Designing Sustainable Building

Sustainable building practice considers the social, financial and environmental impact of the building throughout the whole life cycle of the building, including the generation of waste during construction. Solid waste from construction and demolition activity accounts as one of the most significant spaces in the landfill. Study by Amaral et al. (2020) explores strategies that are proven to be effective to minimise the impact of the construction through waste management during the design process. Designers’ can play a huge role in ensuring that during the construction phase the waste generated will be minimal by accounting for waste starting from the design phase. 

One of the strategies for efficient waste management of a building construction is through off site fabrication or standardisation. Using prefabricated materials could reduce energy and waste as it could cut down the construction-related transport, reducing errors & damage, and improved construction schedule. The use of Building Information Management (BIM) Modelling also helps to detect problems and identify design clashes even before construction, thus limiting the potential generated waste. 

Further waste reduction in the construction can also be achieved by better material selection. For example, using high performance glazing can not only provide better insulation but also lessen energy use. Following the principle of reduce, reuse and recycle is another step that can be taken in the process of material selection. After modelling material use through BIM, by reusing and recycling materials shown the reduction of the total life cycle energy by 30%. 

Reference: 

Amaral, R. E., Brito, J., Buckman, M., Drake, E., Ilatova, E., Rice, P., ... & Abraham, Y. S. (2020). Waste Management and Operational Energy for Sustainable Buildings: A Review. Sustainability, 12(13), 5337.

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