1. |
-
Degraded and restituted towns in Poland: Origins, development, problems : Miasta zdegradowane i restytuowane w Polsce. Geneza, rozwój, problemy
- 2015
-
Editorial collection (other academic/artistic)abstract
- One of the less known problems in settlement geography is the issue of so-called degraded and restituted towns. This lack of reconnaissance, however, is perhaps less the result of the towns’ scarcity than their specificity of being ‘awarded’ or ‘deprived of’ an urban label by means of strictly socio-political actions. Degraded and restituted towns, hence, are spatial units made ‘urban’ or ‘rural’ instantaneously, irrespective of their de facto state along what is widely considered a gradual path of (de)urbanization. Instead, they become compartmentalized into two constructed spatial categories that have survived the onslaught of material transformations and philosophical repositioning through different whims of time. While ‘rural’ and ‘urban’ are conceptual binaries that certainly need to be treated with caution, their cultural salience may cause tangible consequences within national administrative systems that abide by a formalized rural-urban distinction. This issue becomes particularly important for settlements that clearly transcend any imagined rural-urban divide, i.e. those, whose material and immaterial characteristics seem counterfactual to their assigned category. It is also crucial in formal practices designed to avert such counterfactualities, but whose ran-domness of approach more creates confusion than helps straighten out a historical concoction. Both processes, nonetheless, lend ‘urbanity’ and ‘rurality’ a resonance of objectivity, justifying their use as guides for a host of developmental endeavors, despite subverting a much more intricate reality. Degraded and restituted towns are direct derivatives of this. Drawing on the above-mentioned irreconcilabilities, the aim of this book is to present and scrutinize degraded and restituted towns through the example of Poland, where these towns occupy a special niche. For one, Poland, due to its chequered and variegated history, is home to a conspicuously large number of degraded (831) and restituted (236) towns; for another, Poland’s relentlessness of formalizing ‘urbanity’ as a category of statistical, political and cultural guidance has a direct bearing on the lives of the towns’ residents. Realizing the intricacy of degraded and restituted towns in the face of commonplace ru-ral-urban ideations, the editors and the 17 contributing Authors of this book have made an effort to capture the towns’ complexity with special foci on their shrouded origins, developmental specificity and incurred problems. Owing to the involvement of researchers from different scientific disciplines and subdisciplines, the undertaken project has helped elucidate the problem from multiple perspectives: spatial, social, demographic, economic, environmental, historical, architectural, cultural, legal and philosophical. Allocated into 17 chapters, not only have the presented interpretations allowed for a first interdisciplinary synthesis on the topic, but they also helped outline some prospective directions for future research. Moreover, collecting materials of such diversity into an amalgamated whole has helped identify specific discourses that enwrap the concept of “urbanity” when seen through its oscillations within formal contexts, and to which degraded and restituted towns serve as expendable game pieces. By combining knowledge arrived at through ontologically and epistemologically different approaches, the incremental contribution of this book as a whole could be summarized in two attainments: a) extending theoretical frameworks used to study degraded and restituted towns in terms of definition, conceptualization and assessing predispositions for future de-velopment on account of their spatial, legal, socio-economic and historical charac-teristics; b) initiating an anticipated discussion on a number of important and current topics re-lated to the practices of degradation and restitution that have not received adequate attention, e.g., the urbanity-vs.-rurality paradox, the changeability of human settlement forms vs. the consequences of rigid spatial categorizations; the role of various actors in shaping the socio-economic reality under the guise of an ossified binary; or identifying spatio-conceptual conflicts as future challenges for local, regional and national policy.
|
|
2. |
|
|
3. |
|
|
4. |
- Nielsen, Stig Anton, 1981
(author)
-
Propositional architecture and the paradox of prediction
- 2015
-
In: Archidoct Vol. 4. - 2309-0103. ; 4, s. 72-85
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- What if we could predict trends, rising phenomena and future necessity in our build environment? If we could trace behaviors and forecast the needs for the future? If we had a tool for proposing architecture, that was able to point out potentialities and suggest additions, subtractions and modifications.If Architects had a tool to predict future demands, modification of the build environment could meet the changing behaviors and emerging phenomena in society. Research on existing building stock is reviewed in a context where prediction on complex indeterminate environments is possible. And an entirely new type of architectural tool is proposed, an algorithm for prediction.The algorithm, capable of making prediction in unstructured environments, is presented, and basis and idea of the algorithm is described in detail. The discussion focus on possible applications for this new tool, and the paradox of prediction is debated. Finally, improvements to the computational system are proposed.
|
|
5. |
- Säwén, Toivo, 1993
(author)
-
Early Stage Architectural Design Practice Perspectives on Life Cycle Building Performance Assessment
- 2023
-
Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Architectural practitioners can avoid negative social and environmental impacts of new construction by making decisions supported by impact quantification during design processes. However, most software tools developed for such quantification see little use in practice, especially in early design stages when decisions have the greatest influence. To identify ways for software developers to overcome this situation, a thorough literature meta-review of previously performed tool reviews was combined with interviews applying a practice lens. The first key finding is that a possible explanation for the low tool uptake in practice could be a missing practice perspective in previous tool development efforts. In a literature meta-review of publications on life cycle building performance tools identifying previously applied perspectives, most previous tool reviews were found to support tool development and selection, while disregarding how tools can be integrated in existing practices and design processes. As a proposed solution, a framework for defining software requirements using a practice perspective was developed. The second key finding is that a practice perspective could be applied during software development by implementing qualitative methodologies. Nine architectural practitioners in Sweden, Norway and France were interviewed using the interview to the double, a projective technique in which the interviewee is asked to describe their next workday in detail so that their tasks can be assumed by an imagined body double. The design activities described by the respondents were sequenced into user narratives which could serve as starting points for participatory software development processes within the architectural practice. The outcomes - a proposed framework for practice-centric software requirements, and a proposed methodology for collecting these requirements using a practice lens - indicate a research direction toward software development efforts which aligns with design process, architectural practice, and tool user needs. In the next stage of the research this direction will be pursued through application of the developed methodologies in participatory development case studies in early-stage architectural design practice.
|
|
6. |
- Ylva, Berglund, et al.
(author)
-
Framsynt efterord
- 2013
-
In: Mellanrum. Fem års seminarier om social hållbarhet och stadsutveckling i Göteborg.
-
Book chapter (other academic/artistic)
|
|
7. |
- Dymitrow, Mirek, et al.
(author)
-
Crossing dichotomies and breaking mental patterns: Green business development when all else fails?
- 2017
-
In: 8th International Scientific Conference “Rural Development 2017: Bioeconomy Challenges”, 23–24 November, 2017 Kaunas, Lithuania.
-
Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Obtaining sustainable and inclusive societal organization is not merely a simple matter of ‘doing it’ by subscribing to some winning formula. Given that conceptual frameworks always guide our thoughts, judgments and actions (Latour, 2013; Harvey, 1996; Dennett, 1993), the ways in which we relate to concepts chosen to serve as guiding forces for future development will eventually determine its outcome. As scholarly evidence continuously suggests the concepts ‘rural’ and ‘urban’ are increasingly recognized as artificial barriers for conducting sound and integrated development endeavors in a globalized reality of interconnectedness. In line with the Sustainable Development Goals, which aim to eradicate poverty, shield the planet and safeguard prosperity for all, commitment to universal access to healthy food year round has become an important agenda point. This, however, has been exacerbated by binary thinking and separate ways of doing policy. This paper aims to share experiences from a unique project launched in the northern parts of Gothenburg, Sweden’s second largest city. While the area offers ample resources and immense opportunities for areal economies, it at the same time remains one of Gothenburg’s most segregated, with high levels of unemployment, ill health and crime. The uniqueness of the project lies not only in its way of abridging the rural-urban divide, but also by consciously deferring from the debilitating rhetoric of previous ‘immigrant policies’, and instead focusing on agricultural productivity, small-scale food producers and sustainable food strategies. Such exhortations to bridge between philosophical and material polarities, however, have not come without conceptual and practical challenges, something this paper aims to subsume and open up to debate.
|
|
8. |
- Mangold, Mikael, 1982, et al.
