New-build Housing Research Articles

Embodied and operational energy for new-build housing: A case study of construction methods in the UK

In this study a Building Information Model (BIM) tool is developed to simultaneously estimate embodied and operational carbon over a 60 year life span for a typical four bedroom detached house. Using the tool, four different construction scenarios are evaluated, representing a range of current construction methods used in present day UK house building. The results show that cradle-to-gate embodied carbon represents 20–26% of the total 60 year carbon emissions, with operational carbon representing 74–80% of total emissions. Construction scenarios that reduce operational carbon by improving the thermal envelope led to a 1–13% increase in embodied carbon but a 4–5% decrease in operational carbon compared to the basecase construction method. Approaches to reduce embodied carbon in new-build housing are also studied and a 24% reduction is demonstrated through building fabric changes. The study recommends that a universally robust methodology for measuring embodied carbon will enable design decisions to be taken to reduce whole life carbon emissions through improved choice of materials. Due to material changes impacting on the thermal characteristics of a dwelling, and to an extent the structural characteristics, an integrated BIM tool will be essential in quickly establishing whole life carbon impacts during the design stage.

Energy efficiency is more than skin deep: Improving construction quality control in new-build housing using thermography

ObjectiveThe objective of the research is to investigate the scope for testing the thermal performance of the building envelope during the construction process using thermography. The purpose of these tests is to enable early identification of performance issues in new residential buildings and support the management of construction quality on site. MethodsThe application of thermography at different stages during the construction process has been developed through field tests on housing projects in Wales, UK. ResultsThe scope for four types of “in-construction” test have been identified: early stage checks on the installation of insulation; identifying air leakage through the building envelope; assessing insulation continuity and the severity of thermal bridges; and investigating the performance of building services. ConclusionCarrying out tests on a construction site brings practical challenges not usually encountered in thermographic inspections of a completed building. However, useful results can be obtained following the testing approach introduced in the article. Practice implicationsEarly identification of performance issues in new buildings is advantageous so that remedial work can be carried out in a timely and appropriate way. Further research should establish guidelines for the conditions in which reliable results can be obtained using the “in-construction” thermography approach.

Modelling the thermal energy demand of a Passive-House in the Gulf Region: The impact of thermal insulation

Abstract The built environment has a direct impact on the Gulf Region natural environment, the economy and human health. Buildings have to respond to local climate and site conditions to maximize building users’ comfort and health while minimizing energy use. Global Sustainability Assessment System (GSAS) developed a simplified, standalone, building energy standard to support Qatar’s and the MENA region building energy ratings. Air conditioning counts for more than 60% of the electricity consumption in GCC countries. Consequently, GSAS limited the maximum annual cooling demand for new-build housing compliance in Qatar to 121 kW h/m 2 . High rated energy-efficient houses must call for 72 kW h/m 2 or less. GSAS targets raised the need for innovative passive design technologies to reduce the cooling demand in hot humid climates. A prototype house was constructed to test new technologies and variant insulation techniques, such as dynamic insulation. The house has two operation modes, the static mode and the active mode. This paper presents the Passive-House pilot project construction details and the monitoring results within the tested period. The study compares the annual cooling demand from the simplified GSAS Energy Calculator model and the detailed Dynamic Simulation Model (DSM). Neither model can handle the thermodynamic and fluid dynamic processes of the active insulation. An independent model is used to calculate the heat-transfer coefficient of the dynamically insulated walls, validated experimentally and then coupled with the energy models. The discrepancies in the predicted annual cooling demand between the simplified and detailed models did not exceed 15% for both static and dynamic operations of the Passive-House. Energy assessors can use GSAS Energy Calculator to predict the annual cooling demand with more confidence to demonstrate buildings compliance. Energy models should account for in-use factors to allow for differences in practical installation and performance compared to the laboratory test conditions for selected systems and technologies, which require field trials.

A preliminary survey of Gasr Shibna, Benghazi

AbstractThis paper provides a preliminary record of a recently damaged Roman farm and late Roman fortified building (gasr) located in the eastern suburbs of Benghazi. The remains of the farm buildings are briefly described, together with the more substantial remains of the gasr. The site was truncated during the building of a new road, with further damage occurring during the construction of a major water main and the building of new houses. The plight of Gasr Shibna and other sites threatened by development in the outskirts of Benghazi is discussed, with the conclusion that these sites are representative of the ongoing, rapidly increasing and widespread destruction of Libyan cultural heritage by development across the country as a whole. The paper concludes with an appeal for the development of a stronger, well-resourced Department of Antiquities, the establishment of a National Sites and Monuments Record to assist with the curation and protection of ancient sites and improved planning legislation to ensure that future prosperity is not being secured at the cost of Libyan heritage.

Residential Building in Australia, 1993–2003

The building of new houses is a significant urban activity. The built form, shape and liveability of Australian cities are directly influenced by the actions and characteristics of firms who build new dwellings (apartments and houses). Despite this importance, little is known about the types of firms that build new houses and apartments in Australia. This article provides a detailed analysis of the residential building sector in Australia between 1993 and 2003. Focusing on elements of the sector that have been identified as important for both theoretical and policy reasons, the article presents a fine-grained analysis of industry structure, levels of concentration and the characteristics of the sector's large firms. It finds that differentiations between residential builders across space and by type of dwelling constructed are increasingly important and that large residential builders increasingly share characteristics with firms involved in other property sectors. It suggests that diversified property conglomerates pose new challenges to urban governance and to international theories of residential building.

