Development of an office building sustainability assessment framework for Malaysia

This paper presents a study aimed at developing a building performance assessment framework relevant to emerging/developing countries that allows evaluations on whether, and to what extent, sustainability is addressed in office building developments. Instead of simply adopting an existing building performance assessment framework, a framework developed through original work involving various relevant stakeholders in Malaysian building industry is presented. The process adopted a mixed-methods approach, particularly using exploratory sequential design i.e. a qualitative followed by a quantitative phase. The goal of the qualitative phase was to discover essential performance criteria through 1) literature review; 2) in-depth interviews; and 3) focus groups discussion. The performance criteria identified from the qualitative phase were brought into the quantitative phase via a questionnaire survey for the purpose of assigning their weighting levels. The tentative assessment framework was then presented to local experts for validation, and finally the Validated Comprehensive Malaysian Office Assessment (MyOBSA) framework is proposed. The framework covers all aspects of sustainability, thus allowing sustainability to be assessed in all phases of building developments, from pre-design to operational stages. This study demonstrates that any emerging/developing country shall be able to develop its own building sustainability assessment framework by taking into account relevant priorities of that country

RETHINKING THE ADOPTION OF GREEN BUILDING RATING SYSTEMS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

This paper critically reviews the adoption of green building rating systems in developing countries such as Indonesia. Most new buildings in Indonesian cities are replacing the already socially-vibrant urban kampungs; however, green building rating systems do not assess environmental, social and economic impacts upon the existing communities. The paper compares the motivation and approaches of the green building movement and green rating tools with the philosophies and implementation of the urban kampung improvement programme (KIP), implemented for years to improve the condition of Indonesia’s urban kampungs. Ideas and the means for developing more sociallyresponsible green developments are presented and a closer integration of KIP with ‘green’ urban development is recommended

Comparative review of existing building performance assessment systems: appropriateness for the context of emerging/developing countries

Emerging/developing countries have begun to realize that the implementation of building performance assessment systems (BPASs) have the potential to contribute towards achieving a sustainable built environment. Consequently, some BPASs from developed countries have been adopted or customized to be implemented in emerging/developing countries, including Malaysia. The objectives of this paper are to: 1) analyse the effectiveness of existing BPASs in assessing building sustainability in emerging/developing countries; and 2) investigate their appropriateness in addressing the Malaysian context. The paper comparatively reviews and critiques nine BPASs in terms of their characteristics and limitations by analysing the content of the systems’ documentation as well as reviewing other documents related to the systems. Overall, the study finds that most existing BPASs are inadequate in addressing the complex concept of sustainability as well as many of the non-environmental priorities of emerging/developing countries, particularly Malaysia. In fact, priority issues of BPASs from emerging/developing nations reviewed in this paper still reflect those of developed countries. This paper concludes by recommending the specific requirements for developing the Malaysian office building sustainability assessment framework. These findings provide an appropriate basis for other emerging/developing countries to establish a country-specific building sustainability assessment framework that takes relevant priorities into account

ASSESSING THE SIMULATION CAPABILITY OF THE ACCURATE ENGINE IN MODELLING MASSIVE CONSTRUCTION ELEMENTS

ABSTRACT Simulation is often utilised in the regulatory assessment of building performance as in the case of the Australia's Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS). A recent government discussion pape

Capturing the views of architects about building performance simulation to be used during design processes

In the past 30 years, much effort has been directed to make building performance simulation become inherent in architectural practice. Anecdotal evidence however shows that it still a long way for this goal to be achieved. This paper presents the outcome of a survey conducted in Australia, India, the US and the UK, to investigate difficulties that architects have to overcome in their day-to-day practices and identify the reasons why using building performance simulation, regardless how friendly the tools are, is still not and may never be in the mainstream of their practices. Based on the survey, the paper proposes a number of recommendations to overcome this challenge in line with IBPSA’s vision on bridging the gap between research and practic

Capturing the views of architects about building performance simulation to be used during design processes

In the past 30 years, much effort has been directed to make building performance simulation become inherent in architectural practice. Anecdotal evidence however shows that it still a long way for this goal to be achieved. This paper presents the outcome of a survey conducted in Australia, India, the US and the UK, to investigate difficulties that architects have to overcome in their day-to-day practices and identify the reasons why using building performance simulation, regardless how friendly the tools are, is still not and may never be in the mainstream of their practices. Based on the survey, the paper proposes a number of recommendations to overcome this challenge in line with IBPSA’s vision on bridging the gap between research and practic

Feasibility of 3DP cob walls under compression loads in low-rise construction

The rapid adoption of 3D-printing (3DP) technologies in construction, combined with an increased willingness to reduce environmental impact, has facilitated reapproaching earth materials for modern building industry. The feasibility of 3DP earth-based materials has been under investigation in recent years, with a particular focus on cob due to its favourable characteristics toward the 3DP process. Yet, there is a lack of definitive information on the construction of 3DP cob. Hence this paper investigates the structural feasibility of 3D-printed cob walls in low-rise buildings. The investigation involved experimental compression tests on 3DP cob samples to obtain key mechanical properties including the compressive strength and elastic modulus. These properties were then used as inputs for structural analyses with respect to three alternate types of 3DP cob wall patterns to evaluate their load-carrying capacity based on a limit-state design framework. Results from the analyses were implemented in modelling an idealised low-rise cob building covering a range of floor spans and wall heights. The analytical study found that 3D-printed walls have the potential to sustain gravity loads typical of residential construction. Further, since the 3DP material was shown to have similar mechanical performance to conventional (non-3DP) cob on the material scale, the 3D-printing process provides the opportunity to produce wall sections that are structurally more efficient than the solid section used in conventional cob construction. This results in lower material consumption, making 3DP cob attractive from the point of view of resource efficiency. An important outcome of the study is the demonstration of a model design technique for low-rise 3DP cob buildings that could be implemented as part of a broader optimisation procedure to satisfy structural and architectural design objectives

Characterisation, interpretation and implications of the Adelaide Urban Heat Island

This report has been cited in NCCARF Policy Guidance Brief 9 Managing heatwave impacts under climate change. The report has been submitted to funding agencies.This project focusses on examining the existence and repercussions of an urban heat island and warming generally, for Adelaide city. Adelaide is unique in having a CBD that is surrounded entirely by a band of parks of the order of 500 m wide, so might be expected to have thermal characteristics that differ from other national and international cities. The study clearly establishes the existence of an urban heat island with greatest intensity in the Adelaide CBD, measured relative to that unique parkland belt that encompasses it. As for other cities, it arises from the greater daytime absorption of solar energy by buildings and the slower release of that absorbed energy back to the atmosphere and space overnight, compared with more open sites, which for this study, are the surrounding Park Lands.Department of Planning and Local Government; Department of the Premier and Cabinet; Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources; and Adelaide City Counci

Affordability and sustainability outcomes: a triple bottom line assessment of traditional development and master planned communities - Volume 1

John Blair, Deo Prasad, Bruce Judd, Robert Zehner, Veronica Soebarto and Richard Hyd

Affordability and sustainability outcomes of 'greenfield' suburban development and master planned communities - a case study approach using triple bottom line assessment

John Blair, Mr. Matthew Fisher, Deo Prasad, Bruce Judd, Veronica Soebarto, Richard Hyde and Robert Zehne