bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Challenges in the achievement of a Net Zero Carbon Built Environment – A systemic approach to support the decision-aiding process in the design stage of buildings
Authors: Scherz Marco , Passer Alexander , Kreiner Helmuth 
Published: November 2020

Abstract
By limiting global warming to 2°C, the climate goals set by the United Nations in 2015 (Agenda 2030) will clearly be missed. The shrinking of our GHG budget has shown that the implementation of a weak sustainability concept - i.e. equal consideration of all sustainability dimensions (environmental, economic and social) - is not sufficient to meet the requirements of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Based on the strong sustainability concept - i.e. focusing on the environmental dimension of sustainability - this article highlights the challenges in the achievement of a Net Zero Carbon Built Environment by the implementation of a systemic design model in the early design stage of buildings. The visualisation of individual planning practices and their systemic behaviour in relation to other planning practices respectively to the SDGs support planners to manage the complexity and to reduce the additional effort within the implementation of sustainability aspects in the early design stage of buildings. Next to the visualisation of the environmental impacts of planning practices, the effects on other SDGs can be highlighted. Furthermore, the planner is supported in the decision-aiding processes in the early design stage. With the application of the systemic design model and the implementation of identified planning practices the contribution to the fulfilment of Agenda 2030 increases.
A multi-objective optimization framework for designing climate-resilient building forms in urban areas
Authors: Javanroodi K , Nik V M , Adl-Zarrabi B 
Published: November 2020

Abstract
With the increasing global awareness about the impacts of climate change on the built environments, the need for improving the climate resilience of buildings is being more acknowledged. Despite the high number of relevant studies, there is a lack of frameworks to assess the resiliency of buildings and urban areas. This study presents a multi-objective framework to optimize the form of buildings against its energy performance and thermal comfort considering its resiliency to the uncertainties of climate change during three thirty-years periods (2010-2099) of a warm region. Three performance sections related to building’s form are identified and categorized for the impact assessment including (1) urban form, (2) orientation, and (3) transparency with ten influencing parameters. The analysis of non-dominated solutions out of the optimization process showed that the annual energy performance (cooling and heating demand) of the urban areas can improve about 34% in both typical and extreme weather conditions whilst maintaining thermal comfort by optimizing the overall form of the buildings with similar built density and heights. Moreover, Buildings with 15 to 30-degree rotations and 33% glazing ratio showed the highest energy performance. Finally, the top 20 resilient building forms with the highest energy performance and climate resiliency were selected out of the database of results to derive design suggestions.
Portfolio Approach in Green Building Certification
Authors: Kwok Grace , Lai Andy , Cheung Frank , Li Leo 
Published: November 2020

Abstract
Hong Kong has over 9,000 high-rise buildings, of which over 1,500 are skyscrapers standing taller than 100m with 350 buildings over 150m. These buildings contribute to about 60% of the total carbon emissions of Hong Kong, therefore in Hong Kong’s Climate Action Plan 2030+, existing building energy saving is one key focus where potential for energy saving is very significant. However, it is often difficult for existing building especially aged buildings to undergo green transformation due to the existing site constraint such as space and capital limitation and at the same time requiring continuous operation of the building. This paper presents a case study of a portfolio of high-rise buildings and comprehensive building development with buildings ranging from 60 to less than 5 years in operation, situated in the most densely populated commercial district in Hong Kong undergone a “Green Body Check”, benchmarking using Hong Kong’s Green Building accreditation - BEAM Plus for Existing Building and identified appropriate green measures to improve its performance. The aim of the developer is not only trying to reduce the carbon emission of its portfolio, but to lead by example and showcasing the impact to the portfolio but also to the tenants and beyond. This study aims to highlight the importance of continuous monitoring and benchmarking, adopting green building accreditation as a framework in evaluating the existing performance and effectively identify improvement measures. Lastly to appreciate major players in the building industry to lead and drive the industry greener and more sustainable in order to tackle the global climate change crisis.
Reducing embodied impacts of buildings – insights from a social power analysis of the UK and Sweden
Authors: Moncaster A M , Malmqvist T 
Published: November 2020