(author)
-
Building ownership, renovation investments, and energy performance - A study of multi-family dwellings in Gothenburg
- 2018
-
In: Sustainability. - : MDPI AG. - 2071-1050. ; 10:5
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The European building stock was renewed at a rapid pace during the period 1950-1975. In many European countries, the building stock from this time needs to be renovated, and there are opportunities to introduce energy efficiency measures in the renovation process. Information availability and increasingly available analysis tools make it possible to assess the impact of policy and regulation. This article describes methods developed for analyzing investments in renovation and energy performance based on building ownership and inhabitant socio-economic information developed for Swedish authorities, to be used for the Swedish national renovations strategy in 2019. This was done by analyzing measured energy usage and renovation investments made during the last 30 years, coupled with building specific official information of buildings and resident area characteristics, for multi-family dwellings in Gothenburg (N = 6319). The statistical analyses show that more costly renovations lead to decreasing energy usage for heating, but buildings that have been renovated during the last decades have a higher energy usage when accounting for current heating system, ownership, and resident socio-economic background. It is appropriate to include an affordability aspect in larger renovation projects since economically disadvantaged groups are over-represented in buildings with poorer energy performance.
|
|
9. |
- Brusselaers, Nicolas, 1993-
(author)
-
The impact of off-site construction transport on air quality
- 2023
-
Book (peer-reviewed)abstract
- While transport is inevitable in our economy and daily lives, it also engenders negative effects on the society and environment. The effects of air pollution are responsible for more than 364,200 premature deaths in Europe each year. Most urban areas still exceed the NOx and PM WHO air quality guidelines, of which a large share of pollutants is attributable to freight transport. The construction sector forms no exception, as it intrinsically strongly relies on off-site logistics activities, i.e. transports to and from sites. Although construction works lead to an urban economic uptake on the long-haul, the environmental nuisances from construction logistic (CL) activities during the works have so far been overlooked. This thesis focuses on the air quality impact of off-site construction transport, covering four main parts. First, as there is a lack of knowledge within cities on how to set construction transport demands and how to involve actors in these processes, a stakeholder framework is presented. Next, I identify the available and required transport data (and digitization possibilities) to assess the sector’s environmental impact, such as On-Board Units. Secondly, impact assessments were conducted across various construction supply chain implementations, on single-site, city-wide and national level. Hence, a methodological approach to derive construction-related vehicles from Heavy-Goods Vehicle (HGV) traffic based on algorithmic and geospatial analyses is proposed. Results indicate that construction transport represents 26.40% of total HGV traffic in the Brussels-Capital Region (BCR), generating €45,631.85 of external costs per workday, and 17.58% in Belgium (or €1.45mio per day). Subsequently, the framework was deployed to assess the transport performance of the multimodal Brussels Construction Consolidation Centre. The use of this setup can mitigate external costs by up to 59% compared to business-as-usual operations, most notably on congestion and climate change costs. However, improvements are necessary to tackle local emissions, attributable to less performant -yet ubiquitous- vessel engines. Air pollution damage costs also remain high on city level analyses, with CL inflicting €55,123.07 per month (or €2,505.59 per workday) in the BCR. A fortiori, with the growing concern on urban air quality, this raises the question of where, when and by whom the most exposure costs are inflicted. So far, the geo-temporal link between the emitting freight vehicle and its receptor densities was considered static. The third part introduces a dynamic impact-pathway approach, highlighting that PM & NO2 source impacts engender €61.604 of health costs in the BCR each day. Large differences were found on the local level compared to the traditional static approach, indicating that the proposed dynamic methodology should be used for micro-scale analyses (on link, building or neighborhood level). Striking is that vulnerable population segments such as toddlers, school children and elderly, who are more sensible to the effects of air pollution, incur 60.28% of the total health costs, although these segments represent only a quarter of the BCR population. Moreover, a strong overlap was found between the receptor’s presence (in particular children) and peak freight traffic movements. The fourth part investigates the exposure effects when off-site construction transport flows are spatiotemporally rerouted around air pollution hotspots. Although an increase in emissions is observed due to higher travelled distances and slower driving speeds, results show that the inflicted health costs can be mitigated up to 25.53%. Conclusively, this study suggests to decouple policies from absolute transport emissions and focus on the actual health impact, considering the spatiotemporal relationship of both emissions and receptors. Although tailoring a one-size-fits-all construction logistic plan can initially prove to be difficult due to the unique character of each construction site’s supply chain, the conducted studies also show that this individual complexity can be overcome by overall better integrated urban transport planning, and can ultimately lead to significant sustainability benefits.
|
|
10. |
- Rempling, Rasmus, 1976, et al.
(author)
-
Performance requirements for Swedish transport infrastructure - A pre-study of challenges and possibilities
- 2022
-
Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In recent years, significant worldwide research has been conducted regarding the performance assessment of bridges and the concept of performance indicator has been introduced However, there are still significant discrepancies in how these indicators are obtained and used. Simultaneously, it is desirable to achieve processes and methods that are direct, i.e. that measured values are directly compared with projected values over time. This project concerns methods for verification of technical performance requirements. The feasibility study brought together interdisciplinary researchers, consultants, and entrepreneurs to gather knowledge, anchor the research agenda, and implement performance requirements. The project concludes that there is a need for a “Holistic multi-parameter verification/validation system” that relies on the knowledge gained in structural health monitoring research.
|
|
11. |
- Mathern, Alexandre, 1986
(author)
-
Addressing the complexity of sustainability-driven structural design: Computational design, optimization, and decision making
- 2021
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Being one of the sectors with the largest environmental burden and high socio-economic impacts sets high requirements on the construction industry. At the same time, this provides the sector with great opportunities to contribute to the globally pursued sustainability transition. To cope with the increasing need for infrastructure and, at the same time, limit their sustainability impacts, changes and innovation in the construction sector are required. The greatest possibility to limit the sustainability impact of construction works is at the early design phase of construction projects, as many of the choices influencing sustainability are made at that point. Traditionally, an early choice of a preferred design is often made based on limited knowledge and past experience, considering only a handful of options. This preferred design is then taken on to the successive stages in the stepwise design process, leading to suboptimization. Alternatively, many different design choices could be considered and evaluated in a more holistic approach in order to find the most sustainable design for a particular application. However, finding design solutions that offer the best sustainability performance and fulfil all structural, performance and buildability requirements, require methods that allow considering different design options, analysing them, and assessing their sustainability. The aim of this thesis is to explore and develop methods enabling structural engineers to take sustainability objectives into account in the design of structures. Throughout this thesis, a number of methods have been explored to take sustainability aspects into account in the structural design process. As a first step, highly parameterized computer codes for sustainability-driven design have been developed. These codes interoperate with FE analysis software to automatically model and analyse design concepts over the whole design space and verify compliance with structural design standards. The codes were complemented with a harmonized method for life cycle sustainability performance assessment, in line with the state-of-the-art standards. Here, sustainability criteria were defined covering environmental, social, economic, buildability and structural performance for multi-criteria assessment of design concepts. To identify the most sustainable designs within the set, multi-objective optimization algorithms were used. Algorithms that address the high expense of constraint function evaluations of structural design problems were developed and integrated in the parameterized computer codes for sustainability-driven design. To ensure the applicability and validity of these methods, case studies based on real-world projects and common structural engineering problems were used in this thesis. Case studies for bridges and wind turbine foundations as well as a benchmark case of a reinforced concrete beam were investigated. The case studies highlight the potential of the methods explored to support the design of more sustainable structures, as well as the applicability of the methods in structural engineering practice. It is concluded that it is possible and beneficial to combine computational design, life cycle sustainability assessment, and multi-objective design optimization as a basis for decision making in the design phase of civil engineering projects. A wide adoption of such a sustainability-driven design optimization approach in structural engineering practice can directly improve the sustainability of the construction sector.
|
|
12. |
- Dervishaj, Arlind
(author)
-
Sunlight Autonomy for Sustainable Buildings and Cities : Maximizing daylight potential outdoors and indoors
- 2024
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Daylight, both outdoors and indoors, is essential for human well-being. However, daylight provision often faces challenges in various climates and locations, due to factors such as shortcomings in regulations, urban densification, deregulation or special exemptions, and the limitations of existing daylight and sunlight evaluation methods. To address these issues, we propose the Sunlight Autonomy, a new methodology and set of metrics, that aims to overcome the limitations of existing early-stage daylighting metrics and is valuable for urban planning and architectural design purposes.
|
|
13. |
- Larsson, Bengt, 1943-, et al.
