An analysis of embodied carbon considerations in a Building Information Modelling (BIM)-enabled building design process through structuration theory

In recent decades there is a worldwide effort to reduce carbon emissions from buildings. However, carbon emission reduction efforts have predominantly focused on the reduction of operational carbon emissions. This has resulted in Embodied Carbon (EC) emissions to have a more significant proportion of the whole-life carbon of buildings. Despite its growing significance, tackling EC remains a challenge for the construction industry. Building Information Modelling (BIM) has been advocated to address some of the challenges in tackling EC. However, literature that considers both EC and BIM has predominantly focused on the technical aspects of EC assessment facilitation through the use of the BIM model and has failed to address the social aspects of EC inclusion in the BIM-enabled building design process. This research addresses this gap by taking a socio-technical approach to investigate how EC considerations are set and addressed in BIM-enabled building design process. The research follows a critical realist philosophy to reveal the conditions and mechanisms that affect the inclusion of EC considerations in the design process and the potential (and barriers) of BIM to facilitate EC considerations to be communicated and addressed in a building project. The research was conducted in two phases; the first phase was exploratory and aimed to provide a rich description of the way EC considerations are set and addressed in a BIM-enabled project. The first phase informed subsequent data collection and the development of an analytical framework for the second phase of the research. The developed framework drew from theoretical concepts of Structuration Theory and phase 1 empirical findings and was used in the second phase of the research to analyse the conditions and mechanisms that affect EC-target setting and the use of BIM for communicating and addressing EC considerations. The second phase of the research also investigated the impact of context through cross-case comparison analysis. The main findings of the research highlighted the importance of people in setting and addressing EC in BIM-enabled projects. The clients were found to be either a barrier or an enabler for EC consideration inclusions depending on their aspirations. Whereas, the importance of the professional team to act as middle agents to tackle EC was highlighted. Tackling EC was found to relate to position-practice relations, a mechanism that was expressed either through the introduction of new expert roles or the expansion of the role of principal design team members. Industry as well as project-level conditions and their impact on the capabilities of professionals for setting and addressing EC considerations were considered in relation to the dialectic of control mechanism. The dependence of the professionals on industry-wide conditions was found to be higher when they had a low dialectic of control over project-level resources, particularly when professionals were novice to incorporating EC considerations to the building design. The EC information management requirement through BIM was found to relate to the dialectic of control of the professional performing the EC calculations over the BIM model data input. Informed ii by the research findings, two pathways to facilitate EC considerations in BIM-enabled projects were proposed. The pathways considered the enabling conditions and the position-practice and dialectic of control mechanisms for two BIM-enabled project outcomes: How EC considerations are set and communicated and How EC considerations are addressed. For How EC considerations are set and communicated the pathways relate to the project stakeholder who drives EC considerations for the project and can be either client or design team driven. For How EC considerations are addressed the pathways relate to the way that required professional skills are brought to the project, which can be either through the appointment of consultants or through the principal design team professionals. This study extends the use of Structuration Theory through the integration of two of its basic concepts into one analytical framework and expands its operationalisation through the use of social network mapping to visualise the framework elements. The empirical contributions stem from the socio-technical approach of the thesis that revealed position-practices and dialectic of control as mechanisms that affect setting and addressing EC considerations in BIM-enabled projects. The research provided novel insights into the interplay of these mechanisms with power relations between the client and the design team, as well as their relation to industry and project-level structures. Further research recommendations were based on the research findings that indicated that further exploration is required on aspects such as the impact of EC reduction on the capital cost of projects, project contracts with a focus on the stage of novation, EC optimisation incorporation to project design stage timetables. Further research recommendations also related to the newly revealed relations of dialectic of control to industry and project-level structures which could be used as hypotheses in subsequent qualitative and quantitative research

Building Information Modelling (BIM) application in relation to embodied energy and carbon (EEC) considerations during design: A practitioner perspective

