Living Apartment

Concept

ii

Preface

This thesis is a pinnacle of my graduate studies at the Civil Engineering Faculty of

Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. The motivation into this research
subject goes back to the time of my traineeship at TNO whereby I was introduced to
the building process and product modeling. The desire to take an in-depth look into
the subject of building process and products in the Building and Construction industry
provided the motivation to start this research.
Many people have contributed in one way or another to this research. First and
foremost, I am indebted to Luiten Bart for providing me with the opportunity of
working at TNO which allowed me to experience a unique, excellent and friendly
work environment. I would also like to thank members of my graduation committee
for the great insight, contribution, interest in my work and their patience. My gratitude
goes to Saban zsariyildiz for the supervision and the mentorship in the course of
the research, Peter Willem for the incisive discussions and meetings we had on
various occasions and sharing me with his expertise, Bige Tuncer for the feedback
on this report, Hennes de Ridder for his enthusiasm, and Reza Beheshti for the
encouragement and the moral support
Finally, I would like to thank the academic and support staff at the faculty and the
TNO staff who have assisted me.

iii

iv

Abstract
This thesis presents the result of a search for an answer to questions of how best to
design a dynamic control process for apartment building by using a decision support
system with which the end-users (tenants) can make layout of the apartments that
suite them for a changing environment but also sustainable. In order to contextualize,
substantiate and develop the research, a review of literature on the subject matter of
this research was undertaken. The review of the state-of-the-art in the building
process was mainly focused on the collaboration among different actors within the
BC process. It is followed by the review of literature on the sustainability development
to explore and investigate the current practice of sustainable construction within the
BC process. The findings from the review of literature on the state-of-the-art and
sustainability concept within the BC process were used to develop methodology for
integrating LBC principles and sustainability into an apartment building process. This
methodology is a dynamic control process model to implement the LBC during the
operation phase of building life cycle. Evaluation of the developed process model
was carried out by showing how it could be supported by an IT tool to assess its
suitability and practicability. The feedback from the evaluation showed that the
process model is effective in encouraging some aspects of LBC principles such as
the bottom-up design approach and supply-driven project delivery. Similarly, it
enables some aspects of sustainability principles such as minimizing resource use
and encouraging the use of modular components.
Thus, in this research it can be concluded that the integration of both living building
and sustainability concepts can assist to develop tools that can support the endusers in the BC project delivery process. In this way, the end-users, without having to
become experts themselves, can access to the Body of Construction Knowledge.

vi

Contents

PREFACE ..............................................................................................................................III
ABSTRACT..............................................................................................................................V
CONTENTS ......................................................................................................................... VII
1.0 INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................. 1
1.1 INTRODUCTION TO THE RESEARCH TOPIC......................................................................... 1
1.2 RESEARCH PURPOSE ......................................................................................................... 3
1.3 RESEARCH QUESTION AND OBJECTIVES ........................................................................... 3
1.4 PRESENTATION................................................................................................................... 4
2.0 THE STATE-OF-THE ART IN THE BC PROCESS.................................................... 5
2.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 5
2.2 ORGANIZATION OF THE TRADITIONAL BC PROCESS ........................................................ 6
2.3 INNOVATIVE COLLABORATION IN THE BC INDUSTRY ........................................................ 7
2.4 DYNAMIC CONTROL OF BUILDING PROCESS WITH THE LBC.............................................. 9
2.4 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................... 12
3.0 SUSTAINABILITY IN THE BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION PROCESS......... 13
3.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 13
3.2 DEFINING SUSTAINABILITY ............................................................................................... 14
3.3 MODELS OF SUSTAINABILITY ........................................................................................... 14
3.4 SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION PROCESS ....................................................................... 17
3.5 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................... 20

vii

4.0 TOOLS FOR SUPPORTING SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION PROCESS ..... 21

4.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 21
4.2 BUILDING RESEARCH ESTABLISHMENT ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT

METHOD . 22

4.3 GREEN BUILDING CHALLENGE ........................................................................................ 23

4.4 BUILDING FOR ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY............................... 24
4.5 WHOLE BUILDING DESIGN ............................................................................................... 25
4.6 LEADERSHIP IN ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN ............................................... 25
4.7 ECO-QUANTUM ............................................................................................................. 26
4.8 EVALUATION OF THE TOOLS ............................................................................................. 27
4.9 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................... 31
5.0 SUSTAINABLE LIVING BUILDING PROCESS AND PRODUCTS ....................... 32
5.1INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. 32
5.2 LIVING BUILDING PROCESS MODEL ...................................................................... 33
5.3 LIVING BUILDING PRODUCT MODEL ...................................................................... 56
5.4 CONCLUSION................................................................................................................ 65
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS .................................................................. 66
APPENDICES ....................................................................................................................... 68
1. OBJECTS OF INTERESTS OF THE PROPOSED APARTMENT BUILDING ............................ 68
2. APARTMENT LAYOUT ALTERNATIVES ............................................................................... 71
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................... 74

viii

1.0 Introduction

This chapter introduces the research presented in this thesis. It begins with the
context of the research, followed by its purpose. The research questions make the
third section and it finally gives the structure of this thesis.

1.1 INTRODUCTION TO THE RESEARCH TOPIC

Building and Construction (BC) is an old and practice-oriented discipline. Its end
products (buildings) are assembled and maintained to meet the requirements of their
end-users and owners. In a rapidly changing and demanding market, the BC together
with its supporting network (design and manufacturing etc.) should produce facilities
to serve the end-users in their operations and the owners in their businesses.
Buildings should meet both the requirements of their first and future users and
owners. This study tries to explore the sustainability of buildings over their life

span as part of building construction and the built environment.

As depicted in Figure 1.1 the competitive factors in the BC projects have traditionally
been cost, quality and time. These triple constraints today have a different
interpretation than they used to do. The implication of lifecycle cost compared to the
investment cost is increasingly understood, although still little used as key criteria in
decision making. The current quality of buildings includes sustainability aspects

(Huovila, 1999). That is often understood in a form of energy consumption, but in

some cases also as minimized resource depletion, harmful emissions and
maintaining biodiversity. The economic constraints, social equity and cultural heritage
are usually taken as other dimensions of sustainability.

Figure 1-1Progression to a sustainable approach in the BC industry (Huovila, 1999)

On top of that, the current development in the BC industry encourages participation
of the demanding parties (clients, end-users, etc.) and supplying parties (contractors,
suppliers etc.) throughout the whole life cycle of the construction processes, as well
as designing products that support the dynamic nature of the end-user needs of the
built facilities such as the housing development projects (De Ridder & Vrijhoef,2007).
Many studies on the design phase have focused on the collaboration between
various participants such as architects, engineers and contractors, but few studies
have examined collaborative systems or decision support systems for the benefit of
the end-users of built facilities. In an effort to integrate the end-users in the decisionmaking of building process, Dutch Housing Corporation het Oosten has developed
a novel building concept called Solids in which the residents of the dwelling can
specify the layout of the apartment i.e. the orientation and location of the kitchen,
bathrooms etc. The need for a decision support system to help the residents in the
selection of interior design specifications seems to be of the most importance.

1.2 RESEARCH PURPOSE

The present trend in the construction industry supports new concepts of building
process such as integrated contracts whereby new actors are being also inclusive. In
order to increase satisfaction of all actors of the-yet-to-be facilities, end-users are
also getting involved in decision making process on the course of the entire life cycle
of the BC project. On the top of that, over two decades BC industry has embraced
the use of ICT tools to increase productivity, efficiency as well as effectiveness.
Parties at the supply side of the BC industry are to some extent provided with support
systems to make decisions at various phases of the entire lifecycle of the BC
projects. On the demand side, end-users of the built facilities also call for new tools to
support them in the decision making process.
For a residential housing project end-users are tenants who do not solely base their
decisions on the rental price or location of the apartment to be rented but also the
layout of the latter plays an important role in choosing their future dwellings. The
need for a dynamic control process for the tenants who in the rest of this thesis will
be referred to as the end-users is of the most importance.

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTION AND OBJECTIVES

This study intends to develop a dynamic control process for apartment building by
using a decision support system in which the end-users (tenants) can make layout of
apartment that meet their requirements. From the preceding, a pertinent question is

how can this tool be designed to support the tenants making decisions not only best
suite them for a changing environment but also sustainable? We presume that the
answer lies of course in type of sustainable indicators that could be embedded into
such system. To do so, it is proposed to develop an apartment information model to
support apartment-configuration process. And apartment object library will be
developed by analyzing the relationship of the housing project hierarchy and the
interior information attributes. The proposed system will be validated by analysis of
an illustrative example.

1.4 PRESENTATION
Chapter one presents the general introduction to this research and its context. It
further discusses the purpose for the research and outlines the research question
and objectives. And it also provides the structure of this thesis.
Chapter two deals with the research question, this chapter briefly describes the field
of Building and Construction industry with the respect to collaboration between the
demand and the supply party. And based on this description a scope of this research
is defined.
Chapter three briefly examined the key issues in BC industry; sustainability was
identified as one of the solutions for implementing living building construction
practices. Therefore, this chapter provides a literature review on the subject of
sustainable development and sustainable construction. The literature review aimed at
identifying issues of sustainability that can encourage sustainable construction in the
building process.
The previous chapter reviewed the sustainability issues in the way that are
understood in construction. Chapter four follows suit by mainly dealing with the
existing tools for implementing sustainability in construction. It also discusses the
suitability of these tools for providing the BC industry with sustainable building
process.
Chapter five constitutes the theoretical body of this thesis reflecting on the analysis of
the previous chapters. It describes the steps taken to develop the living building
process model for sustainable apartment. In addition, earlier design process models
in construction are reviewed. A detailed description of the model and its main
features are also discussed in this chapter.
Chapter six summarizes the findings of this research, presents its limitations and
offers recommendations for future research. This includes a summary of the general
findings of this research, a comprehensive, and a discussion of the main limitations
affecting its findings.

2.0 The state-of-the art in the BC process

This chapter discusses the organization of the traditional BC process, gives notes on
the innovative collaboration in BC process and finally describes the dynamic control
of building process. Based on this, the scope of this research is defined.

2.1 INTRODUCTION
For decades, Building and Construction (BC) has been termed as the most traditional
and conservative industry wherein the market system has been static as compared to
its sister industries. This has led the BC industry to be characterized by: one of a kind
products and processes, fragmentation, a top-down development process and
selection based on a lowest price criterion. However, in recent years the industry has
undergone gradual changes with the most substantial one being the introduction of
innovative procurement strategies such as Design & Build and Public Private
Partnership. These developments aim at integrating design and construction process
and shifting the focus of all parties from a price on completion to a value of the
product during the whole life cycle. Another recent development is the Living Building
Concept (LBC), an explorative and prescriptive study to a desired future situation of
the BC Industry. In this chapter organization of traditional BC Industry and these
developments will be reviewed.

