Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Sustainable office building'

Buildings account for 39 per cent of the global greenhouse gas emissions, therefore the way buildings are constructed and utilized plays an important role in the transition to a sustainable future. Environmental Certification Systems (ECS) functions as a catalysator for sustainable solutions within the building industry and is seen as a hygiene factor for property owners today. The market offers numerous environmental certifications for buildings to choose from, and Swedish property owners are frequently users of them. However, most of the environmental certification systems does not cover the social aspects of sustainability that directly include human health and wellbeing in the building. This has led to the creation of the sustainability certification WELL Building Standard – a global certification system for buildings that exclusively addresses the users in the building, in terms of health and wellbeing. There are currently 298 WELL-certified projects around the world, and in Sweden there are six property companies that have registered different project for the certification. Due to the Swedish property owners’ relatively modest efforts regarding the social sustainability work, this paper explores what the drivers is for these six companies into working with a WELL-certification. By exploring that, this study aims to contribute to the understanding on what can drive the willingness of corporations to invest in sustainability certifications in general, and in what ways a WELL-certification can fill a potential gap in the Swedish property market. The findings reveal that a WELL-certification has a unique selling point due to its human-centred approach. It can be a beneficial tool, both for property companies, who may attract new clients, as well as for the tenants that are renting their space, in terms of increasing their own employer brand and corporate reputation. According to Herzberg’s two-factor theory, this human centred approach can be used as motivation factor for the property owners, rather than a hygiene factor. The findings also reveal that there is a need in society for addressing health issues, due to the increasing numbers of sick leave in Sweden the past years. Furthermore, the study reveals that there have been a “competence gap” in the built environment for addressing this kind of issues and that a WELL-certification is therefore helpful in addressing areas of the built environment that the property owners never have thought of before.

This paper aims to explore how well green facility management has performed in Shanghai office building and finds the possible way to improve the situation. Together with two interviews, questionnaire based on benchmarking approach is conducted in a case study of the Asia Building, which lead to the conclusion that green facility management has done a fair work in Asia Building, and suggestions that laws and regulations related to green facility management should be established; governmental organization, the Trade Association of Shanghai Property Management, should take responsibility to improve the situation concerning to the issue; property management company should develop a healthy relationship with property owner and occupiers.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the long-term environmental performance effectiveness of heating and cooling systems between ‘sustainable’ and conventional office buildings. The key research question that this study tried to answear is, ‘To what extent do sustainable office buildings remain sustainable in the long run?’ On this basis, two hypotheses (HP) were tested:  HP1: Sustainable buildings remain sustainable in the long run.  HP2: Current indicators fulfil the role for determining long term sustainability. From the sustainability point of view, this study focused only on the environmental aspect. The word ‘sustainable’ has been used for identifying office buildings where environmental aspects have been taken into consideration through sustainability approaches. In order to address the first hypothesis, initially this study used a case study comparison approach to compare ‘sustainable’ with conventional office buildings, by comparing building design and heating-cooling system characteristics. This helped to raise understanding of the environmental characteristics that classify an office building as sustainable. Two case studies were used:  The first case study comparison consists of a new ‘sustainable’ BREEAM excellent certified office building from 2009 and a conventional office building from the 1960s that had no refurbishments.  The second case study comparison consists of a refurbished ‘sustainable’ BREEAM excellent certified office building compared to a conventional office building from the 1950s that had an upgrade in the heating system. The study then focused on assessing the current environmental performance of heating and cooling between the case study buildings. Therefore Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) methods were used including site visits, interviews, recording of heating and cooling systems, collection of heating-cooling consumption data, conducting thermographic surveys, applying Heating Degree Data (HDD) Evaluation and undertaking Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). LCA has played a key role in evaluating the long run environmental performance of heating and cooling systems. The LCA evaluated two performance indicators: a) energy consumption of heating and cooling for 2 years of operation and b) the raw-material consumption of heating and cooling system production. Further, hypothetical long run scenarios were developed to consider the consequences of the existing operational and embodied raw-material emissions in the long run. Sensitivity LCA analysis was also used in order to evaluate the environmental impacts of alternative scenarios of different low/zero carbon technologies if they were installed in the case study buildings. Uncertainty analysis was used to assess the significance of uncertainty in the data evaluated. The key outcome of this study was the need for developing a new Sustainability Indicator that can be used to support environment decision making in evaluating the long run environmental performance of heating and cooling systems in office buildings. The new indicator brings together all the research methods used in this study by developing further the existing energy indicator already integrated in existing Sustainable Assessment Methods (SAMs) and by developing a new indicator for raw-materials of heating and cooling systems. Suggestions for their integration on existing SAMs are also discussed. Finally the study ends with key conclusions and suggestions for further research.

Office building development in urban China has grown very rapidly in recent years, and this trend will continue in the future against the background of fast national economic growth. However, knowledge about China’s urban office buildings is very limited to date; especially characteristics of the environmental sustainability performance of this sector, such as energy use pattern, context-specific technical strategies and effective policies to improve its performance. It is evident that China has not yet achieved substantial results in its efforts to improve environmental sustainability in urban office buildings. Will urban office building construction lock in negative environmental impacts for the future? This dissertation presents a holistic approach to methods for the assessment of core environmental sustainability issues within the scope of office building in urban China, mainly from the perspective of building life cycle primary energy consumption and C02 emissions. It explores a series of prescribed measures and scenarios to assess cost-effective reduction of the office building sector’s environmental impacts, based on an integrated Excel spreadsheet-based method. The overall conclusions are: 1. The simplified technique for life cycle assessment of environmental sustainability can be effectively adopted at the early design stage as a practical tool to help designers understand the life cycle performance of various current office construction choices in this important sector. 2. For typical “wasteful” cases, a reduction of nearly 40% of the life cycle primary energy reduction (LCPE) can be achieved with less than three years of discounted payback periods through the combination of the selected cost-effective measures. 3. Based on the study of the maximum value of technical reduction between the average value of a wasteful case and the improved case adopting an overall improvement package in each office type, estimation shows that around 11.3 million MJ of annualised LCPE is locked in current existing office buildings, which takes nearly half of the total annualised LCPE in the sector and around 10% of the total primary energy use in the commercial building sector.

