Building Standards Research Articles

Identifying building archetypes based on energy performance as the major criteria: a case of Jaipur, India

ABSTRACT The demand for energy in residential structures is set to outstrip the supply soon. Most studies rely on national databases or previously published datasets. It is crucial to approach this topic using a bottom-up methodology. Therefore, this research aims to analyse the energy consumption pattern of residential buildings in Jaipur by utilizing primary datasets. The present study takes Jaipur as a case study and proposes a way to define architectural archetypes in Indian towns based on their energy efficiency. The collection and analysis of 2,327 primary data samples included energy use statistics and socioeconomic information. This research applies multivariate analysis in a bottom-up manner to a primary database. The clustering method was utilized to determine the energy consumption of Indian families in Jaipur. Low- and middle-income families tend to purchase more appliances when their income increases, yet their energy usage does not increase proportionally. Therefore, residential building standards should not solely be based on per-square-foot energy consumption. This study can help develop energy policies, benchmark energy use, establish tariff structures, determine minimum levels for starting labelling programmes, and create incentive plans based on energy efficiency.

CIM-powered physics-based assessment of wind damages to building clusters considering trees

It is important to obtain accurate predictions of wind damage to building clusters for reducing wind-induced economic losses. To this end, a city information model-powered physics-based method for assessing the wind damage to building clusters considering trees was proposed. The influence of trees on wind damage was investigated based on two virtual standard building clusters, revealing that trees can play a shielding role to reduce the risk level of buildings. The reliability and feasibility of the method were demonstrated based on a case study of a manufacturing factory. Moreover, the applicability of the method in city-scale applications was illustrated based on a large urban area covering 619 buildings and 19,740 trees. Based on meteorological forecasting data, the proposed method can help city managers identify and reinforce the building with a high damage risk before strong wind events, thus promoting a safer city.

Application of deep learning techniques to minimize the cost of operation of a hybrid solar-biomass system in a multi-family building

Concerns related to climate change put renewable energy at the centre of most of the policies aimed at achieving a deep decarbonisation of the building sector. The combined use of two or more renewable energy sources in the same energy system can lead to an increase in the total share of renewable energy and in the flexibility of the system. In this direction, the SolBio-Rev project aims to develop an innovative system that uses solar thermal collectors and a biomass boiler to meet energy demand in buildings in different climatic regions. An advanced control that used deep reinforcement learning techniques was considered in this paper to find an optimal control strategy for a specific SolBio-Rev system installed in a standard multi-family residential building located in Madrid. The advanced control was developed to minimize the total cost of operation of the system. The results indicated that the advanced control strategy achieved a cost reduction of 35% in winter, compared to a standard rule-based control strategy. However, the improved control was not able to produce a significant cost reduction in summer.

The environmental semantics of rural and urban architecture standards in British Mandate of Palestine, 1920–1940

This paper analyses the 1940 exhibition catalogue, Twenty Years of Building: Workers' Settlements, Housing and Public Institutions, published by the Federation of Jewish Workers in Palestine to celebrate its twentieth anniversary. A cross-regional analysis of this publication in the context of Mandatory Palestine and its commonalities with the environmental German notion of ‘rootedness’ [Bodenständigkeit] forms the basis of this paper. It challenges previous scholarship viewing Jewish architecture as progressive, climatically adaptive, and correlating with the 1930s separatist stance of Labour Zionism vis-à-vis the Levant. It argues instead that the Federation's architects reflected a conservative agenda concerning ‘functional’ design. The paper reconstructs how their agenda adapted various rhetoric, from rooted rural buildings, colonial ruralisation, to new urban co-op environments in the 1920s and 30s. The paper also explores the historicist and settler-colonial stance of this agenda as it negotiated progressive building standards relative to the brief tradition of cooperative settlement history and indigenous Palestinian habitats. The paper, thus, identifies the environmental semantics of the Federation’s functional buildings, its structuralist logic, and its role in the legitimation of Zionist settler colonial institutions. In assessing this aesthetic-economic discourse, the paper contributes a missing prelude to the vernacularisation of post-independence development architecture in Israel.