2.2 ORGANIZATION OF THE TRADITIONAL BC PROCESS

Three main participants in the traditional construction process are the client
(commission), the architect (design) and the contractor (construction) as illustrated in
Figure 2-1. Management of the construction process varies depending on the specific
features of the project as well as conditions such as budget, tender form, location,
local planning procedures made by municipal authorities and so on.

Figure 2-1 Organization of the traditional BC industry

At the inception of the process there is much uncertainty. The client, usually together
with the end-user, has to identify the specific needs (type of building/construction and
location) and seeks opportunities to finance the project. There is much to gain if the
client has responsive relations with the end-users and the investors and if there are
the procedures to anticipate the needs of the customers. In the next phase the
process of procurement is started. Two stages succeed each other: first, an architect
is contracted and second the tender invitation is sent to the contractors. The
construction industry, especially the housing and utility building sub-sectors, is
characterized by competition between many firms. The situation of many bidders
makes it in the interest of contractors to realize a common accepted framework of
contract conditions. For the client, control of the quality and the costs will be essential
during the realization process. In the construction phase, the main contractor is
responsible for the entire package, thus, he has a big share in the actual
construction. The task of the contractor is to execute the design on-site and to
structure the construction process.

The problem within this traditional BC industry is the separation between the design
and construction with the consequence of very modest contribution of the
construction firms to the innovation. Efforts to remedy this state of affair are briefly
discussed in subsequent section.

2.3 INNOVATIVE COLLABORATION IN THE BC INDUSTRY

One of the characteristics of the BC industry is the fragmentation of its actors, which
results in a number of contracts and agreements among these actors. In order to
ease their collaboration, there has been a shift from the traditional contract, in which
the client establishes a contract with each of the parties in the construction project
towards integrated project. In the latter, a contract is established between a client
and a contractor who is responsible for the whole or most of the work. In recent
years, the awareness of the potential of integrated contracts in the Dutch BC industry
has increased and many projects have been carried out accordingly. Many
practitioners in the industry believe that the integrated contracts encourage the
transition to a more competitive, innovative, sustainable and creative construction
industry. Integrated contracts come into different versions depending upon the sort of
responsibility transferred from the client to the contractor. In the Dutch BC industry,
the range of the integrated contracts includes Design and Build, Design Build
Maintain, Design Build Finance Maintain, and Design Build Finance Maintain
Operate.
Design and Build
In the Design and Build (D&B) procurement, the contractor both designs and
executes the works of the built facility. Design and Construction are in the hands of
the construction organization which plays the role of the contractor. This organization
often consists of a general contractor, engineers and architects. The B&D brings the
specialized knowledge of these actors in a very early stage of the construction
project hence the integration of design and construction processes. Even though,
D&B has been found to be stepping into the right direction; however, its effectiveness
is far from being optimal; because, it focuses on the integration of the design and
construction process without covering the whole construction life cycle

Public-private partnership in integrated contracts

The public private partnership (PPP) is another type of integrated contracts for
strategic collaboration. It consists of cooperation between public and private parties
based on shared risks, tasks, and responsibility as determined in a contractual
arrangement. Such arrangement typically involves a public entity contracting with a
private partner in whole or in part of a project that provides a public service. The
private party can be involved in a variety of ways, from designing the public facility to
undertaking its financing, construction, operation, maintenance, management, and/or
ownership. All partners share in income resulting from the partnership. Involvement
of the private party in the design, construction, finance and operation ranges on a
wide spectrum depending upon the level of distribution of tasks, responsibilities and
risks between both parties i.e. public and private. There are various options to
describe and structure this partnership; while describing

all these procurement

options is out of the scope of this thesis it worth mentioning that there are three most
frequently applied types namely:

Design Build Operate and Transfer (DBOT)

Design Build Finance Operate (DBFO)

Design Build Finance Operate (DBFM, maintenance concession).

The main difference between these different types of the PPP is the degree of private
control and involvement in financing. Although the PPP has made substantial
contribution to improving collaboration within the BC industry, and has many
advantages for both the public and private sector; it has its own shortcomings and
cannot be considered to be the ultimate answer to the problems of collaboration in
this industry. Both D&B and PPP are still characterized by a top-down design
approach, wherein the suppliers are restricted to the detailed specifications of the
client who is mainly interested in the financial aspects. Moreover, adaptations and
recycling are not fully integrated in both D & B and PPP. This results into complex
risk distribution and a wide-range of contracts (Figure2-2) without mentioning the
increase in transaction costs.

Figure 2-2 Top-down approach resulting into complex contracts (De Ridder, 2007)
On the other hand, the process mainly focuses on the financial aspects (the costs,
and the private finance) and the risks, in lieu of combining the value with the above
mentioned aspects. Even though, privately financed projects present some
advantages on the course of the project such as less time to get the funds at its
disposal, this does not necessary translate into a cheap and high quality solution
considering the whole life cycle. In short, it could be argued that the principle of
integrated contracts more value for money or the same value for less money is far
from being reality at the moment

2.4 DYNAMIC CONTROL OF BUILDING PROCESS WITH THE LBC

As seen in the previous sections the innovative procurement strategies do not
provide solutions to all problems inherited from the traditional BC Industry. The
design and construction process is still a top-down-demand-driven process; and the
client still fixes the demand in several specifications giving the contractors (suppliers)
less room for innovation. Moreover, there is less attention for the end-users who are
more or less represented by the client whereas in the normal consumer market,
consumers (end-users) play an important role in the innovation and the market
dynamics as well. For example, in our case, the end-users are meant be the potential
tenants for an apartment building. In the consumer market suppliers keep innovating
so as to fulfill or even create the desires of consumers. Innovative products persuade
the consumers to buy, and the more the suppliers innovative method pays off the
more innovative he becomes.
A change in demand of the end-users and the environment is another aspect that is
often overlooked by the integrated contracts. As has been stated by De Ridder, on
the one hand, requirements or wishes pertaining to technology, climate, regulations,

resources, financial and economical conditions, etc. can change during the life time
of a built-facility. On the other hand, products of BC Industry are designed and
engineered for a long lifetime, whereas the economical lifetime in most cases does
exceed 35 years (De Ridder, 2007). Consequently, during their lifetime, constructions
might lose their function or need modifications to fulfill the new requirements; despite
the fact that adaptations and recycling are not fully integrated in most of the current
designs or contracts. Wherein it is assumed that the changes will not occur and
simply the risks related to them are identified and quantified (in costs).
It is clear from above discussion that the BC industry is in need of a new approach to
tackle this pertinent issue within the integrated contracts and improve collaboration
among different actors in construction projects. To this end, De Ridder recommends
the Living Building Concept (LCB) the aim of which is to change the BC industry into
a supply-driven market with a bottom-up approach in lieu of the current top-down
approach. According the LBC principles, suppliers (contractors) should sweep the
market with the products and in turn clients should choose solutions which suit them
best from the market (De Ridder & Vrijhoef).
As seen in the previous section, buildings and other constructed assets are a useful
support to business ends. Over the last decades, there has been a growing
recognition of the need to consider buildings and constructed assets in the context of
business, from the perspective of end users, and as means of production, instead
of only as an overhead and cost centre. Concepts such as Demand, Supply,
Production, Management, Maintenance and Operation, and Use, help us understand
the relationships between clients, other stakeholders, occupants and users (demand)
and those who provide, manage, maintain and operate, the constructed assets
(supply).

Figure 2-3 Demand and supply in the value-price-costs model (De Ridder, 2002)

10

The Living Building Concept (LBC) describes a dynamic life-cycle management

approach for contracting construction projects. LBC focuses on maximizing the total
benefit that can be obtained from a project in lieu of minimizing the costs only. It
introduces an approach of dynamic contracting for complex projects in lesspredictable circumstances. Since a building usually exists for a longer term while
technology and use change more quickly, the contractor is expected to propose and
realize dynamic solutions to clients requirements and the project environment that
may change in the future. In contrast to the static approach to calculate work and
costs, an integrated contract based on LBC does not define a fixed-price, but rather
an agreement on value-price balance (De Ridder & Vrijhoef, 2007). LBC foresees the
shift from the traditional demand-based and one-off project development in the
construction industry towards the market-based product innovation, as commonly
known in the manufacturing sector and consumer goods. LBC supports supply-driven
innovation by suggesting clients only to describe their problems and needs, and
gives the contractors the freedom for proposing innovative solutions in the market,
then select the most optimal solutions available.

Figure 2-4 From demand-driven supply towards supply driven-demand

(De Ridder, 2007)

11

2.4 CONCLUSION
This chapter has discussed the development and improvements in building process
and collaboration in the BC industry. It has elaborated on the contribution of
approaches such as D&B, PPP and the LBC towards revolutionizing the traditional
BC industry. These approaches have made substantial improvement on the
collaboration within the BC industry and provide both the public and private sector
with some advantages. However, both D&B and PPP are still characterized by a topdown design approach restricting the suppliers to the detailed specifications of the
client who is mainly interested in the financial aspects. In addition changeability and
recycling are not fully integrated in both D & B and PPP. The LBC on the other hand,
recommend a supply-driven market allowing the clients to choose from standardized
solutions of the suppliers, with requirements of the clients tailored to these solutions.
This principle corresponds to the idea of the Living Apartment Concept in the sense
of providing the tenants with instant solutions for apartment components with the
help of a computer tool by which he could make configuration of his own apartment.
Moreover, this approach can be used as framework to deliver a sustainable solution
satisfying the social, economic and environmental aspects of sustainability. The next
chapter elaborates on these aspects of sustainability aforementioned.

12

3.0 Sustainability in the Building and

Construction Process

This chapter introduces and defines sustainability, discusses the models of the
sustainability, describes the sustainable construction process and reviews the
principles of sustainable construction.

3.1 INTRODUCTION
The interest into the concept of sustainability and its implementation within the built
environment has increased amongst all nations in recent years, with many countries
setting objectives to attain the intended goals. This has resulted into public
awareness of the issues of sustainable development and various interest groups
have come up with a wide range of meanings and interpretations of this concept. It
has also created continuing debates, considerable amount of literature and
demonstration projects of sustainable development. Currently, there is extensive and
adaptable knowledge of sustainability, and the standards are also being developed to
ensure suitable implementation.

