Architecture, Building and Planning - Research Publications
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ItemTowards a design framework for the structural systems of tall buildings that considers embodied greenhouse gas emissions(CRC Press, 2019-07-29)During the 1960s, the Bangladeshi-American structural engineer and architect Fazlur Rahman Khan proposed an influential design framework for the structural systems of tall buildings titled premium-for-height. Khan argued that the challenge of a structural engineer is to design structural systems that minimise the increase in structural material weight per gross floor area with increasing building height. However, in meeting the challenges of climate change and urbanisation, minimising the embodied environmental flows of tall buildings must also be a priority in structural design frameworks. This paper proposes to expand the premium-for-height framework for tall buildings by considering the embodied greenhouse gas emissions of structural systems using a hybrid life cycle inventory analysis method. Advanced structural analysis and a comprehensive consideration of building parameters are also proposed. To demonstrate the use and potential of the framework, embodied greenhouse gas emissions of six case study tall buildings are analysed. The results arediscussed and recommendations are made to improve the reliability of the more comprehensive framework.
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ItemA comprehensive database of environmental flow coefficients for construction materials: closing the loop in environmental design(The Architectural Science Association, 2019)Life cycle assessment is increasingly used to quantify and reduce the environmental effects of buildings. Embodied environmental effects, resulting from material production and replacement as well as construction, are typically quantified using coefficients from readily available databases. However, most existing databases of embodied environmental coefficients for construction materials suffer from limitations, such as inconsistency in the life cycle inventory method used or system boundary incompleteness. This paper introduces a new database of hybrid environmental flow coefficients for construction materials, covering flows of energy, water and greenhouse gas emissions for over 100 common construction materials. The hybrid approach used combines bottom-up industrial process data and top-down macroeconomic input-output data, making it more comprehensive than process analysis and more accurate and specific than input-output analysis alone. A case study building is used to demonstrate the importance of using hybrid coefficients for improving environmental performance. This study shows that the use of process coefficients can lead to a significant underestimation of the total environmental effects associated with the construction of a building, by up to 64%. This has considerable implications for decision-making relating to building design, including the focus of improvement efforts. This database of coefficients will enable building professionals to more effectively analyse and improve the environmental performance of buildings. This will also help inform the focus of environmental policy and improve the implementation of life cycle thinking in environmental design.
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ItemBeyond the “premium-for-height” framework for designing the structural systems of tall buildings(The Architectural Science Association and RMIT University, 2018)
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ItemEstablishing a comprehensive database of construction material environmental flow coefficients for Australia(The Architectural Science Association and RMIT University, 2018)
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ItemA comprehensive model for quantifying the environmental and financial performance of cities(The Architectural Science Association and RMIT University, 2018)
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ItemTowards a comprehensive hybrid life cycle inventory for Chilean building materials(The Architectural Science Association and RMIT University, 2018)
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ItemNo Preview AvailableHouse size and future building energy efficiency regulations in Australia(The Architectural Science Association and The University of Melbourne, 2015)The size of houses in Australia has significantly increased over the last decades. New houses have higher embodied and operational energy requirements due to their increased use of materials and larger area. Yet, current building energy efficiency regulations fail to adequately capture the effect of house size because of their omission of embodied energy and their sole use of a spatial functional unit for operational energy (e.g. MJ/m²). This study quantifies the effect of house size on life cycle energy demand in order to inform future building energy efficiency regulations. It uses a parametric model of a typical suburban house in Melbourne, Australia and varies its floor area from 100 to 392 m² for different household sizes. Both initial and recurrent embodied energy requirements are quantified using hybrid analysis and all operational energy end-uses (thermal and non-thermal) are calculated in primary energy terms over 50 years. Results show that larger houses appear to be more energy efficient per m² than smaller houses while actually having a much higher life cycle energy demand. Also, embodied energy represents 49-70% of the energy demand across all 360 variations. Guidelines are provided to improve current building energy efficiency regulations.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableDoes current policy on building energy efficiency reduce a building’s life cycle energy demand?(The Architectural Science Association and The University of Melbourne, 2015)Building energy efficiency regulations often focus solely on thermal energy demands. Increasing the thermal performance of the building envelope through additional insulation and efficient windows is the typical approach to increasing building thermal energy efficiency. This can result in a significant increase in embodied energy which is currently not considered in building energy regulations. A case study house in Melbourne and Brisbane, Australia is used to investigate the life cycle primary energy repercussions of increasing building energy efficiency levels over 50 years. Embodied and operational energy are quantified using the comprehensive hybrid approach and a dynamic software tool, respectively. Energy efficiency is improved by material or design changes as well as a combination of both. Results show that while increasing the envelope thermal energy performance yields thermal operational energy savings, these can be offset by the additional embodied energy required for additional insulation materials and more efficient windows. The point at which increasing the thermal performance of the envelope does not yield life cycle energy benefits is just above current minimum energy efficiency standards in Australia. In order to reduce a building’s life cycle energy demand, a more comprehensive approach that includes embodied energy and emphasises design changes is needed.
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ItemA comparison of the life cycle energy profile of residential buildings in different countries(Green Building Council Spain, 2014)
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ItemA holistic building life cycle energy assessment model(Griffith University, 2012)