Creating green culturally responsive intelligent buildings: Socio-cultural and environmental influences

Today, the concept of green and sustainably built environments is considered one of the main targets of various governmental sectors and policy-makers in the creation of a better environment for the population. However, a critical task consists in debating the significance of sustainability and a green built environment before the initiation of any green project. Accordingly, this article suggests the fundamental role of sustainability in better built environments as well as indicating an omission within green and sustainable design development arising because of a lack of consideration of the traditional, cultural and regional values of users. Focus is made on smart housing as an intelligent building design development that is highly interrelated with sustainable issues, highlighting the lack of a deep consideration of the cultural values of users for ensuring socio-cultural sustainability. The article also draws attention to the profound vernacular features of vernacular settlements, which are substantially in harmony with the regional and cultural values of a region. The context is limited to the Malay experience, identifying the vernacular features of the functional spaces of a Malay vernacular settlement for utilization in a smart housing design within Malaysia with a view to making them culturally responsive. At the same time, this article proposes the concept of green culturally responsive intelligent building design development based on the integration of vernacular architectural features into intelligent buildings in order to enhance the quality of life

Analyzing the thermal comfort conditions of outdoor spaces in a university campus in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The rapid urban expansion in East-Asian cities has increased the need for comfortable public spaces. This study presents field measurements and parametric simulations to evaluate the microclimatic characteristics in a university campus in the tropical climate of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The study attempts to identify the thermally uncomfortable areas and their physical and design characteristics while debating on the circumstances of enhancing the outdoor comfort conditions for the campus users. Simulations in Envi-met and IES-VE are used to investigate the current outdoor thermal conditions, using classic thermal metric indices. Findings show high levels of thermal discomfort in most of the studied spaces. As a result, suggestions to improve the design quality of outdoor areas optimizing their thermal comfort conditions are proposed. The study concludes that effective re-design of outdoor spaces in the tropics, through adequate attention to the significant impacts of shading and vegetation, can result in achieving outdoor spaces with high frequency of use and improved comfort level

Comparative study on the thermal environmental responses of indigenous bamboo and modern brick houses in hot-humid climate of Malaysia

Vernacular houses using indigenous building materials have shown to be a good strategy for sustainable energy consumption without compensating the occupant’s indoor thermal comfort. Bamboo has been identified as the most used building material for vernacular houses in South-East Asia region. However, very little investigation has been conducted to study the passive performance of a bamboo house in maintaining indoor thermal comfort. This study compares the indoor microclimate conditions using thermal comfort Predicted Mean Vote and Predicted Percentage of Dissatisfied models (PMV-PPD) developed by American Society Heating, Refrigerating and Air-conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) between indigenous bamboo house (H1) and modern brick house (H2) at a village located in the Ulu Gombak Forest Reserve, Selangor. Observations on environmental factors and predicted thermal comfort satisfaction level between day and night times were also taken into consideration. The findings suggest that the use of bamboo plus other vernacular house design features such as raising a house on stilts, located on hilly site and providing air permeability in H1 can lead to a thermally comfortable indoor environment, particularly during night time

Intelligent or smart cities and buildings: a critical exposition and a way forward

In the last decade, there has been an undoubtedly rising interest in the field of intelligent and smart built environments from design and construction to management, operational and governance perspectives. These recent endeavors, observed at both academic and professional levels, can be classified into city, neighborhood and building scales. In this context, understanding what we really mean by the word intelligent and smart is crucially important. This technical note attempts to clarify and further explore how intelligence differs from smartness in this context. Having intelligence as the main umbrella embracing other interrelated smart subsets is one way of thinking as supported by previous debates, while there are also other lines of thinking with more preference on the smartness as the core concept

Advanced control strategy to maximize view and control discomforting glare: a complex adaptive façade

Increasing demands for full-glazed façades have motivated designers/researchers to propose advanced control strategies for dynamic shading systems to mitigate the negative impacts of excessive sunlight penetration into interior spaces. Nevertheless, in line with the latter, outside view is commonly obstructed as a result of utilizing conventional shading systems including Venetian blinds. This is primarily the consequence of conventional systems’ lack of flexibility to respond appropriately to occupants’ requirements and the sun's changing orientation. This paper presents the virtual prototype development of a Multi-layer blind system through a brute-force algorithm. It emphasizes proposing a customizable and affordable complex shading system with advanced control strategies for multiple building typologies. The research intends to improve visual comfort (daylight and glare) and maximize unblocked window view in a single office room located in Tehran. Furthermore, the control system was developed based on a combination of the cut-off and a glare protection control strategy. Concerning the cut-off control system, the slat angles change to block direct sun radiations, and then, if needed, the position of the front slat, named ‘View slat’, changes to avoid discomforting glare. In conclusion, the proposed prototype could improve daylight performance by up to 44% and maximize unobstructed outdoor view by approximately 47% in an almost glare-free zone. Finally, the usage of swarm intelligence could significantly improve the performance of the proposed prototype by determining which blind and how they should respond to environmental changes and occupants’ requirements

Examining the Relationship between Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Green Star