(author)
-
The Effect and Cost Impact of Poor Airtightness : Information for Developers and Clients
- 2007
-
In: Thermal Performance of the Exterior Envelopes of Whole Buildings. - Orlando : ASHRAE. - 2166-8469. - 9781933742281
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Air movements in and through the building envelope affect the flows of not only heat, but also moisture, gases and particles, in a building. They often play a decisive part in determining moisture conditions, and thus indoor environmental conditions in the building, and ultimately, the durability of the building structure. Air flows affect thermal comfort and ventilation, and thus air quality. In addition, they also cause heat loss, both directly via ventilation, and through their effect on the performance of what are intended to be high-insulation structures.A previous joint project between SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden and Chalmers University of Technology investigated the importance of airtightness in the construction process. The project found that many types of damage and problems were caused by poor airtightness, that airtightness was seldom given the proper consideration that it deserved and that there was a major need for information on the effect of poor airtightness. One of the conclusions was that it is important to get developers/clients to treat airtightness more seriously.The objective of the follow-on project that is described here is therefore to make developers/clients (more) aware of the potential damage that can be caused by poor airtightness, together with the “cost” of this damage/problem in a life-cycle perspective. Hopefully, developers/clients will then specify and monitor airtightness requirements more clearly. The aim is therefore to develop tools and methods for informing developers/clients of the importance of good airtightness, and of the resulting extra costs that incur from paying insufficient attention to airtightness.The project has identified and assessed various consequences of poor airtightness, such as increased energy use, reduced thermal comfort, reduced air quality and moisture damages.The cost calculations show that the developer/client would benefit in most cases from an increased standard and follow up on airtightness. We have projected the work with three different levels of ambition: 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 l/m2s (at 50 Pa pressure difference), and believe that the optimal airtightness lies somewhere in the region of these values, depending on the buildings use and equipment.
|
|
14. |
- Shadram, Farshid, 1987-
(author)
-
Assessment and optimization of life cycle enrgy use in buildings
- 2018
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Buildings account for 40% of all energy use in European countries. The European Union (EU) therefore encourages member states to adopt Energy Efficiency Measures (EEMs) and implement energy-efficient practices during building design to minimize the energy use of buildings. However, recent studies have shown that energy-efficient buildings may not always outperform conventional buildings in terms of Life Cycle Energy (LCE) use. This is mainly due to the trade-off between embodied and operational energy, and a reliance on EEMs that reduce operational energy while sometimes increasing embodied energy and LCE use. To improve buildings’ environmental performance, the impact of different EEMs on buildings’ energy use needs to be assessed from a lifecycle perspective, and methods for identifying optimal combinations of EEMs that minimize LCE use should be developed. Ideally, these methods should be integrated with building information modelling (BIM) to enable seamless data exchange and to help Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) practitioners make optimal design decisions relating to EEMs. The work presented in this thesis had two overall objectives: (1) to explore the scope for developing BIM-supported method(s) for assessing and optimizing the impact of EEMs on buildings’ LCE use during the design process, and (2) use the BIM-supported method(s) for exploring the impact of various EEMs that are implemented and modified during the building design process on the buildings’ LCE use.The work presented in this thesis is based on an exploratory research design involving iterative cycles of (1) problem identification, (2) method development, (3) method examination, and (4) theory suggestion. In step 1, problems were identified by conducting literature studies and workshops with AEC practitioners, and analyzing archival data. In step 2, prototyping was used to develop methods to overcome the identified problems. In step 3, the applicability of these methods (or prototypes) was tested in case studies on actual and hypothetical building projects. Three case studies were conducted – one dealing with a low energy dwelling located in Kiruna, Sweden; another dealing with a multifamily residential building in Uppsala, Sweden; and a third dealing with a hypothetical multifamily residential building in Stockholm, Sweden. In step 4, the results were compared to existing theories to strengthen existing knowledge and identify previously unrecognized findings.In relation to the first objective, the results obtained show that the factors and activities required to develop BIM-supported method(s) for assessing and optimizing the impact of EEMs on a building’s LCE use during the design phase are:• A database that stores external and building project data (e.g. BIM data) and links it to be used for assessment and optimization, providing access to the data whenever needed.• The development of interfaces using middleware applications to ensure interoperability and seamless automated exchange of information between BIM and other systems.• Predefined objects (i.e. building part and component recipes) that are stored in a database and linked to inventories and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for the relevant materials, enabling assessment of the buildings’ embodied energy and LCE use.• The application of multi-objective optimization techniques (e.g. Pareto-based genetic algorithms) to identify optimal solution(s) for EEMs that minimize (optimize) the building’s LCE use.In relation to the second objective of the thesis, the results obtained indicate that:• EEMs that are implemented and modified during the detailed design phase have much less influence on the building’s LCE use than those implemented in the early design phase. Highly influential EEMs related to the early design phase which were tested herein were the building’s shape, orientation, Window to Wall Ratio (WWR), and the selection of materials used in the building envelope.• Generally, thickening roof insulation has a strong beneficial effect on LCE use for buildings in Sweden.• For buildings using energy sources with high primary energy factors, the most effective way to reduce LCE use may be to implement many EEMs that reduce operational energy use. However, this approach may be less helpful for buildings using greener energy sources because in such cases the embodied energy may have a greater effect on the final LCE use.• The embodied energies of materials in the same class can vary significantly between suppliers. Such differences in embodied energy can be identified by considering the suppliers’ EPDs, the energetic contributions due to their mode of transportation from the site of production, and the distance between the site of production and the construction site.• If the developed optimization approach is used to identify optimal combinations of EEMs in the early design phase, designers can freely choose from a wide range of building shapes without greatly affecting LCE use. However, without early phase optimization, designs that use different building shapes may exhibit significantly different LCE use values.The results provide both theoretical and practical contributions that may be useful to researchers and AEC practitioners seeking to develop BIM-supported design processes and to reduce buildings’ LCE use by adopting appropriate EEMs. The results also show that embodied energy can be a major component of a building’s LCE use if the building’s design relies heavily on EEMs designed solely to reduce operational energy use. Policy makers and governmental bodies are thus advised to update regulations and building codes to reflect the importance of embodied energy so as to minimize the LCE use of new and retrofitting building projects.
|
|
15. |
-
Unraveling the logics of landscape
- 2014
-
Editorial collection (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Despite conceptual oscillations through times, the concept of landscape remains highly subjective, whereupon unraveling its 'logics' opens up to a plurality of interpretations. Accordingly, by focusing on the interconnections present in the non-haphazard production of landscape, this publication elaborates on how the rural landscape is valued, monitored, changed, harbored, used and misused, be it through actions, representations or metaphors. This book covers a broad range of topics, with contributions from scholars from more than 30 countries.
|
|
16. |
- Forsemalm, Joakim, 1973, et al.
(author)
-
Urban Qualities: ett kunskapsområde
- 2013
-
Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Den här kunskapsöversikten är ett försök att utkristallisera relevant forskning såväl som praktisk kunskap för Mistra Urban Futures om urbana kvaliteter. Översikten är kopplad till ett arbete som genomförts under vår och höst 2011 med syfte att skapa underlag för den Strategiska plan som utgör grunden för Mistra Urban Futures planering och aktiviteter. Under våren 2011 arbetade sex grupper med varsitt kunskapsfält – urbana kvaliteter, urban förändring (”transitions”), urbana kulturer, urbana rättigheter, urban tillgänglighet och urban uthållighet. Tanken var att dessa skulle utgöra de sex bärande fokusområdena för centrets verksamhet. Sedermera kom dessa sex områden att slås ihop till tre - FAIR, GREEN och DENSE – vilka nu utgör de tre övergripande problem- och kunskapsområdena för Mistra Urban Futures.
|
|
17. |
- Roupé, Mattias, 1975, et al.
(author)
-
Immersive visualization of Building Information Models
- 2016
-
In: Living Systems and Micro-Utopias: Towards Continuous Designing, Proceedings of the 21st International Conference of the Association for Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia (CAADRIA 2016). - 9789881902672 ; , s. 673-682
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The design process of a building often involves many different actors and people with different experiences, level of knowledge and ability to interpret information. The most common information media in these processes are 2D-drawings, documents and 3D images of design. These media can be difficult to interpret and understand and could cause communication difficulties and design errors. However, in this context, Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Virtual Reality (VR) have been shown to offer an efficient communication platform. In this paper we present and evaluate a portable immersive visualization system that uses the BIMs directly from the design tools. The system is validated in a real construction project, where the dif-ferent disciplines in the design process used the system. The result was collected through interviews and observation during usage of the system. All the participants expressed that this type of visual interface helped them to get another level of understanding and perception of space, which lead to better decision-making process and resolving of design issues.
|
|
18. |
- Mathern, Alexandre, 1986, et al.
