Project costs and industrial benefits: Analyzing the technological function of the Sydney Opera House thirty years after its completion

In spite of its revolutionary approach to design and construction, the industrial legacy of the Sydney Opera House has never been the subject of systematic analysis. Whilst celebrating the genius of his conceiver Jørn Utzon, the literature remains aloof about the building’s contribution to the management of construction innovation, the consequent definition of sectoral policies, and the role that public buildings have in their implementation. This paper documents the methodological underpinnings of a recently funded research project, which attempts to fill such a documentary and theoretical gap by seeking answers to questions concerned with the technical, social, political and economic dimensions of the project’s performance. The argument of the paper is that most of these answers can be produced by setting up a framework of historical data connecting the various technologies used for the project to a series of building industry cost proxies, and by analysing their dynamics overtime. The theory behind this work is that the value of design is seldom appreciated fully because it is difficult to measure it within the conventional project-based appraisal framework. The research makes an attempt to reach a better balance between project costs and future benefits by extending the scope of the analysis to the industry at large.

Velux Lab: innovation between art and science

Arianna Brambilla

Veluxlab is the first Italian Nearly Zero Energy Building. It is placed in Bovisa Campus of Politecnico di Milano and it represents a study case of high energy efficiency building, integrating in the future scenario required by the European Directive 2010/31/UE. VELUXlab was born as a Mediterranean Model Home for VELUX, called Atika, designed by J.A. Cantalejo and R.A.Ronda from ACXT/IDOM studio. It personified the prototype of energy efficiency building for the Mediterranean Region and it is the result of an important architectural and performance retrofit. The renovation was led by Atelier2 with the supervision of Professor Imperadori and Professor Motta from Politecnico di Milano.The collaboration between Politecnico di Milano and VELUX Italia gave the opportunity of create a new lab, a sort of test building, where it is possible to develop the experimental research on going in the University. In this way VELUXlab became itself matter of research on the energy efficiency and sustainability in the building sector. The use of innovative solutions and materials for the envelope coupled with an advanced technological system, makes representing the first Italian nearly Zero Energy Building in a University Campus. Furthermore, thanks to its energetic performance and to the integration of renewable source, it is the first built Active House in Italy (www.activehouse.info). VELUXlab is, therefore, an example of smart and sustainable re-use of an existing structure as well as a model of energy efficient building and a prototype for the new generation home, bringing forward future experimentations and implementation in the sector. It is the profitable collaboration between Politecnico and construction companies that allows to innovate, test and research sustainability and efficiency. The west wing of the building and the conditioning system are equipped with a revolutionary wireless sensors network (WSN), designed by the DEI Department of Politecnico di Milano (Prof. Cugola, Ing. Sivieri), that allows a constantly monitoring of the real performance of the envelope - indoor comfort system. The real time results are broadcasted on the University intranet, elaborated by a remote server and then made available on-line. Thanks to this streaming it is possible to understand the real performance of VELUXlab in the first year of measurement. This data portray the ordinary operational situation, including the internal strains given by the users; it is easy to understand that the building itself is a prototype, conceived as an active and dynamic laboratory. In order to make easier the data interpretation and management, the Design Department (Prof. Bordegoni), is been studying an innovative and more intuitive way to visualize the sensors data, with the implementation of the graphic interface in an augmented reality platform. It is easy to understand that VELUXlab offers continuously incentives and opportunities for testing and experimenting innovative solutions and ideas, giving the chance to continue research and studies.

