Guiding the Construction Industry Towards More Sustainable Building

8/13/2019 Guiding the Construction Industry Towards More Sustainable Building

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G U I D I N G T H E C O N S T R U C T I ON

I N D U S T R Y T O W A R D S M O R ES U S T A I N A B L E B U I L D I N G

W O R K I N G T O W A R D S A C L E A R M O D E L F O R I D F B U I L D I N G C R I T E R I A

Content: Master Thesis

Title: Guiding the construction industry towards more sustainable building

Subtitle: Working towards a clear model for IDF Building criteria

Name: Stefan Binnemars

Student Number: S0112585

University: University of Twente

Master Track: Industrial Design Engineering

Master Specialisation: Architectural Building Components Design Engineering

Internship: Van Dijk Groep

Supervisors: prof. dr. ir. J.I.M. Halman University of Twente

assoc prof. dr. ir. E. Durmisevic University of Twente

mr. W. Sturris Van Dijk Groep

ing. J. ter Waarbeek Van Dijk Groep

Date: 09/21/2011

Report number: OPM 1050


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SUMMARRY

The traditional building methodology is no longer suitable. The construction industry puts a

high burden on the environment, while governments try to reduce the global carbon footprint.

Buildings are made for one single purpose, while the society is changing, and the user

requirements change more frequently and more drastically than ever before. This new trendcraves for more flexibility while buildings seem to be more and more tangled up. This asks for

more suitable, more sustainable solutions.

This invoked a lot of reactions in the forms of rules and legislations, assessment tools, and design

methodologies. Although they all aim for a better future, there are a lot of differences between

them. Combining most of todays leading responses resulted in a rough outline of a field which

defines sustainable building. This field consists of seven categories; Environment, Indoor

Climate, Life Cycle Economics, Management, Materials, Usability, and Visual Quality. They are all

defined based on the triple top line philosophy.

IDF Building is one of the latest building methodologies, and tries to learn from the past byincorporating the strong points of other models. The IDF building methodology incorporates the

whole life cycle of the building and its materials. Within IDF the focus shifts to; Industrial

Production to manufacture high quality products and reduce the need for craftsmanship;

adaptation of building to individual use requirements during its use phase to lengthen the useful

life of a building; use of CradletoCradle and Triple Top Line approach to answer for the need

for sustainability; and focus on a Design for Disassembly approach to create flexible systems that

could be replaced, reused, reconfigured and whose materials could be upcycled after its useful

life. The main goals of the IDF Building Methodology can be summarized by: High Quality, High

Usability, Buildings with Unique Identities, Low Environmental Impact or Positive Impact, and

Economical Feasibility considering the whole building and material life cycle. To reach these

goals the IDF Building Methodology has four main strategies: Industrial Production, Design forIndividual Identity, Sustainable Design, and Flexible Buildings.

To define the IDF Building Methodology the four main strategies are linked to main criteria.

Industrial to Organisation and Production, Individual to Adaptability, Environment to Energy,

Materials, Pollution, and Water, Flexible to Building Hierarchy, Functionality, Interfaces, Material

Levels, and Reusability. For all these main criteria, subcriteria and determining factors are

defined. For all the determining factors are options and scores defined to create the model.

To put the model to the test two test cases are performed, one on a building level with the

Passend Wonen concept, one on a system level with the Plug. The results gave useful feedback

for the building concept, system and last but not least for the model itself. Passend Wonen

could make some improvements in the Industrial and Environment categories, but scored veryhigh on Individual and Flexible. For the Plug the three concepts all seem feasible, however

before choosing one concept based on the IDF Model a normalization would be desirable.

Future improvements for the model may lay in the next options: Integration of the possibility to

choose the kind of system, this allows normalization and defining of the set of determining

factors, detailed research into the social and industrial aspects, defining relations between

determining factors, implementing of more possible strategies, determining of different levels of

IDF Building, and lastly economic and strategic feedback.


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SAMENVATTING

De traditionele bouwmethodologie is niet langer voldoende. De bouwindustrie zorgt voor een

zware belasting op het milieu, terwijl overheden juist proberen de globale CO2 footprint te

reduceren. Gebouwen worden steeds vaker gemaakt met slechts n doel voor ogen, terwijl het

steeds vaker voorkomt dat er veranderingen nodig zijn en de gewenste veranderingen zijnsteeds drastischer. Deze tendens vraagt voor meer flexibiliteit terwijl hedendaagse gebouwen

steeds complexer worden. Dit vraag voor beter passende, duurzamere oplossingen. Hierop zijn

verschillende reacties gekomen. Zowel door overheden in de vorm van regels en wetgeving, als

in beoordelingsprogrammas en nieuwe ontwerp methodes. Hoewel deze allen gericht zijn op

een betere toekomst, bevatten ze toch een heleboel verschillen. Door de verschillende reacties te

combineren is er een ruwe omschrijving ontstaan van een veld welke duurzaamheid definieert.

Dit veld bestaat uit zeven categorien: Milieu, Binnenklimaat, Levenscyclus economie,

Management, Materialen, Bruikbaarheid en Visuele Kwaliteit. Al deze categorien zijn

gedefinieerd met behulp van de Tripple Top Line filosofie.

IDF Bouwen is een van de meest recente bouwmethodologien, en probeert te leren van hetverleden door de sterke punten van andere modellen toe te passen. De IDF bouwmethodologie

neemt de hele levenscyclus van een gebouw en zijn materialen in acht. IDF Bouwen richt zich op:

Industrile Productie om zo tot kwalitatief hoogwaardige producten te komen en het vereiste

vakmanschap te verlagen: Aanpassing van het gebouw aan Individuele gebruikerswensen

gedurende de gebruiksfase van het gebouw om zo het nuttige leven van een gebouw te

verlengen: Toepassing van CradletoCradle en Triple Top Line denken om aan het

duurzaamheids vraagstuk te voldoen: Gericht op Design for Disassembly om flexibele systemen

te creren welke vervangen, opnieuw gebruikt, en opnieuw geconfigureerd kunnen worden. De

hoofddoelen van de IDF Bouwmethodologie kunnen worden samengevat als: Hoge Kwaliteit,

Hoge Bruikbaarheid, Gebouwen met unieke Identiteiten, Lage Impact op het Milieu of een

Positieve Impact en Economisch Uitvoerbaar waarbij gekeken word naar de gehele levenscyclusvan het gebouw en zijn materialen. De IDF Bouwmethodologie heeft vier hoofdstrategien om

deze doelen te realiseren: Industrile Productie, Ontwerpen voor de Individuele Identiteit,

Duurzaam Ontwerp, en Flexibele Gebouwen. De vier hoofdcategorien zijn gekoppeld aan

hoofdcriteria. Industrieel is gekoppeld aan Organisatie en Productie, Individueel aan

Aanpasbaarheid, Milieu aan Energie, Materialen, Vervuiling en Water, Flexibel aan Gebouw

Hirarchie, Functionaliteit, Interfaces, Materiaal Niveaus en Herbruikbaarheid. Voor al deze

hoofdcriteria zijn subcriteria en bepalende factoren gedefinieerd. En voor alle bepalende

factoren zijn opties en scores gedefinieerd om zo tot een model te komen.

Om het model te testen zijn er twee testcasus uitgevoerd, n op gebouwniveau met het

Passend Wonen concept, en n op systeemniveau met de Plug . De resultaten gaven nuttigeterugkoppeling voor het bouwconcept, het systeem en voor het model zelf. Passend Wonen kan

zichzelf nog verbeteren in de categorien Industrieel en Milieu, het concept scoorde heel hoog

op Individueel en Flexibel. Voor de Plug lijken alle drie concepten uitvoerbaar, het zou beter

zijn om een normalisatie toe te passen in het IDF model voor systemen voordat het als

keuzemodel kan functioneren.