Buildings’ carbon emission reduction efforts in buildings have mainly been focused on operational energy reduction and, as operational energy is reduced, embodied energy and carbon (EEC) becomes more significant. However, there is currently a lack of legislation and guidance relating to embodied carbon in buildings. This, together with the United Kingdom (UK) construction industry fragmentation, creates a significant barrier to dealing with EEC during building design. In this context, Building Information Modelling (BIM) empowers communications and stores information into one single digital model and has therefore potential to facilitate EEC considerations to be included in building design. This research takes a qualitative approach and looks at the design process in relation to EEC considerations and BIM application and how the latter can facilitate the inclusion of EEC in design considerations. Through semistructured interviews with the construction industry professionals, this research investigates BIM application in relation to EEC information during design. EEC’s current role in building design and the drivers and challenges EEC considerations are being mapped. EEC information processes and how BIM facilitates EEC information exchange and storage as well as the actors involved are revealed. The overall aim of this res

Strange encounters: Creativity as a state of alterity in the early stages of design learning

In the early years of architectural education, social and cultural, material and immaterial, ethical and aesthetic design considerations are introduced to novice learners. These design knowledges are often perceived by students as insufficiently defined and unfamiliar. As a result, students experience their initiation to creative thinking as an othering process, a state of alterity. The paper theorises the relationship of creativity and alterity in early years of design learning and discusses its pedagogical value by reflecting on the learning process of a design unit that brought together two inclusive drama groups and first- and second-year students of architecture

Building Information Modelling (BIM) application in relation to embodied energy and carbon (EEC) considerations during design: A practitioner perspective

Buildings’ carbon emission reduction efforts in buildings have mainly been focused on operational energy reduction and, as operational energy is reduced, embodied energy and carbon (EEC) becomes more significant. However, there is currently a lack of legislation and guidance relating to embodied carbon in buildings. This, together with the United Kingdom (UK) construction industry fragmentation, creates a significant barrier to dealing with EEC during building design. In this context, Building Information Modelling (BIM) empowers communications and stores information into one single digital model and has therefore potential to facilitate EEC considerations to be included in building design. This research takes a qualitative approach and looks at the design process in relation to EEC considerations and BIM application and how the latter can facilitate the inclusion of EEC in design considerations. Through semistructured interviews with the construction industry professionals, this research investigates BIM application in relation to EEC information during design. EEC’s current role in building design and the drivers and challenges EEC considerations are being mapped. EEC information processes and how BIM facilitates EEC information exchange and storage as well as the actors involved are revealed. The overall aim of this res

Embodied energy considerations in a bim-enabled building design process: an ethnographic case study

Built environment carbon emission reductions have been focused on operational energy reduction. Successes in this area have increased the significance of embodied energy and carbon (EC); however, this is not addressed by legislation. United Kingdom (UK) construction industry fragmentation creates further challenges that undermine the consideration of EC. It has been hypothesised that Building Information Modelling (BIM) empowers information management and collaboration amongst professionals, thereby potentially facilitating consideration of EC during building design. As both BIM and EC pose new challenges to design teams, this research investigates the role of EC in building design and how this is realised in practice, particularly for a BIM-enabled project. This investigation aims to identify the factors affecting EC considerations and reveal how relevant targets are set and realised in a BIM-enabled building design process. This will inform practice and policy to enable EC consideration in building design for BIM-enabled projects. An ethnographic approach was adopted which included interviews, meeting attendance and document analysis to investigate: 1) EC considerations in the design process, 2) the role of building professionals involved in the process and 3) what affects EC considerations and information management through BIM. This was applied to a UK BIM-enabled building project case study at its design stage. The initial investigation considered: 1) barriers and enablers for EC target setting and realisation and 2) BIM application and information management. These results were classified in relation to people, process and tools. A socio-technical perspective was adopted as a lens to generate conclusions and inform further data analysis. Future research will include three further case studies, enabling cross-case comparison of the factors affecting EC considerations in BIM-enabled projects

Othering Pedagogies: Integrating performing games and theatrical improvisations in the early stages of design.