Neither Building Information Modelling (BIM) nor Green Star certification has yet to be widely adopted in the New Zealand construction industry. This paper, therefore, aims to encourage their development by examining the relationship between BIM adoption and Green Star certification. The qualitative approach using 21 semi-structured interviews with the construction professionals was conducted. The results indicate that despite the absence of a direct link, integrating BIM with Green Star has the potential to accelerate the Green Star uptake in New Zealand. However, BIM and Green Star uptake have two separated processes along with the lack of client demand for either BIM or Green Star projects were identified as the significant barriers to the integration. Among eight solutions recommended from the interviewees, providing education and training in both BIM and Green Star for clients and construction practitioners plays a key role.  This research contributes to the current knowledge of BIM and Green Star in New Zealand by providing baseline information to the NZGBC, construction stakeholders, and the government that allows for the formulation of effective strategies to be used to develop both BIM and Green Star

Methodology for Evaluating Innovative Technologies for Low- Energy Retrofitting of Public Building

There is urgency to transform Europe into a low-carbon economy to reduce the risk of climate change and achieve sustainable energy security. One of the most cost-effective measures to meet energy reduction targets, as clearly specified in the “European Economic Recovery Plan”, is to address performance of existing building stock. Buildings account for about 40% of the EUenergy consumption and one third of the GHG emissions. In particular, the state of the European building stock contains a high improvement potential. REtrofitting Solutions and Services for the enhancement of Energy Efficiency in Public Edification (RESSEEPE) is an EU funded project that focuses on the refurbishment of existing public buildings in three European cities: Coventry (UK), Barcelona (SP) and Skelleftea (SW). The aim of the project is to bring together design and decision making tools and innovative building fabric manufacturers to collaborate and improve building performance through low impact retrofitting interventions to achieve energy reduction in the region of 50%. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the process of low-energy retrofit and the selection and evaluation of low-energy technologies for retrofit. Specifically the paper looks at the decision making procedure to select advanced building technologies for high energy performance retrofitting, using Coventry University estates as a case study. The paper reviews innovative technologies and using analytical methods investigates the benefits of these potential technologies as applied to existing case study buildings within Coventry University. The interconnectivity of these buildings within the urban environment within which they sit is also evaluated

Digital twins in the construction industry: a comprehensive review of current implementations, enabling technologies, and future directions

This paper presents a comprehensive understanding of current digital twin (DT) implementations in the construction industry, along with providing an overview of technologies enabling the operation of DTs in the industry. To this end, 145 publications were identified using a systematic literature review. The results revealed eight key areas of DT implementation including (i) virtual design, (ii) project planning and management, (iii) asset management and maintenance, (iv) safety management, (v) energy efficiency and sustainability, (vi) quality control and management, (vii) supply chain management and logistics, and (viii) structural health monitoring. The findings demonstrate that DT technology has the capacity to revolutionise the construction industry across these areas, enabling optimised designs, improved collaboration, real-time monitoring, predictive maintenance, enhanced safety practices, energy performance optimisation, quality inspections, efficient supply chain management, and proactive maintenance. This study also identified several challenges that hinder the widespread implementation of DT in construction, including (i) data integration and interoperability, (ii) data accuracy and completeness, (iii) scalability and complexity, (iv) privacy and security, and (v) standards and governance. To address these challenges, this paper recommends prioritising standardised data formats, protocols, and APIs for seamless collaboration, exploring semantic data modelling and ontologies for data integration, implementing validation processes and robust data governance for accuracy and completeness, harnessing high-performance computing and advanced modelling techniques for scalability and complexity, establishing comprehensive data protection and access controls for privacy and security, and developing widely accepted standards and governance frameworks with industry-wide collaboration. By addressing these challenges, the construction industry can unlock the full potential of DT technology, thus enhancing safety, reliability, and efficiency in construction projects

Multi-Objective Optimisation Framework for Designing Office Windows::Quality of View, Daylight and Energy Efficiency

This paper presents a new, multi-objective method of analysing and optimising the energy processes associated with window system design in office buildings. The simultaneous consideration of multiple and conflicting design objectives can make the architectural design process more complicated. This study is based on the fundamental recognition that optimising parameters on the building energy loads via window system design can reduce the quality of the view to outside and the received daylight – both qualities highly valued by building occupants. This paper proposes an approach for quantifying Quality of View in office buildings in balance with energy performance and daylighting, thus enabling an optimisation framework for office window design. The study builds on previous research by developing a multi-objective method of assessment of a reference room which is parametrically modelled using actual climate data. A method of Pareto Frontier and a weighting sum is applied for multi-objective optimisation to determine best outcomes that balance design requirements. The Results reveal the maximum possible window to wall ratio for the reference room. The optimisation model indicates that the room geometry should be altered to achieve the lighting and view requirements set out in building performance standards. The research results emphasise the need for window system configuration to be considered in the early design stages. This exploratory approach to a methodology and framework considers both building parameters and the local climate condition. It has the potential to be adopted and further refined by other researchers and designers to support complex, multi-factorial design decision-making