Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
the process (design, construction, use, maintenance, demolition) together with the
broader, collective environmental effect of these components have to be consid-
ered jointly and in the long-term.
The goal of holistic design is to convert buildings and operations into carbon-
neutral architecture where the above issues are addressed while making the energy
used in their design and operations a sum net-zero gain (Hernandez and Kenny
2011
). It is a cradle-to-grave analysis of all embodied energy in the making of a
building, the use and the recycling of that product so it can be used again instead
of becoming waste. The goal is to eliminate waste entirely, by ensuring that all
constituent parts can be re-used in full, in a closed cycle, with no loss of quality.
Reaching the ambitious goals of the Smart-ECO vision requires an approach to
the design process that is radically different to the approach that became consoli-
dated in the 20th century. This typically saw an architect design a building, hand
it over to the engineers who may substantially change the design to suit issues of
cost, structure or energy thereby losing the opportunity of integration of architec-
ture and engineering. Any attempt to implement an integrated process needs to
address the complexity of building. Any building is the result of hundreds of linear
processes that are completed in order to obtain the final result. Poor integration
results in components being designed in isolation and value being lost. Poor com-
munication results in errors, omissions, and assumptions that result in over-sizing
systems, redundancy and gaps in knowledge and performance analysis.
Integrated building design can be defined as an advanced design-and-build
model to govern energy, resources and environmental quality decisions. The man-
agement of a complex decision-making process requires the efficient exchange of
information so that every professional can take informed decisions knowing their
impact on the building as a whole.
The aim of integrated planning is to achieve a holistic assessment of individual
aspects to gain both horizontal (interdisciplinary) and vertical (life cycle-related)
integration. It is therefore possible to introduce new findings and requirements
into the planning process from the beginning and implement efficient optimisation
techniques such as feedback, simulation of variants. The use of building informa-
tion modelling (BIM) helps the implementation of sustainable design at the early
stage of a project when the total capital costs of a building can be influenced effec-
tively (Jrade and Jalaei
2013
).
The holistic consideration of different objectives also means that quantifi-
able variables (e.g. energy efficiency) become strictly related to other qualitative
aspects (e.g. form of the building, image, traditional building techniques). An inte-
grated planning process should attempt to guarantee that both quantitative and
qualitative aspects are considered over the entire lifespan. A good integration hap-
pens through a continuously dynamic, iterative process. All issues are addressed
early and kept in play for as long as possible so that connections and relationships
can be optimised. The integrated design process—or integrative design process
(7group et al.
2009
)—can be described as a repeating pattern of research/analysis
and team workshops. Sustainability brings new challenges for engineers dealing
with the task of minimizing the use of natural resources while maximizing the use