(author)
-
Practical metamodel‑assisted multi‑objective design optimization for improved sustainability and buildability of wind turbine foundations
- 2022
-
In: Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1615-1488 .- 1615-147X. ; 65:2
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this work, we study the potential of using kriging metamodelling to perform multi-objective structural design optimization using finite element analysis software and design standards while keeping the computational efforts low. A method is proposed, which includes sustainability and buildability objectives, and it is applied to a case study of reinforced concrete foundations for wind turbines based on data from a large Swedish wind farm project. Sensitivity analyses are conducted to investigate the influence of the penalty factor applied to unfeasible solutions and the size of the initial sample generated by Latin hypercube sampling. A multi-objective optimization is then performed to obtain the optimum designs for different weight combinations for the four objectives considered. Results show that the kriging-obtained designs from samples of 20 designs outperform the best designs in the samples of 1000 designs. The optimum designs obtained by the proposed method have a sustainability impact 8–15% lower than the designs developed by traditional methods.
|
|
19. |
- Dyrssen, Catharina, 1949, et al.
(author)
-
Key urban projects: Local-regional planning tools for fragile urban landscapes
- 2014
-
In: World in Denmark 2014: Nordic encounters. Travelling ideas about open space design and planning.
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In Sweden, cities are promoted as drivers of economic growth and solutions for decreased climatic influence, resulting in a dominant focus on development of large cities in the planning debate and sustainability discourse. As discussed by Harvey (2006), Massey (2007) and Tietjen (2011), this increases differences between growing and declining cities and regions, and escalates uneven geographic development. The process produces fragile urban landscapes, i.e. local situations short of resources, skills and mandates to handle change and deal with in-lock of sense-making structures, thereby concealing actual site specific possibilities and the potential of development of small towns and rural areas. This renders the need for new relevant planning tools with onset in a relational perspective on space (Harvey 2006, Massey 2007), urban ecologies (Guattari 1989, Banham 1971) and design-based, proformative approaches (Solà Morales 2008, Bunschoten 2001, Cuff & Sherman 2011). This article argues for key urban projects as a relational, place-specific, operative planning tool that can open and lock urban transformation, secure and guide implementation and reveal strategies to develop fragile urban landscapes, with ability to: handle centre-periphery and urban-rural as dynamic contingencies; combine the capacity of different urban ecologies; relate the formation of urban landscapes to different scales; optimise combinatory potentials of local-regional resources; secure forms of operative collaboration; trigger critical negotiations; and integrate spatial implementation to the planning process.These abilities are tested through design-based research-methodology with onset from works in progress in five Swedish contexts of practice that outline a spectrum of important characteristics of fragile urban landscapes.Key Urban Projects are identified and developed through a mapping process iterating between identification of specific issues and the outline of their relevant contours, a process that both visualize and establish assemblages (DeLanda 2006). Key Projects gain their potential through stepwise change of the existing material landscape and its urban ecologies.
|
|
20. |
- Estévez Mauriz, Laura, 1982
(author)
-
The urban form and the sound environment - Tools and approaches
- 2017
-
Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Cities are always confronted with transition and adaptation. Awareness on urban environmental quality is leading the vision about the built environment’s resilience and sustainability, highlighting the importance of a multidisciplinary framework for urbanisation processes. One of the main concerns is the negative impact of outdoor noise due to road traffic, whereby controlling the sound environment through good quality spatial production is a priority. Europe and other parts of the world are experiencing a chronic traffic congestion problem. The environmental impact of this situation is overwhelming, where 90 % of the health impact due to noise exposure is estimated to be caused by road traffic noise. In this regard, noise maps are seen as a powerful tool in the development of new urban areas, where its noise level underestimation can endanger the wellbeing of citizens. At this rapid urbanisation, divided pronouncements on decision-making are devastating. The aim is to overcome negative aspects derived from a late intervention by including urban sound planning as an opportunity to the user’s experience and wellbeing, avoiding poor patches in the urban configuration and economical burden. The present work is committed to the development of tools for controlling, communicating and designing the sound environment on a level beyond today’s solutions, capable to be included at the early stages of the planning process. First, the study goes through the importance of the quiet side and the implementation of an engineering method as a powerful tool in the urban development, obtaining accurate results compared to measurements. In an attempt to study time variations of traffic within cities and its relevance regarding noise emission (normally overlooked in current noise mapping calculations), a microscopic road traffic modelling tool is developed in the second study, giving useful output for noise level predictions as function of time. The time-pattern analysis opens the possibility to test traffic configurations and explore a large variety of results in the form of descriptors as statistical indicators, calm periods and noise events, and outcomes as difference maps and contribution maps. The third study extends toward the evaluation of the effects of spatial heterogeneity (considered a key strategy to increase the liveability of spaces) on the environmental performance and resilience capacity of the transportation system through the study of noise pollution and its economic impact. The studies presented are using real case scenarios as a test-bed not only for implementation, but mainly for the development of tools.
|
|
21. |
- Kickert, Conrad Christiaan, et al.
(author)
-
Surveying density, urban characteristics, and development capacity of station areas in the Delta Metropolis
- 2014
-
In: Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design. - : SAGE Publications. - 2399-8083 .- 2399-8091 .- 0265-8135 .- 1472-3417. ; 41, s. 69-92
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The combination of growing mobility needs and dwindling transportation budgets in the Dutch Delta Metropolis has raised the need for smarter use of existing public transport infrastructure. A significant portion of this smarter use may come from strengthening the ties between infrastructure improvements and transit-oriented development. To further this goal, the Delta Metropolis Association has developed SprintCity (SprintStad in Dutch), a serious game and planning support tool that engages stakeholders in transit-oriented development to explore interaction between transport and land use, as described in Bertolini’s node–place model. However, its underlying database has proven insufficient to draw conclusions regarding urban character and development capacity around stations. This paper focuses on morphological research that aims to improve this database by exploring the density and urban morphology of station areas in the Delta Metropolis beyond readily available statistics, and discusses the methodological and theoretical underpinnings of this survey. The surveying of station areas in 2010 was conducted by a team of six researchers, based on the Spacemate© methodology developed by Berghauser Pont and Haupt. The methodology allows detailed quantitative measurement of the density and spatial characteristics of clearly demarcated urban districts, defining their so-called ‘spatial fingerprint’. The resulting database of 850 districts in 55 station areas has served descriptive goals, strengthening the realism in the SprintCity game, and serves as the database for further establishing the development potential of station areas.
|
|
22. |
- Silfwerbrand, Johan, et al.
(author)
-
Performance-based requirements in design-build contracting for highway construction and maintenance
- 2019
-
In: FIB 2018 - Proceedings for the 2018 fib Congress. - : Federation Internationale du Beton (fib). ; , s. 470-478, s. 470-478
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Design-build contracts with performance-based specifications are believed to raise productivity and the innovation rate. However, performance-based requirements used in specifications for highway and bridge contracts may suffer from being too detailed or too difficult to verify. A Swedish research project has been devoted to this issue. The aims were (i) to develop a definition of performance-based requirements and (ii) to evaluate performance-based requirements used in Swedish design-build contracts. The project consisted of three parts: (i) literature survey, (ii) investigation of current documents produced and used by the Swedish Transport Administration for design-build contracts, and (iii) case studies of six design-build contracts with performance-based requirements, including an analysis of specification documents and interviews with both client and contractor project managers. Current performance-based specifications show different degrees of detail. Measurable requirements are more frequently used on roads, and in particular on road surfaces, than on bridges. Further development is needed to promote technical innovations. Less detailed specifications and a shift to design-build-operate contracts with prolonged maintenance responsibility would also encourage the choice of more durable and long-lasting (=sustainable) solutions. The emphasis on Life Cycle Cost (LCC) in the reformulated contract award criteria in the EU public procurement directive might be insufficient to strengthen the competitive power of concrete pavements as compared to asphalt pavements, unless specifications are supported by Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and the choice of contract type is reconsidered.
|
|
23. |
|
|
24. |
- Siesjö, Björn, et al.
(author)
-
Inledning
- 2018
-
In: Hus mot himlen. Hållbar hybris? Olshammar, G., Olsson, K. och Siesjö, B. (red.). - Malmö : Arena. - 9789178435210
-
Book chapter (other academic/artistic)
|
|
25. |
- Volchko, Yevheniya, 1979, et al.