Sustainability is fundamentally transforming construction industries worldwide, resulting in an increased complexity of construction projects with a more divergent set of actors involved. A seamless transfer of knowledge between these actors is required. The gap between the performance of green buildings as designed and as built could be interpreted as an indication that this transfer is not immaculate. Nowadays almost every actor involved in the construction process claims to strive for sustainability. However, the way they perceive and translate it into practice varies widely between different project participants. Therefore a better understanding of how knowledge on sustainable construction is transferred and adopted is needed. A subsequent enhancement of this process could support a certain standard of sustainable building quality. Previous research indicated that social networks influence knowledge transfer (KT), as knowledge is personal and KT takes place through interaction of individuals. Moreover, social network analysis (SNA) provides the means to map the knowledge flow in a project environment and thus enables an understanding of how to enhance it. As a result SNA was used to compare KT practices in construction teams delivering office buildings to sustainable building standards in Germany and the UK. A literature review led to the establishment of a conceptual framework that characterizes the KT process. This was used to inform the research design, data collection and analysis. The research was carried out using a multiple case study approach. The data collection tools were mainly questionnaires with a combination of quantitative, qualitative and social network data. The data was analysed using a combination of descriptive statistics, cross tabulations, content analysis and SNA. The findings were used to revise the conceptual framework. The findings showed a lack of awareness and knowledge of sustainable construction. Moreover, analysis of the data concluded that KT on sustainable construction is influenced by so-called general enhancers/ inhibitors, such as age group and job level, and social network characteristics. Furthermore the results suggest benefits could be derived from employing a sustainability manager as a key contact and to enhance KT on sustainable construction. This research contributes to literature on KT in sustainable construction project teams from a social network perspective. It is the first of its kind comparing KT in construction teams delivering sustainable office buildings in Germany and the UK. The framework is the most important output of this research in terms of both contribution to knowledge and practice and can be used to support the examination of KT in sustainable construction projects. Furthermore this study facilitates the understanding of knowledge contents and types of sustainable construction knowledge.

This research explores the barriers and limitations of the interaction between building development processes in an attempt of an integrated decision support approach to improve building design for effective maintenance in the field of office building automation. Extensive coverage of literature and practice in office building industry over the last two decades indicates a wide diffusion and application of the information and communication technologies (ICT). While this has resulted in the adoption of advanced system integration in buildings, system redundancy and excessive expenditures are causing a major impact on the overall efficiency and has burdened building owners and occupiers with escalating maintenance costs. This phenomenon stimulates and warrants the re-examination of integrated building development, not just on system integration but also on the interdisciplinary development process integration particularly linking design and maintenance. Studies in this field revealed existing problems such as the inherent professional fragmentation, lack of historical information and service data, the first cost mentality of owners and developers, difficulties in forecasting future conditions and changes early in the design stage. With extensive use of qualitative information, this situation presents a great potential for the development of a decision support system exploring the communication and integration of design and maintenance phases, which has been one of the primary objectives of this research. In addition to literature studies, a questionnaire survey and a case study to identify industry concerns, feasible solutions, and practical procedure oriented approaches through knowledge extractions were carried out. A set of guidelines, a checklist for its implementation and prototype system for computerized decision support to design and maintenance of building automation systems were also produced. These strategic approaches to balance design and maintenance will help facilitate appropriate decision making in the early design stage for sustainable maintenance of buildings.

This research explores the barriers and limitations of the interaction between building development processes in an attempt of an integrated decision support approach to improve building design for effective maintenance in the field of office building automation. Extensive coverage of literature and practice in office building industry over the last two decades indicates a wide diffusion and application of the information and communication technologies (ICT). While this has resulted in the adoption of advanced system integration in buildings, system redundancy and excessive expenditures are causing a major impact on the overall efficiency and has burdened building owners and occupiers with escalating maintenance costs. This phenomenon stimulates and warrants the re-examination of integrated building development, not just on system integration but also on the interdisciplinary development process integration particularly linking design and maintenance. Studies in this field revealed existing problems such as the inherent professional fragmentation, lack of historical information and service data, the first cost mentality of owners and developers, difficulties in forecasting future conditions and changes early in the design stage. With extensive use of qualitative information, this situation presents a great potential for the development of a decision support system exploring the communication and integration of design and maintenance phases, which has been one of the primary objectives of this research. In addition to literature studies, a questionnaire survey and a case study to identify industry concerns, feasible solutions, and practical procedure oriented approaches through knowledge extractions were carried out. A set of guidelines, a checklist for its implementation and prototype system for computerized decision support to design and maintenance of building automation systems were also produced. These strategic approaches to balance design and maintenance will help facilitate appropriate decision making in the early design stage for sustainable maintenance of buildings.

O crescimento industrial, comercial e de serviços traz para as sociedades mais evoluídas uma série de benefícios, como o desenvolvimento econômico e o crescimento populacional, aliados a maiores oportunidades de emprego e renda. Entretanto, pela falta de uma consciência mais apurada sobre os possíveis impactos negativos de ritmo acelerado de crescimento, acaba-se verificando uma série de problemas sociais e, sobretudo, ambientais. Em razão disso, nos últimos anos, constata-se a preocupação de alguns setores da sociedade na busca do desenvolvimento fundamentado em práticas mais sustentáveis. Isso não tem sido diferente no setor da construção civil. A preocupação com a sustentabilidade nos empreendimentos é tema e foco de diversos eventos, tanto no meio acadêmico, como no profissional e governamental. Particularmente, o segmento de mercado de EDIFÍCIOS DE ESCRITÓRIOS CORPORATIVOS tem sido alvo de pressão para o uso de práticas mais sustentáveis em todo o seu ciclo de vida, desde sua concepção, projeto, implantação e operação até a sua revitalização. Para aferir a sustentabilidade dos EDIFÍCIOS DE ESCRITÓRIOS CORPORATIVOS, muitas empresas do setor buscam certificações de origem estrangeira, que possuem certas limitações em sua aplicabilidade no Brasil, as quais são discutidas neste trabalho. Neste contexto, esta tese visa à construção da CERTIFICAÇÃO DA SUSTENTABILIDADE DE EDIFÍCIOS DE ESCRITÓRIOS CORPORATIVOS no Brasil, que é oportuna e necessária para tratar das condições de contorno e de realidade nacional. Para isso, foram realizados: [i] levantamento do estado da arte deste tema; [ii] construção da MATRIZ DE ATRIBUTOS para a avaliação da sustentabilidade dos EDIFÍCIOS DE ESCRITÓRIOS CORPORATIVOS; [iii] entrevistas com formadores de opinião deste segmento do mercado imobiliário; [iv] visitas em EDIFÍCIOS DE ESCRITÓRIOS CORPORATIVOS relevantes para as arbitragens iniciais; [v] a construção dos procedimentos, regras e rotina, com testes de validação e calibragem do SISTEMA PARA CLASSIFICAÇÃO.
The industrial, commercial and service growth provided the developed societies with many benefits, such as the economic development and the population increase, along with greater work and income opportunities. However, due to the lack of a better understanding about any possible negative impacts the fast growth pace created many social and environmental issues. Because of that, in the last years, there has been a greater concern of a few society groups aiming at using more sustainable practices. The civil construction segment has been no different. The concern with sustainability is a primary topic of several corporate events, either academically, professionally and governmentally. Especially the Office Buildings market has been a target for the use of more sustainable practices, both in its design, project, implementation, operation and revitalization. In order to measure the sustainability of Office Buildings, many companies seek for foreign certificates, with specific limitations as for their use in Brazil, which will be detailed in this paper. In this context, this Thesis aims at designing a system for the SUSTAINABILITY CERTIFICATE OF OFFICES BUILDINGS in Brazil, convenient and needed to treat the national conditions. That required: [i] a bibliographical research on the topic; [ii] building the ATTRIBUTE MATRIX to evaluate the sustainability of OFFICES BUILDINGS; [iii] interviews with influent people in the real estate segment; [iv] visits to relevant OFFICES BUILDINGS for the initial arbitrations; [v] setting the procedures, rules and routine, with validation tests.