Toekomstige verbeteringen voor het model kunnen in de volgende opties liggen: Integratie van

de mogelijkheid een systeemtype te kiezen, dit maakt normalisatie toe en geeft de mogelijkheid

om een selectie te maken in de bepalende factoren welke relevant zijn voor het specifieke

systeem. Een diepteonderzoek naar de sociale en industrile aspecten. Het definiren van de

relaties tussen bepalende factoren. Implementeren van een grotere variteit aan strategien.

Bepalen van de verschillende niveaus van IDF Bouwen. En als laatste Economische en

Strategische terugkoppeling.


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INDEX

1. Background ................................................................................................................................................................. 4

1.1.

Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................... 4

1.2. Changing Society ............................................................................................................................................. 4

1.3. Sustainability .................................................................................................................................................... 5

1.4. Building process ......................... ......................... ...................... ...................... ..................... ...................... ..... 5

1.5. People, Planet, Profit ..................................................................................................................................... 6

1.6. IDF Building ...................................................................................................................................................... 6

1.7. Van Dijk Groep ................................................................................................................................................. 7

1.8. Passend Wonen ............................................................................................................................................... 7

1.9.

Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................................... 7

2. Research Methodology ........................ ....................... ...................... ...................... ..................... ...................... ..... 8

2.1. Problem Definition ......................................................................................................................................... 8

2.2. Research Scope ................................................................................................................................................ 8

2.3. Research Goal ................................................................................................................................................... 8

2.4. Research Questions ..................... ....................... ...................... ...................... ..................... ...................... ..... 9

2.5. Research Model ............................................................................................................................................... 9

2.6. Research Methodology .............................................................................................................................. 10

3.

The Need for Change of Building Methodology ........................................................................................ 12

3.1. Sustainable Development Needed! ....................................................................................................... 12

3.2. Construction Industry ................................................................................................................................ 18

3.3. Reporting, Standardization and Legislation ..................................................................................... 18

3.4. System Evolution ......................................................................................................................................... 21

3.5. Conclusions .................................................................................................................................................... 22

4. Response to the Need for Change ................................................................................................................... 23

4.1. Strategies and Approaches ...................................................................................................................... 23

4.2.

IDFBuilding ................................................................................................................................................... 27

4.3. Triple bottom Line ...................................................................................................................................... 27

4.4. Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................................... 30

5. Sustainable Building............................................................................................................................................. 31

5.1. The Field .......................................................................................................................................................... 31

5.2. Resulting Model ............................................................................................................................................ 32

5.3. IDFBuilding ................................................................................................................................................... 36

5.4. Conclusions .................................................................................................................................................... 40

6.

IDF Building Methodology ................................................................................................................................. 41

6.1. IDF Methodology .......................................................................................................................................... 41


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6.2. Passend Wonen ......................................................................................................................................... 43

6.3. Model Breakdown ....................................................................................................................................... 44

6.4. Hierarchical Structure of the IDF Model ............................................................................................ 47

6.5. Sources of scores .......................................................................................................................................... 49

6.6.

Model Development .................................................................................................................................... 58

6.7. Conclusion & Recommendations about the IDF Building Methodology ............................... 61

7. Test Case Design .................................................................................................................................................... 63

7.1. The plug ......................................................................................................................................................... 63

7.2. Design Parameters ...................................................................................................................................... 63

7.3. Concepts .......................................................................................................................................................... 65

7.4. Conclusions .................................................................................................................................................... 69

8. Test Case Evaluation ............................................................................................................................................ 70

8.1.

Is Passend Wonen IDF? ........................................................................................................................... 70

8.2. Conclusions & Recommendations for the IDF Model ................................................................... 76

9. Reflection .................................................................................................................................................................. 78

9.1. Sustainability ................................................................................................................................................. 78

9.2. IDF Building ................................................................................................................................................... 78

9.3. Passend Wonen .......................................................................................................................................... 79

10. Discussion, Conclusions and Recommendations ................................................................................. 80

10.1. Conclusion Research .............................................................................................................................. 80

10.2.

Recommendations Research .............................................................................................................. 80

10.3. Recommendations Passend Wonen ................................................................................................ 81

10.4. Discussion about Research ................................................................................................................. 82

References .......................................................................................................................................................................... 83


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1. BACKGROUND

This chapter provides a background on the incentives for this report.

1.1.INTRODUCTION

In 1987 the Brundtland commission

published their report Our Common

Future (1) which made the world aware of

the potential danger of our way of living and

the magnitude of this problem. The

commission made the statement which ishighlighted in the box at the beginning of

this chapter. Their report ignited a search

for sustainable alternatives in various

sectors of the society to make steps towards

a more sustainable future.

The building industry, an industry with a

high negative impact on the environment, is

one of the industries which has to become

more sustainable. The traditional building

methods are not sufficient anymore andshould be replaced by more suitable

methods to ensure the building industry to

meet the housing needs of the present

without compromising the ability of future

generations to meet their own needs. To

come to a more sustainable building method

several steps have been made. Examples are

energy efficient buildings, adaptable

buildings and cradle to cradle buildings.

Now however it is time to focus on an

integrated approach, an approach whichcombines the small steps towards a leap

forward in sustainable building.

1.2.CHANGING SOCIETY

The society is subject to change. The effects

of the baby boomers after World War II can

provide a problem in the near future. The

aging of the population (Figure 1) will result

in a change in demand in the housing

market.

A second change in society is the lifestyle

change within the population, which is

becoming more and more dynamic which

causes the average household size and

composition to change (Figure 2). The

lifestyle, and with this the corresponding

housing needs, changes more frequently and

more drastically nowadays.

The third change in the housing market isthe change from a supply driven to a

demand driven market (2). In the demand

driven market the requirements of the

consumer become part of the design

process.

In the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s the focus of

the construction industry was on family

housing. However, because of the changing

society, now it is time to convert to housing

for the elderly people. Since the needs of

society are subject to change there is a need

for more adaptable building methodology.

0,0%10,0%20,0%30,0%40,0%50,0%

1950

1960

1970

1980

1990

2000

2010

PopulationBreakdown

Age0to20

Age20to40

Age40to65

Age65to80

Age80+

0,0%20,0%40,0%60,0%80,0%

100,0%

1950

1965

1980

1995

2010

HouseholdBreakdown

Oneperson

Household

Multiple

persons

Household

Average

Householdsize

(1950=100%)

Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable to ensure that it meets the needsof the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own

needs (1)

FIGURE 1, POPULATION BREAKDOWN OF THE

NETHERLANDS (19502010) (91)

FIGURE 2, HOUSEHOLD BREAKDOWN OF THE

NETHERLANDS (19502010) (90)


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Therefore ability to disassemble and

disconnect parts with different life

expectancies will become more and more

important in the future. The changing

society is unpredictable but it is easy to

predict that it will change(3).

A change in the construction world is the

expected shift from building new buildings

to renovating old buildings for new

purposes or better suitability for the current

requirements. (4)(5)(6)

1.3.SUSTAINABILITY

Most of todays leading scientists and world

leaders agree on the fact that the world issubject to climate change(7)(8). Therefore

sustainability has become an important

subject on the political agenda. There are

some examples like the 1989 Montreal

Protocol (9) which successfully prohibited

the use of several materials causing the

depletion of the ozone layer. And sixteen

years later, in 2005, the Kyoto protocol (10)

entered into force. This protocol pleads for

reduction in the emission of greenhouse

gasses (CO2, CH4, N2O, HFCs, PFCs, and SF6).It was this time that the high negative

impact on the environment by the

construction industry was noticed.