(author)
-
Subsurface planning: Towards a common understanding of the subsurface as a multifunctional resource
- 2020
-
In: Land Use Policy. - : Elsevier BV. - 0264-8377 .- 1873-5754. ; 90
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In response to powerful trends in technology, resource and land supply and demand, socioeconomics and geopolitics, cities are likely to increase use of the subsurface in the near future. Indeed, the subsurface and its appropriate use have been put forward as being of crucial importance if we are to achieve resilient and sustainable cities. In recent years, quite apart from being seen primarily as a construction basis to provide physical space for infrastructure and to create a better surface living environment, the subsurface has been recognised as a multifunctional natural resource, one which provides physical space, water, energy, materials, habitats for ecosystems, support for surface life, and a repository for cultural heritage and geological archives. Currently, the subsurface is often utilised according to the “first-come-first-served” principle, which hinders possibilities to take strategic decisions on prioritisation and optimisation of competing subsurface uses, as well as fair inter- and intragenerational distribution of limited natural resources. Taking a broad international perspective, this paper investigates the subsurface as a multifunctional resource from five focal points: (1) what professionals with different backgrounds mean when using different terms related to the subsurface; (2) how professionals describe the subsurface and its multiple resources, functions and services; (3) how planning of subsurface use is supported in policy and regulations; (4) how the subsurface is included in the planning process; and (5) frameworks that can support decision-making on responsible use of the subsurface. The study reveals that the subsurface must be recognised (not only by scientists but also by decision- and policy-makers and other stakeholders) as a precious and multifunctional resource requiring careful planning and sensitive management in accordance with its potential and its value to society. Utilisation of the different subsurface functions to yield services requires careful planning and a framework to support decision-makers in achieving a balance between utilisation and preservation, and between the subsurface functions themselves in the case of outright utilisation. Further, to facilitate the necessary change towards transdisciplinary work settings in the planning process and form a platform for knowledge exchange and capacity building, there is an urgent need for a common language, i.e. mutually understandable terminology, and a common understanding, i.e. an all-inclusive view on the subsurface as a complex multifunctional resource.
|
|
26. |
- Dervishaj, Arlind, et al.
(author)
-
Sunlight Autonomy for Buildings: A New Methodology for Evaluating Sunlight Performance in Urban and Architectural Design
- 2024
-
In: LEUKOS The Journal of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1550-2724 .- 1550-2716. ; , s. 1-31
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Due to urbanization and growing density in cities in the past century, metrics were introduced to assess daylight performance such as minimum sunlight hours and the daylight factor. The paper initially explores the shortcomings of early-stage daylight and sunlight evaluation methods. A novel methodology called Sunlight Autonomy (SA) is proposed for evaluating sunlight performance in buildings. The SA is based on the “Exposure to sunlight” criteria in EN 170307 “Daylight in Buildings,” where a computational method is used for the evaluation on a specified day. The SA concept expands the analysis temporally over the entire year, and spatially on building facades, leading to new metrics for a point of evaluation, and spatial metrics for buildings. The SA methodology is analyzed in a case study across four European cities. The SA metrics on facades between February 1st and March 21st, days in EN 17037, led to differences up to 63%. This revealed a significant shortcoming in EN 17037, relevant for Nordic regions. The differences of spatial metrics between March 21st and 50% of the year were within 5%, and up to 33% between February 1st and 75% of the year. The timestep affects the metrics and a window evaluation showed that the error of a 10-minute analysis was within 5% of daily insolation and 5 days for the annual SA. The potential of these metrics for urban planning and the architectural design process is examined. The interaction between SA and EN 17037, as well as other ongoing research developments, is discussed.
|
|
27. |
- Jönsson, Håkan, et al.
(author)
-
Återvinn fler näringsämnen än fosfor i avloppsvatten
- 2012
-
In: Dagens nyheter. - 1101-2447. ; ?, s. 6-
-
Other publication (pop. science, debate, etc.)abstract
- För att minska utsläppen av växthusgaser bör vi återvinna fler växtnäringsämnen ur avloppsslammet. Regeringens ensidiga fokus på fosfor i detta avseende riskerar att skada det långsiktiga miljöarbetet. Vi vill skärpa miljömålen och inkludera även ämnen som kväve, kalium och svavel, skriver professorer och forskare från SLU.
|
|
28. |
- Nägeli, Claudio, 1987, et al.
(author)
-
Best practice reporting guideline for building stock energy models
- 2022
-
In: Energy and Buildings. - : Elsevier BV. - 0378-7788. ; 260
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Buildings are responsible for 38% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and, therefore, pathways to reduce their impact are crucial to achieve climate targets. Building stock energy models (BSEMs) have long been used as a tool to assess the current and future energy demand and environmental impact of building stocks. BSEMs have become more and more complex and are often tailored to case-specific datasets, which results in a high degree of heterogeneity among models. This heterogeneity, together with a lack of consistency in the reporting hinders the understanding of these models and, thereby, an accurate interpretation and comparison of results. In this paper we present a reporting guideline in order to improve reporting practices of BSEMs. The guideline was developed by experts as part of the IEA's Annex 70 and builds upon reporting guidelines from other fields. It consists of five topics (Overview, Model Components, Input and Output, Quality Assurance and Additional Information), which are further subdivided into subtopics. We explain which model aspects should be described in each subtopic, and provide illustrative examples on how to apply the guideline. The reporting guideline is consistent with the model classification framework and online model registry also developed in the Annex.
|
|
29. |
- Moazami, Amin, et al.
(author)
-
Towards climate robust buildings: An innovative method for designing buildings with robust energy performance under climate change
- 2019
-
In: Energy and Buildings. - : Elsevier BV. - 0378-7788. ; 202
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Neglecting extremes and designing buildings for the past or most likely weather conditions is not the best approach for the future. Robust design techniques can, however, be a viable option for tackling future challenges. The concept of robust design was first introduced by Taguchi in the 1940s. The result of the design process is a product that is insensitive to the effect of given sources of variability, even though the sources themselves are not eliminated. A robust design optimization (RDO) method is for the first time proposed in this paper, for supporting architects and engineers in the design of buildings with robust energy performance under climate change and extreme conditions. The simplicity and the low computational demand of the process underlies the feasibility and applicability of this method, which can be used at any stage of the design process. The results show that the performance of the optimum solution not only has a 81.5% lower variation (less sensitivity to climate uncertainty) but at the same time has a 14.4% lower mean energy use value compared with a solution that is compliant with a recent construction standard (ASHRAE 90.1-2016). Less sensitivity to climate uncertainty means greater robustness to climate change whilst maintaining high performance.
|
|
30. |
- Wallbaum, Holger, 1967, et al.
(author)
-
Nachhaltig bauen - Lebenszyklus, Systeme, Szenarien, Verantwortung
- 2011
-
Book (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Dem Bauwesen kommt bei der Zielsetzung einer Nachhaltigen Entwicklung eine grosse Bedeutung zu. "Nachhaltig Bauen" bedeutet vereinfacht ausgedrückt, Bauwerke zu errichten und zu erhalten, die ein Kapital für zukünftige Generationen darstellen und keine Altlast.Das Buch bietet einen Einstieg in diese Thematik über drei Zugänge: Denkschule, Handwerkszeug und Beispiele. Es wird der bestehenden Baupraxis ein Ansatz gegenübergestellt, der sich am gesamten Lebenszyklus der Bauwerke orientiert und ein Denken und Planen in Systemen und Szenarien voraussetzt. Dies erfordert ein modernes Selbstverständnis des Planenden, der bei sämtlichen Prozessen der Planung und Bewirtschaftung die Verantwortung übernimmt und sich nicht nur auf den Entwurf beschränkt. Beispiele Nachhaltigen Bauens veranschaulichen mögliche Lösungsansätze und zeigen auf, welche Ideen funktionieren oder wo noch optimiert werden kann. Ein Anhang mit einer umfassenden Übersicht zu Instrumenten für Nachhaltiges Bauen ergänzt die Publikation.- Umfasst den ganzen Lebenszyklus von Bauten, von der Herstellung über die Nutzung bis zur Entsorgung.- Thematisiert viele Teilbereiche: u.a. Projektmanagement, Life Cycle Management, Facility Management, Immobilieninvestition.- Enthält einen umfassenden Anhang zu Instrumenten und Hilfsmitteln.
|
|
31. |
|
|
32. |
- Jockwer, Robert, 1984, et al.
(author)
-
Design for adaption - making timber buildings ready for circular use and extended service life
- 2021
-
In: World Conference on Timber Engineering 2021, WCTE 2021.
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The use of timber and the implementation of the concept of circularity in the process of the construction of buildings potentially has a high sustainability impact, both from the perspective of material and construction technique. The three most effective ways to ensure the benefit of the circularity in the building sector in general are (1) maintain the service life of structures and buildings materials as long as possible to avoid unnecessary emissions and costs for demolition and reconstruction (2) conserve the quality of materials as long as possible to avoid unnecessary emissions and costs for the replacement and processing of new materials and (3) recycle and repurpose only the parts and materials which cannot function any more for technical and/or socio-cultural reasons. In this paper an approach is discussed towards a more sustainable built environment by making buildings adaptable to the changes of demands and requirements to building functions and thus leading to an extended use of buildings in a maximum of life cycles. This design for adaption may enhance economic, social and environmental benefits to various stakeholders and key players related to the building process, i.e. developers, building owners, users, municipality and others.
|
|
33. |
- Täljsten, Björn, 1961-, et al.
