Loading...
6 results
Search Results
Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
- Built environment: the sustainability of heritagePublication . Silva, J.A. Mendes da; Ferreira, Ana VazDifferent sustainable evaluation tools can provide a way to certify the building¬¬`s performance during its life cycle: raw material depletion, production of materials and components, construction, use and demolition. In this process, several variables that analyze common components, such as the reduction of resources consume, the reuse and recycle potential, flexibility and adaptability, the pollution components generated during the process, are involved. Some examples of these tools are the systems like SBTool, BREEAM, BEE or LiderA that are used to evaluate a specific context according to specific conditions. Meanwhile, the existing evaluation systems are oriented to the building´s design phase or have under consideration patterns adapted to the 21st century reality. This work was developed due to the need to analyse and evaluate the built environment, specifically in what concerns the urban settlements in Portuguese cities, with more than three hundred years old, and that are not enclosed in the new construction’s reality - both at materials and techniques levels. The knowledge gathered about the built environment allows the creation of a sustainable grid capable of guide-lining rehabilitation actions. The evaluation of these urban areas was carried out based on an exhaustive work of collecting the building’s characteristics, in an area with around 770 buildings, allowing the creation of a built environment sustainability evaluation grid and adapted to socio, cultural, heritage, economic and environmental contexts. The grid mentioned before was designed after a set of parameters were analyzed, such as: i) the existent materials and the constructive solutions adopted; ii) the urban mesh and the meeting of the construction resources to the built environment; iii) the contemporaneous patterns and the possibilities of reusing; iv) the heritage and cultural values; v) the social and economic values. The evaluation grid presented in this work shows a set of different parameters, where the criteria that are related to the external environment are reassessed according to the existent urban possibilities and where the criteria related to internal environment are adapted to the existent spaces’ possibilities.
- Sustainability assessment of building rehabilitation actions in old urban centresPublication . Almeida, Cláudia; Ferreira, Ana Vaz; Silva, J.A. Mendes daIt is essential that the society understands the importance of sustainable development, its implication for the existing living standards and the need to implement management policies that promote sustainability. Rehabilitation assumes a fundamental role in this process; however, we are faced with the lack of specific, adequate and simplified tools for the sustainability assessment in rehabilitation actions. In this paper, the analysis of different sustainability assessment systems was conducted, comparing them in order to identify the adjustments to be made to a Portuguese model taken under consideration. Subsequently, the model was cross-checked with current European and national urban rehabilitation and regeneration policies, analysing their contribution to sustainability, in order to define the assessment criteria and create a Simplified Method for the Sustainability Assessment for rehabilitation in old urban centres, which can be a useful tool, easy to use by all actors in the process and as a way of preserving the history of this areas, and the memory of those who inhabit them. This Method considers five major areas: Water, Energy, Materials, Emissions and Cultural, Economic and Social Environments. For each of these criteria, measurement indicators and levels of assessment were settled, adjusted to the context of old urban centres.
- Sustainable heritage: analysis of bulding's thermal behaviourPublication . Ferreira, Ana Vaz; Silva, J.A. Mendes daThe energy consumption of buildings has presented a steady growth in face of the global energy consumption. This fact is related to a variety of factors, including the increased demand for comfort by the inhabitants, the low quality of construction of buildings and their inadequacy to the climatic and environmental context in which they are included. Reversing this tendency includes the necessary intervention in the built environment, promoting the attainment of comfort through interventions that respect the principles of sustainability in construction, namely in resource consumption over the building’s life cycle. Energy rehabilitation can be accomplished by enhancing the envelope’s thermal protection using strategies in terms of i) strengthening insulation in the opaque envelope; ii) strengthening insulation of the glazing and iii) control of solar gains. The use of passive solar systems and the improvement of energy systems are other approaches for improving the thermal performance of dwellings. This study examines the constructive characteristics and the pathologies found in approximately 700 buildings located in Coimbra’s downtown (“Baixa”), the historic sector of the city. From this analysis it was possible to assess the present-day performance of these buildings, attending to the existing code and the application of DesignBuilder software, and to define the desired levels of performance resulting from rehabilitation procedures. The definition of these levels allows the superintendence of the process of intervention, taking into account the solutions to adopt with regard to the principles of sustainability.
- Thermal code evolution and its contribution to the sustainable constructionPublication . Ferreira, Ana Vaz; Silva, J.A. Mendes daIn this paper it was analysed the evolution of the Portuguese Thermal Code in of face of sustainable parameters. The two versions were applied to the same housing building in two different positions in a way to improve the solar gains and be able to compare the results. The results gotten from the former steps were analysed, as well as the main differences noted between the two versions of the Codes. The calculus method pursued in the second version is similar to the first one, due to the technicians applying familiarity, but inserting new parameters and more demanding values. Considering that the new construction exigencies, highly concerned with sustainable constructive principles and environment-responsive attitudes, a set of the main factors to take under consideration in face of the more recognized sustainable construction methodologies is presented. The final stages of the paper focus the assessment of the collected results of the two versions of the Code, relating them with the sustainable construction criteria. These parameters allow outlining an overview about the Code evolution and its contribution to the improvement of the housing sector, in terms of the sustainable development.
- Building's rehabilitation towards sustainable behaviourPublication . Silva, J.A. Mendes da; Ferreira, Ana VazTo achieve a sustainable building’s behaviour and preserve the environmental balance, three laws must be taken into account: (i) the resources’ consume must not be faster than the rate at which nature can restock them, (ii) the creation of systems that consume maximum energy-quality and (iii) the maximization of the use of renewable and recycled materials. Therefore, the buildings’ rehabilitation process must increase, instead of the proliferation of new buildings, in order to provide the sustainability of the built environment and minimize its ecological impact. The sustainable rehabilitation process is even more difficult in historical areas, in general sited in central zones of the urban mesh, with fragile comfort conditions and a rigid structure. In this paper, different evaluation tools for sustainable buildings were analysed in order to provide a set of evaluation criteria to be applied in the rehabilitation process in historical zones.
- The reabilitation's sustainability: a simple model to asses interventionsPublication . Ferreira, Ana Vaz; Almeida, C.P.; Silva, J.A. Mendes daRecovering old urban centres is a Portuguese strategy to promote development and economic growth, supported by the strong evolution in the tourism sector that has been revealed as a key element for increasing gross domestic product (GPB). The Europe has also a specific worry in which built environment is concerned, namely through the European goals until 2020 that are based on the need to reduce the energetic consume and to increase the use of renewable resources. Having in mind these aspects, in this paper the following tasks were done: i) sustainable assessment tools for rehabilitation actions were analysed; ii) European and national policies for urban rehabilitation and renewal were studied, in deeper sense, the one towards sustainability; iii) to create a simplified model to assess sustainability in old city centres interventions, criteria were defined; iv) a model was designed with areas, criteria and assessment indicators. The model presented is accurate with the built environment and its application makes possible to assess the impact of solutions, systems and techniques adopted in the design process, with the analysis of the defined criteria and the aim of improving the environmental, social and economic performances of buildings and old urban centres.