13

3.2 DEFINING SUSTAINABILITY

Derived from the concept of sustainable development, sustainability can be defined
as a condition in which sustainable development can be achieved. Various interest
groups (professionals, industrialists, academicians, government officials etc.) have
used different perspectives to define the concept of sustainable development. The
most widely used definition is:

development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs(The Brundtland Report,1987).
(Chinwe, 2007)
However many definitions have been developed over the years with the common
feature of consistently describing the sustainability in terms of three interacting
aspects social, environmental and economic. For the purpose of this research,
sustainability is defined as: consideration of social, economic and environmental
factors in the design and construction process.

3.3 MODELS OF SUSTAINABILITY

Similarly, that there is no single agreed definition; there are also a number of models
for conceptualizing sustainability and the relationship between these three aspects.
There are however, two models that are commonly documented in the literature: the
concentric circles model (Figure 3-1) and the interlocking circles model (Figure 3-2).
These two models offer different ways of conceptualizing sustainability and also
serve different purposes. The concentric model provides a representation of how we
'should' understand the relationship between the environmental, social and economic
circles, portraying their mutual interdependence and our ultimate reliance, as social
and economic beings, on the physical environment.

Figure 3-1 Concentric circles model of sustainability (Chinwe, 2007)

14

In contrast, the interlocking model is a way of representing, in visual form, how we

might go about understanding the nature of any given circle. It is perhaps more of a
methodological than a normative/political tool. This research does not directly engage
with the concentric circles model as discussions about what 'should be the
relationship between the three spheres is beyond the scope of this research.

Figure 3-2 Interlocking circles model of sustainability (Chinwe, 2007)

In this research, we make use of the interlocking circles model in its methodological
sense. This widely accepted model of sustainable development shows the complex
interconnections of the three aspects of the sustainability and indicates the need for a
balanced approach towards their attainment in BC industry. And these are further
explained next:

The social aspect of sustainability involves the well-being of the society as a

whole. In BC industry, it is meant to respond to the local conditions, culture
and goals of a society during building process. For instance, the task of an
architect would be to optimize harmony between cultural and functional goals
of a building. Measuring social aspect of sustainability is known to be very
difficult as it intends to be mainly intangible issues.

The economic aspect of sustainability deals with assets. In BC industry,

assets refer to existing and proposed buildings. The existing stock within in a
city or nation can generate huge economic potentials. A building is a physical
capital that generates financial through sale or lease. In addition construction
of new buildings creates new jobs and boosts the economy. For example the
BC industry contributes about 11% of the annual GNP of the Netherlands.

15

The environmental aspect of sustainability consists of the built and natural

environment. The built environment deals with building sustainability whilst
the natural environment focuses on the conservation of natural resources and
protection of the earth from damage. Having a 10 % contribution in the GNP,
the Dutch construction sector produces 35 % of the total waste, determines
35 % of the energy consumption, takes 10 % of the energy for production and
produces 25 % of the road transport.

Table 3.1: Sustainability issues in the BC industry

Social

Economy

Environment

Community Involvement

Social Benefits/Cost

Land Use

Social Inclusion

Transport (Infrastructure)

Ecology

Health And Welfare

Employment Skills Base

Air Quality

User Comfort/Satisfaction

Viability

Water Quality

Access

Regional Vibrancy

Design & Operation

Public Amenity

Ethical & Equity Issues

Transport Impact

Crime Prevention

Visual Impact

Planning issues

Noise Impact

Dynamic control of sustainability

As discussed in section 2.3, the LBC is based on the Value-Price-Costs model. This
model can dynamically control the building process; moreover it is a powerful tool
which can also be used to conceptualize sustainability in BC industry as depicted in
the following picture.

Figure 3.3 Value - Price - Costs model for sustainable development (Ridder, 2007)
16

This model shows that the clients and users are interested in the difference between
value and price (People); companies are interested in the difference between price
and costs (Profit) whereas the government is interested in the total difference
between value and costs (Planet).It shows also the relation between these three
parties: Political relation between government and civilians Regulatory relation
between government and companies Market relation between consumers and
companies. A typical example of the application of this model may be the use of the
renewable and non-renewable resources to construct buildings, which helps reduce
the damage to the environment (Planet).The building is rented-out and generates
income, which has great significance in the economy ( Profit/Prosperity).Employment
and training are provided through construction activities, to encourage well-being and
individual wealth (People).Thus, through the implementation of the concept of
sustainability people, planet and profit can be managed as a dynamic process that
creates value and achieves a balance between the 3 pillars of sustainability, the
society, the economy and the environment.

3.4 SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION PROCESS

Sustainable construction is generally used to describe the application of sustainable
principles in the BC industry. According to Conseil International du Batiment (CIB),
Sustainable Construction is the creation and operation of healthy built

environment based on resource efficiency and ecological principles. It addresses the

entire life cycle of building: planning, design, construction, operation, maintenance
and ultimately deconstruction. In other words, in order to progress towards a
sustainable approach in BC industry, the design focus has to go beyond the
construction phase of the building dealing with privatization of costs, quality and time
to include long terms operational phase, as well as the demolition phase.

3.4.1 Principles of Sustainable Construction

As the main responsible for creating the built environment, the BC industry is put on
the frontline in the pursuit towards sustainable development. The end products of BC
industry i.e. buildings are results of construction activities and can have great impact
on the environment. As already mentioned in the previous section, sustainable
construction addresses the entire life cycle of a building in order to promote
sustainable practices. Figure 3-4 illustrates the relationship between the life cycle
stages of a building, the resources required for the construction and the principles of
sustainable construction as proposed by Kibert (1994).

17

Figure 3-4 Sustainable Construction: Life Cycle Stages, Principles, and Resources
(Kibert, 1994)
As shown in Figure 2-4, the resources needed for construction are materials, energy,
water, and land .The timeline for the construction runs from planning through
deconstruction or building disassembly. And according to Kibert, the principles of
sustainable construction are as follows:

Minimization of resource consumption;

Maximization of resource reuse;

Use renewable and recyclable resources;

Protect the natural environment;

Create a healthy and non-toxic environment; and

Pursue quality in creating the built environment.

These six principles provide a framework for the BC industry to implement and
achieve sustainable development in the building process. And they will be further
discussed in subsequent chapters.

3.4.2 Sustainable Construction Indicators and Criteria

As it is not easy to agree on single definition for sustainable building, it is even more
difficult to agree on one measurement for sustainability. Sustainability indicators are
needed to define sustainability criteria and to measure the performance of the
construction industry and the built environment. For example building environmental
performance can be described at several levels of detail (Figure 3-5): Performance
areas, Performance categories, Performance criteria and Performance sub-criteria.
The Performance categories are the principal performance characteristics that

18

collectively define the overall performance of a case-study building. They form the
most direct means of communicating the results of the assessment. Performance
categories are divided into distinct Performance Areas all of which collectively define
sustainable building performance.

Figure 3-5 Hierarchy of sustainable construction performances (Cole, 2000)

On top of that, they consist of a number of performance criteria and performance
subcriteria. Performance criteria represent distinct areas of building performance and
are specific and logical subsets of the Performance categories. Unlike the
Performance categories which are generic and broadly applicable, Performance
criteria and subcriteria are much more building and region specific. Performance
subcriteria represent the basic building block of the overall assessment framework.
Performance criteria and subcriteria may be quantitative or qualitative. Many
qualitative performance issues are subjective but it is important to make them as
objective as possible. The assessment scores are derived through the weighting of
the scores at the lower levels, i.e. category scores are obtained through aggregating
the weighted scores of constituent criteria. The overall building score is obtained
through the weighted scores of areas. The weighting value, from the lower levels to
the overall building, is a total of 100%.
In order to express quantification of the human opinion and perception in the
assessment, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method is used. The analytic
hierarchy process AHP is an intuitive method for formulating and analyzing decisions.
It can help to improve the decision-making process and has been applied to
numerous practical problems in the last few decades. The hierarchical structure to
formulate the AHP model can enable to visualize the problem systematically in terms
of relevant criteria and sub criteria.

19

3.4.3 Representation and Assessment of the Sustainable Construction

A graphical representation of each indicator, once their values have been calculated,
is a useful way to clearly notice the differences between the performances of the
solutions assessed. The radar diagram is one of the most used tools to graphically
integrate and monitor the different indicators. In a radar diagram it is easy to
represent and monitor the performance of the solution at the level of each indicator
and moreover two solutions could be easily compared (Figure 3-6). The Sustainable
Score (SS) of each solution also can be represented. In radar diagram, the closer a
solution is to the centre the worse it is and it is possible to identify the stronger and
weaker points of each solution.

Figure 3-6 Performance Profile of a Case Study Building (Cole, 2000)

3.5 CONCLUSION
This chapter has presented the concept of sustainability in BC industry with a special
focus on the building process. The general knowledge and level of understanding of
the principles of sustainability are yet to be universally accepted in the construction
industry. However, the application of these principles in practical situations provides
a way forward. Moreover, the Value-Price-Costs model was found to be a useful tool
which be use to conceptualize the issues of sustainability in BC industry. The next
chapter reviews the existing tools used for implementing this concept in BC industry.

20

4.0 Tools for Supporting Sustainable

Construction Process

This chapter gives a brief description of some of the tools used to implement
sustainability in the BC industry. It also includes an overview of the comparison of
these tools based on the level of building assessment and the building life cycle

4.1 INTRODUCTION
In order to implement sustainability in the BC industry, several tools have been
developed as a means to evaluate the emerging issues of sustainable buildings.
These tools were primarily used for developing guidance and assessment or rating
systems for minimizing the environmental impacts of the buildings. These
assessment techniques and rating methods are significant as would enable the BC
industry to demonstrate and compare various building design alternatives with their
respective environmental impacts.

Tools included in this study have been presented in the proceedings of international
conferences and none of the tools have been tested in this study. Additional
information had been collected from the webpage of the tools.

