Showing papers by "Ricardo Mateus published in 2010"

Building Sustainability Assessment

Abstract: Although social, economic, and cultural indicators are of substantial importance to the concept of sustainable building, this concept is usually related to environmental characteristics Any building level assessment method is complex and involves contradictory aspects Moreover, emphasizing qualitative criteria only increases confusion R&D and standardization are thus concentrated to transparency and usability of the environmental methods Other directions of research aim at performance-based design and methods to take regional and cultural aspects into account In this paper, the perspectives of the sustainability assessment of a whole building are presented, based on a state of the art, feasibility study on performance analysis and the development of an extended life-cycle assessment for buildings Using various tools, and based on the case studies of building sustainability assessment, environmental indicators were often shown to be of lesser importance than the other, soft ones The first steps in the development of a building sustainability assessment method for Portuguese residential buildings will be presented and discussed in the end

Portugal SB10: sustainable building affordable to all: low cost sustainable solutions

Abstract: Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (FCT); Instituto da Construcao e do Imobiliario (InCI)

Sustainability assessment of an affordable residential building using the SBTool PT approach

Abstract: This paper will present the sustainability assessment of an affordable residential building block using the SBTool – H approach. This building block resulted from a cooperative housing project that fulfils some of the priorities of high-performance and low environmental impact buildings and is internationally recognised as a good example of a sustainable project. The aim of this study is to verify the usefulness of the SBTool approach in promoting sustainable buildings that have lower life-cycle costs when compared to conventional ones. Chapter 5: Monitoring and evaluation

LCA database for portuguese building technologies

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to present one solution to integrate more accurate environmental assessment methods in rating systems and that could be used to support the design teams’ decisions that aim the implementation of low impact building solutions. The solution is the development of a LCA database that is based in the EPD’s (Environmental Product Declarations) approach and that gathers the quantification of several environmental impact categories of the most common building solutions used in Portugal. This database is in continuous update and now covers about 50 building solutions for floors and exterior walls, 40 building materials and the impacts related to the use of 12 systems for acclimatization and hot water. Chapter 5: Monitoring and evaluation

SBToolPT – adaptation of the global sbtool to the portuguese context

Abstract: Building sustainability assessment involves various relations between built, natural and social systems. Therefore it comprises hundreds of parameters, most of them interrelated and partly contradictory. To cope with this complexity and to support the sustainable building design, a systematic, holistic and practical approach is proposed in this paper. The main objective of a systematic methodology is to support building design that achieves the most appropriate balance between the different sustainability dimensions, and that is at the same time practical, transparent and flexible enough to be easily adapted to different kinds of buildings and to technology. This paper aims to present a novel approach to develop building sustainability assessment and rating and contributes to the evolution of generic methodology and international understanding by introducing an approach to take the different dimensions of sustainability into account. This methodology is based in the adaptation of the international Sustainable Building Tool (SBTool) to the Portuguese’s environmental, societal and economy contexts. The scope of the methodology that is going to be presented (SBTool) is to assess the sustainability of existing, new and renovated buildings in the urban areas and especially in the Portuguese context. This new methodology is intended to foster the awareness of the Portuguese construction market stakeholders and to allow adequate policy implementation on sustainable construction.