It’s been more than twenty years since Rob Imrie looked into present and absent corporealities from UK architectural education and practice and argued that human bodies are predominantly visualized as stable, canonical, and normative. Imrie advocated for an open ended and fle xible design discipline, one that is sensitized to diverse bodies and transgresses cultural orders (Imrie 2003, 47 65 ). Nowadays , the inclusion of diverse corporealities in the early years of design learning is often supported via sensory explorations and bodily surveys, the invention and construction of artefacts, costumes or furniture, and the visual studies of imaginary users. In th is familiar pedagogical framework, architecture is mainly studied as a cultural condition, not as an apparatus that can reproduce and challenge cultural orders. Moreover, the primary medium that students employ to study other corporealities is their own bodies. These self referential approaches to design learning unwillingly encourage understanding others as distorted version s of the self. Hence, two opportunities are lost: a) an opportunity to adopt a hetero referential way of design learning and b) an opportunity to acknowledge that first year students are another transgressive corporeality and potentially an empathetic one. The presentation shares the knowledge gathered through a series of learning alliances between the Welsh School of Architecture and Hijinx Inclusive Theatre company. While reflecting on the integration of performing games in design pedagogies, it suggests that performing arts help us redefine design learning as an othering process, and appreciate the creative challenges of our sensitive first year cohorts. Such unpredictable and risky alliances strengthen connections with other creative practices and communities , teach students to think outside the box, and introduce ethical and aesthetical concerns as essential design principles in the early years of architectural education

Othering pedagogies: Integrating performing games and theatrical improvisations in the early stages of architectural education.

It’s been more than twenty years since Rob Imrie looked into present and absent corporealities from UK architectural education and practice and argued that human bodies are predominantly visualized as stable, canonical, and normative. Imrie advocated for an open-ended and flexible design discipline, one that is sensitized to diverse bodies and transgresses cultural orders (Imrie 2003, 47-65). Nowadays, the inclusion of diverse corporealities in the early years of design learning is often supported via sensory explorations and bodily surveys, the invention and construction of artefacts, costumes or furniture, and the visual studies of imaginary users. In this familiar pedagogical framework, architecture is mainly studied as a cultural condition, not as an apparatus that can reproduce and challenge cultural orders. Moreover, the primary medium that students employ to study other corporealities is their own bodies. These self-referential approaches to design learning unwillingly encourage understanding others as distorted versions of the self. Hence, two opportunities are lost: a) an opportunity to adopt a hetero-referential way of design learning and b) an opportunity to acknowledge that first-year students are another transgressive corporeality and potentially an empathetic one. The presentation shares the knowledge gathered through a series of learning alliances between the Welsh School of Architecture and Hijinx Inclusive Theatre Company. While reflecting on the integration of performing games in design pedagogies, it suggests that performing arts help us redefine design-learning as an othering process, and appreciate the creative challenges of our sensitive first- year cohorts. Such unpredictable and risky alliances strengthen connections with other creative practices and communities, teach students to think outside the box, and introduce ethical and aesthetical concerns as essential design principles in the early years of architectural education

Linking Higher Education training and industry in the Welsh low carbon sector

In order to transition towards economic growth and development the dissemination of Higher Education Institutions’ (HEI) expertise to Industry is vital. However, traditionally HEIs have failed to respond in an effective and timely manner to Industry training needs. One of the reasons is their traditional focus on full degrees and a perceived lack of interest in delivery of more responsive courses including smaller awards and Continued Professional Development (CPD). The Low Carbon Research Institute, through the Welsh Energy Sector Training project, has undertaken research on HEI delivery in the area of Low Carbon Education available to the Welsh workforce. Results show that current training needs cannot be catered for by current education and training provision in Wales as this was found to lack the flexibility needed to cater for Industry’s needs. This highlights the importance of WEST and similar initiatives in linking HEIs with Industry as well as the need for HEIs to investigate ways to enable effective engagement with Industry