Architecture Commons^™

The Urban Infrastructure For Sustainability: Learning From Kigali, Marwan Ghandour

Marwan Ghandour

Until 2013, when a new master plan for the city was approved, Kigali had very few urban regulations in place. Incremental constructions, usually associated with informal urbanization, were the norm rather than the exception. Most of the city fabric grew organically creating a unique configuration of urban adjacencies, which would be improbable for planners and designers to imagine. This configuration is particular to the geographic, economic and social conditions of the city as incremental urbanization slowly adjusted to the living conditions, through the actions of thousands of city residents over a long period of time. These actions were formed in …

Developing A Workflow To Integrate Tree Inventory Data Into Urban Energy Models, Farzad Hashemi, Breanna L. Marmur, Ulrike Passe, Janette R. Thompson

Farzad Hashemi

Building energy simulation is of considerable interest and benefit for architects, engineers, and urban planners. Only recently has it become possible to develop integrated energy models for clusters of buildings in urban areas. Simulating energy consumption of the built environment on a relatively large scale (e.g., such as a neighborhood) will be necessary to obtain more reliable results, since building energy parameters are influenced by characteristics of the nearby environment. Therefore, the construction of a 3-D model of urban built areas with detail of the near-building environment should enhance simulation approaches and provide more accurate results. This paper describes the …

The Impact Of Trees On Passive Survivability During Extreme Heat Events In Warm And Humid Regions, Ulrike Passe, Janette R. Thompson, Baskar Ganapathysubramanian, Boshun Gao, Breanna L. Marmur

Breanna L. Marmur

Communities are increasingly affected by excessive heat. The likelihood of extreme heat events is predicted to increase in the Midwest region of the United States. By mid-century (2036–2065), one year out of 10 is projected to have a 5-day period that is 13°F warmer than a comparable earlier period (1976–2005). The frequency of high humidity/dew point days (“extra moist tropical air mass days,” MT++ synoptic climate classification system) has also increased significantly during a similar period (1975–2010) and between 2010 and 2014 included 8 of 26 heat events. This impact is exacerbated by the fact that many residences in low-income …

Biobased Products And The Leed® Rating System, Meredith Chambers, Mikesch Muecke

Mikesch Muecke

At the beginning of the 20th century, over 40% by weight of all the materials consumed through the production of goods within the United States were comprised of renewable resources (Matos and Wagner 1998). In contrast, by the end of the 20th century renewable material usage had dropped to less than 8% by weight (Matos and Wagner 1998). Combined with both an increase in the overall rate at which we consume resources as well as growing awareness of the inherently finite availability of nonrenewable resources, the early decades of the 21st century may mark the beginning of a shift back …

A Period Examination Through Contemporary Energy Analysis Of Kevin Roche’S Fine Arts Center At University Of Massachusetts-Amherst, L Carl Fiocchi Jr

L. Carl Fiocchi

Studies of buildings belonging to a subset of Modernist architecture, Brutalism, have included discussions pertaining to social and architectural history, critical reception, tectonic form and geometry inspirations, material property selections, period technology limitations, and migration of public perceptions. Evaluations of Brutalist buildings’ energy related performances have been restricted to anecdotal observations with particular focus on the building type’s poor thermal performance, a result of the preferred construction method, i.e. monolithic reinforced concrete used as structure, interior finish and exterior finish. A valid criticism, but one that served to dismiss discussion that the possibility of other positive design strategies limiting energy …

Australia's First 6-Star Green Education Building: Design And Performance, Jim Smith, George Earl

Jim Smith

Bond University's Mirvac School of Sustainable Development is one where planning, property, project management, construction management and quantity surveying are integrated in a school of the urban environment in the context of sustainable development. The School is the first designated institute to fully integrate environmental, urban planning, property development, quantity surveying, construction management and facilities management disciplines with the practical issues of managing economic and social viability with societal expectations.The goal was to blend together these three aspects: ecological sustainability – indoor environment quality, transport, water, materials, emissions, land use and ecology - closely linked to economic and social sustainability.The …

Biography, Julie Elaine N. Irish

Julie Elaine Irish

Bringing Football Back To Los Angeles, Gabriel Leiner

Gabriel Leiner

Identifying a suitable parcel for a large scale professional football stadium in the greater Los Angeles, CA area, which does not conflict with current uses, environmental protection codes, or airspace rights, and also has adequate transportation access and nearby populated neighborhoods.

