School of Future Environments - Huri te Ao
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AUT is home to a number of renowned research institutes in architecture and creative technologies. The School of Future Environments - Huri te Ao strong industry partnerships and the unique combination of architecture and creative technologies within one school stimulates interdisciplinary research beyond traditional boundaries.
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Browsing School of Future Environments - Huri te Ao by Subject "1201 Architecture"
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- ItemImpact Assessment of Climate Change on Energy Performance and Thermal Load of Residential Buildings in New Zealand(Elsevier, 2023-07-17) Jalali, Z; Shamseldin, AY; Ghaffarianhoseini, AWhile it is evident that climate change will have an impact on the energy demand for heating and cooling in buildings, the exact extent of this impact is not yet fully understood. Quantification of future cooling and heating need in buildings provides a basis for taking appropriate measures for building climate change adaptation. The focus of this study is to examine how future climate change scenarios will impact the heating and cooling of residential buildings across different climatic regions in New Zealand. The future weather data under changing climate were generated for six climatic zones of New Zealand employing the statistical downscaling method. The study used various climate change scenarios, which represent concentration pathways (RCPs), to generate weather data. Specifically, the RCP8.5 and RCP4.5 scenarios were employed in the building performance simulations for different prototypes of residential buildings. The results showed there would be a significant change in the thermal performance of residential buildings, with a noticeable increase in cooling load and a decrease in heating load. These changes include a maximum thermal load change of 3 kWh/m2 in Auckland by 2090, 2.7 kWh/m2 in Hamilton, 8.3 kWh/m2 in Wellington, 4.2 kWh/m2 in Rotorua, 11 kWh/m2 in Christchurch, and 11.6 kWh/m2 in Queenstown. The warmer climatic zones are expected to change from a heating dominated to a cooling-dominated zone. The results indicated the importance of considering present and future climatic conditions in design and establishing a foundation for actions for the resilience of buildings to climate change.
- ItemIntegrating Energy Retrofit with Seismic Upgrades to Future-Proof Built Heritage: Case Studies of Unreinforced Masonry Buildings in Aotearoa New Zealand(Elsevier BV, 2023-06) Besen, P; Boarin, PDeep energy retrofit can improve historic buildings’ indoor environmental quality and protect them from decay and obsolescence while reducing their energy use and related greenhouse gas emissions. Although this practice has been growing internationally, in Aotearoa New Zealand there are currently no policies or initiatives to encourage energy retrofit in historic buildings and no substantial examples of projects. Most retrofits currently focus on much-needed earthquake strengthening, due to high seismic risks and national policies which mandate all existing earthquake-prone buildings to be either structurally retrofitted or demolished over the next decades. As seismic upgrade projects are widespread, this study explores the potential of applying energy retrofit concurrently with seismic strengthening, with a focus on unreinforced masonry (URM) – the main type of earthquake-prone historic construction in the country. The research investigates three case studies of listed heritage URM buildings using Post-Occupancy Evaluation and simulation. Their current performance was investigated, and retrofit scenarios were analysed through energy and hygrothermal simulation, utilising the EnerPHit standard as a guide. The energy models demonstrated a potential reduction of up to 92% in heating demand when comparing the most comprehensive retrofit scenario with the baseline in the coldest climate. The potential energy savings from each intervention were balanced against their heritage impact, based on the standard EN16883:2017. The study provides a methodology for balancing several considerations in integrated retrofit to make historic buildings more resilient not only to seismic threats, but also to a changing climate, while keeping a respectful approach to heritage.
- ItemInterrelations of the Factors Influencing the Whole-Life Cost Estimation of Buildings: A Systematic Literature Review(MDPI, 2024-03-09) Samarasekara, Herath Mudiyanselage Samadhi Nayanathara; Purushothaman, Mahesh Babu; Rotimi, FunmiThe global GDP has witnessed a significant upswing, majorly due to the growth of the construction industry. Embracing the whole-life costing (WLC) approach, the construction sector strategically manages expenses across a construction project’s life cycle. However, despite its widespread adoption, accurate cost forecasting remains a major challenge. The intricate interplay of various influencing factors has not been fully explored, leading to inaccurate cost estimations. A comprehensive understanding of specific factors and their interrelationships is crucial to address this issue. Therefore, it is imperative to conduct further research to identify and explore the subtle nuances of these factors that impact whole-life cost estimation. Our study fills this gap, analysing 51 factors from 84 papers across prominent repositories. We assess interrelationships using a systematic literature review and pairwise comparison as in the analytical hierarchy process. The International Construction Measurement Standards (ICMS) framework structures these relationships and is represented in the causal loop diagrams (CLDs). The pioneering CLDs are a notable contribution, illustrating interrelationships and polarities among the 51 WLC factors. Six reinforcing loops and one balancing loop provide valuable insights into their dynamic nature. Importantly, lower-level factors do not always directly connect with upper-level factors. Instead, they interact within the same level before linking to top-level factors. These findings are significant for professionals, such as cost estimators, quantity surveyors and scholars, offering a comprehensive understanding of the WLC system.
- ItemTechno-environmental Assessment of Insulation Materials in Saudi Arabia: Integrating Thermal Performance and LCA(MDPI AG, ) Alsaqabi, Yazeed; Almhafdy, Abdulbasit; Haider, Husnain; Ghaffarianhoseini, Amirhosein; Ghaffarianhoseini, Ali; Ali, Ahmed AbdelMonteleb MArid and hot regions, like Saudi Arabia, utilize up to 60% of the country’s energy to regulate buildings’ indoor comfort. Energy efficiency is a long-term sustainability measure that is part of the government’s Vision 2030 strategy. A standard method of improving the thermal performance of buildings is through the use of insulation materials. Considering the cooling loads’ requirement and the Global Warming Potential (GWP), the present research evaluated the effectiveness of insulation materials, including extruded polystyrene, expanded polystyrene, rock wool, and glass wool in the hot, arid climate. For this case study, four similar villas facing the cardinal directions were selected from the residential project at Qassim University. HOBO data loggers were used to collect indoor temperature data. Thermal performance and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) were conducted in accordance with Saudi Building Code-602 (SBC-602). Simulation outputs based on the four cardinal directions were used for assessing the thermal performance and LCA of the different thicknesses and densities of insulation materials. This was done using IESVE and SimaPro, IMPACR2002+, to assess their cooling load and GWP, respectively. The results suggest the potential for using lower insulation thickness for the northern and western façades without violating the SBC. The results obtained the actual thicknesses of the three insulation materials for achieving indoor temperatures in the four cardinal directions and the selection of materials and their densities along with associated GWP. The outputs of the study have been generalized in the form of a performance-based flowchart as a tool for selecting the type and thickness of thermal and environmental insulation in residential buildings in the Qassim region of Saudi Arabia.