A.A.J.F. van den Dobbelsteen

Bamboo as a building material alternative for Western Europe? A study of the environmental performance, costs and bottlenecks of the use of bamboo (products) in Western Europe

For two bamboo products, bamboo in its natural form (the culm) and in an industrial form (as a panel), the environmental impact was determined and compared to alternatives. This comparison was made using a model that uses data from Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), based on the use of these products in the Netherlands. The consequences of the application of bamboo culm in the building process of 5 bamboo building projects in Western Europe were also analysed.

Sustainable bearing structures

Publisher Summary The bearing structure is responsible for the second largest part of the environmental load of the building and the energy consumption is responsible for the greater part, assuming the life span of a building is 75 years. The bearing structure consists of the foundation, columns, beams, floor and roof structure, and sometimes walls and facades. The horizontal elements of the bearing structure, consisting of the floor, and roof structure and beams, are causing about 80% of the environmental load of the total bearing structure. Especially the floor and roof structure play a very important role, therefore, optimization of the floor structure leads to an important environmental improvement of the whole office building. A type of ecologically or economically structural material required for a building depends on the span the building design needs. For each floor type, for structural spans between 4.8 and 16.8m, the environmental load and cost have been determined, resulting in the determination of best solutions for different spans.

Defining the reference for environmental performance

Publisher Summary Sustainability has become an important new performance factor in the overall quality of building design. The assessment of government offices shows the environmental performance of common offices is far behind the target to achieve Factor 20 environmental improvements in 2040. The most important part of a building comparison based on environmental indices is the definition of the reference, of which there are three different types—design reference, gfs reference, and fte reference. This chapter presents the case study showing that the choice of a reference is stipulating for the results and their interpretation. All index types retrieved from application of the different references are useful in environmental assessments of buildings. As a follow-up of the government office buildings assessment the average environmental load per m2 or per fte can be deducted and applied as a reference performance demand in the nearby future. This performance per employee enables an easy fixation of the reference environmental load of a whole office organization, apart from the chosen office concept, building design, and applied technology. The principal and architect can use it for improving the environmental quality of their project and society can deduct the achieved factor of improvement towards sustainability.

Climate adaptation strategies: achieving insight in microclimate effects of redevelopment options

Purpose – Due to the predicted global temperature rise and local expansion and densification of cities, Urban Heat Islands (UHI) are likely to increase in the Netherlands. As spatial characteristics of a city influence its climate, urban design could be deployed to mitigate the combined effects of climate change and UHIs. Although cities are already experiencing problems during warm-weather periods, no clear spatial means or strategies are available for urban designers to alleviate heat stress. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – There is a lack of knowledge on cooling effects that can be achieved through urban design in Dutch neighbourhoods. In this paper, the cooling effects of various design measures are compared on the level of urban blocks and neighbourhoods, with a focus on a 1960s neighbourhood in Amsterdam-West. The cooling effects are simulated by means of the microclimate model ENVI-met, here the effects on air temperature and physiological equivalent temperatur...

Sustainability needs more than just smart technology

Publisher Summary Sustainable building should be focused more on the intensification of space use and a longer useful life span of built areas, rather than solely improving technological efficiency. This chapter provides an an overview of conceptual solutions with which all factors can effectively add to a better environmental performance. An important stimulance for solutions for efficient use of space and a long life span would be the assessibility of the environmental impact of these. At the moment only the use of building materials, energy and water, the technological efficiency, can be translated into environmental indicators. Space use can only be put into indices that visualize the difference with a reference, but comparison with the environmental impact of building materials is not possible yet. To estimate the eventual life span of a building, and thus the environmental impact of measures in that direction, is even more difficult. Therefore, development of assessment models for space use and life span are a necessity to make these factors of sustainability as important as the technological efficiency.