Modern Approaches to the Development of Green Innovations: Industry-Specific Features

Relevance. Modern approaches to the development of industries in the Russian Federation are associated with the introduction of "green" innovations, since these technologies are currently one of the incentives for the formation of a new techno-economy.The purpose is to substantiate modern approaches to the development of "green" innovations on the example of one of the sectors of the economy - construction.Objectives: to analyze strategic alternatives for the construction sector of the Russian Federation; consider methods of greening the economy of construction production through the concept of "green" construction; to consider available solutions to strategic problems in the form of incremental innovation: an improved production method and the introduction of a model of the organizational and economic mechanism of management greening.Methodology. In the course of the study, general scientific methods of logical and statistical analysis were used to determine the level of greening of the Russian Federation using various indicators, as well as qualitative and quantitative analysis to identify barriers to increasing activity in the field of "green" construction.Results. The use of innovative technologies in construction costs only 0.8% more than the construction of a standard building, while achieving the basic levels of green building standards leads to an increase in its cost by about 2-3%. Innovative methods for improving construction are substantiated, and a method for determining the level of corporate and social responsibility, taking into account the environmental factor, is analyzed in detail.Conclusions. The introduction of the concept of "green" construction and ecologization of the economy will set a new vector in the country's innovative activity, thereby contributing to the formation of the techno-economy of the Russian Federation. The legislative framework for promoting the concept of "green" construction in the Russian Federation has been established, but this is not enough to increase the number of projects in this area and their implementation. Using innovations in the construction industry, companies support the Russian innovation market and contribute to the future of not only the Russian environment, but also the Russian economy.

Numerical Evaluation of Failure Mechanisms and Retrofitting of Connections in Mass Timber Buildings

With the growing trend in industry towards zero carbon construction, mass timber structures are becoming more accepted globally. Beam-to-column connections in mass timber buildings are currently designed to carry shear actions. However, the connections may be considered to take moment actions and large rotations to comply with ductility and robustness requirements of the building standards. The current study deploys finite element analysis (FEA) to investigate the failure due to large deformation and rotation of a typical bolted beam-to-column connection and provides an economic retrofitting design solution using self-tapping screws (STS). The FEA is validated against current or published experimental results and is used to conduct a thorough assessment of the retrofitted connection. It is shown that a proper arrangement of screws can delay the brittle failure, develop significant moment-resisting capacity, and enhance the rotational ductility of the connection.

Application of non-degradable waste as building material for low-cost housing

Building material is one of the essential aspects in accommodating the supply and demand of low-cost housing in Indonesia. Recently, several researchers have devoted much time and effort to developing waste recycling for building materials since it is more ecologically benign, particularly for non-degradable waste. This article focuses on recycling disposable diaper waste as composite material for a structural and architectural component of the building based on Indonesian building standards. In addition to offering a broad perspective on the implementation of experimental findings, the design scenario comprised the construction of low-cost housing with a floorplan area of 36 m2. The experimental results indicate that disposable diapers waste to use as composite materials of the building has a maximum capacity of 10% for structural components and 40% for nonstructural and architectural components. The prototype housing also reveals that 1.73 m3 of disposable diaper waste can be decreased and utilised for a housing area of 36 m2.

Carbon and water footprint analysis of pig farm buildings in Northeast China using building-information-modeling enabled assessment

Environmental impact evaluation of buildings is critical for further analysis and optimization of pig farms for sustainable pork production. This study is the first attempt to quantify the carbon and water footprints of a standard intensive pig farm building using building information modeling (BIM) and operation simulation model. The model was constructed with carbon emission and water consumption coefficients, and a database was built. The results showed that the operational stage of pig farm accounted for most of the carbon footprint (49.3–84.9 %) and water footprint (65.5–92.5 %). Building materials production ranked second in carbon (12.0–42.5 %) and water footprints (4.4–24.9 %), and pig farm maintenance ranked third in carbon (1.7–5.7 %) and water footprints (0.7–3.6 %). Notably, the mining and production stages of building materials contributed the largest carbon and water footprints of pig farm construction. Masonry materials have a significant impact on the overall carbon and water footprints of the pig farm. Pig farm using aerated concrete could reduce 41.1 % of the total carbon footprint and 58.9 % of the total water footprint compared to that using coal gangue sintered brick and autoclaved fly ash brick. This study presented a BIM-enabled method for carbon and water footprint analysis of pig farms and illustrated how the model can be used to facilitate the low carbon design of agricultural buildings.