Sustainable Campus: Engaging The Community In Sustainability, Linda Too, Bhishna Bajracharya

Linda Too

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the major factors necessary for engaging university campus community in sustainability. While general awareness in sustainability issues has improved in recent years through mass media coverage, this knowledge is not always translated into actual sustainable practice. Studies have indicated that there are many factors for engaging the community in sustainability.

Design/methodology/approach – A multi-disciplinary literature review is first undertaken to distil the drivers that enhance participation in sustainability programmes by the university community. Next, to illustrate the applicability of the factors identified in the community engagement framework, two case studies …

Measuring Good Architecture: Long Life, Loose Fit, Low Energy, Craig Langston

Craig Langston

Good architecture is something that we all seek, but which is difficult to define. Sir Alexander John Gordon, in his role as President of the Royal Institute of British Architects, defined ‘good architecture’ in 1972 as buildings that exhibit ‘long life, loose fit and low energy’. These characteristics, nicknamed by Gordon as the 3L Principle, are measurable. Furthermore, life cycle cost (LCC) provides a method for accessing the economic contribution or burden created by buildings to the society they aim to serve. Yet there is no research available to investigate the connection, if any, between 3L and LCC. It might …

Designing For Better Building Adaptability: A Comparison Of Adaptstar And Arp Models, Sheila Conejos, Craig Langston, Jim Smith

Craig Langston

Can sustainability and adaptability be integrated in a single decision tool for designing future buildings? Indeed, it is not possible to know what lies ahead for future buildings but, using current research on sustainability and the impact on natural resources and climate, it is possible to forecast the connection between built environment activity and sustainability. This paper demonstrates that the assessment of future adaptation in newly designed building is achievable by using the adaptSTAR model. This new design-rating tool, based on detailed analysis of 12 award-winning adaptive reuse projects in Australia, will assist designers in making decisions to achieve optimum …

Sustainable Campus: Engaging The Community In Sustainability, Linda Too, Bhishna Bajracharya

Bhishna Bajracharya

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the major factors necessary for engaging university campus community in sustainability. While general awareness in sustainability issues has improved in recent years through mass media coverage, this knowledge is not always translated into actual sustainable practice. Studies have indicated that there are many factors for engaging the community in sustainability.

Design/methodology/approach – A multi-disciplinary literature review is first undertaken to distil the drivers that enhance participation in sustainability programmes by the university community. Next, to illustrate the applicability of the factors identified in the community engagement framework, two case studies …

Architecture And Systems Ecology: Thermodynamic Principles Of Environmental Building Design, In Three Parts, William Braham

William W. Braham

Modern buildings are both wasteful machines that can be made more efficient and instruments of the massive, metropolitan system engendered by the power of high-quality fuels. A comprehensive method of environmental design must reconcile the techniques of efficient building design with the radical urban and economic reorganization that we face. Over the coming century, we will be challenged to return to the renewable resource base of the eighteenth-century city with the knowledge, technologies, and expectations of the twenty-first-century metropolis.

This book explores the architectural implications of systems ecology, which extends the principles of thermodynamics from the nineteenth-century focus on more …

"Toxic" Workplaces: The Negative Interface Between The Physical And Social Environments, Linda Too, Michael Harvey

Linda Too

Toxic real estate has been used as a negative phrase to describe non-performing assets on a firm's balance sheet. Today there is another form of "TOXIC" real estate that needs management's attention, i.e. physical workplaces that are harmful to employees on a day-in and day-out basis. Particularly when productivity of workforce is now central to business competitiveness, it is timely to explore the interface between physical and social environments as many of the social/psychological impacts on employees have not been recognized or calibrated. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the links between physical workplace and social behaviour.