Abstract
With one of the highest carbon footprints, the construction sector should be at the forefront of climate action. Reducing embodied impacts of construction also means ensuring that buildings are durable, low maintenance, and fit for purpose, while maximizing resource efficiency. However, thirty years in to research in this field, embodied impacts continue to be ignored in the majority of building projects. This paper traces the recent history of embodied impact assessment within industry best practice in two contrasting countries, the UK and Sweden. Our data is drawn both from personal involvement in a number of projects and from qualitative case studies of the development of low embodied impact buildings. Through these we consider what has historically held progress back, what the new drivers are in both countries, and what the remaining barriers (both overt and hidden) might be. By applying social power theories we identify deep and complex reasons for the lack of traction, including in policy formation and professional practices. The insights provided help to explain the slow progress so far, as well as to support increased reduction of emissions across the building sector, and thus enable progress towards achieving several key Sustainable Development Goals.
Integration of local resources in the Guinea-Bissau single-family house architecture design
Authors: Baptista J L , Ribeiro J T , Romeiras J A 
Published: November 2020

Abstract
This paper presents an architectural project design for housing for a middle-high class family in the Biombo region, Guinea-Bissau (Gulf of Guinea region, West Africa). Climatic conditions, natural and labour resources, social characteristics and local architecture all have to be reconciled from an integrative perspective and a challenge for architect designers. To implement the architectural project design, a methodology tested in rural Angola has been adapted, which simultaneously benefits and harnesses resources from global industrial technology. Passive cooling and sun protection strategies are applied and the articulation between local and global technologies is promoted, guaranteeing a dwelling house with dignified comfort conditions that are appropriate to the region.
Noise exposure ‘the new secondhand smoke’ - How is it addressed in building certification schemes
Authors: Van Dort P , Schöner G 
Published: November 2020

Abstract
(introduction) Building certification schemes have expanded to include both the environmental impact of the construction and operation of the building, as well as the building’s influence on the occupants. Drawing attention to the indoor environmental quality, thus the well-being of the occupants, means evaluating a building’s impact on all 5 of the human senses. Hearing, acoustics, can easily be overlooked, but distracting sound can affect our bodies in more ways than we may realize.
Buildings that provide a pleasant indoor acoustic environment, allow employees to be more productive, students to learn easier and hospital patients to recover quicker. A survey concluded that 75% of office employees list noise as an important workplace feature, yet only 30% are satisfied with the noise levels in their office. In schools, up to 70% of the consonants spoken by teachers cannot be heard by pupils.
A survey of the countries in the EU, requested by the EC, showed that 80% of respondents believed that noise affects their health, either to some or to a great extent. Additionally, noisy environments increase physical and mental risks for example hypertension, diabetes, and obesity. As such, it links to SDG 3 “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”.
(method) An analysis of the specific room acoustic requirements for open offices, which is the biggest building segment for green building schemes, and schools is the key component of the study. The analysis compares the quantitative requirements such as reverberation time and absorption area in 4 schemes (LEED, BREEAM, DGNB and WELL) to 8 national building regulations in Europe. As the building regulations only exist in their national languages these in depth comparisons are not common.
(results & conclusions) This comparison shows that several schemes do not require the anyhow legally required thresholds whereas few schemes go beyond.
A certification scheme for operation of buildings with well-planned and ambitious environmental improvements
Authors: Wahlström Åsa , Warfvinge Catarina 
Published: November 2020

Abstract
The development of environmental certification schemes has increased rapidly during the last twenty years and are often used as benchmarks during design of new buildings or reconstruction. However, for management of our existing buildings the members of Sweden Green Building Council request for clear guidelines and a certification scheme. Therefore, a new certification scheme called Miljöbyggnad in Operation has been developed within close cooperation with branch actors through interviews, workshops and suggestions for consideration. The scheme will be launched in summer 2020. The new scheme act as a guidance tool for the property sector to meet the environmental quality objectives. Today many of our existing buildings do not even meet the requirements within the Swedish Environmental Code and many tenants are suffering with health problems due too low indoor environment qualities in their homes, in schools or at work. Therefore, high focus is on indoor environment and occurrence of dangerous substances but also aspects that consider improved health. Use of energy and resources are considered to reduce the impact of global warming. Building’s status is evaluated in order to make deliberate environmental improvements. Eighteen environmental aspects are assessed with about 250 statements that should be answered with yes in order to give one score. With the scores the building owner will get a good identification of the worst parts of the building and which measures that directly will give substantial results. The aim is to give a clear presentation of the building’s status, irrespective of building category or age, and to inspire for a well-planned and ambitious environmental improvement with gamification.
Use of a wellbeing framework for establishing building sustainability performance requirements in building regulations
Authors: Bellamy L , Pancholy P , Bolton A , Pahlow M 
Published: November 2020

