Parametric Investigation of Traditional Vaulted Roofs in Hot-Arid Climates

In the Mediterranean and North African regions, traditional vaulted roof forms have been widely used due to their significant influence on enhancing thermal indoor conditions. This research parametrically investigates the thermal performance of vaulted roofs, seeking a better understanding of the reciprocal relationship between the solar irradiance received by these roofs and the resulting energy consumption in the hot-arid city of Aswan (23.58oN), Egypt. The methodological procedure is realized through two phases. The annual simulations of solar irradiance and energy consumption are carried out in the first phase, where the quantitative performance of 2,310 different cases are predicted in terms of six vaulted roof forms against eleven key influencing variables. The unsupervised technique of Principal Component Analysis is used in the second phase to reduce the higher dimensionality of the resulting dataset and extract important information from newly established orthogonal principal components. The outcomes of this work aim to provide architects and practitioners with an optimized dataset to use in the design and application of vaulted roof forms and support decision makers addressing the development strategies by providing essential data for setting regulations of newly built environments in harsh hot-arid contexts

Drivers for implementing green building technologies : an international survey of experts

2016-2017 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journal201804_a bcm

Testing the nexus between C&D waste management strategies & GHG emission performances : the case of UK student accommodation refurbishment projects

All governments, industry sectors and societies each have a pivotal role to play if we are to mitigate anthropogenic climate change. For the construction industry, limiting emissions and addressing issues of sustainability is not just important for reducing the environmental impacts of the sector, but is simply good practice. This research investigates the nexus between the generation and management of waste and greenhouse gas performance in the refurbishment sector, with specific focus on UK student accommodation projects. Performance data from three case study projects were analysed in order to: evaluate the types and extent of wastes and how they are managed; the greenhouse gas impacts of each project waste management strategy; and an assessment is undertaken to estimate the number of BREEAM waste credits that each project would have achieved. The research concludes that the overall greenhouse gas performance of a project’s waste management strategy is highly dependent on how specific high emission impact factor waste streams are managed, and notably, there is a disconnect between waste targets, legislation and sustainability benchmarking schemes that measure success based on the levels of diverting waste from landfill, and the emission performance of waste management strategies. A key area of risk potentially overlooked relates to the scenarios where proportionally small quantities of high emission wastes (e.g. plastics) were sent to landfill alongside large quantities of low emission wastes (e.g. aggregates, bricks, etc.). To ensure the increased emission performance of the refurbishment sector, greater focus is needed on preventing specific categories of waste from the landfill pathway

Environmental assessment schemes for non-domestic building refurbishment in the Malaysian context

The increase in global warming, energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions has gained attention in various regions. In Malaysia, the government announced a voluntary commitment to reduce 40% of CO 2 emissions by 2020 and to refurbish 100 government buildings. Existing buildings make a large contribution to energy consumption and CO 2 emissions, therefore refurbishing existing buildings is an essential strategy to achieve the commitment. There is no single assessment scheme for building refurbishment in Malaysia and hence, this study aims to develop a comprehensive list of assessment themes and sub-themes for building refurbishment purposes. It examines and compares 10 assessment schemes from various countries: BREEAM, LEED, CASBEE, BEAM Plus, GBLS, Green Star, HQE, Green Mark, GBI and MyCrest. The findings revealed fourteen themes that were considered for assessment: management, sustainable site, transport, indoor environmental quality (IEQ), water, waste, material, energy, pollution, innovation, economic, social, culture and quality of services. Energy and IEQ are dominant themes in all assessment schemes. Most of the schemes are considered relatively weak in evaluating economic and social aspects, in comparison to environmental aspects. The assessment of quality of services is overlooked in most of the schemes, including GBI and MyCrest in Malaysia. Outcomes from this paper will form the baseline for a new environmental assessment scheme that aimed at non-domestic building refurbishments in Malaysia. A new model is proposed for the development of an environmental assessment scheme in the further stage