The construction industry, including the

complete supply chain for construction and

the built environment, are the main

contributors to CO2 emissions (11)(12),

energy consumption (13), depletion of

natural resources (13), and the creation of

waste (14)(15). These are all connected tothe mayor problems which our planet faces.

One of the underlying reasons for this is the

traditional way of building which considers

a building to be designed for one specific

function, while in the current society the

function of a building is subject to change.

This contradiction often causes the owner of

the building to choose to demolish the

building, causing a lot of waste, before the

end of its maximum technical lifetime is

reached. This conflict between the

functional lifetime and the technical lifetime

of a building makes the current building

methods inefficient (16).

1.4.BUILDING PROCESS

Besides the shift to a demand drivenmarket, there are three problems in the

building industry. These are high failure

costs, estimated the be 10.3% of the total

costs(17)(18)(19), a to be expected lack of

skilled labour in the future(15)(20)(21), and

to complete the summary the construction

industry is one of the most dangerous

sectors(22)(23) with an accident rating of

4.1 % of the personnel a year(24).

To cope with these problems, to reduce thecosts and to improve the quality, there is a

market trend visible in the building industry

towards prefabrication. Companies aim to

complete the building process in less time

with higher quality by this conversion

towards prefabrication. It is expected that

this way of building reduces the failure costs

(25)(26). Other options to reduce the failure

costs are the sharing of knowledge between

companies (27), complete supply chain

management (28) and cooperation betweencompanies (29).

The total built environment is growing

approximately 1.1% a year but this growth

is declining (Figure 3). The rest of all

building activity focuses on upgrading or

replacing the current built environment.

FIGURE 3, ANNUAL GROWTH OF THE BUILT

ENVIRONMENT, THE NETHERLANDS (1989

2009) (30)

0,00%

0,50%

1,00%

1,50%

2,00%

2,50%

1989

1991

1993

1995

1997

1999

2001

2003

2005

2007

2009

AnnualGrowthoftheBuilt

Environment

%Growthof

theBuilt

Environment


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1.5.PEOPLE, PLANET, PROFIT

Elkington defines in his book Cannibals

with Forks (31), that new developments

should be based on a triple bottom line,

which combines the social, ecological andeconomical bottom line (Figure 4).

Furthermore Elkington states that only

when these three bottom lines are in

balance development can be truly

sustainable.

To prove this statement, the relations

between the bottom lines should be

clarified. If there is a strong relation, then

the functional life expectancy will drop

below its maximum technical live

expectancy. This will lead to the

demolishing of the building before the

maximum technical life expectancy and will

result in loss of the potential of the

materials. Therefore it will not be as

sustainable as possible.

The report Bouwen met Tijd (3) indicates

that buildings are most often being

demolished because they do not fit todays

quality standards. This indicates that if the

people do not want to live in the building(e.g. a low Social Value) its Economic Value

will drop, making it unprofitable to sustain

and eventually it will inevitably lead to the

demolishing or renovation (e.g. adding

money to increase the Economic and Social

Value) of the building.

When the Environmental impact (negative

Environmental Value) is high while in

operation, and the government adjusts the

requirements, the owner needs to upgradethe building (need for improvement in

Economic and Social Value). When the

building is upgraded both Economic and

Social Value will rise. When upgrading is

refused the building will eventually be

demolished because of the regulations.

An important new development of this

philosophy is the triple top line which

focuses on positive effects in the three areas.

Both will be discussed more elaborate insection 4.3.

FIGURE 4, GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATION OF

THE TRIPPLE BOTTOM LINE

1.6.IDF BUILDING

In the end of the previous millennium the

Dutch government responded to this need

for more sustainable development by

initiating IFD building. However the initial

goals were good the methodology did not

require an integration of all aspects. This led

to buildings which were specifically

designed focussed on Industrial production

or Flexibility. IDF Building is a building

methodology which aims to set the next step

towards sustainable building. IDF is a Dutchacronym in which the I stands for

Industrial/Individual, the D stands for

Demountable/Sustainable, and the F stands

for Flexible. Individual means the

adaptability of a building to the individual

user needs and requirements. Flexible

focuses on how this adaptability is achieved.

The IDF building methodology aims for the

integration of all of those aspects and

focuses on Demountability and Material life

cycles. The IDF building methodology willbe discussed in more detail in chapter 4 and

chapter 6. IDF Building is originated by a

workgroup within Pioneering, a platform for

innovation in which companies work

together on innovative projects. The Van

Dijk Group is a member of the IDF

workgroup.


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1.7.VAN DIJK GROEP

The Van Dijk Groep is a building contractor

which tries to innovate in all three bottom

lines, People, Planet, and Profit, or

Prosperity as they like to call it. Threecorresponding goals are to anticipate on the

demands of the changing society, to develop

a more environmental friendly building

concept and to innovate the building

process.

1.8.PASSEND WONEN

Passend Wonen is the housing concept of

the Van Dijk Groep which should push them

towards the previous mentioned goals. TheEnglish name for this concept is

Transforming Home. Passend Wonen is a

building concept which is able to adapt to

different functional demands.

1.9.CONCLUSION

The breakdown of the population is subject

to change. Both the different age groups and

the lifestyle of people change. This makes ithard to predict what kind of housing is

needed. Therefore it is important to be

adaptable to this changing need.

The climate is changing and because of this

policies are made about pollution. The

construction industry is one of the most

polluting sectors which require this sector

to reduce this pollution.

The construction industry itself houses

some problems as well. There are high

failure costs, in the future a lack of skilled

labour can be expected and labour in the

construction industry is dangerous.

Because of these reasons it is important to

develop a better construction methodology

which is more adaptable, less polluting andless dangerous. To do this an integrated

approach should be developed which

contains social, environmental and

economic aspects.

Van Dijk Groep is a contractor which tries to

anticipate on the changing built

environment by applying the IDF building

methodology. They developed a building

concept called Passend Wonen. This

concept focuses on changing needs bymaking the building easy to adapt to

different functionalities.


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2. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes the methodology of this research.

2.1.

PROBLEM DEFINITION

The construction industry is slow in its

adaptation to changes. A solid building

methodology would help directing the

construction industry towards more

sustainable building. To do this it is

important to provide a clear approach

which fully integrates all aspects needed for

sustainable building.

Up until now most initiatives within the

built environment were related to energysaving and CO2 reduction in the building

process. Besides the problem of climate

change, a problem equally important is the

one of diminishing of natural materials and

therefore also raw materials used for

construction. But in order to get a good

understanding of material use in

construction it is necessary to broaden the

current research field and incorporate the

whole life cycle of the building (including all

phases: construction, use, transformations,

disassembly, reuse, and end of life) and their

impact on the effective material use in

construction.

The current assessment tools lack good

assessments of material streams and are

focused too much on initial impact without

thinking about the use phase and the end

phase. The new generation of assessment

tools should include disassembly and life

cycle material management.

IDF Building methodology focuses on these

points, and is an integral method for

sustainable building. The IDF Building

Methodology however is not jet fully

defined. A clear specification of criteria and

definitions are needed before the IDF

Building Methodology can properly be used

and communicated.

2.2.

