Using Less & Efficient Use of Construction Materials

Using Less and Efficient Use of Construction Materials

Introduction

  • Today's lecture will cover using less and the efficient use of construction materials.
  • The tutorial will review the quiz, focusing on questions with a high error rate (over 50%).
  • Quiz results will be available at 2 PM.
  • The lecture is designed for first-year students and will cover basic principles.

The Venn Diagram: Affordable, Useful, and Sustainable

  • The building industry aims to achieve a balance between affordability, usefulness, and sustainability.
  • Achieving this balance is challenging.

Definition of Terms & Tactics

  • Using Less: Use only as much as you need.
    • Tactics:
      • Build nothing.
      • Conserve and manage existing resources.
      • Use design and innovation to reduce consumption.
  • Using less is a potent tactic for environmental conservation.
  • However, reduced consumption can impact profits in an economy driven by consumption.

Sufficiency

  • Sufficiency means using only as much as is necessary.
  • Develop a building only to the point it becomes adequate.
    • Tactic: What is the minimum required standards?
  • Be aware of unnecessary additions.
  • As an architect, it is important to evaluate the function and necessity of building elements.
  • If an element can be removed without affecting the building's operation (water tightness, insulation, etc.), its inclusion should be questioned.
  • Unnecessary additions increase costs and environmental impact through mining and production.

Reduced Finish

  • Reduced Finish: Minimizing finishing work.
  • Examples:
    • Leaving a room unpainted.
    • Using plywood instead of plasterboard to reduce trades (nailing instead of setting and painting).
  • Reduces the amount of work.

Reuse

  • Reuse: Using materials again, whether from excess or demolition.
  • Reduces reliance on extracting new resources.
  • Lowers costs, as the material has already been mined and produced.
  • Reduces the impact on the environment/earth.
  • Hidden Costs:
    • Recycled timber can be significantly more expensive than new timber (4-10 times the price).
    • This is due to the economy being set up to produce new materials.
    • Labor costs are associated with removing, transporting, de-nailing, and preparing recycled materials.

Our Professional Roles in Reducing Carbon Dioxide and Waste

  • The best way to reduce carbon dioxide and waste is to not build anything.
  • Consider whether an existing structure can be retained instead of building a new one.
  • Build Nothing Zone resides in the planning stage of a project.
  • However, this approach may not be economically beneficial for architects and construction managers.
  • If building is necessary:
    • Build less: Only build as large as needed, using only the necessary materials.
    • Build clever: Utilize design to minimize waste and carbon dioxide emissions.
    • Build efficiently: Construction managers can optimize processes to reduce waste and time.
    • Experienced builders are better at reusing materials and coordinating trades.

Critique of Consumption

  • "If you want to change society, don't build anything."
  • We need to be building more houses to lower affordability.
  • Reusing existing structures is important.
  • Personal Example:
    • An Eco Pod made from 98% recycled plastics (7,500 plastic bags).
    • The object was in a pathway in campus and it was eventually removed.
  • You should question the point of recycling if the end product is not needed.
  • Example of greenwashing with waste products.
  • Consider the necessity of an addition to a house made from recycled materials if the addition serves a non-essential purpose.

Carbon Emissions Related to the Built Environment

  • As the world population approaches 10 billion, the global building stock is expected to double by mid-century.
  • Embodied carbon (carbon emissions released before the building is used) will account for half the carbon footprint of new construction between now and 2050.
  • Construction consumes a large part of our carbon budget.
  • Floor area expansion is outpacing population growth, straining the planet.

Carbon Emissions

  • Background note on carbon emissions related to the built environment.
  • Space cooling is a major threat to energy usage and carbon dioxide emissions.
  • Space heating and lighting will likely become more efficient.
  • Very few business models can survive without a consumption model.
  • More consumption allows business to generate greater profits.
  • Indigenous cultures had a sufficiency model.
  • Our current culture is focused on consumption.

Using Less

  • Using less means doing only as much as needed and using as little as possible.
  • Smartphones are a good example of using less through design and technology to reduce size and material use.
  • The same logic can be applied to building design.
  • An architect studio made a room with a concrete slab, plywood walls, and fabric.