21

4.2 BUILDING RESEARCH ESTABLISHMENT ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT

METHOD
The Building Research Establishment Assessment Method (BREEAM) was
developed by BRE (Building research Establishment) in the UK. It was launched as a
building assessment scheme for two main categories of buildings: homes (known as
EcoHomes) and offices. Over the years BRE has improved and expanded on these
two categories. It has also developed a series of rating systems for the building types
such as industrial and commercial buildings. The rating system provides guidance to
reduce the effect of buildings on the global and local environment and enables
developers as well as designers to address environmental issues. Points or credits
are awarded according to the criteria specific to the building type and depending on
the level attained. Awards are made in the categories of pass, good, very good and
excellent. For each of the criteria set out, the building is assessed against
performance criteria set by BRE and awarded credits based on the level of
performance against each criterion. The percentage of credits achieved under each
category is then calculated and environmental weightings are applied to produce an
overall score for the building. The overall score then translated into a BREEAM rating
of Pass, Good, Very good, or Excellent.
Table 4-1 Assessment criteria in BREEAM
Criteria

Description

Management

Overall policy, commissioning and procedural issues

Energy use

Operational energy and CO2 issues

Health and well-being

Indoor and external issues affecting health and well being

Pollution

Air and water pollution

Transport

Transport related CO2 and location related factors

Land use

Greenfield and brownfield sites

Ecology

Ecological value of the site

Materials

Environmental implication of building materials

Water

Consumption and water efficiency

22

4.3 GREEN BUILDING CHALLENGE

The Green Building Challenge (GBC) was one of the early assessment frameworks
developed by International Initiative for a Sustainable Built Environment (IISBE)
consists of more than 20 countries to address the debatable aspects of ratings
systems. It was not developed for any particular market or for any specific building
type. Its purpose was to develop and contribute to the-state-of-the-art of research
and development in the building performance assessment. The intention was to
facilitate a complete description of the building with its performance, and to allow
national teams to participate in the GBC process and develop domestic assessment
methods. The GBC is implemented into GBTool, which encourages its users to take
structural features or criteria, in whole or in part, as they consider to developing their
own assessment method. All performance criteria and sub-criteria assessed are
scored (from -2 to 5), and then summed using two types of weighting: default by GBC
or modified weighting by each of the national teams also participated in the GBC.
Intermediate scores (1, 2, and 4) represent varying degrees of performance between
the primary benchmarks. The overall score is calculated, via individual scores and
weights.
Table 4-2 Assessment criteria for GBC
Criteria

Sub-criteria

Resource consumption

Life cycle energy use, land use, net use of water,

net consumption of materials

Environmental loadings

Green gas emissions, other atmospheric emissions,

solid wastes, liquid effluent, impacts on site and region

Indoor environmental quality

Indoor air quality, ventilation, noise and acoustics

Service quality

Flexibility and adaptability, and controllability

Economics

Life cycle cost, capital cost, operating cost maintenance cost

Pre-operation management

Construction process planning, building operations planning

Commuting transport

Greenhouse gas emission

23

4.4 BUILDING FOR ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY

The Building for Environment and Economic Sustainability System (BEES) was
developed in the USA by the National Institute of Standards and Technology as
interactive software to aid designers. It provides a technique for selecting costeffective and environmentally friendly products for commercial and housing projects.
The environmental impact assessment is based on the raw material acquisition,
manufacture, transportation, installation, use, recycling and waste management the
economic impact is calculated using the costs of initial investment, replacement,
operation, maintenance repair and disposal.
In BEES Environmental and economic values obtained are transformed by relative
value. For environmental performance, BEES uses the LCA approach. For economic
performance, it is measured using the American Society for Testing and Materials
(ASTM) standard life cycle cost approach. Both performances are aggregated into a
single score using the weighting factors. The user may set relative importance
weights for 1) synthesizing environmental impact scores into an environmental
performance score, 2) discounting future costs to their equivalent present value, and
3) combining environmental and economic performance.
Table 4-3 Assessment criteria for BEES
Criteria

Items considered in BEES

Global warming
Eutrofication
Resource depletion

Environmental criteria

Indoor air quality

Solid waste
Smog
Ozone depletion
Ecological toxicity

Economic criteria

Initial cost
Future cost

24

4.5 WHOLE BUILDING DESIGN

This consists of two components: an integrated design approach and an integrated
team process. The purpose of the integrated design approach is to allow
stakeholders involved in the building process to examine the project objectives with a
holistic design philosophy. This approach is different from the typical planning and
design process whereby the construction professionals often work in their respective
specialties, to some extent, in isolation from each other. The Whole Building Design
Guides approach is to ensure that each of the stakeholders involved in the planning,
design, use construction, operation, and maintenance of the building has the full
understanding of the issues and concerns of all the other parties, and to interact
closely together throughout all phases of the project. The concept of the Integrated
Design team process and integrated design approach provides buildings which can
be described as high performance as they are indicative of the design features of the
environmental considerations as well as low energy and cost-effective use of building
materials and components.

4.6 LEADERSHIP IN ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN

Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED) rating system was developed
by the green building council in the US, as national standard for what a green
building should comprise. It is a voluntary, consensus-based, market-driven building
rating system based on existing proven technology. It evaluates environmental
performance from a "whole building" perspective over a building's life cycle, providing
a definitive standard for what constitutes a green building. LEED is an assessing
system designed for rating new and existing commercial, institutional, and high-rise
residential buildings. It is a feature-oriented system where credits are earned for
satisfying each criterion. Different levels of green building certification are awarded
based on the total credits earned. Each criterion is specified as credits and user
selects criteria for scoring. Then, rates based on total number of points scored by
user. All criteria are weighted equally, except for number of points assigned. Different
levels of green building certification are awarded based on the total credits earned. In
evaluating a building using the LEED criteria, for example, there are minimum,
mandatory requirements in areas such as building commissioning, energy efficiency,
indoor air quality, ozone depletion, comfort, and water. Once the mandatory
requirements are met, a building can earn credits in 14 areas. Depending on the
total credits, a building receives a rating level of Silver, Gold, or Platinum.

25

Table 4-4 Assessment criteria in LEED rating system

Criteria

Sub-criteria

Points

Site selection, urban redevelopment,

Sustainable sites

Alternative transportation, reduced site disturbance,

14

Storm water management

Water efficiency

Innovative wastewater technologies,

Water use reduction

Energy and atmosphere

Renewable energy and ozone depletion

17

Materials and resources

Renewable materials , resource reuse

13

Indoor environmental quality

CO2 monitoring, thermal comfort, daylight ,views

15

Innovation in design

Innovation

and

design

process

4.7 ECO-QUANTUM
Eco-Quantum is simulation-based tool intended to enable a designer to quickly
identify environmental consequences of material choices and water and energy
consumption of their designs. This tool calculates the environmental effects during
the entire life cycle of the building from the moment the raw materials are extracted,
via production, building and use, to the final demolition or reuse. This includes the
impact of energy, the maintenance during the use phase and the differences in the
durability of parts of the construction related to the life span of the building. Two kinds
of versions of Eco-Quantum are available (Eco-Quantum Research and EcoQuantum Domestic).Eco-Quantum Research is a tool for analyzing and developing
innovative and complex designs for sustainable buildings and offices and EcoQuantum Domestic is a tool which architects can apply to quickly reveal
environmental consequences of material and energy use of their designs of
residential buildings.
Eco-Quantum relates the environmental profiles to the corresponding material and
energy flows. By doing so the environmental interventions related to the total life
cycle of the building are accumulated in the form of raw materials, energy, land-use
(input), waste and emissions (output). And then, the environmental interventions are
converted on the basis of characterization factors of the LCA methodology (Heijungs
et al., 1992) into the various environmental effect scores such as exhaustion of
resources and greenhouse effect. In the next step these environmental effect scores
are automatically converted into four environmental indicators: depletion of
resources, emissions, energy consumption and waste.

26

Table 4-5 Assessment criteria in Eco-QUANTUM rating system

Criteria

Items

Natural resource

Consumptions of energy, water, material

Environmental loading

Air emission, water emission and waste

Land use
Biodiversity

4.8 EVALUATION OF THE TOOLS

The evaluation of these models presented in this section is done according to:
assessment level, criteria covered phases of life cycle and weighting

4.8.1 Assessment level

Building assessment level can be divided in three levels: assessment of building
product, building, and community as shown in the next picture. Presently, many of
models address the building product and/or building assessment level based on
some form of LCA database. Most of models considered here are mainly focused on
the assessment of building level except for BEES and Eco-quantum, which are
focused on the building products.

Figure 4-1 Building Assessment Level (Seo, 2001)

4.8.2 Criteria
When assessing a building, it is necessary to consider a number of factors such as
energy and raw materials consumption, environmental loadings, etc. These criteria
are similar to the suggestion of Cole et al (2000), in which economic and social
concerns as well as environmental aspects of sustainability should be considered as
sustainable criteria in building assessment. Criteria covered in each model are
described in next table.

27

BREEAM

GBC

BEES

LEED

Eco-Quantum

Table 4-6Criteria considered in the models

Embodied

Operation

Land

Water

Materials

Air

Solid

Water

Others

Air

Thermal

Visual

Noise

Life Cycle

Operation

Model

Consumption
mental Loading
Quality
omics

Econ- Environmental

Indoor

Environ-

Resource

Criteria
Energy

All models reviewed in here include environmental loadings and resource

consumption while none of them includes any social concerns. In addition,
economics is only considered in BEES and GBC.

4.8.3 Weighting
Weighting is needed to most assessment models, which have various criteria or subcriteria, to present various criteria as a single value. But there is no homogeneous
weighting system to apply all of models. Under the absence of scientifically based
weights, some organizations use consensus-based weighting system. In this
approach, users or groups to give a weight, rank various elements such as
environmental issues, in terms of their relative importance or assign points to these
elements. This ranking or scoring is then used to establish weights (Cole, 2000).

28

4.8.4 Phases of life cycle

The life cycle of a building, from cradle to cradle, is divided into phases to enable
the comparison of the building environmental assessment tools. In this study, the
phases of the building's life cycle are:
Planning
Design
Operation of the building
Demolition
Planning Phase
The various international sustainability guidelines and recommendations address the
planning phase of sustainable design in minimal detail. These guidelines recommend
establishing a design team consisting of experienced professionals who will be
involved with the sustainable building design work. The extent to which the design
team should plan and organize their efforts before actual design work is begun is
discussed in only general terms. The planning phase sets the tone for all remaining
design and construction activities and hence will affect all aspects of the building life
cycle.
Design Phase
The design phase is the most extensively addressed area in all the guidelines and
recommendations

considered

in

this

study.