RESEARCH SCOPE

General understanding is that the IDF

approach incorporates the whole life cycle

of the building and its materials by

integrating aspects of effective construction

methods (industrialization), using flexible

systems that could be replaced, reused,

reconfigured and whose materials could be

upcycled (sustainability by disassembly)

and adopting building to different use

requirements during its useful life

(flexibility). However there is a lack of

understanding of what the key criteria for

IDF buildings and systems are and

accordingly how design aspects can be

measured.

This research aims at providing more

understanding of advantages of the IDF

approach and defining key IDF aspects and

criteria that can be used as a guideline for

the development of IDF building systems.

These criteria and aspects will be used to

develop a method to rate building systems.

The method will be tested on the

development of the Passend Wonen

concept, a new system of the Van Dijk

Group.

As described above there is a need for

sustainable building, but there are many

different views on how to build in a

sustainable way. The question is how these

aspects are related and whether there is anorder of importance of the different aspects.

2.3.RESEARCH GOAL

The goal of this research is to create an

assessment model based on IDF Building

criteria which can be used to rate a building

concept or as a guideline to develop or

improve building concepts using the IDF

Building criteria.


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2.4.RESEARCH QUESTIONS

MAIN QUESTION

Which criteria should be fulfilled to meet

the requirements for IDF Building?

SUB QUESTIONS

What is IDF Building?

o What is Industrial Building?

o What is Flexible Building?

o What is Sustainable Building?

How does IDF relate to Sustainability?

o What is sustainability?

o How did sustainability enter the

building industry?

o What approaches exist on

sustainable building?

How does IDF Building relate to the

Traditional Building Methodology?

o What are the problems of the

traditional building

methodology?

What are the criteria and subcriteria

for IDF Building?

How does Passend Wonen relate to

IDF Building?

o What is Passend Wonen?

o What are the characteristics of

the Passend Wonen concept?

o Which requirements of IDF

Building does the PassendWonen meet and which not?

Which requirements of IDF Building

concerning concepts are not well

defined?

What are the possibilities for the

Passend Wonen concept to meet the

requirements of IDF Building?

2.5.RESEARCH MODEL

The research model is shown in Figure 5.

The model consists of six phases in which

the complete research is performed. In the

first phase the criteria are studied by

performing a literature study; the second

phase integrates these criteria into a model

definition; in phase three the actual model is

created based on the model definitions;

phase four consists of a case study to test

the model; phase five will be used to

optimize the model and perform a case

study; and the last phase will consist of the

final case study and recommendations for

further development.

FIGURE 5, RESEARCH MODEL


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2.6.RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

To specify the requirements for IDF

Building, first the criteria and subcriteria

need to be defined. These criteria and

aspects will be retrieved by literature study,analysis of Industrial, Sustainable and

Flexible building projects and researches

performed into these areas. In addition, to

gain field experience about Industrialization

in the production process of a construction

company, an evaluation of the production

facilities of the Van Dijk Groep will be made.

Besides the study of what the criteria for

sustainable building are, research will be

conducted into the relations between the

different steps within sustainable buildingand the problems within the traditional

building method. After this step the criteria

and subcriteria need to be coupled to

quantified requirements. In the end the

model representing the IDF Criteria should

be a step forward into the direction of

sustainable building.

To bridge the gap between theory and

practice, the model (implementation of the

set of requirements) will be tested on a case

study concerning the Passend Wonen

concept of the Van Dijk Group. The goal of

this case study is to test the model and to

give recommendations for the improvement

of the concept based on IDF Criteria.

In phase one, a literature study will be

performed to explore the criteria of

sustainability and sustainable building and

how these criteria are interrelated. To make

sure the literature study is a thorough one

first an overview of popular and relevantbooks & articles, important conferences,

relevant projects, government

interventions, important events will be

created based on reviews and summaries.

These will be placed along a timeline

including main events to show the

development of; Environmental awareness;

Sustainable Living; Sustainable Building;

and Sustainable Industry. Than several of

the most important, most influential, and

most complete books and researches will be

read in full. The books and researches

selected are the ones which are referred to

most often, and which provoked the most

response.

An additional literature study will be

performed to explore the characteristics of,

and problems concerning traditional

building. This first phase will result in an

overview of characteristics of sustainable

building and problems concerning

traditional building. This overview will be

used to direct the research to the criteria

which are relevant to investigate in more

detail during the next phases of the

research. Also, the overview will be used to

create an outline for sustainable building.

Based upon the relevant criteria forsustainable building and problems

concerning traditional building which have

been identified in the first phase, the input

parameters for IDF Building will be

determined. When the parameters are

determined, the requirements concerning

these parameters will be defined for

building concepts. To come to these

requirements literature research will be

performed and several ranges for the

requirements will be defined. Then these

ranges will be discussed with experts to

determine the requirements for the

parameters.

Phase three consists of the creation of a

model from the criteria and parameters.

This model should be well defined to enable

the rating of concepts based on the IDF

criteria and be of value for creating IDF

concepts as a source of inspiration.

In phase four, the model on IDF Building,

which is defined in phase three, will be used

in a case study. The Passend Wonen concept

of Van Dijk Groep will be evaluated by using

the model for IDF Building. This evaluation

will be used to test the functionality of the

model.

In phase five, the model for the IDF Building

will be revised, this will again be discussed

with experts and will result in a final

version of the model for IDF Building

concepts.


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Phase six will be used to evaluate the

Passend Wonen concept of the Van Dijk

Groep. This will result in conclusions and

recommendations for Van Dijk Groep

concerning their building concept. In

addition to that this phase will be used to

evaluate the model of rating IDF Building

concepts. This will result in conclusions and

recommendations for further development

of the model on IDF Building.


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13

FIGURE 8, INSULA ROMANA

Sadly the fall of the Roman empire also

meant the loss of knowledge about

construction. So during this time a major

setback in housing development occurred.

During the early middle ages the housing

quality remained relatively constant

without proper sewage systems. Woodbecame the standard building material

again. (Figure 9)

FIGURE 9, EARLY MIDDLE AGES VILLAGE

The late middle ages came with more wealth

which resulted in bigger and better and

more decorative constructions for the rich

(Figure 10).

FIGURE 10, LATE MIDDLE AGES BUILDING

The industrial revolution changed the face

of the earth by creating big cities with large

buildings by using new materials and

construction techniques. The lifestyle

changed from selfsufficient households and

craftsmanship towards cheap massproduction in factories. A side effect of the

revolution was the poverty of the factory

workers (Figure 11). The paragraph Quality

of Living will explain the reaction of society

on this development.

FIGURE 11, POVERTY DURING INDUSTRIAL

REVOLUTION

Important developments in system

performance during this period where the

idea of prefabrication and the rediscovery of

portability. One of the most famous

examples is the Crystal Palace, which was

originally build in Hyde Park, London for the

Great Exhibition of 1851 and was rebuild in

Sydenham Hill, London in 1854 (Figure 12).

FIGURE 12, THE CRYSTAL PALACE (1854)


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Around 1900 the quality of the houses

improved. Houses became bigger, contained

larger rooms and had gardens around the

house. (Figure 13).

FIGURE 13, AMSTERDAM, 1917

After World War II there was such a bigneed for housing that many big apartment

blocks (Figure 14) where build. These

apartments had a lower quality than the

houses of the period before the World Wars,

because the need for housing exceeded the

need for quality. Prefabrication was very

important in this period to keep up the pace

of building. The most important new

material was concrete.

FIGURE 14, 1950S APARTMENT BLOCK

Up until the 20th century improvements inthe housing system were mostly based on

the use of new materials or expanding the

capacity of the houses. From the second half

of the 20thcentury up until now there was a

constant drive towards the improvement of

the performance of the building.