Business case study for the zero energy refurbishment of commercial buildings

To achieve higher sustainability of steel reinforced concrete structures, their service life should be extended. When subject to chloride induced steel corrosion, time dependent repair works are most probably inevitable. Evidently, this results in extra concrete manufacturing and thus more environmental impact. Cracks offering direct pathways for the corrosion inducing substances play a very detrimental role in this. This paper presents the potential of using self-healing concrete to cope with this problem. By incorporating a polyurethane (PU)-based healing agent that is adequately released upon crack occurrence, chloride ingress is hindered substantially and onset of active corrosion is postponed. The required number of repair actions within 100 years could then drop to zero. Nevertheless, the implementation of a self-healing mechanism comes along with a higher initial cost and additional environmental impacts. Therefore, the necessary cost and life cycle assessment calculations have been performed as well. It was found that the cost of the PU-based healing agent is very reasonable while the extra costs of the capsules are for the moment still unacceptable. Environmental burdens associated with the PU precursor filled capsules are negligible (0.1-4.8%) in comparison with the impacts related to regular concrete repair to meet the design service life of 100 years.Concrete is the most manmade material solution produced and used worldwide. Its cornerstone is the cement composite due to the high emissions level and resources consumption volume. Roughly 5-7% of global carbon dioxide emissions come from cement manufacture process. The far-reaching alternative of replacement a clinker portion in the cement material composition has gained consensus. It becomes relevant in emerging economies since in the short-run there is not widely available ways for increasing the production capacity while diminish the environmental impact with no additional investment cost. Low carbon cement (LC3) is leading the contemporary paths towards facing environmental challenges and resource scarcity. This article aims at assessing the theoretical consideration of replacement of the Cuban traditional cements by LC3 according to housing case studies in Villa Clara province. On the basis of LCA background and the supply chain rationale, a procedure for discussing sustainable contribution of LC3 is designed and applied. Hollow blocks and mortars have been included in the calculations as well as the manufacturing/transportation processes for the entire supply chain of one semi-detached two-storey row houses built in the core of a slum-like settlement at Condado suburb-Santa Clara city. This approach demonstrates that the LC3 incorporation in the Cuban construction sector could afford considerable economic savings with the subsequent contribution in favour of the environment.Net zero energy is already an ambitious target for several buildings, especially since the DIRECTIVE 2010/31/EU that requires increasing the number of nearly zero energy buildings. The existing commercial building stock needs to be included in order to achieve the 2020 EU environmental targets. The main barriers of zero energy refurbishment of existing nonresidential buildings appear to be financial rather than technical, next to a number of other extrinsic factors that do not stimulate such an investment. While a business case for new zero energy buildings is believed to exist, controversial opinions can be found with respect to refurbishment of large buildings. The present study aims to identify the factors that affect the feasibility of the zero energy refurbishment of existing commercial buildings, while suggesting ways to create the business case addressing the Dutch market. Through interviews with real estate investors, the study identified the financial and technical barriers encountered today to undertake deep energy retrofit. Subsequently, the design interventions needed to refurbish a Dutch office building and meeting the net zero energy target were evaluated using a software complying with the Dutch standards NEN 7120. A risk and sensitivity analysis with Monte Carlo simulations showed the influence that design aspects, energy price and landlord-tenant agreements have on the business case. The study has concluded that a business case considering the energy savings alone is not sufficient to convince investors. However, when the design provides additional benefits, such as increasing the property value, the refurbishment can become feasible. This is an important observation to promote the refurbishment towards a zero energy building stock.Concrete is, after water, the most used material worldwide and its demand is projected to growth in the next 30 years. Among all concrete materials, cement presents the higher energy consumption and carbon emissions, thats why this industry has been developing several alternatives to gain sustainability. Reduction of clinker ratio by using Supplementary Cementicious Materials (SCM) allows a better use of existing capacities with low investment while a reduction in emissions, costs and energy per ton of cement is observed. The objective of this article is to assess the environmental and economic impact of a new cement with 50% of clinker: Low carbon cement (LC3). A procedure for evaluating sustainable and economic contribution of LC3, while projected demand is satisfied, is designed and applied in several scenarios. The results demonstrate that LC3 introduction is the best option to meet growing demand considering capital investment options in non-developed countries conditions with a reduction of ~30% in carbon emissions, of ~10% in costs and a faster return on investment related to OPC figures in Cuba.