To

compare

the

various

recommendations, the design phase is divided into the following areas: energy
efficiency, water efficiency, indoor environment, site location and material usage. All
models address energy efficiency by comparing the design energy load with a
predetermined base building energy usage case, or by maintaining energy usage
within specified ranges. The detail with which energy savings are determined varies
for each program. Utilizing renewable energy sources for energy consumption
purposes is also commonly recommended.
In the case of water efficiency, the implementation of water conserving design
practices is the primary recommendation of all programs. Minimizing water usage for
site irrigation purposes, as well as reducing wastewater generation, is also commonly
recommended. Utilizing gray water or rainwater harvesting systems is recommended
most frequently by the various guidelines and recommendations as a means toward
conserving water. The indoor environment portion of building design is extensively

29

addressed by a number of the international standards. The common features

addressed by a majority of the guidelines include ensuring adequate ventilation,
selecting low emitting materials, implementing daylighting features, controlling and
providing occupant control over the environment. All of the programs address site
selection. The main areas considered involve redeveloping a formerly contaminated
site, implementing or encouraging alternative transportation routes to the building,
minimizing disturbance to the site, and practicing storm water management. The
common areas addressed by a majority of the programs regarding material usage
suggest reuse of existing structure or shell components during design; provision of
dedicated areas of the building exclusively devoted to the separation, storage, and
collection of recyclable materials; use of recycled materials. And the programs
recommend using modular or prefabricated construction components to reduce the
waste associated with the on-site construction of building components.
Building Operation Phase
The building operation phase of the building life cycle compares the various
international standards as they consider building commissioning recommendations,
building monitoring and maintenance policies, and building control recommendations.
All the other programs provide some guidance for or reference to the importance of
building commissioning. Designing for the monitoring and measuring of building
performance is also commonly recommended throughout the sustainability programs,
as well as the development of plans for ongoing building maintenance and operation.
The BREEAM program recommends establishing occupant feedback procedures to
facilitate in the monitoring of building performance targets. GBTool recommends
establishing building performance criteria in contractual or lease agreements with
building tenants. The building control recommendations suggest using simple control
sequences to reduce energy consumption of the building under occupied conditions.
Building Demolition Phase
All the programs review in this study, do not provide recommendations concerning
building demolition. As seen in chapter 3, in principles, a complete model of
sustainability should include a deconstruction phase considering recycling and waste
management of the material waste from demolition.

30

4.9 CONCLUSION
As it is difficult to agree on one sustainability model, various countries have
developed their own tools to address the issues related to sustainability. This is
mostly due to different standards and their geographical location which play an
important role into the environmental aspect which is one of the main issues of
sustainability. Tools exist either for building components, or for the whole building
assessment. They cover different phases of a building's life cycle and take different
environmental issues into account. These tools are global, national and, in some
cases, local. Tools are developed for different purposes, for example, research,
consulting, decision making and maintenance. These issues lead to different users,
such as designers, architects, researchers, consultants, owners, tenants and
authorities. Different tools are used to assess new and existing buildings. Moreover,
the type of the building (residential or office building) influences the choice of the
environmental assessment tool. The comparison results show that there no complete
model satisfied all criteria considered here and each and every model has its own
limitations.

31

5.0 Sustainable Living Building Process

and Products

This chapter discusses the development of an apartment building model. It describes

processes and products pertaining to this development on the basis of the LBC and
sustainability principles discussed in previous chapters. Starting with the requirement
elicitation process, it also describes design process, value determination, and cost
and income determination process. Finally, the description of the proposed apartment
configurator is given.

5.1INTRODUCTION
This chapter deals with the aspects of LBC and sustainable construction that are
relevant to the development of an apartment building model. The principle of the LBC
is to change the construction market into a supply-driven market with a bottom-up
approach. Within the LBC the supplying side of the BC industry is encouraged to
provide the market with their products i.e. built facilities and the demanding side on
their turn can choose the products which fulfill their needs from the markets (Figure
5-1). The intended solution for the problem of this research is based on this principle.
By means of a solution the housing corporation should be able to present to the
tenants different alternatives of apartments before the tenancy come into effect.

32

Figure 5-1 Supply and demand in the BC project

Basically a building represents a value for which the demanding side has to pay a
price. This value has to be created and delivered by the supplying side in exchange
for a price; and at the same time, the execution of the building should provide both
sides with the benefit. The principle of the LBC is to stimulate the maximization of this
benefit of all parties by enlarging the difference between the value and the costs.
During the inception stage of a building construction project, several interactions take
place between the value demanding side and the supplying side, so as to give an
estimation of the benefit of all involved actors for a certain building alternative (Figure
5-2). The intended solution should be able to process the building knowledge into the
required information for these interactions.

5.2 LIVING BUILDING PROCESS MODEL

BC projects are known to differ from each other depending upon their specific
location, boundary condition, costs, revenues, organization, distribution of finance
and risks etc., but all these projects share the fact of having parties that are
necessary for their successful completion. Figure 5.1 and 5.2 show the suppliers and
demanders who are usually encountered in the building construction project. The
process consists of:
1. apartment requirement elicitation process
2. apartment design process
3. apartment value determination process
4. apartment costs and income estimation process

33

These processes are described in section 5.2 through 5.5. Main roles of the actors in
sustainable building process are briefly described below; their relations, interests and
influences can be found in section 5.6 of this chapter.

Figure 5-2 Living process models between demand and supply side
Housing Corporation (Owner) owner should recognize and take into account the
environmental aspects of building site location when purchasing new real estate. He
set appropriate requirements on conformity, performance and environmental impact
when investing the real estate .In addition he set requirements on the knowledge of
consultants and building managers with regard to performance, service life and
environmental impacts of buildings
Tenants (End-users) should be able to set appropriate requirements on conformity,
performance and environmental impact when renting facilities or dwellings. On top of
that, they should be to recognize and follow the guidelines concerning the
maintenance of buildings.
The Developer is the one who has the knowledge on building requirement
management. He should be able to recognize the sustainable requirements set by
the Housing Corporation. Not only does he support the client to set his requirements
but also he makes sure that the requirements set by the owner are fulfilled within
building.

34

Designers (Architect) should support the client in setting sustainable related

requirements and follow them. He is also in charge of interpreting performance and
environmental requirements and to produce consistent design solutions with regard
to position, spaces, structures, building services (HVAC) and finishing materials. And
finally he should work out a maintenance manual providing the use phase of the
building with appropriate and adequate information about the life cycle of the building
products including building services. These instructions should support sustainable
use and management of the building.
The contractor considers the sustainable construction requirements set by the client
to form the basis for the construction. And he carries out the construction process
according to the design and set sustainable construction requirements with help of
the contractor's quality management and environmental management systems.

5.2.1 Apartment requirement elicitation process

Requirement elicitation is the first and foremost process that has to be done; the
demanding side determines the functional requirements on the basis of the wishes
and needs of the housing corporation. The latter should also collect the interests of
the tenants. Optional requirements i.e. supplements are also identified during this
process. Figure 5.3 shows how this process can be conceptualized.

Figure 5-3 Requirement elicitation process

35

5.2.2 Apartment design process

The process of the functional requirements elicitation is followed by the design
process. This is controlled by the suppliers (architect and contractor) and results in
the concept design. On the demanding side both the tenants and the housing
corporation will be interested in the result. The concept design provided by the
suppliers on the basis of the building knowledge can be considered as a technical
solution for the functional requirements of the demanders.

Figure 5-4 Design process

In the design process the bottom-up design approach suggested by the LBC is
pursued. It uses the systems approach to solve a design problem; basically this
consists of decomposing a system in our case an apartment building into elements,
components, and sub-systems as depicted in the next figure. This approach will be
further discussed in the subsequent sections.

Fig 5.5 Bottom-up supply driven solution (De Ridder, 2007)

36

5.2.2.1 Apartment Elements for design

The building system is a parameterized model of the building objects referred to as
the objects of interests and these are linked to sustainability aspects- through their
subsets as shown in table 5-1.This approach facilitates the evaluation of the
performance of the building objects with respect to the sustainable aspects they are
linked with hence the overall performance of the whole building towards the
sustainability. The rows correspond to the objects and the columns correspond to
sustainability aspects and an x in the sustainability aspects cells indicates the
subsets of the aspects in which an object plays a role.
Table 5-1 Sustainability aspects elements relationship matrix
SUSTAINABILITY ASPECTS

x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x

x
x

x
x

x
x

Occupant Comfort

x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x

Community

x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x

Human Health

x
x

Maintenance cost

x
x

x
x
x
x
x
x
x

Social

Operation Cost

x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x

Indoor Environmenatl Quality

x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x

Economic
Design and Construction Cost

Project
Building
Space
Exterior Wall
Interior Wall
Floor
Ceiling
Window
Furniture
Electrical Fixture
Plumbing Fixture

Environmental Loading

ELEMENTS

Resource Consumption

Environment

x
x
x

x
x
x

x
x
x

From the above matrix we can infer that the exterior wall plays a role in the Resource
Consumption, Environmental Loading, Design and Construction Cost, Operation
Cost, and Maintenance cost. Each of these building objects plays a role in fulfilling
one or more sustainability aspects. On the lower level of the sustainability hierarchy,
the objects of interests are further linked with criteria used for quantification of
specific issues related to the sustainability as shown in the Sustainability criteria
elements relationship matrix (table 5-2).

37

The performance or the level of contribution of distinct objects in a given issue of

sustainability aspects is different and does depend on the nature of the object being
considered. Let us take for example compare the floor and the ceiling, two dissimilar
objects that contribute or have influence on the room acoustics; its obvious that they
behave differently due to different absorption coefficients of their structural and
finishing material, density, etc.
Table 5-2 Sustainability criteria elements relationship matrix

IEQ

Waste

Energy

Water

x
x

Furniture

Windows

Roof

Ceiling

Floor

Interior Wall

Exterior Wall

Space

CRITERIA
Total Building Water Use
Indoor Water Use

Building

ELEMENTS

Outdoor Water Use

Total Building Energy use

Electric Energy Demand

Heating Energy Demand

Solid Waste Output
Wastewater Output
Gas Emissions
Acoustics
Ventilation
Daylighting

x
x
x
x
x

x
x
x

Therefore, we cannot conclude form these matrices that the x sign has the same
meaning for two or more different objects that play a role in a given issue of
sustainability aspects. In order to rectify the misleading information that the x sign
might portray the relative numerical scale will be used later in this section of this
chapter to show which object does highly, slightly or moderately contribute to which
sustainability aspect. Various methods have been documented in the literature; the
1-9 scale often found in the Multiple Criteria Decision Making will be used for this
purpose. From the information modeling point view, these criteria represent the
attributes of the objects and describe their behavior and these should be logical,
specific and measurable metrics.

38

5.2.2.2 Apartment components for design

In section 5.2.2.1 elements are described as the smallest decompositions of any
system in our case an apartment building, and the components are described as the
aggregation of these elements. From the bottom-up design approach and with
reference to the apartment model used in this study, we have identified the
components which are represented in Figure 5-6. Unlike the top-down design
approach, the bottom-up provides a great deal of independence to each component
of the system in relation to the rest, which is in line with the living apartment
concept

embraced

in

this

study.