Developments like sound insulation, fire

protection, reduction of energy

consumption for heating, communication

techniques, and home automation all added

to the performance of the building, but theyall did so by adding materials or

subsystems. These innovations did not lead

towards a fundamental new building

methodology. Instead the only thing that

was done was adding lots of new

technology. This is called innovation by

addition. (32) Figure 15 shows an exampleof innovation by addition. In the left side of

the figure there is an example of a standard

housing construction. At the right side the

following additions are made:

Improving thermal insulation

o Adding insulation layer

between walls

o Adding a layer of glass

Need for fresh air supply

o

Adding ventilation shaft Improving visual quality

o Heighten the ceiling

o Visual ceiling to hide

installations

Improving sound insulation for

bypass sound from room to room

o Adding insulation above

visual ceiling

Additional installations (internet

etc.)

o Heighten the ceilingo Second floor to hide

installations

By all these additions finally a complex

housing structure is created. Some of the

additions are implemented to deal with

problems of previously implemented

additions. It can be said that this structure is

far from an ideal solution.

FIGURE 15, INNOVATION BY ADDITION(33)


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illustrated the magnitude of environmental

damage caused by humans, and the

problems this damage causes. Both the

books about the way of living and these

events created public awareness which led

to the birth of the environmental movement.

In 1968 Paul R. Ehrlich linked the high

population density and technological

advancement to environmental impact in

his book The Population Bomb (38).

In 1987 the world commission on

environment and development published

the report Our common future(1). The

commission made an assessment

concerning potential dangers of the western

lifestyle and which problems were to beexpected. They foresaw the following

problems for the years to come if the trends

are continued the way they move now:

environmental degradation

increase of poverty

destruction of forests

desertification

acidification of forests and lakes

global warming

ozone layer depletion

food chain pollution

air and water pollution

depletion of ground water

proliferation of toxic chemicals and

hazardous wastes

erosion

Furthermore, they warn for new chemicals

which bring new forms of waste, and they

expect problems with the current rate of

population growth which cannot be

sustained because of housing shortages,

insufficient health care, low food security,

and insufficient energy supplies. An

important note they make is that it is not

just the total amount of people living on the

planet, but also how those numbers relate to

the available resources, species and

ecosystems and energy. They state that

industries should be producing more by

using less resources. After the publication of

this report, several rules and legislations

were slowly introduced. More information

about these can be found in paragraph 3.3.

Ott and Roberts stressed in their article

Everyday exposure to toxic pollutants(39)

that not only the outside environment is

polluted, but also the indoor environment is

polluted by toxic substances. This problem

is caused by the offgassing of industrial

products like toys, carpet, paint, etc. The

problem is not only the pollution but also

the exposure including human contact.

3.1.3. A FINATE WORLD

Besides the damage, the current

consumerism causing it can also becompared with running blindfolded towards

the edge of a cliff. To prevent the downfall of

the current society a drastic change in

direction is needed. The resources which

are being mined, farmed and so on are not

endless. The first notion about this was by

Hubbert. In 1956 he created the peak oil

theory(Figure 19) (40) which was originally

focused on the output development of

limited resources, more specifically oil.

Eventually this theory could be applied onthe depletion of all natural resources. The

theory says that during the mining of a

resource, first exponential growth will be

achieved. When all easy to gather resources

are retrieved the growth slowly levels out

and the production stagnates. Future

discoveries will provide more resources, but

they will be so expensive that it will be

cheaper to evolve towards a new system

which uses other resources.

FIGURE 19, PEAK OIL GRAPH

Both the work of Hubbert (40) andNordhaus & Tobin(41) foresee the depletion


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of natural resources if the current western

lifestyle of consumerism is continued.

Meadows, et all. connect in Limits to

growth(42) the rapidly growing world

population to the finite resource supplies.

Examples are the limits to food production

and problems induced by industrialization

like pollution, and resource depletion.

Elkington in Cannibals with Forks(31),

Diamond in Collapse; how Societies Choose

to Fall or Succeed(43), and Ponting in A

Green History of the World (44) all state

that society is able to choose to be

sustainable or unsustainable. But when they

choose to not be sustainable this will

eventually mean their downfall.

In Small is beautiful(45), Schumacher

places criticism on western economics.

Modern economy is unsustainable because

natural resources are treated as expendable

income. The problem is that most of the

resources are not renewable and will

eventual be depleted. In addition to that he

states that the resistance to pollution of

nature is limited.

The description of Ponting about the

downfall of societies on Easter Island can be

seen as an example of what bad resource

management can ultimately leads to. Thisexample can be read in Box 1.

3.1.4. PLANETARY BOUNDRIES

Not only the depletion of resources and

destruction of eco systems are vital for life

on the planet. In 2009 Rockstom et al.

published their first article about what they

call planetary boundaries (46). They aim to

quantify boundaries of the planet (Figure

22). These boundaries should not be

crossed in danger of bumping out of the

relative stable and ideal living conditions

which are present on earth since the

Holocene (Figure 21).

FIGURE 21, TEMPERATURE CHANGE ON THE

EARTH (47)(48)

The problem is that we already crossed four

boundaries, namely; Climate Change, Ozone

Layer Depletion, the Nitrogen Cycle and the

Rate of Biodiversity loss. Luckily by

regulations and political action currently the

boundary of Ozone Layer Depletion is

The Easter Islanders, aware that they

were almost completely isolated from the

rest of the world, must surely have realised

that their very existence depended on the

limited resources of a small island. After all

it was small enough for them to walk

round the entire island in a day or so and

see for themselves what was happening to

the forests. Yet they were unable to devise

a system that allowed them to find the

right balance with their environment.

Instead, vital resources were steadily

consumed until finally none were left.

Indeed, at the very time when the

limitations of the island must have become

starkly apparent, the competition between

the clans for the available timber seems to

have intensified as more and more statues

were carved and moved across the island

in an attempt to secure prestige and status.

The fact that so many were left unfinished

or stranded near the quarry suggests that

no account was taken of how few trees

were left on the island (Figure 20) (44)

FIGURE 20, EASTER ISLAND

BOX 1, EASTER ISLAND EXAMPLE


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brought back within the threshold and the

Ozone Layer is recovering.

The problem is that when a boundary is

crossed too far or too long the climate on

the planet can change drastically. This

means that every human development

should be evaluated against these nine

boundaries.

FIGURE 22, THE NINE PLANETARY

BOUNDARIES AND THE CURRENT STATE(46),

STARTING ON TOP CLOCKWISE: CLIMATE

CHANGE, OCEAN ACIDIFICATION,

STRATOSPHERIC OZONE DEPLETION,

NITROGEN CYCLE, PHOSPHORUS CYCLE,

GLOBAL FRESHWATER USE, LAND SYSTEM

CHANGE, RATE OF BIODIVERSITY LOSS,

ATMOSPHERIC AEROSOL LOADING, CHEMICAL

POLLUTION

3.2.CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

As has been stated in this chapter the

current fulfilment of the main function of

the housing systems is good (paragraph

3.1.1), however, the complexity (paragraph

3.1.1), negative effects (paragraph 3.1.2)

and costs (paragraph 3.1.3) are high.