Modelling Property Management Decisions Using 'Iconcur', Craig Langston, Jim Smith

Jim Smith

Making appropriate decisions concerning the ongoing management of existing built facilities is an important activity for property and facilities managers. This paper describes the development of a new conceptual framework for making better decisions about built assets at an early stage in the process, with a view to identifying which course of action to pursue. The resulting model, known as iconCUR, uses a weighted matrix methodology to obtain performance scores for condition, utilization and reward that are capable of mapping property decisions in 3D space over time. Via a case study of a real project in Sydney (Australia), the application …

Benchmarking Public Private Partnership Environments: East Asian Comparisons, Michael Regan, Jim Smith, Peter Love

Michael Regan

The Public Private Partnerships (PPP) markets in Australia and the UK are considered to be the most sophisticated in the World and used as a model for benchmarking against other countries. In addition the global financial crisis also meant many PPP financiers became risk averse to certain projects and in particular countries. The environment for major infrastructure projects, particularly in ‘riskier’ countries, has become more difficult. Research conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit for the Asian Development Bank evaluated PPP policy and programs in a number of countries in the Asia Pacific. The study benchmarks the UK and Australian PPP …

A New Framework For Post Occupancy Evaluation Of Office Buildings, Abdullah Al-Khawaja, Craig Langston, Brian Purdey

Craig Langston

Over the last three decades there has been growing interest and attention placed on sustainability and the contribution made by the built environment. Environmental auditing applied to buildings has largely been concerned with energy/water usage and waste. This paper argues that post occupancy evaluation can be a useful tool in validating the performance of commercial office buildings in terms of key design objectives of human comfort and productivity, from the perspective of building inhabitants. A new assessment framework, with post occupancy evaluation at its heart, is developed based on a double-loop (learning) cycle for continuous process improvement founded on three …

Competition Environment, Strategy And Performance In The Hong Kong Construction Industry, Yongtao Tan, Liyin Shen, Craig Langston

Craig Langston

Given a changing competition environment, strategic management has become of essential importance to construction firms. Effective strategy enables construction firms to match their activities to the changing environment and achieve superior performance in competition. Therefore, there is a need for studying contractors’ competitive strategies. This paper does that in relation to the Hong Kong construction industry. The impact of competition environment on contractor performance, and the relationship between competitive strategy and performance are examined by a questionnaire survey. The findings show that competition environment has a great impact on contractor performance, and four generic competitive strategies have been applied by …

Modelling Built Asset Preformance In 3d Space, David Copray, Craig Langston, Jim Smith

Craig Langston

This paper describes current research into the performance ‘decay’ of built assets over time through the enumeration of physical condition, space utilization and triple bottom line reward. Applying a retrospective study of the Melbourne General Post Office (GPO) from 1841 to today, these three variables can be assessed and mapped in 3D space using Langston and Smith’s iconCUR model. An index comprising all three variables can be constructed to track the performance of this building over its life cycle to test whether traditional theoretical decay curves used in asset management have any practical value. Such an approach can be employed …

Modelling Property Management Decisions Using 'Iconcur', Craig Langston, Jim Smith

Craig Langston

Making appropriate decisions concerning the ongoing management of existing built facilities is an important activity for property and facilities managers. This paper describes the development of a new conceptual framework for making better decisions about built assets at an early stage in the process, with a view to identifying which course of action to pursue. The resulting model, known as iconCUR, uses a weighted matrix methodology to obtain performance scores for condition, utilization and reward that are capable of mapping property decisions in 3D space over time. Via a case study of a real project in Sydney (Australia), the application …

A Casual [Causal] Relationship Between Building Maintenance Market And Gdp: Hong Kong Study, Yong-Tao Tan, Liyin Shen, Craig Langston

Craig Langston

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the causal relationship between the building maintenance market and GDP in Hong Kong. Design/methodology/approach: The Granger causality test is used to investigate the lead-lag relationships between the maintenance and repair work and GDP in Hong Kong. With regression analysis, the future trend of the maintenance market is forecasted. Findings: The results show that the growth of the economy will lead to the growth of the maintenance market, not vice-versa. And the building maintenance market in Hong Kong will keep increasing with the economy growth. Originality/value: This paper shows that the growth …

High Density High Rise Vertical Living For Low Income People In Colombo, Sri Lanka: Learning From Pruitt-Igoe, Thushara Samaratunga, Daniel O'Hare

Daniel O'Hare

The Colombo Master Plan (2008) reveals that there are 66,000 households within the City of Colombo living in squalid slums and shanties unfit for human habitation. They represent 51 per cent of the total city population, and live in 1,506 pockets of human concentration identified as Under Served Settlements (USS) encumbering on state owned lands with no title. About 390 hectares of valuable prime lands in the City have succumbed to the encroachment process during the past five decades. Moreover they have engulfed all the environmentally sensitive low lying areas, canal banks and flood retention areas as well as roads, …