Although requirements in relation to indoor environment quality (IEQ) have been made in green building rating systems such as LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and China GBL (Green Building Label) to promote occupant comfort, health and productivity, in practice, very little is known about user perception and satisfaction with IEQ in green buildings. Recruitment and post-occupancy evaluation of 10 office buildings (8 green buildings and 2 non-green buildings) and their 696 occupants for this study generated a dataset representing many potential avenues of inquiry. From the occupant’s point of view, the green offices in buildings with whole-building certification were significantly more satisfactory than the non-green offices, whereas the green offices certified only on the basis of their interiors were comparable to the non-green offices. Mixed-mode ventilation performed much better than other ventilation types (central air-conditioning and split air-conditioning). However, the mixed-mode green buildings were invariably perceived to be too cold in winter. A correlation model showed that green building users tended to appreciate a well ventilated, daylit, and quiet indoor environment for their health and productivity. The findings in the study made critical suggestions with regard to pursuing green building certification and addressing human factors in sustainable building design and research. The strengths and weaknesses of this study were discussed to inform future studies.
published_or_final_version
Architecture
Doctoral
Doctor of Philosophy

Global warming induced by the emissions of greenhouse gases is one of the most important global environmental issues facing the world today. Using the building simulation techniques, this research investigates the interaction and relationship between global warming and built environment, particularly for the air-conditioned office buildings. The adaptation potential of various building designs is also evaluated. Based on the descriptive statistics method, the Pearson Product Moment Correlation and the regression analysis method, ten years of historical hourly climatic data for Australia are first analyzed. The distribution patterns of key weather parameters between a Test Reference Year (TRY) and multiple years (MYs), and between relatively cold and hot years are also compared. The possible cross-correlation between several different weather variables are then assessed and established. These findings form a useful basis and provide insights for the development of future weather models under "hot" global warming conditions and the explanation of building performance at different locations. Based on a review of the existing weather data generation models and findings from historic climatic data analysis, an effective method to generate approximate future hourly weather data suitable for the study of the impact of global warming is presented. This is achieved by imposing the future temperature projection from the global climate model on top of the historically observed weather data. Depending on the level of information available for the prediction of future weather conditions, this method allows either the method of retaining to current level, constant offset method or diurnal modelling method to be used. Therefore it represents a more comprehensive and holistic approach than previous one that have been used to convert the available weather data and climatic information to a format suitable for building simulation study. An example of the application of this method to the different global warming scenarios in Australia is also presented. The performance of a representative office building is then examined in details under the five weather scenarios (present, 2030 Low, 2030 High, 2070 Low and 2070 High) and over all eight capital cities in Australia. The sample building used for this study is an air conditioned, square shape, ten storey office tower with a basement carpark, which is recommended by the Australian Building Codes Board to represent the typical office building found in the central business district (CBD) of the capital cities or major regional centres in Australia. Through building computer simulations, the increased cooling loads imposed by potential global warming is quantified. The probable indoor temperature increases and overheating problems due to heat load exceeding the capacity of installed air-conditioning systems are also presented. It is shown that in terms of the whole building indoor thermal environment, existing buildings would generally be able to adapt to the increasing warming of the 2030 year Low and High scenarios projections and the 2070 year Low scenario projection. For the 2070 year High scenario, the study indicates that the existing office buildings in all capital cities will suffer from the overheating problem. To improve the building thermal comfort to an acceptable standard (ie, less than 5% of occupied hours having indoor temperature over 25°), a further increase of 4-10% of building cooling load is required. The sensitivity of different office building zoning (i.e. zone at different floors and/or with different window orientation) to the potential global warming is also investigated. It is shown that for most cities, the ground floor, and the South or Core zone would be most sensitive to the external temperature change and has the highest tendency to having the overheating problem. By linking building energy use to CO2 emissions, the possible increase of CO2 emissions due to increased building energy use is also estimated. The adaptation potential of different designs of building physical properties to global warming is then examined and compared. The parametric factors studied include the building insulation levels, window to wall ratio, window glass types, and internal load density. It is found that overall, an office building with a lower insulation level, smaller window to wall ratio and/or a glass type with lower shading coefficient, and lower internal load density will have the effect of lowering building cooling load and total energy use, and therefore have a better potential to adapt to the warming external climate. This phenomenon can be linked to the nature of internal-load dominated office-building characteristics. Based on these findings, a series of design and adaptation strategies have been proposed and evaluated.

Global warming induced by the emissions of greenhouse gases is one of the most important global environmental issues facing the world today. Using the building simulation techniques, this research investigates the interaction and relationship between global warming and built environment, particularly for the air-conditioned office buildings. The adaptation potential of various building designs is also evaluated. Based on the descriptive statistics method, the Pearson Product Moment Correlation and the regression analysis method, ten years of historical hourly climatic data for Australia are first analyzed. The distribution patterns of key weather parameters between a Test Reference Year (TRY) and multiple years (MYs), and between relatively cold and hot years are also compared. The possible cross-correlation between several different weather variables are then assessed and established. These findings form a useful basis and provide insights for the development of future weather models under "hot" global warming conditions and the explanation of building performance at different locations. Based on a review of the existing weather data generation models and findings from historic climatic data analysis, an effective method to generate approximate future hourly weather data suitable for the study of the impact of global warming is presented. This is achieved by imposing the future temperature projection from the global climate model on top of the historically observed weather data. Depending on the level of information available for the prediction of future weather conditions, this method allows either the method of retaining to current level, constant offset method or diurnal modelling method to be used. Therefore it represents a more comprehensive and holistic approach than previous one that have been used to convert the available weather data and climatic information to a format suitable for building simulation study. An example of the application of this method to the different global warming scenarios in Australia is also presented. The performance of a representative office building is then examined in details under the five weather scenarios (present, 2030 Low, 2030 High, 2070 Low and 2070 High) and over all eight capital cities in Australia. The sample building used for this study is an air conditioned, square shape, ten storey office tower with a basement carpark, which is recommended by the Australian Building Codes Board to represent the typical office building found in the central business district (CBD) of the capital cities or major regional centres in Australia. Through building computer simulations, the increased cooling loads imposed by potential global warming is quantified. The probable indoor temperature increases and overheating problems due to heat load exceeding the capacity of installed air-conditioning systems are also presented. It is shown that in terms of the whole building indoor thermal environment, existing buildings would generally be able to adapt to the increasing warming of the 2030 year Low and High scenarios projections and the 2070 year Low scenario projection. For the 2070 year High scenario, the study indicates that the existing office buildings in all capital cities will suffer from the overheating problem. To improve the building thermal comfort to an acceptable standard (ie, less than 5% of occupied hours having indoor temperature over 25°), a further increase of 4-10% of building cooling load is required. The sensitivity of different office building zoning (i.e. zone at different floors and/or with different window orientation) to the potential global warming is also investigated. It is shown that for most cities, the ground floor, and the South or Core zone would be most sensitive to the external temperature change and has the highest tendency to having the overheating problem. By linking building energy use to CO2 emissions, the possible increase of CO2 emissions due to increased building energy use is also estimated. The adaptation potential of different designs of building physical properties to global warming is then examined and compared. The parametric factors studied include the building insulation levels, window to wall ratio, window glass types, and internal load density. It is found that overall, an office building with a lower insulation level, smaller window to wall ratio and/or a glass type with lower shading coefficient, and lower internal load density will have the effect of lowering building cooling load and total energy use, and therefore have a better potential to adapt to the warming external climate. This phenomenon can be linked to the nature of internal-load dominated office-building characteristics. Based on these findings, a series of design and adaptation strategies have been proposed and evaluated.

