Rob Marsh

LCA profiles for building components: strategies for the early design process

Construction professionals are required to integrate environmental concerns in the earliest design phases. However, environmental assessments need large amounts of precise data that are typically not available in the early design process, as most variables are still fluid. To address this concern, a new approach explores how environmental information on building components can be simplified for strategic use early in the design process in a Danish context. In this paper, life cycle assessments (LCAs) are undertaken for several hundred typical external wall solutions, based on relevant standards. A full bivariate linear regression analysis is performed, showing statistically significant correlations with strong direct relationships between environmental impact categories. A simplified LCA profile consisting of total primary energy, global warming potential and acidification potential is developed. This simplified LCA profile presents environmental data in a more understandable way, creating a strategic overview that can be easily used by non-technical clients and construction professionals in the early design stages. This has a scientific and statistical validity generated by environmental assessment standards, and creates a parallel between the precision of the approach and its time of use in the design process.

Passive solar energy and thermal mass: the implications of environmental analysis

The utilization of solar energy involves an interplay between heating demand and the use of building materials. It is therefore important to use environmental analysis methodologies which take into account the effects of building materials. Two typical construction types, lightweight timber-based and heavyweight concrete-based, are therefore compared using specific housing forms. These forms represent differing passive solar strategies that can be seen in contemporary Danish housing. The results highlight the diversity of effective environmental design strategies available to architects.

Building lifespan: effect on the environmental impact of building components in a Danish perspective

ABSTRACT Construction professionals must now integrate environmental concerns with life cycle assessment (LCA) early in the procurement process. Building lifespan is important to LCA, since results must be normalized on an annualized basis for comparison. However, the scientific literature shows that issues of building lifespan are inadequately addressed. The aim of this research is therefore to explore how environmental impact from building components is affected by building lifespans of 50, 80, 100 and 120 years in a Danish context. LCAs are undertaken for 792 parametric variations of typical construction solutions, covering all primary building components and based on contemporary practice. A full statistical analysis is carried out, which shows a significant statistical correlation between changes in building lifespan and environmental impact for all primary building components, except windows/rooflights. On average, a building lifespan of 80 years reduces environmental impact by 29%, 100 years by 38%, and 120 years by 44%, all in relation to a lifespan of 50 years. The results show that if construction professionals and policy-makers use short building lifespans, then resource allocation to reduce environmental impact during procurement may become disproportionately focused on the construction contra operational phases of the lifecycle.

Architecture and energy: questioning regulative and architectural paradigms for Danish low-energy housing

What is low-energy architecture? What at first glance would seem to be a simple question turns out to be rather more complex. Architectural practice does not exist in a vacuum, but responds to societys wider demands. In this way, low-energy architecture can be seen as developing in relation to the regulative framework that exists at any given time and which sets the boundaries for what is accepted as low-energy, or not.

Embodied Carbon Tools for Architects and Clients Early in the Design Process

Alterations of a building design are easier facilitated in the early stages of a building design where less strategic parameters are fixed. Tools for environmental assessments are aimed for decision support but are often used late in the building design process because the calculations rely on detailed volumes of material uses. This paradox can be addressed by using carbon profiles of a large set of prespecified, precalculated building elements together with limited, geometric input data of the early building design. The simplified approach allows for embodied carbon modelling within minutes and at a 5–10% margin of error compared to more detailed tools.

On the Modern History of Passive Solar Architecture: Exploring the Paradox of Nordic Environmental Design

This article examines the paradox of passive solar architecture within the Nordic context of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Regulative developments to reduce space heating demand since the 1970s’ oil crisis are explored, highlighting architectural responses and the rise in prominence of passive solar design. An empirical study of passive solar housing schemes documents architectural strategy, energy savings and extensive problems with overheating. A theoretical study examines how passive solar was seen as advantageous when viewed with the 1985–2005 space-heating paradigm, but actually resulted in the diametrically opposite, with extensive overheating and greater primary energy consumption, when viewed with the 2005–2020 environmental paradigm. The paradox of passive solar is then explored with a discussion of how the regulative straitjacket of the space-heating paradigm and the functionalist ideals of Nordic modernism meant that passive solar architecture became the de facto visual, aesthetic and functional expression of environmental design at that time. The article concludes by exploring the implications of the environmental paradigm for the architectural profession. By positing the architectural advantages of daylight and the studio typology, it is shown that overheating can be eliminated and primary energy consumption reduced with diametrically opposite design strategies.