Research into a methodology for architects for the assessment and integration of sustainable use of materials from the early design. (R-6020)

Research towards a methodology for architects to rate and Integrate durable use of materials early on in the design phase. A focus shift within the construction industry is slowly occurring, going from attention for energy performance of buildings in the user phase, to attention for the global environmental-impact of buildings during their entire life course. Herein, the use of materials plays an important role. Environmental-impact is often calculated using lifecycle analysis (LCA). However, existing calculation tools are often only usable to evaluate the performance of the building design afterwards, while from preceding studies the importance of the impact of early design decisions has been stated. At the building level, this calculation is still not very well known among architects (no legislation on the matter), and is also rather complex (plurality of materials, the unique design, ...). The current approach is therefore not tuned to the architect, even though he or she is the person responsible for the building design, and has a much larger impact on the building's final environmental impact (cf. The impact of the design on energyperformance). The aim of this PhD research is the development of an objective and scientifically based technology, able to estimate the durability of material use on building level, to give useable feedback on the expectable environmental impact early on in the design phase, and which is specifically aimed to be used by architects. The research will be split up in three phases, having each their own objective. The first phase aims for knowledge acquisition, divided into two partial research lines: 1) knowledge of the current and future (legislative) framework and the existing applications of LCA-related evaluation methods to determine the environmental impact of the materials in a building; 2) analyzing the current situation in the Flemish construction industry and more specifically, the knowledge, needs and wishes of the Flemish architects on sustainable use of materials and their expectations regarding a possible estimation of the environmental-impact. The second research phase aims to implement the foregoing insights to the development of a suitable calculation methodology. For this reason, there was chosen for a suitable LCA-calculation methodology (most preferred is this of the MMG-methodology). It will be examined to what extent this model can be modified to be used by an architect early on in the design phase. This way it will be investigated how the lack of information of one or more design parameters, that are only recorded later on in the design process, can be taken care of, eg. by using default solutions. These default solutions will be subjected to an uncertainty and sensitivity analysis to estimate their representativeness and accuracy. In addition, it is necessary to gain insight on the moments of the design process when feedback is necessary and desirable for the architect, and how this can/should be formulated. The objective of the third research phase is to test the preliminary calculation model and further tuning to the needs and wishes of the Flemish architect. This will be done using focus groups and testing panels, giving feedback on the different aspects of the usability, effectiveness and user-friendliness of the methodology, such as the manner and times they receive and/or expect feedback, the userinterface, the output formats, the input procedures, ... . In addition, the learning process that can be induced by an architect throughout different projects will be examined as well. There will also be thought about the possibilities for further software development (in collaboration with other researchers and computer scientists) echoing this dissertation. The acquisition of knowledge from the first research phase has been realized in the past year (since October the 1st 2013) Currently, there are discussions happening about a possible collaboration with OVAM and VITO.

Keywords:sustainability

Disciplines:Architectural engineering, Architecture, Interior architecture, Architectural design, Art studies and sciences