The negative impact of the construction

industry can be quantified in the following

numbers, the construction industry causes:

28% of the total CO2production (11)

40% of the energy consumption in

Europe(13)

40% of the total waste production(14)

54% of the dangerous waste

production(49)

50% of material resources taken fromnature(13)

3.3.REPORTING,

STANDARDIZATION AND

LEGISLATION

The severity of the problems mentioned in

the previous sections and the role of thebuilding industry were noticed both

nationally and internationally. This resulted

in several different responses. In paragraph

3.3.1 and 3.3.2 the responses of the

government and other lawmakers will be

discussed.

3.3.1. INTERNATIONAL REPORTING

AND LEGISLATION

Since the international organisations cannotplace binding policies on focussed parts of

the society, they tried to implement

standards in the construction industry by

standardization. Since 1972 the focus

shifted and more and more attention was

given to the environmental impact of human

society.

INTERNATIONAL STANDARDIZATION

Between 1947 and the present day the

International Organization for

Standardization (ISO) published thousands

of standards, several of them concerning

building construction. These relate to

standards in construction drawings,

calculation methods for thermal resistance

and thermal bridges, thermal insulation

measurements, organization of information

about construction works, et cetera (50).

Besides the ISO standards the European

Commission started to developed

legislations. These were published in the

Journal of the European Union starting in

1951(51). In 1989 the European

Commission created a guideline for

construction related products. These

guidelines are implemented in the national

legislations by the member states. In 2011

the European Commission published new

regulations which are an update and

extension of the 1989 version and include

the CE marking.


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ENVRIONMENTAL PROGRAMME

The United Nations Environment

Programme (UNEP) was initiated as a result

of the 1972 United Nations Conference on

the Human Environment. In 1985 during the

Vienna Conference by UNEP, the Vienna

Convention for the Protection of the Ozone

Layer was agreed upon. This eventually led

to the Montreal Protocol (9) which entered

into force in 1989. This protocol was meant

to protect the ozone layer, and is to date the

biggest success of the UNEP.

In 1988 UNEP initiated the

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

(IPCC). The main purpose of this

organisation is publishing special scientificand objective reports on topics related to

climate change. Their first report was

published in 1990. This report was focussed

on the relation between human activities

and the atmospheric concentrations of

greenhouse gasses. Up to date four reports

have been published and the fifth is planned

to be published in 2014

In 1992 the United Nations Conference on

Environment and Development (UNCED),also known as the Earth summit, resulted in

the following documents: Rio Declarations

on Environment and Development, Agenda

21, Convention on Biological Diversity,

Forest Principles and United Nations

Framework Convention on Climate Change

(UNFCCC). Both Convention on Biological

Diversity and the United Nations

Framework Convention on Climate Change

were set as legally binding agreements.

Since the UNFCCC entered into force in the

year 1995, the Conferences of the Parties

(COP) have been meeting annually. In 1997,

on their third meeting the Kyoto Protocol

(10) was adopted. This protocol regulates

the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

In 2005 COP extended the Kyoto Protocol

by the Montreal Action Plan (52) and

negotiated higher reductions on greenhouse

gas emissions.

In 2006 Al Gore published the documentary

An Inconvenient Truth (53) about the state

of the earth. Points of focus were climate

change, global warming and greenhouse

gasses.

3.3.2. DEVELOPMENT OF LEGISLATION

IN THE NETHERLANDS

The National governments have more

influence for guiding specific industries than

the international agencies. The Dutch

government placed legislations for housing

quality since 1946. Later, after the insight

that economic growth and environmental

impact are connected, they also created

legislations concerning more sustainable

building.

HOUSING QUALITY

After World War II there was a great need

for housing. To ensure housing quality the

Dutch government introduced the

Voorlopige Wenken in 1946. This policy

obliged new buildings to have a bathroom.

In 1951 the government introduced a new

document Voorschriften en Wenken which

put minimum requirements to new

buildings concerning the size, placement of

different functional spaces and the

equipment. The 1965 update of this

document added minimum requirements of

roof insulation and improved the existing

requirements. Requirements for heat and

sound insulation were added in 1976.

In the following decade a lot of regional

rules were made, also norms were created

but no national legislations. This changed in

1992 with the First edition of the Dutch

Building Code. This was a collection ofpreviously existing local technical build

prescriptions, but now they became binding

for the whole country. The norms included

in the Dutch Building Code relate to safety,

health, usability, energy performance and

environment.

As part of the sustainable building policy in

1996 the Dutch government introduced the

Energy Performance Coefficient (EPC). The

EPC is a value based on the energy use andloss of a building. The lower the EPC the


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lower the energy use and the lower the CO2

footprint of a building. The strategy was to

improve the EPC in small steps. In 2006 the

maximum value was defined on 0.8 for new

buildings, in 2011 it will be 0.6 and it is

planned to be lowered to 0.4 in 2015.

In 2003 the Dutch Building Code was

revised. In the revised edition the NEN

norms, these are Dutch norms, are linked to

the legislations within the Dutch Building

Code. Also the guideline for construction

related products by the European

Commission is embedded into the Dutch

Building Code.

ECONOMY AND ENVIRONMENT

Shortly after the Oil Crisis in the 1970s the

Dutch government published a policy

document about selective growth (54). This

document relates the economy to the

environment, and links the growth goals of

the industry to environmental, energy, and

resource goals. The document states that

investments should no longer have negative

impacts on the environment.

In 1989 the first National EnvironmentalPolicy (55), which was clearly inspired by

the Brundtland Report, was published. The

policy states that before the year 2010 most

of the current environmental problems

should be resolved, and the creation of new

problems in a continuing economical

growth should be prevented. During the

nineties, the policy was revised and updated

several times. In 1990 the need for

sustainable building, integral chain

management, energy extensification andquality improvement were added. In 1993

the strategy changed and several

responsibilities were placed upon the

executive parties.

In 1997 the policy Environment and

Economy was published focusing attention

on emissions by energy use and mobility.

This policy describes a perspective in which

sustainable economical developments

should be desirable by economical, social,

and ecological means.

In 2001 the fourth National Environmental

Policy was published which concluded that

for solving environmental problems system

innovation is needed.

SUSTAINABLE BUILDING

The need for sustainable building was clear

to the Dutch government, it was necessary

for the economical, social, and ecological

goals, and for the housing quality. In 1995

the first action plan for sustainable

building was published. It defined that

sustainable building should be an

improvement for people, environment and

the economy. In addition to that a

sustainable building should be an attractive

building of high quality and a lowenvironmental impact. Two years later, in

1997, the second action plan sustainable

building (56) was published. It desired a

more intensive cooperation with the

industry. The focus lay besides new

buildings also on renovation of the existing

built environment.

In 1999 a Sustainable Building Policy (57)

was published. This document enclosed

environmental quality and human capital,and was based on the triple bottom line(31).

The focus of this policy was on boundary

conditions and project realization.

3.3.3. CONCLUSIONS

There is both international and national

response to the desire for change as

described in the first paragraphs of chapter

3.

International the state of the earth is

measured and rules and legislations to deal

with some of the environmental problems

are made. However there are no real

legislations directing at the construction

industry.

When looking at a national level the policies

become more detailed. In the Netherlands

the relation between economical growth

and environmental problems is used as a

basis for growth regulations. The housing

quality improved thanks to the application


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of building legislations by the government.

This shows the important role they have in

guiding the industry. Lastly, the Dutch

government started a program for

sustainable building. It is still developing,

but eventually this should lead towards amore sustainable built environment in the

Netherlands.

Locally there are some initiatives which aim

at better performance of buildings by

improving quality and reducing costs and

environmental impact.

