Special Issue “Digital Twin Technology in the AEC Industry”

Jisong Zhang,Guoqian Ren,Lihua Zhao,Haijiang Li,Xiaofei Li,Qian Wang

doi:10.1155/2020/8842113

Abstract

Sustainable building design has become a hot topic over the past decades. Many standards, databases, and tools have been developed for achieving a sustainable building. Not until recently have the importance of structural engineering and its contribution to sustainable building design been full recognised. However, due to the highly fragmented and diversity of knowledge across building and infrastructure domains, there is a lack of approach that can address all the sustainable issues within the structural design. This paper reviews the sustainable design from the perspective of structural engineering: (1) reviewing the current situation; (2) identifying the gaps and difficulties; and (3) making recommendations for future improvements. The strategies and indicators, as well as BIM-enabled methodology, for sustainable structural design (SSD) are also discussed in a holistic way. The results of this investigation show that most of the methods are not doing well in terms of delivering a successful sustainable structural design. It is expected that the future BIM could probably provide such a platform to address these issues.

Highlights

What is a “sustainable building?” Written works define it as being designed to adhere to several objectives: (1) to preserve energy and materials and ensure that resources are recycled and that the release of toxic substances is limited throughout the building’s process, encompassing the design, building, functioning, preservation, and destruction; (2) to suitably comply with the local environment, values, and societal structure; and (3) to maintain and enhance the standard of people’s living whilst preserving the ecosystem’s aptitude domestically and globally [1]. is definition brought together what is known as the three pillars of sustainability [2,3,4]: environmental, economical, and social well-being
Ere are many standards, databases, and tools dedicated to sustainable design in the building sector. e standards including International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO)/TC 59/SC 17, ISO/Technical Committee 207 (TC 207)/Subcommittee 5 (SC 5), and Committee for Standardisation (CEN)/Technical Committee 350 (TC 350) lay the foundations for assessing the sustainability of a building during the life cycle. ese standards measure the influence and elements of buildings in terms of their environmental, social, and financial impact via quantitative and qualitative signs [5,6,7]
Danatzko and Sezen [26] discussed five positive and negative sustainable attributes of sustainable structural design methodologies. ey suggested that no single methodology can address the complex issues of sustainable structural design, and a combination of the methodology is recommended

Summary

Introduction

What is a “sustainable building?” Written works define it as being designed to adhere to several objectives: (1) to preserve energy and materials and ensure that resources are recycled and that the release of toxic substances is limited throughout the building’s process, encompassing the design, building, functioning, preservation, and destruction; (2) to suitably comply with the local environment, values, and societal structure; and (3) to maintain and enhance the standard of people’s living whilst preserving the ecosystem’s aptitude domestically and globally [1]. is definition brought together what is known as the three pillars of sustainability [2,3,4]: environmental, economical, and social well-being. Ese standards measure the influence and elements of buildings in terms of their environmental, social, and financial impact via quantitative and qualitative signs [5,6,7] In most cases, these series of standards are merely served as guidelines and need to be used in conjunction with a specific database or rating score system since they provide little information on benchmarks, levels of performance, and detailed information [8]. E rating systems such as BREEAM and LEED group the environmental impacts into several sections, produce an overall score for the building depending on points gained in each section, and deliver a certificated assessment [11,12,13] These assessments are normally conducted after the design phase and serve primarily as a verification document rather than a decision-aid tool, providing little guidance for the designer during the design process [14, 15].

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Discussion

Conclusion