Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 4
Meeting Future Requirements
Abstract
The chapter focuses on the identification of changes that will affect the
building sector in the next future. The following areas of concern were identified as
the most critical ones: energy and environment, changing requirements and deple-
tion of resources. The following part identifies three topics that are expected to
impact on buildings and the way we conceive, build and manage them. Of course,
it is extremely difficult to predict what will be the future in the next 20 years or so;
nonetheless, it is possible to point out a few aspects that designers and decision-
makers should consider to deliver buildings that can face future challenges.
Keywords
Climate change
·
Adaptive buildings
·
Life cycle
·
Adaptable and
flexible design
·
Smart grid
·
Design for deconstruction
The design of buildings has always been a complex matter, not least because life
cycles are extremely long and it is difficult to predict what will happen in decades.
Today, this challenge is made even more compelling because climate change is
accelerating and we may find ourselves in 2030 with a very different world from
the one we have known in the last century.
Buildings constructed today will very probably be still in use when fossil fuels
will be no longer available and should be ready to be retrofitted for other forms of
energy supply. Buildings should invest more on the “passive” behaviour rather than
on “eco-bling” technologies applied for greenwashing purposes (Liddell
2013
).
Flexibility and adaptability of buildings (not limited to internal fit-out, but including
the external envelope) seems to be a crucial point if our buildings are to face uncertain
conditions of climate and use. On the other hand, escalating costs for materials (due
to scarcity of resources) and maintenance (due to increased stress on the building as
a consequence of climate change) may push in the direction of self-healing structures
and materials, involving nanotechnologies and surface science (Turney
2009
).
Buildings will very likely become (the trend is already underway) more and more
akin to organisms, with feedback loops controlling its behaviour, managing energy