China has adopted Sustainable Development as a national strategy for all industries. In civil construction sector, sustainability is regarded as the development of Green Building in China. Since 2000, China has introduced a series of policies and laws to promote Green Building. Green Building was defined as buildings that are “energy-efficient, land-efficient, water-efficient, and material-efficient” and emit “minimal pollution” in during its entire life cycle, and meets a specified standard for indoor environment at the same time. However, energy efficiency is the central issue of current Green Building development in China, while issues of resources and pollution are neglected, which is partly due to China’s energy structure. Social and economic aspects are also always ignored. The main aim of this thesis is to map pathways towards more comprehensive frameworks for how residential areas in China could be constructed in a more sustainable way in hot –summer and cold-winter area. Case study was the main method used to examine the specifications of Green Residential Building in China. This paper offers a general overview of the current green trend in China and presents a specific analysis on three cases to search for the proper approach for China’s unique situation by three specific cases representing three types of Green Building: Modern Vernacular Architecture, Eco-office and Mass-housing, according to their features in scale, location and function. This paper then presents a specific integrated sustainability analysis of the Landsea Housing Project in Nanjing, a hot-summer/cold-winter zone. Hammarby Sjöstad, a cutting edge project in Stockholm, is also discussed as a reference area from which experiences can be drawn for China. The aim was to improve the framework for construction of residential buildings in China in a more sustainable way, from energy efficiency to integrated sustainability. The paper also discusses the relationship between the economic growth and energy consumption in the fast-growing situation, presents several scenarios depicting energy and comfort and makes suggestions for China. The roles of government, developers and residents are also addressed. The paper argues that an adaptive and holistic approach, which must be expanded from both spatial scale and temporal span, should be established for the Green Residential Building development in China, as an effective way to meet the sustainability goal.
QC 20101013

The need for a more authoritative approach to investment decision-making and cost control has been a requirement of office spending for many years now. The commercial offices find itself in an increasingly demanding position to allocate its budgets as wisely and prudently as possible. The significant percentage of total spending on buildings demands a more accurate and adaptable method of achieving quality of service within the constraints on the budgets. By adoption of life cycle costing techniques with risk management, practitioners have the ability to make accurate forecasts of likely future running costs. This thesis presents a novel framework (Artificial Neural Networks and probabilistic simulations) for modelling of operating and maintenance historical costs as well as economic performance measures of LCC. The methodology consisted of eight steps and presented a novel approach to modelling the LCC of operating and maintenance costs of two sustainable commercial office buildings. Finally, a set of performance measurement indicators were utilised to draw inference from these results. Therefore, the contribution that this research aimed to achieve was to develop a dynamic LCC framework for sustainable commercial office buildings, and by means of two existing buildings, demonstrate how assumption modelling can be utilised within a probabilistic environment. In this research, the key themes of risk assessment, probabilistic assumption modelling and stochastic assessment of LCC has been addressed. Significant improvements in existing LCC models have been achieved in this research in an attempt to make the LCC model more accurate and meaningful to estate managers and high-level capital investment decision makers A new approach to modelling historical costs and forecasting these costs in sustainable commercial office buildings is presented based upon a combination of ANN methods and stochastic modelling of the annual forecasted data. These models provide a far more accurate representation of long-term building costs as the inherent risk associated with the forecasts is easily quantifiable and the forecasts are based on a sounder approach to forecasting than what was previously used in the commercial sector. A novel framework for modelling the facilities management costs in two sustainable commercial office buildings is also presented. This is not only useful for modelling the LCC of existing commercial office buildings as presented here, but has wider implications for modelling LCC in competing option modelling in commercial office buildings. The processes of assumption modelling presented in this work can be modified easily to represent other types of commercial office buildings. Discussions with policy makers in the real estate industry revealed that concerns were held over how these building costs can be modelled given that available historical data represents wide spending and are not cost specific to commercial office buildings. Similarly, a pilot and main survey questionnaire was aimed at ascertaining current level of LCC application in sustainable construction; ranking drivers and barriers of sustainable commercial office buildings and determining the applications and limitations of LCC. The survey result showed that respondents strongly agreed that key performance indicators and economic performance measures need to be incorporated into LCC and that it is important to consider the initial, operating and maintenance costs of building when conducting LCC analysis, respondents disagreed that the current LCC techniques are suitable for calculating the whole costs of buildings but agreed that there is a low accuracy of historical cost data.

Buildings worldwide account for over a third of carbon emissions, which have a tremendous impact on climate changes. Meanwhile, their contribution in Hong Kong is much higher, being up to 60%. Therefore, low carbon building (LCB) has been regarded as an effective approach to reducing carbon emissions worldwide especially in Hong Kong. There have also emerged a wide range of measures for achieving LCBs. However, the effective utilization of LCB measures faces the challenge of identifying and selecting those proven to be environmentally, technically, financially and socially sustainable in the long term. This challenge is particularly significant at the design stage of LCBs due to the limited or unknown design information. These problems may be well addressed by the multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA). However, the current body of knowledge of LCB has two limitations. Firstly, most of previous research did not categorize the possible LCB measures from a systematic perspective, which results in fragmented evaluation. Secondly, the MCDA method still has not been widely used for solving the decision-making problems regarding LCB thus lacking the supportive information for its effective utilization. In addressing these limitations, this research aims to develop a MCDA model for the selection of appropriate LCB measures for office buildings in Hong Kong. Office buildings are a great representative of commercial buildings which contribute more than 60% of the carbon emissions of the building sector in Hong Kong. This research was carried out through the combination of a critical literature review, a questionnaire survey, a project case study and personal interviews. The literature review was focused on examining the frameworks for identifying LCB measures and selecting decision criteria. A questionnaire survey was carried out with 355 BEAM Professionals in Hong Kong, which expanded and verified the results from the literature review. The case study was conducted with an office building project using building performance simulation (BPS) for further investigation. The interviews were semi-structured in nature, carried out with 10 construction experts in Hong Kong. Through the research 10 LCB measures and 6 decision criteria for the LCB measure selection were identified, which were mostly used or considered for office buildings in Hong Kong. The developed MCDA model contains 5 modules that help to structure the decision-making process. The relative importance of the 10 LCB measures was obtained by a general implementation with proper weighting method and MCDA method. The results demonstrate the importance of lighting and building envelope for low carbon office building design and the need for accurate data for informed decision-making. Software eQuest was used for evaluating the carbon reductions in the case study building, and Software Visual PROMETHEE was adopted for selecting the best alternative among the LCB measures investigated. The developed MCDA model should support design decision-making for selecting appropriate LCB measures for office building projects. Despite the adopted multi-criteria decision-making, building energy regulations and government incentives in favour of building carbon reductions were mostly expected for delivering LCBs in Hong Kong.
published_or_final_version
Civil Engineering
Master
Master of Philosophy

