Abstract
Adaptive Building Technologies have opened up a growing field of architectural research aimed at improving the overall building performance, ensuring comfort while reducing operational energy consumption. Focusing on flexibility over short timeframes, these new technologies are however rarely designed within the broader frame of sustainability over their entire lifecycle. How sustainable these zero energy technologies really are is yet to be established. The purpose of the research is to develop a flexible easy-to-use Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool to support creative innovation and sustainable design choices in the early concept and design stages of Adaptive Building Technologies. This paper reports on the results of the first step of the research, providing a mapping in terms of structure and contents of the parameters involved in the design of these technologies. Addressed from a holistic point of view, the elements of the system were defined though a qualitative approach: relevant parameters were collected through document analysis, reviewing the state-of-the-art technology through online databases as ScienceDirect, Scopus, MDPI, ResearchGate, and organized according to hierarchy and relevance in the different life cycle stages. As a result, the paper identifies (1) relevant parameters defining the design of Adaptive Building Technologies; (2) materials, processes and concepts specific to the design of these technologies, as compared to conventional building technologies; (3) issues and knowledge gaps to enable successive research phases; (4) specific actions in each life cycle stage for designers and producers to optimize the design of the technology. The mapping graphically and hierarchically organizes the elements of the system within a flexible structure to be implemented and integrated over time, as the technology evolves, to support parametric design and enable alternative design concepts to arise within a cradle-to-cradle perspective.
Highlights
Buildings are an important part of the human-made environment, impacting almost all aspects in people’s daily lives
In order to allow the future development of an Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool specific for Adaptive Building (ABT), this paper aims to map within a hierarchical systematic structure, the parameters involved in Technologies (ABT), this paper aims to map within a hierarchical systematic structure, the parameters the design of an adaptive building technologies (ABTs)
ABT and LCA relevant parameters were collected through state-of-the-art document analysis and systematically organized according to hierarchy and relevance in the different LCA stages
Summary
Buildings are an important part of the human-made environment, impacting almost all aspects in people’s daily lives. Unless we want our resources to end up in landfills, the building industry needs to introduce new consumption patterns and supply chains [17,18], where “design for longevity” assumes a new meaning in terms of adaptability on short and on long term within a resource-efficient circular-economy mindset. Considering that ABT is a very young and still expanding field of study, the authors initially adopted broad research criteria in order to incorporate concepts and solutions from neighbouring fields of study. Both active and passive building systems were reviewed estimating their potential of technological upgrading through the integration of adaptive features.
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