Tsunami-resilient building guidelines for Sri Lankan coastal belt: a critical review and consolidation based on significant institutional perceptions

PurposeThe lessons learned from the 2004 tsunami phenomenon fueled the government and other local authorities to strengthen the legitimate background to mitigate such devastation in future events. This study aims to propose a standardized tsunami-resilient construction guideline for Sri Lanka by integrating existing local and international standards.Design/methodology/approachA comprehensive literature survey was carried out to undertake the study, with a wide-ranging content and thematic analysis of existing tsunami-resilient construction aspects in Sri Lanka. Integrating all existing guidelines with international standards, finally, a consolidated guideline with significant tsunami-resilient building aspects was proposed for stakeholders involved with the resilient built environment in tsunami-prone areas, particularly during the building construction in the coastal belt.FindingsThe existing tsunami-resilient guidelines in Sri Lanka follow similar aspects but in different dimensions. Compared to the international standards, few significant aspects create a gap in local guidelines. Thus, the findings demonstrated that the existing local guidelines must be modified and strengthened by mainstreaming into international practices.Research limitations/implicationsExisting guidelines are more concerned with structural aspects. Nevertheless, proper integration of local and international guidelines would be more favorable to minimizing existing local guidelines’ gaps. Further, a standardized tsunami-resilient building guideline would be a referring document for all stakeholders in tsunami-resilient constructions.Practical implicationsBy aligning local guidelines with international standards, the reliability of the guidelines will be increased and direct the built environment to quality disaster-resilient constructions.Social implicationsThrough a standardized guideline, the community can rely on tsunami-resilient construction in coastal cities.Originality/valueThe consolidated guideline further contains the essentials of city resilience in tsunamis and would be an excellent reference for relevant stakeholders than aligning with several guidelines.

The Influence of Addition of Fly Ash from Astana Heat and Power Plants on the Properties of the Polystyrene Concrete

Due to the constant increase in prices for energy resources, as well as the reduction in non-renewable resources in most developed countries of the world, the energy consumption standards of buildings are constantly decreasing, and the requirements for the level of thermal insulation of building envelopes are increasing. The increasing requirements in the level of thermal insulation of enclosing structures make the issues of improving and developing new materials and products become more urgent. Polystyrene concrete has good high-thermal and sound-absorbing properties. This serves as a means of reducing costs, improving thermal insulation, reducing the dead load (weight) on the building and outside, among many other advantages. However, concrete made with polystyrene foam as a substitute for large aggregates has insufficient strength, due to the fact that the cement has low adhesion to the polystyrene foam. Based on the research of scientists and authors on the possibility of using industrial waste, it was assumed that the addition of fly ash to the composition would strengthen the matrix and the degree of compression of the polymers by the cement matrix as a result of the presence of nanoparticles in the fly ash and their positive effect on the structure and properties of the composition. The aim of the study was to develop a heat-insulating polystyrene concrete based on a binder using fly ash and to investigate its physical and technical properties. The properties of fly ash have been studied for the purpose of safe use in mixtures to increase strength properties and improve adhesion to polymers. The involvement of industrial waste from the ashes of coal from Kazakhstani deposits will contribute to the ecological improvement of the environment of the megacities of Kazakhstan. The effect obtained from the optimal combination of the characteristics for a building material is the improved physical and mechanical properties of heat-insulating materials.

Forecasting of residential unit’s heat demands: a comparison of machine learning techniques in a real-world case study

AbstractA large proportion of the energy consumed by private households is used for space heating and domestic hot water. In the context of the energy transition, the predominant aim is to reduce this consumption. In addition to implementing better energy standards in new buildings and refurbishing old buildings, intelligent energy management concepts can also contribute by operating heat generators according to demand based on an expected heat requirement. This requires forecasting models for heat demand to be as accurate and reliable as possible. In this paper, we present a case study of a newly built medium-sized living quarter in central Europe made up of 66 residential units from which we gathered consumption data for almost two years. Based on this data, we investigate the possibility of forecasting heat demand using a variety of time series models and offline and online machine learning (ML) techniques in a standard data science approach. We chose to analyze different modeling techniques as they can be used in different settings, where time series models require no additional data, offline ML needs a lot of data gathered up front, and online ML could be deployed from day one. A special focus lies on peak demand and outlier forecasting, as well as investigations into seasonal expert models. We also highlight the computational expense and explainability characteristics of the used models. We compare the used methods with naive models as well as each other, finding that time series models, as well as online ML, do not yield promising results. Accordingly, we will deploy one of the offline ML models in our real-world energy management system in the near future.

