improving the energy performance of existing buildings is one of the main strategies defined by the European Union to reduce global energy costs. Amongst the actions to be carried out in buildings to achieve this objective is working with passive measures adapted to each type of climate. To assist designers in the process of finding appropriate solutions for each building and location, different tools have been developed and since the implementation of building information modeling (BIM), it has been possible to perform an analysis of a building’s life cycle from an energy perspective and other types of analysis such as a comfort analysis. In the case of Spain, the first BIM environment tool has been implemented that deals with the global analysis of a building’s behavior and serves as an alternative to previous methods characterized by their lack of both flexibility and information offered to designers. This paper evaluates and compares the official Spanish energy performance evaluation tool (Cypetherm) released in 2018 using a case study involving the installation of sunlight control devices as part of a building refurbishment. It is intended to determine how databases and simplifications affect the designer’s decision-making. Additionally, the yielded energy results are complemented by a comfort analysis to explore the impact of these improvements from a users’ wellbeing viewpoint. At the end of the process the yielded results still confirm that the simulation remains far from reality and that simulation tools can indeed influence the decision-making process.

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