(author)
-
Assessment of prestressed concrete bridges - challenges
- 2020
-
In: IABSE Symposium, Wroclaw 2020. - Zürich : International Association For Bridge And Structural Engineering (IABSE). ; , s. 487-494
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Prestressed concrete bridges are important parts of our infrastructure. They are susceptible to different kinds of deterioration processes. Examples of damages and deficiencies are cracking, corrosion, voids, bond loss, reduction of cover layer, delamination, fatigue and loss of stiffness and strength. This necessitates methods to continuously assess their condition in order to avoid problems that might lead to shorter service life or reduction of structural integrity. Many of the existing prestressed bridges in Europe are now approaching their design life length. However, with proper and continuous inspection, monitoring and assessment, we may plan proactive maintenance and the structural safety can be assured or – if necessary - increased. This will save both money and decrease the environmental impact of the structure.
|
|
34. |
- Stojanovski, Todor
(author)
-
Urban Mobility Certificates (UMCs) : Informing mobility choices, carbon emissionsand energy use from transportation
- 2020
-
Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Urban transportation today consumes scarce resources of fossil fuels and it is a majorcause for environmental damage and accelerating climate change. To achieve sustainablemobility in the cities, it is necessary to improve energy efficiency and lower carbonemissions through the promotion of walking, cycling and especially public transportation.The urban form is a great obstacle in achieving sustainable mobility. Many Swedishcities were designed for the private automobile and they lack possibilities to walk, cycle anduse public transportation. To address this problem, this project developed and testedUrban Mobility Certificates (UMCs) or transportdeklaration in Swedish. The UMCsvisually inform sustainable mobility as integration with walking, cycling and publictransportation, estimate modal shares, transportation energy use in kWh/year/person andcarbon emission in t CO2/year/person. Visualizing this information has a potential totrigger a virtuous cycle of transforming neighborhoods, catalyzing sustainabledevelopment to better integrate walking, cycling and public transportation in Swedishneighborhoods.The UMCs produce reasonable results with acceptable errors that are common for thiskind of trip generation models. The can be used to identify unsustainable mobility inexisting neighborhoods and new developments. The UMCs directly inform sustainablemobility in a very concise form (integration, modal shares, transportation energy use inkWh/year/person and carbon emission in t CO2/year/person) and show a complex set ofurban form and accessibility factors as background for the modal shares forecasts. Bothconcise and complex information is needed to illuminate the complex link between urbanform and sustainable mobility. In addition, the methodology can be used to analyzealternative scenarios to redesign sprawling Swedish neighborhoods into more sustainableurban forms. Scenarios like mixed development, introduction of public transportation orcreating a network of walkable streets (called promenadstad in Swedish) can decreasetransportation energy use by 1000 kWh/year/person to 3000 kWh/year/person(extensions of historical urban centers) or halve the Swedish average of 6000kWh/year/person. It is very important to use the UMCs in the earliest stage of the urbanplanning and development process.Sustainable mobility is possible only if there are choices to walk, cycle and use publictransportation. To help in redesigning and redeveloping the Swedish neighborhoods thatare oriented to the automobile, this project furthermore presented a model of small andlarge Swedish city with typical neighborhoods. The application of the UMCs in Swedishplanning and development processes must be understood as a process of informing aboutlack of mobility choices and urban interventions such as introduction of walkable streets,cycling and public transportation infrastructures, mix of functions and Transit OrientedDevelopment (TOD) in typical Swedish neighborhoods.
|
|
35. |
- Bin, Jiang, 1965-, et al.
(author)
-
Automatic generation of the axial lines of urban environments to capture what we perceive
- 2010
-
In: International Journal of Geographical Information Science. - London : Taylor & Francis Group. - 1365-8816 .- 1365-8824 .- 1362-3087. ; 24:4, s. 545-558
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Based on the concepts of isovists and medial axes, we developed a set of algorithms that can automatically generate axial lines for representing individual linearly stretched parts of open space of an urban environment. Open space is the space between buildings, where people can freely move around. The generation of the axial lines has been a key aspect of space syntax research, conventionally relying on hand-drawn axial lines of an urban environment, often called axial map, for urban morphological analysis. Although various attempts have been made towards an automatic solution, few of them can produce the axial map that consists of the least number of longest visibility lines, and none of them really works for different urban environments. Our algorithms provide a better solution than existing ones. Throughout this paper, we have also argued and demonstrated that the axial lines constitute a true skeleton, superior to medial axes, in capturing what we perceive about the urban environment.
|
|
36. |
- Bin, Jiang, 1965-, et al.
(author)
-
Computing the fewest-turn map directions based on the connectivity of natural roads
- 2011
-
In: International Journal of Geographical Information Science. - London : Taylor & Francis Group. - 1365-8816 .- 1365-8824 .- 1362-3087. ; 25:7, s. 1069-1082
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this paper, we introduced a novel approach to computing the fewest-turn map directions or routes based on the concept of natural roads. Natural roads are joined road segments that perceptually constitute good continuity. This approach relies on the connectivity of natural roads rather than that of road segments for computing routes or map directions. Because of this, the derived routes posses the fewest turns. However, what we intend to achieve are the routes that not only possess the fewest turns, but are also as short as possible. This kind of map direction is more effective and favorable by people, because they bear less cognitive burden. Furthermore, the computation of the routes is more efficient, since it is based on the graph encoding the connectivity of roads, which is significantly smaller than the graph of road segments. We made experiments applied to eight urban street networks from North America and Europe in order to illustrate the above stated advantages. The experimental results indicate that the fewest-turn routes posses fewer turns and shorter distances than the simplest paths and the routes provided by Google Maps. For example, the fewest-turn-and-shortest routes are on average 15% shorter than the routes suggested by Google Maps, while the number of turns is just half as much. This approach is a key technology behind FromToMap.org - a web mapping service using openstreetmap data.
|
|
37. |
- Döse, Magnus, et al.
(author)
-
Naturally occurring radioactivity in some Swedish concretes and their constituents - Assessment by using I-index and dose-model
- 2016
-
In: Journal of Environmental Radioactivity. - : Elsevier. - 0265-931X .- 1879-1700. ; 155-156, s. 105-111
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The reference level for effective dose due to gamma radiation from building materials and construction products used for dwellings is set to 1 mSv per year (EC, 1996, 1999), (CE, 2014). Given the specific conditions presented by the EC in report 112 (1999) considering building and construction materials, an I-index of 1 may generate an effective dose of 1 mSv per year. This paper presents a comparison of the activity concentrations of 4 0K, 226Ra and 232Th of aggregates and when these aggregates constitute a part of concrete. The activity concentration assessment tool for building and construction materials, the I-index, introduced by the EC in 1996, is used in the comparison. A comparison of the I-indices values are also made with a recently presented dose model by Hoffman (2014), where density variations of the construction material and thickness of the construction walls within the building are considered. There was a ~16-19% lower activity index in concretes than in the corresponding aggregates. The model by Hoffman further implies that the differences between the I-indices of aggregates and the concretes' final effective doses are even larger. The difference is due, mainly to a dilution effect of the added cement with low levels of natural radioisotopes, but also to a different and slightly higher subtracted background value (terrestrial value) used in the modeled calculation of the revised I-index by Hoffman (2014). Only very minimal contributions to the annual dose could be related to the water and additives used, due to their very low content of radionuclides reported.
|
|
38. |
- Armesto Barros, Jesús, et al.
(author)
-
Recent and future trends of onshore wind turbine foundations
- 2022
-
In: Proceedings of the IABSE Symposium Prague 2022: Challenges for Existing and Oncoming Structures. - 9783857481819
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The decarbonization of the economy and the growing need for electricity are two trends that call for greener energy sources. Wind is a growing renewable energy source, which is expected to become the first source of power in the European Union in the next decade. In particular, onshore wind energy is expected to double by then. Fundamental structural components of wind turbines are their foundations, which are large structures associated with important material consumption and many construction challenges. The dimensions of these foundations are continuously increasing as turbines with taller towers and larger rotor diameters are being built. Designing cost- and material-efficient foundations is crucial to reduce the economic and environmental impact of wind energy. An important factor to successfully address these evolving requirements in the planning and design process is to build on the experience from previous projects. The aim of this work is to investigate the evolution of onshore wind turbines and its consequences on the design and climate impact of gravity foundations by analysing data from Swedish wind farms set in operation between 2013 and 2022. The evolution of turbine size, and foundation dimensions, reinforcement layout, material types and quantities, and embodied carbon are analysed in this paper.
|
|
39. |
- Bergenram, Felicia, et al.