A Community Building Energy Modelling – Life Cycle Cost Analysis framework to design and operate net zero energy communities

Despite building codes and standards helping build energy-efficient structures, most focus only on typical individual buildings. Second, they do not discuss community-based renewable energy adoption strategies as part of the standards. However, to facilitate the transition to net zero emissions in the upcoming decades, policies and recommendations from standards must enhance their scope from the buildings to communities and exploit the maximum energy retrofit opportunities available within the community premises. This study proposes a Community Building Energy Modelling – Life Cycle Cost Analysis (CBEM - LCCA) decision-making framework to analyze the techno-economical feasibility of the residential community-wide implementation of any building retrofit scheme. The framework developed is applied in a 14-building residential community in Mumbai, India, to compare the techno-economic benefit of implementing community-wide renewable installations against the existing national Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC). The results reveal that all the communities together have the potential to generate 333 MWh of electricity per year from solar rooftops alone against the consumption of 369 MWh. The communities are observed to be capable of achieving nearly net-zero energy after adopting a community-wide rooftop solar photovoltaic installation with fewer than eight years of simple payback period (SPP). A thorough sensitivity analysis also reveals that the community rooftop solar strategy proves economically far superior to ECBC compliance of individual building envelopes. Among the retrofits, the roof-wall combination gave the minimum SPP of 8.38 years at a 100 % cooling space fraction. The findings provide evidence for why only a small number of states support ECBC code compliance, and it is recommended that policymakers use the proposed CBEM-LCCA framework to create appropriate energy policies for developing community-wide rather than individual building-level retrofit strategies.

Chaotic States of Transistor-Based Tuned-Collector Oscillator

This brief paper shows that robust chaotic behavior can be detected within a tuned-collector single-stage transistor-based oscillator. The content of this work also contributes to the problem of chaos localization in simplified mathematical model of standard analog building block. Searching for chaos is performed via numerical optimization routine applied onto the principal schematic of oscillator where generalized bipolar transistor is modelled as a two-port described by impedance as well as admittance matrix. In both cases, the presence of dense chaotic attractor is proved via calculation of the largest Lyapunov exponent, while its structural stability is validated by real measurement, i.e., visualization of captured oscilloscope screenshots.

Structural assessment of the stalled building in Department of Industrial Engineering, Andalas University, Indonesia

The construction of the Industrial Engineering Department building is an effort to support the educational infrastructure at Andalas University. However, the building construction process was stopped because the contractor had terminated the contract (breach of contract) and it took a long time to continue the construction. Before that, a structural evaluation of the building structure should be conducted due to the update of the building standards. In this study, the structural evaluation was carried out by analyzing and modelling the building using ETABS v.18 software, as well as loading analysis on the building regarding current Indonesian building standards such as SNI 1726-2019 for earthquake resistance building design, SNI 2847-2019 for requirements of the structural concrete building and SNI 1727-2020 for building minimum design loads. The results of the analysis show that several structural beams did not have a strong enough capacity to withstand the working loads, where the ultimate moment and shear values due to the influence of acting loads were more than the nominal moments and shear values. Retrofitting of the weak structural beams using the CFRP wrapping method was recommended to improve the structural capacity of the building.

Enhancing Market Readiness for nZEB Implementation

Despite transposing the 2010/31/EU Directive’s requirements creates legal responsibilities at the national level, the nearly Zero energy building (nZEB) principle does not appear to be widely adopted just yet in many nations. Previous studies have shown that the most significant barriers include determining the cost-effective ideal integration of the technologies appropriate for nZEB and the skills constraints faced by the construction industry. In order to meet the challenge of an efficient nZEB implementation, existing certification courses and training programs are still insufficient and inadequate, and hiring experienced specialists for building retrofit and new construction is not common practice. The traditionally conservative real estate industry is nevertheless hesitant to adopt the new building standards and practices, notably in the residential sector, despite a significant movement towards nZEB and extensive energy renovation. In this specific situation, this paper provides a preliminary analysis of the European project nZEB Ready Enhancing Market Readiness for nZEB Implementation, which aims to address the issue of the effective implementation of the nZEB and make use of new possibilities to act at the market level in order to boost the market’s readiness for a successful implementation of the nZEB and to encourage demand for energy-related skills among construction workers and specialists in the countries involved and beyond.

(Un)frozen foundations: A study of permafrost construction practices in Russia, Alaska, and Canada.

The Arctic is rapidly warming posing a significant threat to underlying permafrost. Permafrost degradation has already resulted in extensive damage to the Arctic's built infrastructure, putting communities and industries at risk. Projected climate warming will further reduce the capacity of permafrost to support infrastructure, thereby requiring a rethinking of construction and development of permafrost regions in the future. This paper focuses on three Arctic regions with a substantial presence of population and infrastructure on permafrost: USA (Alaska), Canada, and Russia. The three regions' permafrost construction practices are examined in order to identify best practices and major gaps. We identify a lack of standardized, codified construction guidelines; an absence of permafrost-geotechnical monitoring in communities; barriers to integrating climate scenarios into future planning; limited data sharing; and low numbers of permafrost professionals as major constraints limiting the region's resilience in the face of climate change. Refining building practices and standards, implementing operational permafrost monitoring systems, developing downscaled climate projections, and integrating local knowledge will minimize the impacts of permafrost degradation under rapidly warming climatic conditions.