Critically Reviewing the Theory and Practice of Secured-by-design for Residential New-build Housing in Britain

The UK government has projected a need for some 4.1 million homes by 2021 (Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, 1999a) and a stated policy objective of achieving 60 per cent of new-build housing on ‘brownfield’ sites (Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, 1999b). The government is clearly committed to ‘designing out crime’ (Department of the Environment, 1994; Crime and Disorder Act 1998), and this paper explores the secured-by-design schemes (SBD), one of the most important community safety initiatives available to planners to assist in achieving these complex aims. The rise in premises liability cases (Hanson, 1998) and the Human Rights Act 1998 illustrate the increasing importance of tackling such issues. A critical review of both the theory and practice of SBD is presented as it applies to the new-build residential environment in the British city. The implications of reviewing SBD's theoretical basis and its application are discussed.

La zone périurbaine de Cracovie.

Cracow peri-urban area. Périurbanisation in Cracow voivoidship encompasses various processes and mechanisms, like in the whole Poland. If we assume perirurbanisation as being an overspill of the city into the countryside, two main mutations - functional and morphological - reflect it through growing part of workers-peasants in active population // and building of new houses in non-urban areas. Areas neighbouring greatest urban- industrial centres are mainly concerned by this periurbanisation.

A training consultancy for an Ethiopian I.D.A. urban programme evaluated

Abstract The author contributed to a short ‘in service’ course for staff engaged on a World Bank upgrading project for Ethiopian housing. The project includes both the building of new houses by self‐build co‐operatives on the periphery of Addis Ababa, and the upgrading of a dense inner city area in conditions of acute deprivation. The paper is a highly personal account of the author's impressions of the value of such initiatives.

Some aspects on housing in rural districts.

The author has reviewed rural housing progress since the war and has suggested that returns of details of categorization of rural dwellings, revealed by the survey in each district, be collated to give national figures of rural housing conditions. True assessment of housing need can only be made by local authorities in the light of local conditions and characteristics. He states that step by step with the building of new houses, the work of rural slum clearance should be commenced, together with greater action in demanding repairs to existing dwellings. New legislation is overdue for the equitable " thawing " of rent-restricted properties, and rent increases should be made in proportion to the state of fitness of the property concerned compared with the sixteen-point standard. He has reiterated the need for the fullest use of council-owned properties and the responsibilities of local authorities in the proper housing of agricultural workers and elderly people, at rents which they can afford, facilitated if necessary by differential rent systems. Farmers must play a bigger part in properly housing their workmen. The failure to date of section 20 of the Housing Act, 1949, is briefly reviewed, but the author is convinced that the Act can still be a vital instrument in securing improvements to older properties, to the common advantage of tenant, landlord, local authority and farmer.

Real Estate Taxation—Burden or Benefit?*

THROUGHOUT THE AGES the gatherer has been one of the least popular members of society. Too often his unsavory reputation has been fully deserved. But in the United States of the twentieth century, clamor against tax burdens may do much harm if not balanced by consideration of the benefits which taxation, wisely assessed, can bring. A may be defined as a compulsory contribution to government to defray expenses incurred for a public purpose. While revenue-raising is the primary objective of most forms of taxation, a secondary function-or an effect, at any rate-may be to help or hinder improvements important to the taxpayer and the community. In attempting to determine the justice and wisdom of any tax, therefore, one must consider the burden of the tax-its effect on the individual who ultimately pays it; and the benefits of the tax-its effect on the individuals in whose behalf it is spent, or on the community as a whole. When, for example, in seventeenth century England, taxes were imposed on chimneys and on two or more panes of glass in a window, the objective of the lawmakers was doubtless new sources of public revenue and not lower housing standards for the British people. The actual effect, however, was that chimneys became fewer, and windows smaller. We do not now impose special taxes on chimneys and windows. Instead, we the whole building-floors and roofs and walls and plumbing and all the rest of it. Thus we needlessly discourage the building of new houses and factories and the improvement of old ones.

Council for the Preservation of Rural England

AN indication of the nation‘s indebtedness to the Council for the Preservation of Rural England may be obtained from a perusal of the Society‘s annual report for 1947–48, obtainable from 4 Hobart Place, London, S.W.I. Foremost among the issues with which it has had to deal has been the vast problem of the post-war use of land for training the armed forces. The Council has been charged by the Ministry of Town and Country Planning with the duty of presenting evidence in writing, and if necessary verbally, on amenity and scientific grounds, in all cases where it is considered desirable that such evidence should, be presented. On his afforestation policy the Minister of Agriculture has been advised on landscape planting and types of trees, while the Council‘s officers have also played their part in causing the cost-limit for the building of new houses to be raised in order that local stone might be used for facing in those districts where stone-built houses are traditional.