(author)
-
Parametric Optimization of Slab Frame Bridges Considering Investment Cost, Environmental Impact and Buildability
- 2023
-
In: Procedia Computer Science. - 1877-0509.
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper presents research performed on set-based multi-criteria optimization for the preliminary design of slab frame bridges. As a result of immense CO2 emissions emerging from concrete production, there is a need for optimization methods decreasing the volume of concrete without affecting the function of the structure. Previous research suggests a general correlation between CO2 footprint- and cost reduction, due to minimized material use. However, the aspect of buildability may conflict with lessened material, as optimized designs might simultaneously be less buildable. This research aimed to develop an optimization method with respect to the investment cost and environmental impact while also considering buildability cost aspects. The optimization algorithm shows the possibilities of reducing the environmental impact by up to 13.7% for a slightly increased cost of 2.3%. Thus, by implementing optimization procedures in the early stages of the planning process the holistic cost effects related to green solutions can be presented, favoring the choice of sustainable designs amongst clients during tendering procedures.
|
|
40. |
- Ek, Kristine, 1975, et al.
(author)
-
Multi-criteria decision analysis methods to support sustainable infrastructure construction
- 2019
-
In: IABSE Symposium, Guimaraes 2019: Towards a Resilient Built Environment Risk and Asset Management - Report. ; , s. 1084-1091
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The construction of infrastructure projects represents a large sustainability impact, both positive and negative. Increased positive and reduced negative impacts can be achieved through better design and planning of the construction. To make more sustainable choices, well‐defined predictive sustainability assessment methods are required. Multi‐criteria decision analysis (MCDA) is a well-suited method for predictive sustainability assessment. This paper evaluates two MCDA methods for sustainability assessment of infrastructure construction and exemplifies their application with two case studies. The aim of this paper is to discuss if the methods are suitable for identifying the most sustainable alternative during the procurement process of an infrastructure project. It is recommended that MCDA methods are further developed to comply with the recently published EN standard on sustainability assessment of civil engineering works.
|
|
41. |
- Heshmati, Mohsen, 1987, et al.
(author)
-
HYGROTHERMAL DURABILITY OF ADHESIVELY BONDED FRP/STEEL JOINTS
- 2015
-
In: Implementing Innovative Ideas in Structural Engineering and Project Management. - : ISEC Press. - 9780996043717 ; , s. 75-80
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The use of fiber reinforce polymer, FRP, bonding to strengthen and repair deteriorated steel structures is increasing owing to its unique advantages over traditional strengthening and repair techniques. However, the lack of knowledge regarding environmental durability of adhesively bonded FRP/steel joints still hinders the widespread application of this method in steel structures. A number of studies have reported significant degradation of mechanical properties of these joints in hot and wet environments. In addition to that, the mechanisms of failure have been observed empirically to change from cohesive failure in the adhesive to apparent interfacial failure with increasing amount of moisture. This study presents the results of an experimental and numerical investigation to predict the mechanical behavior of FRP/steel joints after hygrothermal aging. First, moisture diffusion kinetics and mechanical degradation of a two-part commercially available epoxy adhesive and Carbon FRP material were experimentally characterized over a wide range of temperature and humidity conditions. These parameters were then incorporated in a coupled 3D diffusion-mechanical finite element, FE, model. In addition, bonded double-lap shear joints of CFRP/steel were aged for up to a year and tested to failure. It is found that the presence of moisture for less than a critical period can increase the joint strength. However, prolonged exposure to the same moisture content degrades the load-carrying capacity of the joint.
|
|
42. |
- Kiamili, Christina, et al.
(author)
-
Detailed Assessment of Embodied Carbon of HVAC Systems for a New Office Building Based on BIM
- 2020
-
In: Sustainability. - : MDPI AG. - 2071-1050. ; 12:8
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The global shift towards embodied carbon reduction in the building sector has indicated the need for a detailed analysis of environmental impacts across the whole lifecycle of buildings. The environmental impact of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems has rarely been studied in detail. Most of the published studies are based on assumptions and rule of thumb techniques. In this study, the requirements and methods to perform a detailed life cycle assessment (LCA) for HVAC systems based on building information modelling (BIM) are assessed and framed for the first time. The approach of linking external product data information to objects using visual programming language (VPL) is tested, and its benefits over the existing workflows are presented. The detailed BIM model of a newly built office building in Switzerland is used as a case study. In addition, detailed project documentation is used to ensure the plausibility of the calculated impact. The LCA results show that the embodied impact of the HVAC systems is three times higher than the targets provided by the Swiss Energy Efficiency Path (SIA 2040). Furthermore, it is shown that the embodied impact of HVAC systems lies in the range of 15–36% of the total embodied impact of office buildings. Nevertheless, further research and similar case studies are needed to provide a robust picture of the embodied environmental impact of HVAC systems. The results could contribute to setting stricter targets in line with the vision of decarbonization of the building sector.
|
|
43. |
- Kurkinen, Eva-Lotta, et al.
(author)
-
Energy and climate-efficient construction systems : Environmental assessment of various frame options for buildings in Brf. Viva
- 2018
-
Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In the collaborative forum Positive footprint housing® Riksbyggen is building the Viva residential quarter, which is a sustainability project at the very forefront of what is possible with contemporary construction. The idea is that this residential quarter should be fully sustainable in ecological, economic and social terms. Since 2013, a number of pilot studies have been completed under the auspices of the Viva project framework thanks to financing from the Swedish Energy Agency. The various building frame alternatives that have been evaluated are precast concrete, cast in-situ concrete and solid wood, all proposed by leading commercial suppliers. The report includes a specific requirement for equivalent functions during the use phase of the building, B. An interpretation has been provided that investigates the building engineering aspects in detail, as well as an account of the results based on the social community requirements specified in Viva, durability, fire, noise and energy consumption in the Swedish National Board of Building, Planning and Housing building regulations (BBR), plus Riksbyggen’s own requirements, Sweden Green Building Council’s Environmental Building Gold (Miljöbyggnad Guld) and 100-year life cycle. Given that the alternatives have different long-term characteristics (and also that our knowledge of these characteristics itself varies), these functional requirements have been addressed by setting up different scenarios in accordance with the EPD standard EN 15978. Because Riksbyggen has specified a requirement for a 100-year life cycle, we have also opted for an analysis period of 100 years. The results show no significant differences between concrete and timber structures for the same functions during the life cycle, either for climate or for primary energy. The minor differences reported are accordingly less than the degree of uncertainty involved in the study. The available documentation on the composition of the relevant intumescent paint coating on solid wood frames differs from source to source, so it was not possible to fully allow for the significance of this. The LCA has not included functional changes in the building linked to load-bearing characteristics, noise, moisture, health or other problems that may result in increased maintenance and replacement. The concrete houses have been dimensioned for 100 years, for instance, in accordance with tried and tested standards and experience. The solid wood house is not dimensioned in the same way, and this has led to us having to assume various scenarios.The results also show the following:• The uncertainties involved in comparing different structures and alternative solutions are very significant. The results are affected by factors such as life cycle, the functional requirements taken into consideration, transportation, design and structural details, etc.• Variations in the built items and a considerable degree of uncertainty in the assumptions make it difficult to obtain significant results on comparisons. Only actual construction projects with known specific data, declared from a life cycle perspective that takes into account actual building developer requirements and involving different scenarios (best, documented and worst-case) for the user stage can currently be compared.• In the other hand, comparisons restricted to different concrete structures only, or to different timber structures only, ought to involve a lower degree of uncertainty. These would then provide results that are significant as well as improvement requirements that are relevant.• There is potential for improving concrete by imposing requirements on the material• There is potential for improving solid wood frames by developing and guaranteeing well-documented long-term characteristics for all functional requirements.The LCAs were performed as an iterative process where all parties were given the opportunity to submit their viewpoints and suggestions for changes during the course of the work. This helped ensure that all alternatives have been properly thought through.Because, during the project, Riksbyggen opted to procure a concrete frame, in the final stage the researchers involved focused on ensuring the procurement process would result in the concrete frame as built meeting the requirements set out above. As things currently stand, the material requirements for the concrete are limited by the production options open to the suppliers, and this is therefore being investigated in the manufacture of precast concrete frames for the Viva cooperative housing association.
|
|
44. |
- Mathern, Alexandre, 1986, et al.