Thermal Performance Assessment of Envelope Retrofits for Existing School Buildings in a Hot–Humid Climate: A Case Study in Chennai, India

This study aims to propose building envelope retrofit packages for existing naturally ventilated school buildings in the hot–humid climatic region of Chennai, India. Indoor thermal parameters were collected through field studies from nine sample classrooms of a selected school building in May 2019, between 9.00 am and 4.00 pm. The thermal performance assessment of the existing building was performed by examining the discomfort hours using the CBE thermal comfort tool. Envelope retrofit strategies gathered from the literature and building standards were applied and studied through simulation. The findings reveal the enormous potential to increase the thermal comfort of existing school buildings through envelope retrofit measures. The results demonstrate that the whole-building temperature can be reduced up to 3.2 °C in summer and up to 3.4 °C in winter. Implementing retrofit measures to the building envelopes of existing buildings will help school owners to increase the comfortable hours of whole buildings by up to 17%. In comparison, annual energy savings of up to 13% for the whole building can be made by enhancing the thermal performance of the building envelope. The findings will also help architects to optimise thermal performance and energy usage with minimal interventions.

Novel radiant heating and cooling panel with a monolithic aluminium structure and U-groove surface – Experimental investigation and numerical model

Thermally activated panels with monolithic structure and complex shape are not known well. Additionally, studies of radiant heating–cooling panels described in the literature mainly focus on either cooling or heating as well as either ceiling or wall option. In this paper, a novel heating and cooling panel with a U-groove surface and aluminium monolithic structure that increases heat exchange between the heating–cooling medium and the panel was studied. The performance of a new panel for the wall and ceiling options was investigated experimentally. For this analysis, an extended study was carried out that included both heating and cooling modes to develop a universal solution. A numerical model to predict the temperature in a room with the cooling and heating panels installed was developed and compared with experimental results. The specific thermal capacity of the panels observed in the experiments ranged from 82 to 158 W/m2, sufficient to maintain thermal comfort in modern buildings that meet low-energy or passive building standards. The specific cooling capacity of the studied panels ranged from 47 to 59 W/m2, similar to high-temperature radiant cooling systems used in modern buildings. The investigated panels are compatible with mechanical ventilation systems equipped with a cooling function. The simulation results were in agreement with the experimental measurements. Thus, the numerical model can be used to design heating and cooling radiant ceilings as well as to assess thermal conditions in a room.

MetaPhysics of architecture: An integral theory framework for sustainability

This essay criticises prevalent current sustainable architecture and proposes a conceptual framework for sustainable design practice. It argues that sustainable building standards, have failed to capture a more multi-dimensional and inclusive worldview, and therefore many influential architects have neglected implementing such principles. An analysis of literature shows that a large body of research published in the field of sustainable architecture takes a positivistic perspective and that few published articles have looked at sustainable architecture from the standpoint of the critical humanities, allowing non-positivistic viewpoints. The proposed conceptual framework, adapted from Ken Wilber’s integral theory and substantiated through the lens of Gumbrecht’s identification of a culture of meaning and a culture of presence, provides an opportunity to oscillate between positivistic and non-positivistic ideologies and between subjective and objective values. The framework’s usefulness is demonstrated through case studies of Glenn Murcutt’s work. Architects are invited to practise sustainability through this integral framework: to entangle subjective and objective, individual and collective approaches, and to exercise the physics and metaphysics of sustainable design through consideration of the culture of meaning and the culture of presence.

Covid-19's lessons for standard building design: Proinfância daycare centers

The Covid-19 pandemic brought changes in the behavior of society, with the suspension of several activities, among them the access of children to schools. This study has as main objective the analysis of the daycare spaces of the Proinfância program regarding the attendance of environmental comfort, dimensioning and salubrity, considering the set of issues brought by the pandemic. To achieve this purpose, analyses were made of the type C Proinfância building, project used in the construction of the school unit chosen as case study: the Unidade Municipal de Educação Infantil Profª Júlia Maria de Almeida Oliveira, in the city of Lagarto, Sergipe. The secondary objectives are: to analyze the specificities of the implementation of this standard building in Lagarto and to analyze the post-occupancy condition during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. The methodological approach of the study is quali-qualitative type, applied on documents provided by the Proinfância website and complemented by case study, with detailing of techniques and procedures to achieve the proposed objectives. The study explores the POE methodology (Post-Occupancy Evaluation) for the object of study, selecting the universe of tools to be applied. These are: walkthrough analysis, study of recommendations and technical analysis by the researcher.