Buildings account for about 40% of global energy consumption and contribute 30% of all CO2 emissions. This research project investigated extant office building development in Abuja, Nigeria with a view to establishing typical energy performances. Energy end uses were critically analysed to identify energy saving potentials. The research evaluated design variables that can be used to facilitate low energy building design and determine enhanced performances in the Nigerian and regional context. The research initially adopted a case study approach that involved fieldwork surveys and walk-through energy audits in which 22 office buildings were investigated belonging to four performance based categories developed for the research. Also, based on a building inventory survey form developed for this research, building information obtained included the buildings physical components, energy use management and energy end uses. This enabled typical energy performances of the office building categories to be deduced using three widely used indicators; the Energy Use Index (EUI), the Energy Cost Index (ECI) and the Carbon Emission Index (CEI). Also, disaggregated energy end use showed an average distribution pattern of air conditioning, lighting, equipment and building services in the ratio 59%, 15%, 43% and 4% respectively. This showed the potentials of energy savings by reducing cooling load. With the aid of computer based simulation (using IES-VE software) the research further evaluated the impacts of nine architectural design variables (identified from design guidance for low energy buildings as well as design recommendations for tropical climates) on building energy consumption using simplified models of the case study office building categories. From all these, an impact hierarchy of the design variables was deduced and the appropriate low energy design strategies were developed. This showed potential energy savings of up to 20% was achievable. Also benchmarks for enhanced building performance targets for all the categories were proposed for the furtherance of a sustainable built environment in a developing world context.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2011.
The aim of this research study is to determine the cost gradient for Green Star SA-rated office buildings in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Very little work has been done on this subject, due to the fact that the „green‟ building movement is still in its infancy in South Africa. The Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA) has developed a Green Star SA building rating mechanism based on the Australian green star-rating system. This rating system provides the building environment with an objective tool to evaluate how green a building actually is. This report includes a review of international literature, supplemented by a case study of two designed „green‟ buildings. The key objective was to determine if there is a cost premium to a Green Star-rated office building in the Western Cape. The case study subjects were two office buildings planned for an office development at Paardevlei, Somerset West in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The findings of this case study have confirmed first indications that South Africa, and specifically the Western Cape, should be no different to the rest of the world and specifically the United States and Australia when it comes to the first costs of constructing „green‟ buildings. The case study showed that there should be no cost premium for a „green‟ building that conforms to the minimum standard of 4 Star Green Star SA Office Version 1 and that a one to three per cent premium could be expected for a 5 Star Green Star SA Office Version 1 rating. It was found that the best way to calculate if a premium was paid for a „green‟ building is to compare the cost per area of the final „green‟ product with the cost per area of the original budget. Adding costs while adding „green‟ attributes proved to be an effective and convenient way of arriving at a theoretical premium for a progressively „greener‟ building and thus calculating the cost gradient for Green Star SA-rated office buildings. The conclusion is that „green‟ attributes must be incorporated into the design at the earliest possible stage and then managed in order to keep within the original budget with a clear goal of which categories are to be targeted and what rating would like to be achieved, in order to achieve a „green‟ building at no additional cost.

Byggsektorn genererar årligen stora ekologiska fotavtryck genom rivning av byggnader, då behovet av allt fler byggnader ökar i städerna, men det dessvärre råder en brist på exploaterbar mark. En alternativ lösning för att staden fortfarande ska kunna växa är att bygga på höjden och på så sätt förtäta städerna. Detta görs idag ofta genom rivning av den befintliga byggnaden för att kunna ersätta den med nybyggnation, vilket inte alls är hållbart. Det är inte rimligt att riva fullt fungerande byggnader av bra kvalité enbart för att öka mängden LOA1 och BOA2. Återanvändning är nyckeln för ett mer hållbart byggande och en alternativ lösning för att öka LOA och BOA är då att genom påbyggnation addera ytterligare våningar på redan befintliga byggnader. Syftet med denna utredning är att underlätta beslutstagandet i utredandet av det befintliga beståndet. Genom att analysera byggnaders potential för påbyggnation i tidigt skede så kan riskerna minimeras för oväntade kostnader.Vi har genom en kvalitativ utredning som främst tagits fram genom intervjuer med branschkunniga, arbetat för att identifiera mönster hos fyra redan slutförda påbyggnationer som gjorts av Fabege. Vi anser att genom att identifiera de fallgropar som kan uppkomma vid arbeten med påbyggnationer som ekonomiskt och tidsmässigt kan minimera risk och förhindra problem. Detta utförs i förhoppning att uppmuntra fler byggaktörer att påbörja fler påbyggnationer, eftersom påbyggnader i dagsläget associeras med krångel och oväntade kostnader, vilket gör att många aktörer inte vågar försöka. Denna metod som tas fram blir i form av en lathund som stegvis kan följas, där samtliga centrala faktorer vilka vi i denna utredning kallar benchmarks3 gås igenom. Varje central faktor som bedömdes som avgörande för en lyckad påbyggnad klassades i skala A, B och C för hur pass viktig den faktorn ansågs för att klara av en storskalig påbyggnad. Med storskaliga påbyggnationer menar vi främst större kontorsbyggnader där cirka 4–5 våningar är aktuellt att byggas på.För att enkelt kunna göra bedömningen så inkluderar lathunden ett polärdiagram där de olika faktorerna sammanställts. Genom ifyllning av denna, utifrån den befintliga byggnadens förutsättningar kan utredaren då få en visuell överblick över vilka faktorer som kan komma att vara hinder under byggarbetets gång.Lathunden inkluderar även en stegvis beskrivning på hur processen inleds för en påbyggnation och även fördjupningspunkter som ska ses över i tidigt skede för att minimera framtida kostnader och svårigheter.Nyckeln till en lyckad påbyggnation är goda kunskaper och grundligt förarbete. Därför tar vi fram denna lathund för att upplysa vad som är viktigt att se över i tidigt skede och lägger en god grund kunskapsmässigt och översiktmässigt. Detta för att fler byggnader ska kunna prövas som potentiella påbyggnationer.
The construction sector generates large ecological footprints annually through the demolition of buildings, as the need for more and more buildings increases in the cities, but unfortunately there is a shortage of exploitable land. An alternative solution for the city still being able to grow is to build on the height and thus densify the cities. This is often done today by demolition of the existing building in order to be able to replace it with new construction, which is not at all sustainable. It is not reasonable to demolish fully functional buildings of good quality only to increase the amount of LOA and BOA. Recycling is the key to a more sustainable construction and an alternative solution for increasing LOA and BOA is to add additional floors to already existing buildings by extension. The purpose of this investigation is to facilitate the decision making in the investigation of the existing stock. By analyzing the potential of buildings for upgrading at an early stage, the risks can be minimized for unexpected costs.Through a qualitative study, which was mainly produced through interviews with industry experts, we have worked to identify patterns of four already completed extensions made by Fabege. We believe that by identifying the pitfalls that can arise during construction with extension work can economically and temporally minimize risk and prevent problems. This is done in the hope of encouraging more companies in the field to start more constructions of this kind, as this type of building is currently associated with hassle and unexpected costs, which means that many players do not dare to try. This method that is developed will be in the form of a “reference card” that can be followed step by step, where all the key factors that we in this investigation call “benchmarks” are reviewed. Each central factor that was judged to be crucial for a successful extension was classified in scale A, B and C for how important this factor was considered to cope with a large-scale extension. By large-scale superstructures we mean mainly larger office buildings where approximately 4-5 floors are currently being built.To be able to easily make the assessment, the crib includes a polar diagram in which the various factors are compiled. By filling this in on the basis of the existing building's conditions, the investigator can then get a visual overview of what factors may be obstacles during the construction work.The guide also includes a step-by-step description of how the process begins for an extension and also in-depth points to be reviewed at an early stage to minimize future costs and difficulties.The key to a successful extension is good knowledge and thorough preparation. Therefore, we present this reference card to inform what is important to revise at an early stage and put a good foundation of knowledge and overview. This means that more buildings can be tested as potential additions.