(author)
-
Sustainability-driven structural design using artificial intelligence
- 2019
-
In: 20th Congress of IABSE, New York City 2019: The Evolving Metropolis - Report. ; , s. 1058-1065
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The construction industry is responsible for a large share of the global environmental impact. The need for addressing sustainability and increased competition calls for the development of innovative design methods that include sustainability in a transparent way. The aim of this work is to propose a framework to use machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) for structural design optimization based on sustainability and buildability criteria. AI opens up new possibilities to optimize and assess structures early in the planning and design stages. In that way, it is possible to decrease the negative and enhance the positive environmental, economic and social impacts and create a more time‐ and cost‐effective design process. The work is meant to serve as a first step toward the development of AI‐based methods in the construction industry, which can bring digitalization in the construction industry to a new level and create new services and business models.
|
|
45. |
- Rempling, Rasmus, 1976, et al.
(author)
-
Automatic structural design by a set-based parametric design method
- 2019
-
In: Automation in Construction. - : Elsevier BV. - 0926-5805. ; 108:December
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Modern structural design faces new challenges, such as addressing the needs of several stakeholders and satisfying the criteria for achieving sustainability. The traditional design process does not allow resolution of these challenges. The purpose of this project was to investigate the applicability of a Set-Based Parametric Design method to the structural design process of bridges. The focus was on the early design stage, in which the design team evaluates design alternatives against a chosen set of criteria. The main challenge in this stage of design is that the process should be cost- and time-effective while allowing comparison of the different alternatives and their evaluation in terms of the different design criteria. Certainly, structural design is often performed by a discussion between the different stakeholders involved in this process, i.e. the client, contractor, and engineering team. An evaluation of alternatives against criteria requires a more detailed design, which is contradictory to the early design stage when information is scarce. The selected approach was to develop a script that can generate information for decision-making, automate the structural design process, perform common routine design tasks, and control the numerical analysis. The method combined Set-Based Design, Parametric Design, Finite Element Analysis and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis. Three existing bridges were selected to demonstrate the applicability of the developed method. The method was successfully applied and it was observed that it resulted in bridges that were more efficient in terms of material costs and carbon dioxide equivalent emissions compared with existing bridges. By delaying the decisions and developing the sets of alternatives, various alternatives can be assessed and evaluated, in the design stage, against different sustainability criteria.
|
|
46. |
- Shadram, Farshid, 1987-, et al.
(author)
-
Improving Life Cycle Sustainability and Profitability of Buildings through Optimization: A Case Study
- 2022
-
In: Buildings. - : MDPI. - 2075-5309. ; 12:4
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Building developers are continuously seeking solutions to increase saleable/rentable floor area and thus the profitability of investments, especially in large/dense cities where the real estate/rental values are high and shortage of available land results in smaller building footprints. Application of passive energy efficiency measures (e.g., thick insulation in walls) not only affects the life cycle sustainability of buildings, but also the floor area and its profitability. This can affect the decisions made on the choice of measures when aiming to improve sustainability. In line with limited studies in this context, a case study is presented here in which multi-objective optimization was used to explore the impact of various passive energy efficiency measures on the life cycle sustainability when accounting for the profitability of the floor area. The building case was a high-rise apartment based on a standardized building concept situated in different locations in Sweden, namely Vindeln, Gothenburg, and Stockholm. The findings indicated that, regardless of the location, use of (1) thick cellulose coating for the roof, and (2) moderately thick expanded polystyrene for the floor, were necessary to improve the life cycle sustainability. However, the optimal wall insulation was dependent on the location; in locations with high real estate values, the scope for using thick and conventional insulations (mineral wool/cellulose) was limited due to the significant economic loss caused by floor area reductions. In general, the optimization identified optimal solutions that could save up to 1410.7 GJ energy, 23 tonnes CO2e, and 248.4 TEUR cost from a life cycle perspective relative to the building’s initial design.
|
|
47. |
- Moazami, Amin, et al.
(author)
-
Impacts of future weather data typology on building energy performance – Investigating long-term patterns of climate change and extreme weather conditions
- 2019
-
In: Applied Energy. - : Elsevier BV. - 1872-9118 .- 0306-2619. ; 238, s. 696-720
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Patterns of future climate and expected extreme conditions are pushing design limits as recognition of climate change and its implication for the built environment increases. There are a number of ways of estimating future climate projections and creating weather files. Obtaining adequate representation of long-term patterns of climate change and extreme conditions is, however, challenging. This work aims at answering two research questions: does a method of generating future weather files for building performance simulation bring advantages that cannot be provided by other methods? And what type of future weather files enable building engineers and designers to more credibly test robustness of their designs against climate change? To answer these two questions, the work provides an overview of the major approaches to create future weather data sets based on the statistical and dynamical downscaling of climate models. A number of weather data sets for Geneva were synthesized and applied to the energy simulation of 16 ASHRAE standard reference buildings, single buildings and their combination to create a virtual neighborhood. Representative weather files are synthesized to account for extreme conditions together with typical climate conditions and investigate their importance in the energy performance of buildings. According to the results, all the methods provide enough information to study the long-term impacts of climate change on average. However, the results also revealed that assessing the energy robustness of buildings only under typical future conditions is not sufficient. Depending on the type of building, the relative change of peak load for cooling demand under near future extreme conditions can still be up to 28.5% higher compared to typical conditions. It is concluded that only those weather files generated based on dynamical downscaling and that take into consideration both typical and extreme conditions are the most reliable for providing representative boundary conditions to test the energy robustness of buildings under future climate uncertainties. The results for the neighborhood explaining the critical situation that an energy network may face due to increased peak load under extreme climatic conditions. Such critical situations remain unforeseeable by relying solely on typical and observed extreme conditions, putting the climate resilience of buildings and energy systems at risk.
|
|
48. |
- Säwén, Toivo, 1993, et al.
(author)
-
Critical perspectives on life cycle building performance assessment tool reviews
- 2024
-
In: Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. - 1879-0690 .- 1364-0321. ; 197:7, s. 114407-
-
Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Despite the environmental, social, and economic benefits of integrating quantitative analysis in early architectural design stages, tools developed for this purpose see little use in practice. This meta-review provides an overview of eighty-seven tool reviews in the field of life cycle building performance assessment to identify best practices and remaining gaps. It is found that most previous reviews emphasise technological advancement rather than tool integration in practice, by failing to apply the perspective of tool users in design processes. It is further found that the reviews mostly lack consistent methodologies. To bridge these gaps, it is proposed that future tool evaluation studies define a clear target user and investigate tools based on how they perform in real-world design processes. A tool characterisation framework based on the approaches in previous reviews is proposed to facilitate such investigations.
|
|
49. |
- Aid, Graham, 1980-
(author)
-
Industrial Ecology Methods within Engagement Processes for Industrial Resource Management
- 2013
-
Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The global use of resources such as materials, energy, and water has surpassed sustainable levels by many accounts. The research presented here was explicitly normative in its aim to improve the understanding of, and make sustainable change toward highly systemic issues of resource management. The core methods chosen to work toward this aim were bottom up action research procedures (including stakeholder engagement processes) and industrial ecology analysis tools. These methods were employed and tested in pragmatic combination through two of the author’s case study projects. The first case study, performed between 2009 and 2012, employed a multi-stakeholder process aimed at improving the cycling of construction and demolition waste in the Stockholm region. The second case study produced a strategic tool (Looplocal) built for facilitating more efficient regional industrial resource networks. While the highly participative aim of the cases required a larger contribution of resources than that of more closed studies, it is arguable that the efficacy of approaching the project aims is improved through their employment.
|
|
50. |
- Brandt, S. Anders, 1970-, et al.
(author)
-
Översvämningskarteringars tillförlitlighet
- 2009
-
In: Kart & Bildteknik (Mapping and Image Science). - Gävle : Kartografiska Sällskapet. - 1651-792X. ; :4, s. 33-35
-
Journal article (pop. science, debate, etc.)abstract
- I ett tidigare nummer av Kart & Bildteknik beskrevs ett pågående forskningsprojekt som försökte ta reda på om det finns en optimal kvalitet på geografisk information som underlag för detaljerad översvämningskartering (Bergquist, Brandt & Klang, 2008). Projektet är nu avslutat och avrapporterat i Brandt (2009) och Klang och Klang (2009). Av resultaten framgår bland annat hur mycket tillförlitligheten av en översvämningskartering minskar med graden av försämrad höjdmodell, vilken utgör ett av de viktigaste underlagen för en översvämningsanalys. I samband med EUs översvämningsdirektiv (Europaparlamentets och rådets direktiv, 2007) föranleder detta en diskussion om vilka översvämningskarteringar som krävs för att uppfylla direktivet.
|
|