Current

prefabrication

knowledge

and

industrialization of the building products facilitate easy production and delivery of

these components for realization of modular buildings.
A component is a unit made from completely prefabricated parts and built-up from
different sections, which might house a kitchen, a bathroom or a bedroom, the parts
can be assembled and installed on the site very easily. All piping, and wiring for the
technical services can be laid into special ducts. As an independent living space a
component is therefore flexible for renovation and maintenance. And Figure 5-7
shows an example of a composite interior component developed by Holland
Composites Industrials, which integrates a kitchenette and a bathroom.

39

Dining room

Patio

Figure 5-6 Apartment components for design

40

Figure 5-7 Smartcube composite interior unit integrating a kitchenette and bathroom
in one piece of furniture

5.2.2.3 Systems in the apartment design

This section deals with the systems approach that has been adopted in this study for
the building design process. But before that, it is worth noting the early work in the
design process done by Wim Gielingh in his General AEC Reference Model
(Gielingh, 1987), as described in the following text. According to Gielingh, a design
problem can be reduced into smaller manageable functional units (FU), and for each
of these units a designer looks for a solution (TS) that satisfies the functional
requirements of the unit (Figure 5-8 left).If the designer does not find a solution, the
design problem is resumed with a new set of functional requirements, or a new
solution is developed to meet the functional requirements. He further states that
solutions to more complex design problems are obtained by reducing the design
problem into the smaller ones. These smaller design problems are themselves new
FU's that require new TS's. This iterative process continues until a solution is found
for all FU's.

41

Figure 5-8 Overview of a functional systems approach

Now let us go back to the systems approach (Ridder, 1996) introduced at the
beginning of this section. The systems approach for the building design process
divides the design into two distinct, but related views (Figure 5-8 right): The functional
view which addresses the functional aspects of the building design and the building
systems view which deals with the systems that are designed or selected to fulfill the
functional aspects of the building. First, the discussion focuses on the functional view
as applied to the sustainable apartment design and then the system view will be
discussed latter in this section.

Figure 5-9 Subsystem and aspect system (De Ridder, 2007)

At the highest functional level of the function view, there is the main function
(purpose) for which the building is being designed. In our study the function of the

42

apartment building is to provide a safe, habitable and sustainable environment for its
occupants. As seen in section 3.3, sustainability can be decomposed into three
aspects: environmental, social and economic sustainability. These three aspects of
sustainability can be considered as the lower level sub-functions of the sustainable
apartment design. Subsets of these lower level sub-functions have been identified by
various initiatives meant for implementing the sustainability in the BC industry. They
refer to as issues that describe the behavior of the building with the respect to the
sustainability. For each issue (sub-sub functions) a number of performance aspects
can be identified and used to evaluate the performance of the sub-function being
considered. For instance, environmental sustainability can be decomposed into the
following subsets: Resource and Energy Consumption, Environmental Loading,
Indoor Environmental Quality etc. And these are the most important environmental
performance aspects for the sustainable building construction. Other sustainability
aspects and their corresponding sub-functions and subsequent performance aspects
can be seen in the next table. The latter, maps the relationships between
sustainability aspects and their corresponding sustainable building performance
criteria grouped into four main categories namely:

Water

Energy

Waste Generation

Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ)

The columns correspond to the issues (sub-functions in the systems theory) related
to sustainability aspects and rows correspond to the set of criteria characterizing
them. An example is the Resource Consumption, one of the issues related to
environmental aspect which is an aggregation of: Total Building Water, Indoor Water
Use, Outdoor Water Use, Total Building Energy use, Electric Energy Demand Use,
Heating Energy Demand, Solid Waste Output, Wastewater Output, and Gas
Emissions as indicated by the x sign.

43

Table 5 -4 Sustainability aspects criteria relationship matrix

x
x

Acoustics
Ventilation
Daylighting

x
x
x

x
x
x

x
x
x

x
x

x
x
x
x
x

x
x
x

x
x
x

Occupant Comfort

Waste

Solid Waste Output

Wastewater Output
Gas Emissions

Community

x
x
x

x
x
x

Human Health

Energy

Total Building Energy use

Electric Energy Demand
Heating Energy Demand

x
x
x

Maintenance cost

x
x
x

Operation Cost

Environmental Loading

x
x
x

Design and Construction Cost

Resource Consumption

Water

Total Building Water Use

Indoor Water Use
Outdoor Water Use

Indoor Environmenatl Quality

CRITERIA

IEQ

SUSTAINABILITY ASPECTS
Environment
Economic
Social

x
x
x
x
x
x

x
x
x

x
x
x

x
x
x
x

As far as the building view is concerned, it describes the building as a system

decomposable into several sub-systems, components, and elements as shown in
Figure 5-10. The building sub-systems are the aggregations of lower level
components. Elements are the smallest decomposition of a building system and may
belong to one or more components. A sub-system consists of the same type of
specifications as the components and elements, is composed of. A schematic
hierarchy decomposition of our system i.e. apartment building is represented in the
section devoted to the apartment elements for design in section 5.2.2.1

44

Figure 5-10 Building as a decomposable system (De Ridder, 2007)

5.2.2.4 Dynamic Control of the Apartment Design Process

The systems approach (discussed above) is not only used for designing but also for
controlling the process dynamically. The concept of dynamic control was first
introduced in 2003 and its main condition is the dynamic coupling of value, price and
costs variables. Ridder argues that the system behavior at the top level should be
quantified in these three variables whereas the work should be done at the lower
scale levels (Ridder, 2007).

Figure 5-11 Simplified control of subsystems and aspect systems. (De Ridder, 2007)
The systems approach has been proven to reduce the complexity of the design
process and to improve the control. It establishes the relations between the value,
price and cost variables for their dynamic control since they require a function

45

describing the relations among them. To do so, aspects systems and subsystem play
an important role (Figure 5-11).
However, the introduction of dynamic control raises the issue on how to control the
process. It is known for the systems theory that the relations between elements of a
system represent the list of the requirements for the design problem and the system
represent the concept of the design solution. Thus, the design process can be
viewed as a process of linking the requirements to the concept. In order to control
this process a systematic approach of linking the requirements to the concept should
be pursued. The requirements should neither be cross-linked nor simply linked to the
concept. The former requires a lot of control whereas in the latter instance high level
requirements are fully dictated by the lowest ones only. It is recommended to link
aspects to subsystems instead for the dynamic control. This study adopts the same
principle of the bottom-up design approach but with one step lower as can be seen in
Figure 5-12. We envisage to linking the variables with the elements or components
i.e. the lowest subsets of the function view discussed at the beginning of this section.
This approach is further elaborated in subsequent sections of this chapter.

Figure 5-12 Proposed- simplified control of subsystems and aspect systems.

Apart from the buildability independence, the components are linked via different
technical services within an apartment building as a whole such as water and
electricity supply (Figure 5-13). Bearing in mind that, the present study mainly
focuses on the sustainability issues of an apartment building particularly during
operation stage, and the analysis we made earlier in this report, these services

46

turned out to be the most leading agents to measure the sustainability since they
represent the measurable metrics. The values of these metrics depend on the
function of each component. And these metrics are intended to be used as indicators
of the comparative performance for sustainable design. As can be found in previous
tables these metrics include water, energy, waste generation, and indoor
environmental quality.

Figure 5-13 A one-bedroom apartment layout showing water and

electrical subsystems
To illustrate how different components of a dwelling perform, three indicators of
environmental sustainability namely: water and energy consumption as well as waste
generation are mapped against the components of a dwelling (Figure 5-14). Only five
components are represented the kitchen, the bathroom, the living room, the dining
room and the bedroom .The edge joining an indicator and a component represents
the presence of direct relation between them, the bolder the edge the higher the
relation. For example, it can be clearly seen from the figure that the living spaces

47

consume more energy as compared to the non-living spaces, the former being
defined as spaces accommodating daytime activities that form the ordinary domestic
life such as living room and kitchen.

Figure 5-14 Mapping between environmental indicators and building components

It should be noted that these metrics are interchangeably referred to as indicators or
criteria in this thesis. They are required for the sustainably designed building because
not only do they represent costs and resource use, but they are also local issues in
many countries. There is a direct monetary incentive to track and reduce water and
energy consumption as well as waste generation.

Figure 5.15 Water use hierarchy

For illustrative purpose, the following paragraph gives an explanation on the water
consumption metric, the remaining metrics could be also dealt with in the same
manner. Studies have shown that water consumption is the building utility cost that is

48

second only to energy use. Total building water use includes all indoor and outdoor
water use taken from a centralized water distribution (see Table 5.1). Building indoor
water consumption includes that portion of water used in the building interior,
including bathrooms, mechanical systems, laundries, and kitchens. Where as
outdoor water use includes water used for activities such as gardening. Assessment
of water consumption costs allows an economic comparison of building systems
performance. Indoor water use is very meaningful not only for comparing buildings
with similar functions on both per unit area and per occupant basis, but also for
planning and design building interior fixtures. Next section discusses the value which
can be derived from the concept design that has been dealt with in the present
section.

5.2.3 Apartment Value Determination Process

Indication of the value of the future building can be derived from the concept design.
But, the value is not simply enclosed in the concept design. It is established in the
requirements by the demanding side, that why the design concept has to meet the
requirements. Figure 5-16 shows a simplified value determination process and the
involved actors

Figure 5-16 Value determination process

According to the LBC the total value can be divided into three parts: Perception
value, Functional value and Technical value. To determine one of these values, the
related knowledge of the requirements is of the most importance. The contractor is
the one who can determine the best technical value due to his knowledge on the

49

technical aspects of the building construction project. The functional and perception
values are related to the perception and requirements of the demanders (Housing
Corporation and Tenants), thus the determination of these values requires the
judgment of the demanding side.
Assessing the value
In the BC industry the value of an apartment building can be described as the
economic sacrifice, which the demander (Housing Corporation) is willing to pay so as
to get the benefit from possession of the building. The possession of a built-object in
BC industry entails the benefit and this only starts at the moment the demander can
actually possess the object. Thus, the value of an apartment building is determined
by the capitalization of the future benefits and these capitalized future benefits cover
the costs spent on the built-objects while providing the value. Costs estimation
process is explained in the next section.