Introduction, Tor Hundloe

Tor Hundloe

ExtractAsk people to think of a catchment and they tend to think of large geographical areas and extensive communities, for example the Nile River and all the people who work on and around it and benefit from it. As the Nile catchment illustrates, many large catchments extend beyond the boundaries of one nation. For some of the world’s largest river basins, not just two, but many more countries can have some or all of their territory in the basin. National boundaries dissect catchments. A variety of different land uses and human occupations make diversity the norm of catchment economies and …

The Principles Of Sustainability And Economics, Tor Hundloe

Tor Hundloe

ExtractWe have already pointed out that in 1987 the United Nations’ four- year-long investigation of environmental and development matters, the Brundtland Report, came to its conclusions and put the concept of sustainable development on the agenda of governments worldwide. Five principles underpin the concept. Two are ethical constructs, rather than being science-based. The first, and best known, is the principle of intergenerational equity. At its simplest this requires us to manage the globe’s ecosystems and economies in a manner whereby future generations will be worse off than present generations. And for those presently living in poverty, it requires much improvement …

The Value Of Water, Tor Hundloe

Tor Hundloe

ExtractOur catchment is different from those that supply towns and cities with water for residential purposes and those that supply industry (for example providing cooling for power plants). It is a simple catchment, meeting simple needs - farming, oyster growing, and residential needs for drinking and washing water. We have already explained the controversy that has arisen over the proposal to change water allocation in the catchment by constructing a large dam in a corner of the upper catchment. Rather than to go immediately to the issue of the value of water if switched between users, we take the effort …

The People And Use Of Natural Resources, Tor Hundloe, Peter Daniels, Amy White, Christine Crawford

Tor Hundloe

Extract With the brief history behind us, we now start to develop our understanding of the Little Swanport catchment as it is today. While considerable time will be spent on description, never far from our mind will be the central issues and questions we have dealt with in the lead-up to our case study. If this river basin was a nation (obviously a tiny one, in the San Marino league), what would we make of its economy and society? As a river basin, could its economy and society be improved by changing its present use of water, the resource that …

The World's Great River Basins, Tor Hundloe, Amy White

Tor Hundloe

Extract All of us live, work, and manage our affairs in what we call a nation or country. We expect to find rivers and river basins, if only the most meagre ones, in all countries. The tiniest amount of rain needs to drain somewhere - unless the soil or sand is so porous that it disappears without trace. Draining water forms a rivulet. A number of rivulets fed by the same rainfall combine to form a proto-catchment or rivulet basin. Australia is a country containing many significant river basins, one large and dominant, plus hundreds of smaller ones. Our challenge, …

Introduction To Sustainability, Tor Hundloe

Tor Hundloe

ExtractWhat do we think when using the term sustainability? If we wish to sustain the ecology, the economy, and the social relationships in a river basin, what do we mean? I imagine we think of it in terms of sustaining our particular lifestyles, assuming they are enjoyable. We think of sustaining jobs - no one wishes to worry about losing paid work. This would apply regardless of how we view our work - even work we do not enjoy is valuable because it pays the bills. We want to sustain our incomes however they are earned, as profits, as wages, …

An Introduction To The Little Swanport Catchment, Tor Hundloe

Tor Hundloe

Extract

From here on, the book deals in considerable detail with one small catchment. What goes on in the catchment is described, places of interest are identified and so are some individuals. Our research took us deep into the lives of people in a small catchment. Of course, we cannot, and do not, delve far into personal matters where they must remain personal. Our interests are the social, economic and environmental relationship in a tiny catchment. Historical facts and matters of community interest that residents shared with us, and are willing to share with the reader, are here to be …

A Short History Of The Catchment Settlement, Tor Hundloe, Michelle Wenner

Tor Hundloe

Extract

As already noted, our catchment has a human history of some significance – feeding approximately one-tenth of the Indigenous Tasmanian population for millennia. Of this we know little, and so it will remain indefinitely. There are no history books to read. However, it is for our research, at the very least, to sketch the available history of the catchment, because history does matter, and there is invariably what economists call ’path dependence’ - what occurs today can be traced to what happened yesterday, the day before and the day before that, going back to some earlier ’tipping point’ in …