As societies evolve, offices have become the places were the majority of working activities take place. Occupants’ comfort in office buildings has always been a very important issue in the building sector and therefore guidelines regarding indoor comfort standards have been developed throughout the years. Nevertheless, there is a need for investments on new and innovative ideas which will go beyond the existing guidelines and move towards a more sustainable and human oriented office environment.The present thesis aims at promoting this idea of sustainable offices by developing and presenting an innovative technological method which will provide the opportunity to measure the office workers’ perceived comfort in real time. This in its turn will enable the building sector stakeholders to operate office buildings in a more sustainable way in terms of building services provision to their occupants.In order to achieve these objectives, the first part of the thesis is dedicated in describing the basic indoor environmental components of the office environment as well as the possible associations between improved indoor environmental quality and occupants’ health, wellbeing and productivity. The second part aims to provide a detailed presentation of the existing or emerging methods which are currently used in order to predict or directly measure occupants’ perceived comfort in office places while in the same time discussing their current capabilities and limitations. In the final part, our proposed method, which could be used for the purposes of real time perceived comfort measurements, is presented. This proposed method includes four different steps which are separately presented with detailed instructions regarding their proper implementation.

A racionalização do uso da água é necessária para contribuir com a redução do desperdício e com o uso consciente. A cidade de São Paulo se encontra em nível crítico de escassez de água, devido ao aumento da população, da demanda e da falta de tratamento dos efluentes, realizando a captação de água para abastecimento em bacias hídricas cada vez mais distantes. A presente pesquisa tem como objetivo analisar o uso racional da água em edifícios de escritórios, verificando os procedimentos, métodos, técnicas, tecnologias e práticas adotadas para a racionalização do recurso. Descreve alguns conceitos sobre conservação da água; qualidade da água; uso potável e não potável; consumo; medidas de economia; substituição de fontes: aproveitamento de água pluvial; lençol freático; poço artesiano; reúso de água; certificação ambiental. O processo de certificação ambiental em edifícios tem contribuído com medidas de incentivo e conscientização do uso racional da água. Entre os selos certificadores ambientais observados estão o LEED; AQUA; SELO CASA AZUL CAIXA; e o processo de etiquetagem PROCEL EDIFICA na bonificação para a redução de consumo de água. Estudos de casos foram realizados, comparando o uso racional da água em um edifício de escritórios certificado pelo selo LEED com nove casos de edifícios de escritórios não certificados, situados em uma mesma região na cidade de São Paulo. Foram observadas as técnicas, procedimentos e tecnologias utilizadas em cada caso, e avaliados os benefícios da certificação ambiental para o uso racional da água, com objetivo de realização de análises comparativas qualitativas e quantitativas entre os casos. Por fim, a conclusão do trabalho destaca procedimentos que auxiliam no desenvolvimento de projetos de edifícios de escritórios para o uso racional da água.
In order to reduce water waste and encourage consumption awareness it is necessary to develop a rational use of water supply. The city of São Paulo currently faces a critical level of water, with scarcity due to population and demand growth, and lack of wastewater treatment, capturing a getting water from increasingly distant supply watersheds. This research aims at analyzing the rational water use in office buildings, checking procedures, methods, techniques, technologies and practices adopted for resource rationalization. Some the concepts of water conservation, water quality, potable and non potable water consumption, saving measures; font substitution: use of rainwater, groundwater, artesian well, reclaimed water, environmental certification are herein included. The environmental certification process for buildings has contributed with incentives and awareness of water conservation. Among the environmental certification seals we have the LEED, AQUA, CASA AZUL CAIXA SEAL, and the labeling process PROCEL EDIFICA to rebate water consumption. Case studies were conducted, comparing the rational use of water in an office building certified by the LEED, with nine cases of non-certified office buildings located in the same region in the city of São Paulo. Techniques, procedures and technologies used in each case were observed and were assessed the benefits of the environmental certification for the rational use of water, with objective of carrying out comparative the qualitative and quantitative analysis between cases. This paper finally presents procedures have been described to assist projects development of projects of office buildings seeking a more rational use of water.

The civil engineering and architectural communities are highly focused, these days, on designing buildings that maximize utilization of energy available from natural resources. This dissertation presents a quantitative study of the effect of high-rise office building morphology on energy and structural performances for the major climates. The parameters of the building morphologies are varied - the building footprint shape, the placement of the structural core/walls, and the building orientation. The energy analysis is performed using Autodesk Ecotect Analysis 2011; while using SAP2000 for the structure analysis and design. The key observations are: 1) the building morphology has a significant effect on the annual energy consumption, 2) placement of the structural core/walls in the east and west sides significantly improve the energy performance, 3) the tradeoff in the cost of placing the structural core/walls to maximize operating energy efficiency is too great, 4) for built to code buildings the energy demand may be considered marginally sensitive to changes in aspect ratio, and 5) high quality thermal properties of code-built envelope systems offer more flexibility to designers with regard to the building site planning without creating negative impacts on total energy demand.