5.2.4 Apartment Costs and Income Estimation Processes

Suppliers expect compensation for the costs incurred while proving the value. The
cost estimation process identifies the costs that have to be compensated. Figure 517 illustrates this process, actors involved and their influences

Figure 5-17 Costs determination process

The LBC focuses on the following three main costs: development costs, operation
costs and maintenance costs. Estimating the development costs of a building is of
major importance at the inception stage. The LBC aims at a systematic cost

50

estimation approach. In this stage the costs should be linked with all the subsystems
and components of the building and the relations between them. In addition to the
compensation for the costs the suppliers also require a profit. The combination of the
compensation costs and the profit determine the price the demanders will have to
pay. The costs incurred by the supplying side are recovered during the operation
phase of the building and depend on the type of the contract that is being applied in
the project.
Assessing the costs
The starting point for assessing the costs of a built-object is the notion derived from
the value estimation process. We know that the capitalized future benefits cover the
costs spent on the built-object while providing the value (see 5.3). Thus, the costs of
the built-object in our case a sustainable apartment building are equal to or less than
the capitalized future benefits for the demander. In other words, the cost price of the
apartment building will be equal to or less than the present value of the (expected)
net future profits from the building during operation phase. It should be noted that in
the LBC practice, less will not happen very often and if so, not to a higher degree.
Because, with the integrated contract recommended by the LBC the supplier should
adapt his price to the possibilities he would suppose in respect to the demander.

Figure 5-18 Income determination process

51

Who pays what?

The tenant pays the most for the use of the building over its lifetime and at the end
he has no site to sell. Operating costs are only a small proportion of the costs of
occupying the building, and if considered in isolation are unlikely to motivate the
tenant significantly towards sustainable measures like energy savings. However, the
occupant satisfaction with the comfort of the building will have a significant effect on
his health and well-being. The costs associated with unhealthy and uncomfortable
occupants are significantly higher than the energy costs, and the building will become
undesirable if it cannot provide a high quality (thermal, lighting, indoor air quality,
etc.) environment for its occupants.
The developer incurs all the costs (site cost, design and build), and receives all his
revenue (site and building sale) at the beginning of the lifetime of the building. As the
building is worth more when it is new, the site sale income is larger for the developer
than the owner or investor. The developers interest into the sustainable measures
such as energy efficiency is therefore only likely to focus on the marketing benefits at
the time of the sale since `energy efficiency and `environmentally friendly are labels
that help a building sell quicker and for a higher price.
For the investor most of the costs and returns over the life of the building are
relevant, apart from running costs. Buying the site, constructing the building and
maintaining the buildings are all costs, the rent received for the building is income, as
is the final value of the site. He is interested in keeping good tenants happy and
owning a low risk investment. Energy efficiency can help to achieve both of these.
For the housing association all of the costs and returns of the building are relevant
especially the rent. The analysis does show that owning a property works out
cheaper than renting in the long-term. It has strong interests in energy efficiency, low
running costs and a low environmental impact.

52

5.2.5 Relations between the interests and influences of the actors

The interests and influences of the actors and the related processes we discussed in the
previous sections and that might be relevant to the desired solution are summarized in Table
5.5.Furthermore, cash flows among these actors and their influences to delivering a
sustainable solution are also discussed.
Table 5.5 Relations between the interests and influences of the actors
Actors
City Council

Interests
Interested in the sustainable and functional

Related Process
(Social)Value Determination

Demanders

requirements
Housing

Functional requirement

Association

Sustainable requirements

Interested in operating costs and incomes

Others

Suppliers

Tenants

Architect

interested in value:
o

Perception

Functional

Value Determination
Income Calculation
Value Determination

Interested in the rent

Calculation of Income

interested in the functional requirements

Design Process

interested in the desired value:

Value Determination

perception value

functional value

Contractor/

interested in the functional requirements

Developer

interested in costs

Costs Calculation

interested in incomes

Income Calculation

interested in costs

Costs Calculation

interested in incomes

Income Calculation

Financer

Design Process

This also can be further explained with the help of Figure 5-19 considering three pillars of
sustainability i.e. people, planet and profit.

Figure 5-19: Actors in an apartment building project and their influences on the three pillars
of sustainability People, Planet and Profit
Executing an apartment building project is a value-creation process which on one hand
needs costs in order to come to the conclusion and has to benefit the all actors involved on
the other hand. Figure 5-19 shows that the total costs of an apartment building project can
be privately and/or publicly financed. According to the LBC approach if public costs are
involved the city council will be responsible for the costs that are related to the social value
to make sure the social value is in balance with the public costs. Broadly speaking, the
public authorities will have an eye on the effects of the project on the planet. The value
creation is not only important for the sustainability of the public costs but also it has an
influence on the people in one way or another in the vicinity where the building is located.
The end-users i.e. tenants to whom the building is rented-out to generate the income for
recovering the costs, should be satisfied with the value so that they can pay for it. The
viability of the apartment building project depends on the availability of the end-users and
their willingness to pay for the delivered value. Thus, the viability of the project depends
upon the relation between the value and the income.
Moreover, construction activities provides the value suppliers with the employment, which

cash flows of project and this is influenced by many actors. Figure 5-20 illustrates these
actors and the project cash flows for the financial feasibility.

Figure 5-20: Cash flows between the different actors

The LBC uses the financial feasibility to define the boundaries of the contract area within
which the project has to be controlled. Figure 5-21 shows how this can be done and how the
desired solution can be supported.

Figure 5-21: Determining the boundaries of the contract area on the basis of the financially
feasible range
The proposed solution should allow the suppliers and demanders to develop several design
concepts of apartments because of the difference in the requirements for each developed
concept. This results of course in several costs and incomes for each concept with the

both the lowest value and the expected incomes to be at least equal to costs (Building
Alternative X). Whereas the upper boundary corresponds to the feasible alternative with the
highest value (Building Alternative Y).The boundaries for the costs are assumed to be fixed
on the basis of the costs of the alternatives, however, they can be adjusted to the budget
that is available. This adjustment is due to the fact that the initial budget for the project might
not allow the costs needed for the alternative with the maximum value and this can affects
the initial agreement as well. This scenario whereby the initial value is not the one that is
expected to deliver the most profit is shown in Figure 5-21 left. On top of that the value
generated for each alternative by the solution also has a certain price. And this is the
compensation the demanders have to pay for the value delivered by the suppliers; the mode
of payment depends on the type of the contract between the client and the suppliers. Finally,
it is also worth noting that the price does need to be equal to the income; the latter is what
the end-users pay for the value during the operation phase.

5.3 LIVING BUILDING PRODUCT MODEL

This section discusses product modeling for the sustainability living building design. It starts
by defining the building models in general and continues by discussing the parametric
modeling in particular. And finally, it describes the apartment configurator and how it is being
developed. The modules making this tool are described and examples on how they function
are presented.

5.3.1 Product Modeling

Representation of a product in terms of parameters reflecting its descriptive and
performance characteristics is known as product modeling. Parameters which can be
controlled by the user such as geometry, color, etc. are defined as descriptive parameters
shape related parameters. Whereas, those used by the decision maker to assess the
appropriateness of the product are termed performance parameters. These include energy
requirements, costs, and comfort levels etc. The values of performance parameters depend
on the values of descriptive parameters. Modeling based on these parameters facilitates
communication and supports testing applications of new and existing products. The most
common models used in the building industry are drawings, such as plans, sections,
elevations, isometrics, perspectives, as well as physical scale models. And are all models

Parametric building models are a bit different from building models discussed above. In
parametric modeling, aspects of the model depend upon relationships between parts of the
building. Creating and modifying these relationships is an important part of the design
process. A parametric model is often defined by rules and constraints, which define aspects
of the building and their relationships to each other. Changing a rule or constraint, or
modifying a part of the model itself, almost always has implications on the entire model.
Parametric tools allow relationships among components in the model to be defined, and
parameters that control aspects of the building to be defined and changedfrom physical
characteristics to environmental parameters, and even aspects such as projected
occupancy. For example, a building can be described as an extruded rectangular form with a
pitched roof. As the dimensions or shape of the rectangle or the height of the extrusion is
changed, the roof will automatically be modified in order to still fit perfectly. Height
constraints can also be specified and warnings will be issued if certain conditions cannot be
satisfied. In essence, the building is being modeled by describing the rules the building must
follow.

5.3.3 Apartment Configurator for Living Process and Products

The proposed Apartment Configurator (ApaCo) is a software environment built on top of
AutoCAD supporting the integrated use of multiple analysis and visualization tools
throughout the building design process of the building products. The ApaCo provides a
graphical user interface consisting of three main elements: the Requirements Specification
Screen (RSS), the Solution Specification Screen (SSF) and the Evaluation Screen (ES). The
RSS allows the end-users to quickly and easily specify the geometric and non-geometric
characteristics (i.e. functional and sustainability requirements) of building components.
Through the RFS the user can edit the values of input parameters and select any number of
input and/or output parameters for display in the SSS. The ES allows end-users to compare
multiple design alternatives with respect to multiple descriptive and sustainable performance
parameters to support multi-criteria decision making.

The ApaCo core program

The ApaCo appears to the user as a single application, but it is in fact several applications

provides a flexible software architecture in which additional applications can be developed

when greater functionality is required. By dividing functionality into small applications,
delivering a single large application, which must be loaded in its entirety regardless of the
needs of the user, is avoided. The core program is the main ApaCo module from which other
applications are launched. The core ApaCo program maintains a rich building information
model of the entire building. This model includes both geometric and non-geometric
descriptions of the building, its components and the sustainability performance measures
addressed by the attached simulation tools.

The Application Programming Interface (API)

The ApaCo uses two main methods to communicate with other applications: Active-X and
input/output files. Active-X is a mechanism for exposing functions from one application to
another. The file-based approach is used to communicate with applications that are already
using a file-based data exchange mechanism to receive their input and provide output. If
individual applications provide their own user-interfaces, the ApaCo supports their
concurrent use through its application-programming interface.

The Graphical User Interface

The Graphical User Interface (GUI) of the ApaCo are designed to address the input and
output needs of any simulation tool in a generic way, independent of display resolution. The
main objectives of the GUI design are to allow building designers to :

Compare many alternative building designs with respect to many descriptive and
performance parameters

Review and edit the values of input parameters in a consistent and orderly fashion

Select input and output parameters for review and comparison.

These objectives are met by the creation of main ApaCo GUI elements mentioned above-the Requirement , the Solution, as well as the Evaluation Screen.