3.4.SYSTEM EVOLUTION

The housing system is has changed in thepast and some characteristics need to

change for the future. The process of change

in a system is called system evolution. For

the desired change in the construction

industry, progress in the system evolution is

needed. To explain what this means first a

general understanding is needed about

what system evolution is. This paragraph is

based on the principles of system evolution

of the TRIZ theory by Valery Souchkov (58).

System evolution in general means that asystem wants to evolve towards a high

degree of ideality. The degree of ideality can

be defined by the next formula:

In this formula the Useful Effects contain

everything that creates and increases the

overall value. The Negative Effects containall factors that reduce the overall value. The

costs are all expenditures needed to create

the overall value (e.g. Materials, Energy,

Information, Human Resources, etc.).

The path towards a system with a high

degree of ideality in general can be

described by the SCurve of Evolution and

generally the system complexity can be

described by the BellCurve of Evolution.

(Figure 23)

FIGURE 23, MODELS OF SYSTEM

EVOLUTION(58)

During the journey of a system towards the

most ideal final result the system passes

three stages. The first is the creation phase

of the system. In this phase the innovative

solution to fulfil a function is implementedfor the first time. In the housing system this

means the first time humans settled in solid

houses. The second is the expansion phase

of the system, during which new subsystems

are introduced to increase the functionality

of the system. But when the main functions

of a system are fulfilled the costs and

negative effects of the system will also be

high. For the housing system this is the

process described in paragraph 3.1.1. Which

describes the evolution of the housingsystem to the complex and expensive

buildings with high environmental impact

which fulfil their main functions (protecting

its residents against the elements). At this

stage the convolution phase starts. The first

action in the convolution phase is the

cutting of costs by minimizing the use of

materials, energy, information, and labour.

To achieve this the system is optimized by

eliminating subsystems through function

sharing or by the application of moreadvanced materials. In addition to this, the

production processes are optimized to gain

a higher quality and reduce variability of

processes to reduce the number of defects

and negative effects. For the housing system

this means the reduction of environmental

impact, material use and labour for building

the house.

When further optimizing of the system

becomes too expensive for the benefits itdelivers, something different happens. This


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can be a Sjump, which means that a new

way to deliver a main function of the system

is found and implemented. Other options

are the merging of the system with similar

systems (for example combining houses

with shops), or the transferring of thefunctionality of the system to a super

system.

Current trends in the construction industry

are focussed on reducing costs, complexity,

and negative effects. These trends indicates

that the construction industry is at the

beginning of the convolution phase.

As sustainable development aims to

minimize the negative effects and reduce

the costs, while preserving or enhancing thepositive effects, sustainable development

can be compared to the convolution phase

of the model of system evolution.

3.5.CONCLUSIONS

The theory of system evolution gives a good

idea about how the evolution of the housing

system develops. As described in this

chapter the evolution of the housing systemcame with better quality but improvements

were made by adding materials and

subsystems. The improvement of

performance however also caused negative

effects on environment. The costs and

complexity of current housing system is

high. The housing system is now in its

convolution phase which means now it is

time to get to a more ideal solution for the

housing system.

The National and International legislations

aim to bend the building methodology to a

more ideal solution for the housing system.

IDF building focuses on reducing the

environmental impact and costs of the

housing system by reducing the complexity

of the housing system and designing for its

whole life cycle. In other words IDF building

is a strategy to initiate the necessary

innovations for the convolution phase of the

evolution of the housing system.


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4. RESPONSE TO THE NEED FOR CHANGE

Chapter 3 explained why change in the building methodology is needed. In this chapter the

response to this need for change will be discussed as a theoretical background for the model.

This chapter is divided into strategies and approaches for triple bottom line and triple top line

design, IDF building, and triple bottom/top line evaluation tools.

4.1.STRATEGIES AND APPROACHES

How to create concepts which score high

with the evaluation tools? Several design

strategies have been ignited in the recent

past. These strategies will be discussed in

the next paragraph.

4.1.1. DESIGN STRATEGIES ON THE

CONCEPTUAL AND MANAGEMENT

LEVELS

The first strategy, The Ladder of Lansink

which was created by the Dutch politician

Ad Lansink in 1979, is focused on waste

prevention. The second strategy, the Delft

Ladder(59) by Hendriks in 2001, focused on

material use optimization. The steps of the

ladders are shown in Table 1. The first step

is prevention of material use. Then there is a

group of reuse on different levels. The next

step in both ladders is useful applicationfollowed by Immobilisation in the Delft

ladder. All materials which are not suitable

for one of the previous steps will be

incinerated. All materials which are left

even after incineration are land filled.

A similar more simple approach is to

evaluate all aspects of a concept by the

Triad approaches (60), for instance the

Trias Energetica which consists of the

following three steps:

1. Reduction of energy use

2. Use of Renewable energy sources

3. Efficient use of nonrenewable

energy sources

Entrop and Brouwers created a general

triad approach (60) which they also applied

to the use of water, material, landuse and

transport. The general triad approachconsists of the following three steps:

1. Prevent Use

2. Use Renewables

3. Improve Efficiency

Both the Ladder strategies and the Triad

approaches focus on reducing the

environmental impact by lowering the

impact of material and energy usage.

LadderofLansink LadderofDelftPrevention Prevention

Construction Reuse

Element Reuse Element Reuse

Material Reuse

Material Reuse

Upcycling

Material Reuse

Downcycling

Useful Application Useful Application

Immobilisation with

useful application

Immobilisation

Incineration with

Energy Recovery

Incineration with

Energy Recovery

Incineration Incineration

Landfill Landfill

TABLE 1, LADDER COMPARISON


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4.1.2. DESIGN APPROACHES ON THE

FUNCTIONAL AND ELEMENT

LEVEL

Following the observations of the previous

chapter it became clear that a change inbuilding methodology was needed. Several

initiatives were started in the Netherlands.

LEAN CONSTRUCTION

Lean construction is a specific application of

The Toyota Way by Toyota production

systems. The Toyota Way consists of

principles in two key areas: continuous

improvement and respect for people. These

areas are supported by five key principles

shown in Figure 24 (61):

FIGURE 24, THE TWO KEY AREAS AND THE

FIVE RELATED KEY PRINCIPLES

These five key principles are covered by

fourteen practical principles(62) for

managing a company:

1. Base your management decisions on

a longterm philosophy, even at the

expense of shortterm financialgoals

2. Create a continuous process flow to

bring problems to the surface

3. Use pull systems to avoid

overproduction

4. Level out the workload

5. Build a culture of stopping the

production line to fix problems, toget quality right the first time

6. Standardized tasks and processes

are the foundation for continuous

improvement and employee

empowerment

7. Use visual control so no problems

are hidden

8. Use only reliable, thoroughly tested

technology that serves your people

and processes

9. Grow leaders who thoroughly

understand the work, live the

philosophy, and teach it to others

10.Develop exceptional people and

teams who follow your companysphilosophy

11.Respect your extended network of

partners and suppliers by

challenging them and helping them

improve

12.Go and see for yourself to

thoroughly understand the situation

13.Make decisions slowly by consensus,

thoroughly considering all options;implement decisions rapidly

14.Become a learning organization

through relentless reflection and

continuous improvement

These principles are important for creating

an effective company, and to make sure that

all processes in the chain of product

realization add value to the product. The

Toyota Way is a management tool which

improves the efficiency in a company and

the quality of the labour performed in the

company.