2013

Reconsidering traditional timber joinery for sustainable structures

Jan Friedrich Georg Brütting, Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet

Timber construction plays an important role in architectural history, in modern construction methods and in sustainable design, for which wood-only joinery techniques have been used for centuries. Traditional joinery typologies are the product of successive, empirical improvements over generations of artisans [1]. However, over the industrialization era, many traditional wood-only construction techniques were abandoned in favor of more profitable connections with mechanical fasteners [2]. This shift of practice lead to the development of connections with quantifiable capacity but neglecting the intrinsic anisotropic properties of natural timber. Specialized knowledge of carpenters and typical building traditions were lost. Yet, examples of historic timber buildings with a life span of multiple centuries have demonstrated many advantages of interlocking timber joints, e.g. in severe loading cases as in the case of earthquakes [2]. New technologies and recent developments in digital fabrication allow the custom and automated manufacturing of traditional wood-only connections for new buildings [3]. A big potential of such contact-only connections is their fast assembly and non-destructive disassembly. Remarkable examples include the Japanese Ise-Shrines, which are rebuilt in a 20-year frequency for the past 1300 years. Traditional joinery techniques allow for sustainable solutions through the replacement, long-term maintenance and repair of structural elements [4]. They also ease recycling and energy-recovery. In times of global environmental problems where the building sector is highly responsible for resource depletion, greenhouse-gas emissions and waste pollution, these advantages will become even more important for regenerative architecture or transformable building design. Buildings need to become more adaptable to frequent changes in ownership or use to avoid superfluous demolition. For example in Japan in the past, entire cities made from timber were constructed for disassembly and transport in order to accommodate for recurrently changing administrative centers [3]. Some joint typologies were designed to allow the later vertical or horizontal extension of buildings [2]. In Japan also, contemporary buildings are not understood as permanent edifices but as structures made to be replaced or removed. This could only be achieved through highly developed timber joinery techniques. A combination of traditional joinery with contemporary post and beam construction and CNC prefabrication is already well established in Japan in the construction of residential buildings [3]. However, a straightforward application of traditional joinery techniques in today’s construction is not always possible. In the past, the structural integrity of traditional joinery techniques was proven mainly through in-situ, de-facto testing. Today, building codes include little-to-no information about the application of wood-only carpentry connections in comparison to those with mechanical fasteners [2]. Research on interlocking joints concentrates on a very precise analysis of few different joint typologies. There are limitations in literature in terms of analyzing a variety, or a library of ancient interlocking wood joints to develop an extensive relative comparison between them. As a first step, the present research initiates a FEM campaign to catalog a library of Asian joints. To align traditional techniques with modern construction and typically used North American timber, solid Douglas fir was considered as the material. The goal of the analysis is to extract the relative capacity and stiffness of different joints to understand their mechanical behavior. This comparative record, which should be extended to additional Asian and European joint types, will allow academics and designers to push the capabilities of these ancient techniques while benefitting from modern materials, construction techniques and fabrication tools. Other research will also address the optimization of joint geometries to customize demanded capacity or stiffening. In addition, Life Cycle Assessment of constructions with conventional and advanced traditional joinery technology will be carried out to quantify potential environmental savings.

2018

A taxonomy for Whole Building Life Cycle Assessment (WBLCA)

Catherine Elvire L. De Wolf

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present an analysis of common parameters in existing tools that provide guidance to carry out Whole Building Life Cycle Assessment (WBLCA) and proposes a new taxonomy, a catalogue of parameters, for the definition of the goal and scope (G&S) in WBLCA. Design/methodology/approach A content analysis approach is used to identify, code and analyze parameters in existing WBLCA tools. Finally, a catalogue of parameters is organized into a new taxonomy. Findings In total, 650 distinct parameter names related to the definition of G&S from 16 WBLCAs tools available in North America, Europe and Australia are identified. Building on the analysis of existing taxonomies, a new taxonomy of 54 parameters is proposed in order to describe the G&S of WBLCA. Research limitations/implications The analysis of parameters in WBLCA tools does not include Green Building Rating Systems and is only limited to tools available in English. Practical implications This research is crucial in life cycle assessment (LCA) method harmonization and to serve as a stepping stone to the identification and categorization of parameters that could contribute to WBLCA comparison necessary to meet current global carbon goals. Social implications The proposed taxonomy enables architecture, engineering and construction practitioners to contribute to current WBLCA practice. Originality/value A study of common parameters in existing tools contributes to identifying the type of data that is required to describe buildings and contribute to build a standardized framework for LCA reporting, which would facilitate consistency across future studies and can serve as a checklist for practitioners when conducting the G&S stage of WBLCA.