Abstract
Improving the sustainability of New Zealand’s housing stock is a significant challenge. Economic, indoor climate and energy use data indicates the affordability, healthiness and environmental impacts of new and existing houses in New Zealand are relatively poor compared with other OECD countries. Poor performance is largely due to the building energy and environmental performance requirements prescribed by regulations, which are low in New Zealand compared with other jurisdictions. Building performance requirements will need to be raised in order to improve the sustainability of housing.
A wellbeing approach to determining public benefits from raising building performance requirements in regulations is outlined in this paper. This approach draws on the Living Standards Framework (LSF) developed by The New Zealand Treasury. This framework links 12 domains of wellbeing to each other and to 4 capital stocks, including housing, that underpin future wellbeing. The LSF is used to assess the impacts of raising building performance requirements on community wellbeing. Results indicate better knowledge of the relationships between the domains of wellbeing and the underpinning capital stocks is needed to improve the identification and analysis of preferred regulatory settings.
Opportunities and challenges of integrating daylight and electric lighting principles to achieve healthy & sustainable environments in the Nordics
Authors: Villar I , Shalaby M 
Published: November 2020

Abstract
An office building in Malmö to be LEED and WELL certified, was chosen as a case study to investigate how daylight and electric lighting principles are to be integrated throughout the building design and certification processes.
Along the process, challenges when considering energy efficiency and the design of healthy environments were identified, including the need for international certification systems to implement local means for the representation of health and well-being to fit Nordic conditions, where latitude and climate play a major role. As a conclusion, working closely in interdisciplinary teams is crucial when creating lighting solutions that aim to be respectful to our environment and to provide the best possible lighting conditions, fitted for humans needs.
To what extent can solar control be effective in enhancing indoor comfort in a fully glazed office building?
Authors: Farouk H , Elsharkawy H 
Published: November 2020

Abstract
It is acknowledged that people spend almost 90 percent of their time in indoor spaces. Therefore, achieving a comfortable indoor environment that encourages productivity is crucial, particularly in office buildings. This paper investigates the design and performance of a modern office building in London characterized by fully glazed facades of open plan office spaces with no natural ventilation. The purpose of the research is to investigate the correlations between the control of direct solar radiation access and the effect on occupants’ thermal comfort in the summer followed by assessing the potential effect of the application of passive solar shading on thermal comfort levels in the office spaces. The research methodology involves a survey questionnaire undertaken with employees of the office building, followed by dynamic thermal modelling of the building using Integrated Environmental Solutions (IES) software. The questionnaire has been designed to understand occupants’ experiences within their office spaces and their strategies to improve the indoor environment. Furthermore, IES modelling and simulation provide in depth understanding of the building thermal performance and investigating the solar shading strategies. Overall, 66 questionnaire forms were completed where preliminary results demonstrated that most employees relied heavily on secondary cooling and heating systems to adjust the indoor air temperature for more satisfactory thermal comfort levels in their office spaces. The building modelling and simulation is used to quantify the direct solar radiation accessing the office space, the risks of overheating and the potential impact of solar control on occupants’ indoor comfort. The findings from this study demonstrate the potentially high hours of discomfort in the summer within the office spaces mainly due to the lack of control of direct solar access through the extensive area of glazed facades. In order to maintain the thermal environment within the comfort level threshold in the warmer seasons a solar shading strategy should be considered.
Use of vegetation to increase building energy efficiency: application to a real case study
Authors: Forzani L , Mazzucchelli E S , Rigone P 
Published: November 2020

Abstract
The research here presented deals with the relationship between vegetation and architecture, and how its presence can influence a building project and performance. In the last years, many ways of integrating green in building envelopes have already been experimented, for their potential of reducing thermal loads; the research investigates a specific solution, the vertical forest, which integrates trees and small bushes in specific permanent planters on balconies of high-rise buildings. The main scope is to understand if trees, treated as shadings, can really affect positively the building energy consumptions. Moreover, other aspects, such as trees mechanical stability, construction issues and maintenance are deepened. Through a particular case study, energy consumptions are analysed using dynamic simulations tools, developed with Grasshopper™ and EnergyPlus™ software, in which trees are considered as special external shadings, characterized by a variable permeability to solar radiation during the year. Results demonstrate that trees can contribute to reduce energy loads, depending on species and orientation, especially in association with traditional shading systems. Eventually, some guidelines on technological and construction aspects, as well as on trees species selection, are given, in order to assure the optimal vegetation life and to maximize its benefits on the building.
Design Pedagogy for Learning Sustainability with Communities
Authors: Persov E , Yehuda R Udyavar , Kantor R , Blit-Cohen E , Sadan E 
Published: November 2020