OPEN BUILDING

In 1962 Habraken published a book in

which he describes the theory on Open

Building (63). The theory consists of the

following combination of different but

related ideas about the making of the

environment(64):


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The idea of distinct Levels of

intervention in the built

environment, such as those

represented by 'support' and 'infill',

or by urban design and architecture

The idea that users / inhabitants

may make design decisions as well

The idea that, more generally,

designing is a process with multiple

participants also including different

kinds of professionals

The idea that the interface between

technical systems allows the

replacement of one system with

another performing the samefunction (as with different fitout

systems applied in a same base

building)

The idea that built environment is in

constant transformation and change

must be recognized and understood.

The idea that built environment is

the product of an ongoing, never

ending, design process in whichenvironment transforms part by

part

Open Building acknowledged the changing

character of the built environment, the need

for the ability to adapt, and the need for

cooperation between all stakeholders.

INDUSTRIAL FLEXIBLE DEMOUNTABLE

BUILDING (IFDBUILDING)

The quest for a more sustainable buildingmethodology by the Dutch government

renewed the interest in the Open Building

philosophy of Habraken. This led to the

methodology of Industrial, Flexible, and

Demountable Building, or in short IFD

Building. This was introduced by the Dutch

group SEV (Steering committee

Experiments Public housing) in 1999 (65).

The new methodology led to several

experimental projects in IFDBuilding,

which focused mainly on the Industrial andFlexible part. IFDBuilding focuses on

reducing the amount of material used in the

total life cycle of the building.

CRADLE TO CRADLE

In 2002 M. Braungart & W. McDonough

published the book Cradle to Cradle (66),which rejects the old fashioned cradle to

grave methodology which is commonly

used, and introduced a new cyclic approach

which does not focus on reducing negative

impact, but enlarging positive impact.

They use the following design paradigm:

Waste equals food

Use current solar income

Celebrate Diversity

In addition to that they defined all materials

as nutrients and divided them into two main

categories: Biological Nutrients and

Technological Nutrients. Then they defined

two types of products, consumption

products and service products. (Figure 25)

Technological Nutrients should only be used

in as service products and should always

stay in the so called technosphere. Anexample is a bottle. Biological Nutrients are

most often used as consumption products,

but they can be used as service products.

Eventually biological nutrients will end up

in the biosphere. An example of a service

product is shampoo.

FIGURE 25, TWO DIFFERENT CYCLES. THE

BIOSPHERE WITH BIOLOGICAL NUTRIENTS,

AND THE TECHNOSPHERE WITH THE

TECHNICAL NUTRIENTS

A good example of a consumption product

designed for ending up in the biosphere is

the biodegradable tshirt of Trigema (Figure


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26). Not only the fabric, but also the used

chemicals like paint are designed for the

biosphere.

FIGURE 26, THE BIOLOGICAL LIFE CYCLE OF

THE BIODEGRADABLE TSHIRT OF TRIGEMA

A good example of a product designed for

the technosphere is the Mirra Chair by

Herman Miller (Figure 27). The complete

chair is designed to be disassembled and all

components can be reused in a new chair.

The parts that wear out can be replaced by

new ones for which the old worn parts can

be used as nutrients.

FIGURE 27, THE TECHNOLOGICAL LIFE CYCLE

OF THE MIRRA CHAIR BY HERMAN MILLER

The CradletoCradle philosophy led to

several principles for building. Mulhall &

Braungart developed a small book called

Cradle to Cradle Criteria for the built

environment(67). Besides this book there

are several local initiatives by

municipalities, for example The Almere

Principles.

DESIGN FOR DISASSEMBLY

In 2006 Elma Durmisevic published her

PhDresearch about Design for

Disassembly(16). Design for Disassembly

responds to several previously mentioned

problems. Durmisevic states that different

sub systems have different life expectancies

before they will be replaced in different

intervals (Figure 28). To deal with thisproblem an open hierarchy is needed in

which subsystems with different life

expectancies can be disconnected and

replaced at different intervals.

FIGURE 28, DIFFERENT LIFE EXPECTANCIES OF

SUB SYSTEMS

Durmisevic defined eight aspects which

influence the disassembly potential. These

aspects are important in decision making

during design:

1. Functional decomposition

2. Systematization and clustering

3. Hierarchical relations between

elements

4. Base element specification

5. Assembly sequences

6. Interface geometry

7. Type of the connections

8. Life cycle coordination in

assembly/disassembly

4.1.3. CONCLUSIONS

The Ladder Strategies and the Triad

Approaches all focus on minimizing

negative impact. The best result which can

be attained by this strategy is no impact.

As a design approach The Toyota Way

makes a next step, instead of only looking at

cost reduction they also consider ways to


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add value to the product. This however, is

still only on one bottom line (Economic

Bottom Line), but it is a step in the right

direction. The Toyota Way is an approach

which considers the product, the processes

and the management.

Open Building is very influential, and lays a

basis for the later IFDBuilding and Design

for Disassembly. These approaches are

heavily focussed on reducing material use

and environmental impact by flexibility and

reusability.

CradletoCradle also focuses on the life

cycleapproach, but it adds a new dimension

to it. The Cradletocradle philosophy states

that it is better to make a big positive impactthan a smaller negative impact.

All in all there are lots of strategies and

approaches. To get to a complete

sustainable approach it is needed to

combine these strategies.

4.2.IDFBUILDING

In 2008, Pioneering introduces the

workgroup IDFBuilding (Individual,

Sustainable and Flexible Building)(68)

which initiate multicorporation projects

focused on IDFBuilding.

IDF Building has several principles,

Industrial, Individual, Sustainable, and

Flexible building. All these pillars are meant

to lead towards a more sustainable building

methodology.

IDF Building is an integrated approach inorder to lower the complexity of buildings.

The buildings should be demountable to

reduce negative impact, and flexibility to

improve the lifecycle performance.

Currently the projects of IDFbuilding are

heavily focused on prefabrication, assembly

and disassembly. The projects work with

use scenarios and the developments are

made with major stakeholders in the

production process. However no

stakeholders of the usephase are integrated

in the design phase.

At this moment the biggest challenges for

applying the IDF building methodology are

the interfaces, compatibility and

exchangeability.

4.3.TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE

A lot of national and international policies

are based on the triple bottom line of John

Elkington. In his book (31) is stated that

new developments should be based on a

triple bottom line, which combines the

social, ecological and economical bottom

line. Furthermore Elkington states that onlywhen these three bottom lines are in

balance development can be truly

sustainable. For this it is important to be

able to measure all three bottom lines.

4.3.1. MEASURING THE BOTTOM LINES

Companies are accustomed to measuring

the economical bottom line, but not so much

to the other two bottom lines, the

Environmental and Social bottom line.Therefore there is a need for tools to

measure the current state and evaluate

concepts on all triple bottom line values.

ENVIRONMENTAL VALUE

The environmental value is based on the

total of harmful and beneficial aspects of a

product during its total lifetime. To quantify

this, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has to be

made. A LCA is defined by Owens (69) as;

An analyticalmethodology used toprovide

informationonaproductsenergy,materials,

wastes, and emissions from a life-cycle

perspective along with an examination of

associatedenvironmentalissues.

The life cycle approach is important because

not only the initial costs are important in

assessments, but also the running costs and

disposal costs. Instead of a part of the cycle,

the complete cycle is assessed. Finkbeiner et


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al. (70) describe the stages of a products life

as:

1. RawMaterialExtraction2. EnergyandMaterialProduction3. Manufacturing4. ProductUse5. EndofLifeTreatment6. FinalDisposal

The Scientific Applications International

Corporation (SAIC) characterizes a LCA as

(71):

Evaluationofallstagesofaproducts

life

Calculation of a total environmental

impactincluding

all

stages

Providing a comprehensive vi

Guiding the Construction Industry Towards More Sustainable Building

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