An extensive number of studies have been conducted around the world to develop building performance assessment systems (BPASs) to measure the sustainability of building designs and the built environment in general. However, it has been revealed that most existing BPASs are single-dimensional in their structure; hence, inadequate in addressing many of the non-environmental priorities of emerging/developing countries. Malaysia is one of these countries in need of a context-specific system, especially when the necessary balance between socio-economic and ecological systems – to avoid further environmental damage – has not yet been reached. Therefore, the aim of this research is to develop an appropriate assessment framework that enables sustainability to be addressed and incorporated in office building development, relevant to emerging/developing countries, particularly the Malaysian context. Since sustainability and the framework must be context specific, this study adopted a mixedmethods approach, particularly using the exploratory sequential design i.e. a qualitative followed by a quantitative phase. The goal of the qualitative phase was to identify the most essential assessment criteria. This entailed a synthesis of results from research conducted in three stages: 1) wide-ranging literature review; 2) in-depth, semi-structured, open-ended interviews; and 3) focus groups discussion. The literature review findings from the first stage were synthesized to reveal the relevant assessment criteria and to formulate the requirements for developing the assessment framework. These criteria were further refined in the second and third stages conducted with experts from various backgrounds of the Malaysian construction industry. The criteria identified from, and refined in, the qualitative phase were then brought into the quantitative phase for the purpose of assigning their weighting levels. This phase involved a cross-sectional questionnaire survey in which more than 200 local building stakeholders participated. Synthesizing the above research, and the presentation of the tentative assessment framework to local experts for validation, this thesis finally proposes the Validated Comprehensive Malaysian Office Building Sustainability Assessment (MOBSA) Framework, composed of the followings attributes: 1) 88 Criteria, grouped under 17 Sub-Issues, which in turn are grouped under 3 sustainability Issues; 2) performance benchmarks for each criterion applicable to all phases of building assessment, derived based on theory and expert opinions; and 3) scoring system. The framework was applied to a case study building to identify criteria with missing input data. A comparison of the building’s overall results with those of an existing environmental-focused BPAS indicates that the building achieved a very high overall score in terms of its environmental design performance but scored lower when assessed based on the whole concept or three dimensions of sustainability. The MOBSA framework will potentially encourage a continuous learning process, enhancing stakeholders’ understanding of their roles and responsibilities in supporting sustainability throughout the life cycle of their projects; and, hence, stimulating needed changes in the Malaysian construction industry. This research also contributes to the development of a new model or approach, particularly appropriate for emerging/developing countries, through which a country-specific building sustainability assessment framework may be established that takes relevant priorities into account. In doing so, emerging/developing countries will ultimately have an appropriate basis to create sustainable construction industries, alongside efforts in developed countries to achieve global changes necessary for the future.
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Design, 2011

碩士
國立成功大學
建築學系專班
92
Sustainable Development is a worldwide trend that is analyzed from the lately international conference. It is in search of a system that can provide comprehensive performance on the environment-oriented, energy-saving and occupant-healthy approaches. This paper represents a demonstration project to renovate the existing building instead of the sustainable concepts. The renovation project adopts the POE (post-occupancy evaluation) method. These field-measurement results for the determination of the equipment capacities will be examined via the quantitative assessments that were LIGHTSCAPE for Illumination and CFD for Thermal Comfort. After renewal, it will demonstrate the quantitative assessment with the field-measurement results. Proposed a standard procedure harmonized with practical state for the designers and architects. Our major findings were as below: 1.Critical affected factors of interior physical environmental investigation Through measurement and examination, the critical affected factors were“Illumination” that were average illuminance of the indoor ambience and glare ,“Thermal Comfort” that was indoor average temperature, and“Indoor Air Quality”(IAQ) that were PM10, CO2 , HCHO and TVOC. 2.Expectation of an improvement efficient Compared with the original in Thermal Comfort, Indoor average temperature of assembling the “outer shading devices” could lower 2.5℃ that simulated at the outdoor maximum temperature in the summer solstice, and lower 0.8℃ that simulated at the outdoor maximum temperature in the winter. The optimum state of Illumination simulation were the 45º shutters of the "outer shading devices" assembled on East, West and South walls. The original measured results compared with simulated-results amounted to a high-relation. The relation coefficient (R2) is 0.99, and a low incidence of assembling the “outer shading devices”. 3.Verification of the sustainable approaches Compared with the renewal that had assembled the “outer shading devices” in Thermal Comfort, the Indoor average temperature difference was 0.5℃ between the indoor measured result and the simulated-result that simulated the Indoor average temperature by the outdoor measured temperature. Between the simulated-results that one was simulated the Indoor average temperature by the outdoor measured temperature; and the other was by a theory, the Indoor average temperature difference was only 0.2℃. Proved a practicable assessment procedure, demonstrated the numerical simulation, through CFD techniques only by the outdoor measured temperature, approximated to the field-measurement results. The Illumination simulation of the renewal was in accordance with the original. The relation coefficient (R2) is 0.94 between the measured results with simulated-results. Verified a practical evaluation by the numerical simulation performed before the renovation.

Dealing with the issue of buildings showing characteristics of sick building syndrome, could result in occupants suffering negative side effects. Healthy living is a primary need for society. Everyday pollution in society has led to these negative outcomes of physical and psychological well-being of space users. When investigating factors such as natural light, colour, fresh air, visual contact with water and nature or noise pollution, it is found that exposure to such natural elements positively influences human behaviour, health and productivity in a live, work and play environment. This dissertation is aimed at developing an understanding conducted under the hypothesis of how architectural environments, through the theory of environmental psychology: a study of the relationship between natural environments, affect human behaviour and well-being. A healthy environment requires regular contact with nature promoting physical and psychological benefits, crucial to an individual’s health and happiness. By reducing sick building syndrome, it could increase performance and improve overall health and well-being. Occupants of the chosen case studies completed questionnaires through distribution and structured interviews personally conducted, focusing on a qualitative method. Assessing and evaluating the aims, objectives and key questions and understanding of how Biophilic Architecture influences human behaviour and well-being was obtained. Case (Alexander Forbes and Nedbank Ridgeview) and precedents studies (Prisma Nürnberg and Khoo Teck Paut Hospital) were investigated through Edward, O. Wilsons’ Biophilia hypothesis theory of mans affiliation with nature and incorporating it into building forms, showing how architectural design can evoke human behaviour through natural design elements. Architectural design is about humanity’s ‘sense of place’ (concept of Genius Loci) in nature and where the natural environment fits into the physical environment. Biophilic designs’ sensory rich world affects human health, productivity, emotional, intellectual and spiritual well-being, as well as reducing stress levels and eases pain. Biophilic Architecture could be the solution through a link of natural and physical environments, positively influencing human behaviour and well-being. Futuristic sustainability should have the combination of biophilic design and low environmental impact, resulting in a restorative nature based design: a true result of a positive psychological environment, a ‘sense of place,’ people want to experience, that is healthy, nurturing, and delightful to its occupants, improving the experiential quality of architectural space.
Thesis (M.Arch.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2013.

