Abstract
The implementation of sustainable solutions in the design of buildings is one of the main elements in achieving the transition to sustainability. The variety of structural elements and availability of sustainable materials, and the different preferences of clients, architects, and structural designers make the decision-making process difficult. This research aims to develop a decision model for applying to the early design stage. This work evaluates the sustainability of the load-bearing structures of a commercial building. Three types of load-bearing structures have been selected and compared concerning different physical parameters, cost of construction, cost of materials, technological dimensions (duration expressed in person-hours and machine-hours), and environmental impact. The methodology combines the building information modeling, sustainability criteria, and multi-criteria decision-aiding methods. The presented case study illustrates the proposed approach. The study revealed that multi-criteria decision aiding methods give the possibility to improve the selection process and to assess the sustainability of alternative structural solutions at an early stage of building design. The proposed decision model is versatile and therefore can be applied for different cases.
Highlights
Resource depletion, degradation of ecosystems and climate change are challenges that have been emphasized recently in many research papers [1,2,3,4]
We propose the approach for sustainability assessment in the early design stage
The results show that Simple Additive Weighting (SAW) and Additive Ratio Assessment (ARAS) methods give similar values for the utility degrees of the optimality functions (S and K) for alternatives A1 and A2 (Figure 14)
Summary
Degradation of ecosystems and climate change are challenges that have been emphasized recently in many research papers [1,2,3,4]. Moving towards sustainable processes in the whole life cycle of a building is seen as a solution to tackle those challenges and transform the cities into sustainable systems. One element in achieving this transition is the implementation of environmentally friendly solutions in the design of buildings and engineering structures. The link between sustainable development and construction is clear. The construction industry is Europe’s largest industrial employer accounting for about 10% of European GDP and has strong environmental and social impacts [5]. The building or structure designed using environmentally friendly materials is not necessarily sustainable. Successful sustainability cannot be realized considering only environmental issues. The latter have to be harmonized with the economic and social issues [6]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call