Abstract
This paper discusses tools and methods of learning for upcoming professionals to explore and understand sustainability in relation to people, neighborhoods and communities during the workshop ‘Small is Beautiful’. The workshop has been jointly developed since 2016 by academic faculty in Architecture, Interior Design, Visual Communication, Design Management and Social Community Work from India and Israel. The workshop takes place each summer in India and Israel simultaneously. Students from the above fields and countries participate in multidisciplinary and multicultural teams. Each team is assigned a case study in a community where people live in dense environments and often have limited economic resources. Students are challenged with a design task and develop together with people in the community concepts that can improve living conditions in the specific site and might hopefully be scaled up to be implemented elsewhere in the world. According to ‘Habitat III New Urban Agenda’ the main tool for urban sustainability and resilience is the ability to design solutions that cover different scales, time frames and disciplines, all through a cultural and human-based perspective. Such solutions can be derived from communities in different cultures, living within limitations of small spaces, who develop intrinsic design responses that are remarkably resilient and suitable to the context. This forms a significant area of study largely ignored by designers. The research method is based on the triangulation of qualitative (before and after interviews with all participants) and quantitative methods, as well as design analysis of the case studies. The research suggests that a combination of multidisciplinary, multicultural and participatory practice is a viable pedagogical tool for sustainable transformative education. Findings indicate that this multi-layered design education facilitates the development of skills critical to the understanding of complex systemic socio-technological problems, and to foster the development of creative solutions viable for implementation in the community.
The In-between space: Lessons from vernacular architecture in North Macedonia
Authors: Atkovska I , Murata R 
Published: November 2020

Abstract
The basic principles of architecture are founded on the simple need for providing shelter from climate events. In the natural environment, man was searching for more comfort and preferences to adapt the environment to his presence, instead of adjusting to it. This process of evolution and the fast pace of technological rise in the past century resulted in man occupying the natural space for easier sharing conditions within society. Nevertheless, society is sharing this space with nature and architecture is producing something that becomes part of the environment itself. Can we share the built environment with nature? Instead of controlling and occupying the space, how do we connect, interact? What is the right way of prevention without designing obstacles? In vernacular architecture in many places in the world, the semi-outdoor space is an example of transition between the inside and the outside, between the nature and the building. The aim of this paper is to analyse the characteristics of the in-between space in the vernacular architecture and clarify its responses to climate and social conditions for the purpose of realizing the possibilities of sharing the space between the human and the natural environment. The research method conceives of recognizing architectural patterns in case studies of traditional houses in North Macedonia, which analysis shows few essential parameters, i.e. size, shape, enclosure/edges, orientation, use/occupancy, linkages, layers, cycles… By labelling and making cross-references, the connection between the environmental and social influence on the architectural elements is identified. The observed results promote one way of managing how we can make beautiful architecture by learning from the past.
Sustainable Courtyards: Practical Experience Potentials
Authors: Ibrahim Iman 
Published: November 2020

Abstract
A courtyard is an architectural design element traditionally and commonly applied in UAE vernacular architecture for its environmental and social potentials. This research highlights a real project that won a national award for excellence in Sustainability education, where the project involved Interior Architecture students in creating their own courtyards external outdoor furniture to be a hub for social communication in the College of Fine Arts & Design at the University of Sharjah. The research will explore the social potentials in the courtyards as an architectural element used to recognize the traditional architecture in Arab countries. Where about four courtyards in the College were redesigned with recycled outdoor furniture collaborating with waste management institute Bee’ah in Sharjah, where volunteering students started the project from concepts’ statements that inspired by the UAE nature to be abstracted in two dimensional drawing and developed to create three-dimensional outdoor pieces of furniture. The Sustainable Courtyard Project is a practical application of the theoretical principles of sustainability as one of the UAE visions 2050 to preserve the environment and spread awareness of its importance for future generations. Spreading awareness among students of the value of environmental and social sustainability, where the designs were inspired by the heritage of the UAE in various forms and using recycled materials.