Cette recherche étudie la perception de la qualité de vie (QV) et de la qualité de l'environnement intérieur (QEI) du point de vue des occupants d’espaces de travail certifiés « durables » selon le système d'énergie et de conception environnementale (LEED) et des occupants des immeubles de bureaux conventionnels. Dans cette étude, la QV est définie en termes de santé perçue, confort, et productivité. La qualité des environnements intérieurs est importante, car les gens passent la majorité de leur vie à l'intérieur des immeubles et, dans notre société contemporaine, plus de ce temps est passé dans des espaces de travail, tels que les espaces de bureaux. Les préoccupations grandissantes pour la durabilité des espaces de vie et la prise de conscience des effets négatifs que des bâtiments peuvent avoir sur les occupants font émerger les constructions dites ‘vertes’ comme étant des alternatives plus durables. LEED est le système d’accréditation le plus populaire de nos jours en Amérique du Nord qui évalue les bâtiments verts en terme de leur performance environnementale. Toutefois, la revue de littérature indique que des occupants des édifices de bureaux certifiés LEED ne sont pas toujours satisfaits avec la QEI. Les bâtiments certifiés LEED sont en effet uniquement évalués selon des critères techniques de performance. Pourtant, il y peut avoir des écarts entre les performances mesurées et celles perçues par les occupants. Cela soulève la question suivante: à quel point les bâtiments construits selon les critères LEED prennent-ils en compte la qualité de vie (QoL) et les facteurs humains dans l’évaluation des espaces de travail ? Cette recherche a donc pour but de proposer un nouveau cadre qui prend en considération non seulement des facteurs durables, mais aussi humains pour évaluer les environnements de travail. Cette recherche utilise une approche mixte – quantitative et qualitative – en trois phases afin d’étudier de manière approfondie la perception de la qualité de vie des occupants de deux bâtiments certifiés LEED et d’un immeuble de bureaux conventionnel. La phase I est dédiée à l’observation des environnements de travail et la documentation des traces d’interaction entre l’utilisateur et l’espace. La phase II est dédiée aux entrevues permettant aux participants de décrire leur expérience de la QV et les facteurs de la QEI qui façonnent leur expérience. Ils nous aident aussi à identifier les éléments constitutifs d'un environnement humain de travail. Parallèlement, des questionnaires aident à comprendre la relation entre la qualité de vie perçue par les occupants et les facteurs de QEI dérivés de la littérature. À l’aide de groupes de discussion, menés lors de la phase III, nous cherchons à valider les résultats préliminaires. Les données sont ensuite analysées séparément en utilisant la ‘triangulation’ afin d’interpréter et corroborer les résultats. Cette étude compare les expériences des espaces de travail « verts » et « conventionnels » et révèle 32 facteurs (30 facteurs QEI et deux autres) qui peuvent affecter de manière significative l'expérience des édifices de bureaux. De plus, des éléments constitutifs d'un environnement de travail humain du point de vue des occupants ont été identifiés. Ceux-ci nous permettent donc de mettre au point un nouveau cadre global, intégrant des critères humains pour évaluer la QEI dans des environnements de travail durables. Ce cadre met en relation la QEI des environnements de travail et la QV des occupants en tant que système environnement-comportement.
This research studies perceived Quality of Life (QoL) and Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) of occupants’ in the work environments of sustainable office buildings certified under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) system (green buildings) and in conventional office buildings. QoL is defined in this research in terms of perceived health, comfort, and productivity. The quality of indoor environments is important because people spend most of their time inside buildings, and in contemporary society, much of the time spent in work environments is in office buildings. In this era of growing concerns about sustainability and the increased awareness of buildings’ negative impacts on occupants, green buildings have been promoted as sustainable solutions to these issues. LEED is the most popular rating system for measuring the performance of green buildings in North America. However, the literature review indicates that there are user complaints about the IEQ of LEED-certified office buildings. LEED-certified buildings are assessed based on technical measures of building performance. This assessment way may create a gap between measured and perceived performance from the user perspective. This raises the question of whether buildings certified with the LEED criteria are humane from the QoL experience of occupants in office buildings. Hence, this research is therefore to propose a new framework that takes into account not only sustainable but also humane factors for evaluating work environments. The study uses a mixed-methods approach – using both quantitative and qualitative methods and proceeds in three phases to comprehensively study occupants’ perceived QoL experience in two LEED and one conventional office building. Phase I uses observations to document the physical work environment and users’ behavioral interactions with the environment. Phase II uses interviews to describe the occupants’ QoL experience, explore the possible IEQ factors shaping their QoL, and to define the constructs of a humane work environment. Questionnaires were distributed concurrently to measure the relationship between occupants’ perceived QoL and IEQ factors that are derived from the literature. Phase III uses focus groups to converge and focus the results of the study. The results are analyzed separately and triangulated using an integrative mixed-methods analysis to interpret, corroborate, conclude, and increase the validation of the findings. The study compared occupants’ perceived QoL in «green» and «conventional» office buildings and revealed 32 quality factors (30 IEQ factors and two others) that influence the QoL experience in office work environments. Also the constructs of what composes a humane work environment based on occupants’ viewpoints have been identified. A new comprehensive, sustainable, and humane framework for assessing IEQ in work environments is developed. This framework guides the relationship between IEQ in work environments and occupants’ QoL as an environment-behavior system.

碩士
國立臺灣科技大學
建築系
106
Living in a high dense populated city, not only by human but also buildings make us need to reconsider many aspects of building strategies. Environmental damage has been occurred for decades, and getting worse until the present time, and estimated becoming worse in the future. The concept of vertical living and working has been recognized as a solution to facilitate fast growth and urbanization worldwide so that in this context tall buildings are becoming increasingly necessary as a result of the efficient use that they make of the limited land available. However, tall buildings can address a lot of environmental issues, changing in human behavior, and also interrupting economic infrastructure. The study of sustainable architecture is developing from time to time, and it is necessary for us as architects to understand the practical steps and guidelines so that our designs could sustain the environment, social living, and also economic infrastructure. This paper examines building strategies for office and residential buildings by literature reviews about high-rise architecture and sustainability in architecture. Case studies of residential and office high-rise sustainable architecture from time to time were chosen to explore and identify practical strategies used by well-known architects achieving sustainability. This paper also offers practical design strategies that can be used for practitioners, architectural education, and also research. At the end of this research, also given an example of sustainable design strategies implementation for high-rise building by participating international sustainable architecture design competition. It is sincerely hoped that this paper can be used either for practical use or research use in the future.

碩士
樹德科技大學
經營管理研究所
97
The indicative design of Green Building Assessment includes the areas of "ecology, energy saving, waste reduction, and health." It covers the standard and management of the entire life cycle in a building. The past literatures about Green Building mainly focused on the stages of planning and design. For this reason, by investigating office Green Buildings in Taiwan, this research aims at exploring the stage of usage in the assessment system. Moreover, the design of assessment system in the research is based on the standard of the indicator of Green Building Assessment. The research tries to understand the indicators that should be used in the step of usage in the office Green Buildings. First of all, the researchers applied Delphi method to conduct the interview which involved 15 interviewees from architectural experts, designers, proprietors of office buildings. The researchers received 99.33% response from the 15 questionnaires. The analyzed data were designed to be the assessment indicators which were: outdoor environmental management, energy saving management, interior environmental plans, sewage management, and security management. After achieving the consistency analyzed from all experts’ perspectives, the researchers applied Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to rank the assessment indicators stated above. The result showed: energy saving management (0.285), security management (0.216), interior environmental plans (0.190), outdoor environmental management (0.164), and sewage management (0.146). The assessment indicators based on the results of the research will be able to provide the basis for relevant management departments and current managers in office buildings when conducting management. In order to cover the area and step of usage that were not investigated by previous literatures about Green Buildings, we expect that the research can assist office Green Buildings to maintain the proper efficiency.