The apartment requirement screen (Figure 5.22) is a GUI element allowing ApaCo endusers to make choices about the type of the apartment component and corresponding
module size. The window area essentially displays building components available for
apartment configuration and the users has also the ability to specify the number of such
components needed for this configuration. Since some building components may be of more
interest than others to a particular user, components are chosen one at time and this is
equally important to the choice of the module. A user interested in living room, for example,
can easily specify the size of the component within the apartment building, by passing the
rest of the components available for the configuration. The figure below shows an example
in which the user has selected the living component and has chosen the 3.6 X 3.6 meters as
the size of the module

Figure 5-22: Apartment requirements specifications screenshot

After having selected an apartment component and its size in the apartment requirement
form (i.e., by clicking on it), its parameters serving as input for visualization tool linked to
ApaCo are displayed in the component requirements specification form for that particular

Figure 5-23: Component requirements specifications screenshot living room

Since this tool aims at supporting a non-experienced users all parameters required for the
configuration of the building apartment model are given in terms he or she can understand.
For example, in order to make configuration of the living room, he will be required to specify
the values of the shape related parameters such as the thickness of the wall, the room
height etc. Apart from these descriptive parameters he will also specify the sustainability
requirements according to the analysis we made early in chapter four of this thesis. These
parameters are component-specific and the end-user will only have access to those which
are relevant to the active component. For example, water use is not part of the living room
configuration, therefore, the end-user has no access to this parameter and this is also the
case for waste generation. We presume that domestic activities generating predominant
solid waste take place in the kitchen. The end-users is also provided with the explanation on
how the sustainability measures are evaluated is explained on the requirement specification
screen.

The component solution specifications screen (Figure 5.24) provided along with the main
apartment configuration application is built on top of AutoCAD and uses a BIM
representation of building components and elements. Traditional CAD programs offer a tools
palette that allows users to draw geometric shapes, such as lines, rectangles, circles, etc.
Although the end result may appear the same, the ApaCo woks under parametric modeling
principles, components are represented with solids whose properties are defined in the
requirements specification process. Parametric solution is mutually inclusive in the sense
that the change or modification in one parameter has the implication for the rest of the
model.

Figure 5-24: Component solution specifications screenshot living room

This alteration of the values of descriptive parameters is done through window situated on
left of the component solution screen. Clicking on one of the element of the component

specification for the component. Hence, those defined earlier, in the requirement
specifications for the apartment remain intact unless a new configuration process starts.
Apart from the apartment representation, the tool also provides the end-user with the
possibility to experiment with the costs of the component is dealing with (Figure 5.25).

Figure 5-25: Component solution specifications screenshot showing design and costs
information living room continued

The evaluation screen

Decision-making among alternative design options requires simultaneous side-by-side
comparison with respect to the various design considerations, which may cover any number
of descriptive and performance building parameters. The evaluation screen houses a criteria
comparison matrix whose elements are the input and output parameters addressed in
requirements and solution specification screen. The values of the input and output

parameters. The evaluation is done with the help of the analytical hierarchy process (AHP).
The requirements are set into a comparison matrix as shown in Figure 5.26.On one hand,
we have non-geometric characteristics of the building also known as performance
parameters (sustainability criteria) such as water and energy use, indoor environment quality
and waste generation. On the other hand, geometric characteristics which include all those
parameters related to the physical representation of the apartment model such as width,
length, height etc. With the help of this matrix the relative values of these parameters are
known. In this way making comparison among alternatives of apartments can be done.

Figure 5.26 Screenshot showing the value comparison by AHP technique

Next figure illustrates a 3D apartment model generated by AutoCAD and VBA for the
application. As a parametric model, the end users he will have access to those parameters
which will allow him to make configuration of the apartment without becoming an expert
himself and experiment with the results presented in terms he can understand.

Figure 5.27 Screenshot showing the building apartment model generated by AutoCAD

5.4 CONCLUSION
This chapter has discussed building process modeling and building products in
construction. It has emphasized the need to use the LBC as an effective and
appropriate approach for sustainable building process. The rationale for developing
a sustainable apartment building model was discussed along with a detailed
description of its building processes. The proposed building design approach and the
apartment configurator have been described and an example illustrating its
application has been given.

65

Conclusion and Recommendations

This chapter summaries the research findings and discusses how the main goals and
objectives of the research were achieved. Conclusions and limitations of the research
are also presented. Finally the chapter presents recommendations and suggestions for
the future research work.

This thesis started with the assumption that the role of the end-users in the BC
process can be improved by providing them with IT tools. In the BC industry, the endusers are often represented by the clients and are provided with products and
processes in which they have seldom contributed to establish. And they are unable to
test the product in advance, therefore, the end-users expectations may not be met.
The objective of this study was to provide the tenants with the tool that can help them
make configuration of the apartments while taking into account their wishes and
needs. Prior to the development of this tool the concept of sustainability has been
reviewed. Reviewing this concept aimed at first, understanding this concept form the
BC perspective, second identifying aspects, and criteria relevant to the development
of a sustainable apartment building. Aspects such as resource consumption and
criteria such as energy use were identified among others.
Other the other end, the systems concept in building has been reviewed.
Approaching building design as a system allowed us not only to embrace the bottomup approach encouraged by the LBC with ease, but also to correlate sustainability
aspects and criteria to the apartment model. The latter is represented by different
components and elements according to the apartment objects hierarchy. Similarly,

66

the LBC as an all-around concept has been used as the enabler for developing the
proposed tool. With the Value Price Cost model behind it, the LBC facilitated this
development by formulating the requirements on one hand and providing the
solutions on the other hand. In this way, the tool can been be user-friendly allowing
easy interpretation for the non-experienced users; and the end-users, without having
to become experts themselves, can access to the Body of Construction Knowledge
To meet objective of this research, a process model was proposed for integrating
LBC and sustainability into the building project delivery process. The objective was
realized from the following: literature review on the issues of sustainability and
existing tools for implementing sustainability in BC process; and using the findings
from the analysis of early work in design process the systems approach.
The model called the dynamic control process model was proposed to facilitate the
implementation of living apartment concept throughout the project delivery process.
The key objective of the model was to provide the guidance on how to implement
LBC principles at each stage of the design and construction phases of an apartment
building project. This, in turn, would encourage sustainable construction practices,
bottom-up design approach and value-driven supply during the building process.
Finally, to assess the suitability and practicality of using the model as a mechanism
for assisting the end-users, it was attempted to translate the model form paper-based
format into IT based format.

LIMITATIONS
This research like any other has limitation in terms of scope, the choice of research
methodology and the generalizations the findings. Its key limitations lie in the IT part,
the proposed tool presented in this thesis is for demonstration purpose only. The
robustness normally required for the commercial applications is out of the scope of
this research.

67

Appendices
1. OBJECTS OF INTERESTS OF THE PROPOSED APARTMENT BUILDING
Project
The concept of project is described from the tenants viewpoint. It defines the base
for the geometric 3D space. The project doesn't have any independent geometry.
The project is created by an administrator and can be deleted only by an
administrator.
Building
The concept of building is described from the tenants viewpoint. A building is a
spatial container of other objects and may have some quantity information attached,
which is calculated from the objects contained by the building.
Space
The concept of space is described from the tenants viewpoint. A tenant may not be
aware of all the space related information he/she is creating into the product model
(e.g. relationship between spaces and their bounding elements, and the furniture and
fixtures contained by the space), but this information is also covered by this concept.
Wall
The concept of wall is described from the tenants viewpoint. A tenant may not be
aware of all the wall related information he/she is creating into the product model
(e.g. wall connections and the relationship between walls and spaces), but this
information is also covered by this concept. For the tenant walls are primarily spacedividing elements, the main focus of the tenant is on the functional role of the walls
as part of the spatial composition of the building.
Door
The concept of the door is described from the tenants viewpoint. A tenant may not
be aware of all the door related information he/she is creating into the product model
(e.g. relationship between doors-spaces, doors-walls, doors-openings), but this
information is also covered by this concept. For the tenant doors provide access to

68

the building and its spatial compositions. Doors are subject to aesthetic
considerations (materials, colors, finishes). The tenant models the doors in 3D, and
defines type, location, size, appearance and materials. Details, such as hinges,
locks, kick- and push plates and other hardware are not part of this concept. Doors
are inserted into a solid wall. They should not be inserted into slabs (trap door) or
roofs.
Window
The concept of window is described from the tenants viewpoint. A tenant may not be
aware of all the window related information he/she is creating into the product model
(e.g. relationship between windows-spaces, windows-walls, windows-openings), but
this information is also covered by this concept. Windows are inserted into a solid
wall.
Opening
The concept of opening is described from the tenants viewpoint. Openings are used
for creating holes into walls and slabs, and openings may optionally contain fillers
(enclosure elements), i.e. doors and windows. When the tenant is modeling doors
and windows these elements automatically create an opening into the host element.
It is also possible to create empty openings to both walls and slabs for both functional
and aesthetic purposes. In addition to these openings the designers may create
other, usually smaller, opening elements typically for passing technical systems, such
as HVAC ducts, through walls and slabs.
Floor (Slab)
The concept of slab describes the slab from the tenants viewpoint. A tenant may not
be aware of all the slab related information he/she is creating into the product model
(e.g. relationship between slabs and spaces), but this information is also covered by
this concept. Slabs are horizontal space-dividing elements which provide the floors
for spaces and often also roofs. Slabs can be of type; slab, roof or landing.
Furniture
The concept of furniture describes furnishing elements from the tenants viewpoint. A
tenant may not be aware of all the furnishing related information he/she is creating
into the product model (e.g. relationship between furnishing elements and spaces),
but this information is also covered by this concept. Furnishing elements can either

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be movable or not (built-ins). Furnishing elements don't include any elements, which
have electrical or other service connections. These are dealt with by the electrical
fixture and plumbing fixture concepts.
Electrical fixture
The concept of the electrical fixture describes electrical fixtures from the tenants
viewpoint. A tenant may not be aware of all the electrical fixture related information
he/she is creating into the product model (e.g. relationship between electrical fixtures
and spaces), but this information is also covered by this concept. The designers in
the electrical domain are responsible for designing the electrical systems, but the
architect often has opinions about the appearance and location of the 'terminals' of
these systems, such as lamps.
Plumbing fixture
The concept of the plumbing fixture describes plumbing fixtures from the tenants
viewpoint. A tenant may not be aware of all the plumbing fixtures related information
he/she is creating into the product model (e.g. relationship between plumbing fixtures
and spaces), but this information is also covered by this concept. The designers in
the plumbing domain are responsible for designing the plumbing systems, but the
tenant often has opinions about the appearance and location of the 'terminals' of
these

systems,

such

as

washbasins

70

and

toilet

seats.

2. APARTMENT LAYOUT ALTERNATIVES

1 bedroom dwelling

2 bedroom dwelling

72

2 bedroom duplex dwelling

73

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First International Conference on Sustainable Construction, 6-9 November, Tampa,

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LEED, homepage of LEED, [web page], http://www.usgbc.org
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[web page], http://www.sustainability.nsw.gov.au

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