Finance Models

  • The architecture that wins awards is usually for wealthy clients.
  • It is a struggle to find design jobs from less wealthy people.
  • Tax systems significantly affect housing prices, especially with the 50% capital gains tax and negative gearing.
  • Tax policies favor purchasing multiple houses, turning housing into a commodity, especially with the richest 10% get 80% of the capital gains tax discount.
  • The Productivity Commission report showed that thirty years ago, twice as many houses were being built as today.
  • Architects must put in more work to design the same house, but the end design result is of similar quality.
  • Large amounts of consultants are required to get a DA approval these days, or even a house.
  • House earnings can outpace journalist earnings, showing housing as a source of wealth.

Home Loans and Large Purchases

  • People renovated who were wealthy people.
  • Sub Zero Fridge: $50,000 for a fridge.
  • If a home loan is taken, then $50,000 is to be added to the loan.
  • Scenario: 30-year loan of $600,000 to a $650,000 loan.
  • Extra
    Payments = $142,250
  • The $50,000 is effectively paid at the end of the loan; accruing interest.
  • You effectively only start paying off the $50,000 after 27.5 years.
  • There are an extra 30 monthly payments, meaning you have to work three years longer to pay off the extra 50,000.
  • So Economic argument to try and have a loan any bigger than we need to, but it's also rather weird that we build houses that require much larger loans.

Room-by-Room Cost Analysis

  • It makes obvious sense, we don't want to have to work five days a week maybe, and you work four days a week or three days a week or something.
  • List all of the rooms with building costs (between 3,000 and 5,000 per square meter).
  • Dog room at 5
    ewline m^2 at 1,000 per square meter costs 5,000 to build.
  • This example helps see if the room will be worth the economic cost.

Sufficiency In-depth

  • Professionals in designing and making buildings consider the origins of materials, their processing, their use, and their durability.
  • Consider: Do I need that material? What's it doing inside the building? How long might it last, and where do they go when we no longer need them.
  • In Spain, an old building was dismantled, but all materials were kept and reused. New materials were also used.
  • The materials stayed on-site during dismantling and reconstruction.

Good Project Example - Reduced Finish

  • Bricks are laid and cleaned (if needed) with no painting or lining necessary.
  • Link to the business case for sufficiency.
  • Building or consuming to the point where it just does its job is actually a business model.

Sustainability and Design

  • Principles of good design from Dieter Rams (50 years old).

Principles of Good Design

  1. Good design is innovative.
  2. Good design makes a product useful.
  3. Good design is Aesthetic.
    • Aesthetics drive use of a building design.
  4. Good design is understandable.
    • Buildings should be accessible for needed services (bathrooms).
  5. Good design is unobtrusive.
    • Good design should allow you to operate with efficiency.
  6. Good design is honest.
    • Good design should simply do what it needs to do.
  7. Good design is long-lasting.
    • Good products remain well designed over the years.
  8. Good design is thorough down to the last detail.
  9. Good design is environmentally friendly.
  10. Good design is as little design as possible.
    • What it needs to do is really close.

Reduced Finish Examples

  • Buildings with limited windows will limit costs.
  • In the Netherlands, apartment buildings weren't demolished but were refurbished instead.
  • Lifts, servicing, and interiors were replaced and improved, but the rooms were not finished, in order for owners to decide what kitchen to install.
  • For affordability reasons, the apartments were offered for 1/2 the price. The apartment was sealed up before sale.
  • It is a great form of innovation that is needed in this country.
  • In Malaysia, a cafe bakery was removed from the previous commercial business.
  • Stripped out the previous model, then brought in tables and furniture.
  • The carcass was left.

The $10,000 House

  • Renovated existing apartments with a budget of $10,000.
  • Removing walls to install rooms and prefabricated doors.
  • Questions the amount a person will pay for the finished product.

Reuse Examples

  • The U.N. buildings in New York were going to be demolished because weren't fit for purpose.
  • Decided to renovate the building, and saved carbon and money.
  • Rural Studio built community from reused glass in a car graveyard.
  • Apartment buildings are being renovated instead of demolished in Europe, but its less common is America.
  • Apartment buildings had obsolete technology and old internet.
  • However if demolished, the structure would go, so these have had the structure re-used, the service rejuvenated and an extra room was added.
  • A cement factory in Spain was turned into architect offices.
  • Demolishing a perfectly good building is an increasing problem on campus.
  • There is a case is easiest to remove rather than adapt, which is often a case in project management.
  • Keep the structure, keep what's already there, keep the value of what's already there, not cost the planet more carbon and more materials and work with what you've got. And you can you know, by using structure you can do incredible things.