Journal of Architectural Engineering

This paper presents integrated energy and lighting simulations as a part of wider research focused on the form-finding process of adaptive shading concepts and on the actuation of shading movement using shape memory alloys (SMAs). The use of this new type of microactuator in responsive architectural components presents a challenge because of the limited contraction state of the SMAs. Hence, origami shapes were considered to amplify shading movements thanks to their geometric properties. This study exploited the visual and thermal comfort of a south-oriented office located in Milan, Italy, that was equipped with adaptive origami shading. Two-hundred and ten shapes were considered and the geometry, contraction states, and surface materials were considered as variable properties. The final aim was to explore the potential of adaptive origami shadings in controlling visual and thermal comfort. Daylight illuminance (UDI), daylight glare probability (DGP), and total energy (TE) demand (for cooling, heating, and lighting per year) were used as main metrics for understanding the environmental benefits of the proposed shading devices.

Passive humidity control in buildings can be achieved by incorporating materials that have a moisture-buffering capacity. Such materials absorb moisture at peak-moisture times and give off the stored-up moisture at low moisture times, thereby stabilizing the relative humidity of an interior. The advantages of this phenomenon include energy savings and the improvement of both thermal comfort and perceived air quality. It is necessary to investigate different materials for their moisture-buffering capabilities. In this work, the moisture-buffering potential of American clay and magnesium oxide (MagO) boards was investigated. This was done through a field study that monitored twin buildings under different operation scenarios. One was set as the reference building, and its interior was finished with gypsum, owing to the usage of this material as a common industry practice. The second building was set as the test building and was covered with American clay and MagO boards. The operational congruency of the buildings was checked, and then, three tests were conducted to simulate the interior finishes of a building, ventilation effects, and occupancy density. It was found that the American clay exhibited a better moisture buffering potential than gypsum, especially in the comparison of as-built surface conditions. Further, the experimental results also showed that the moisture-buffering potential of MagO boards may be comparable to that of gypsum, and a coating of vapor-open MagO boards is beneficial for humidity regulation.

Homeowners increasingly have the potential to drive deeper demand-side energy reductions, but they experience multifaceted barriers, from the financial to behavioral, which must be addressed holistically. Research has shown that targeting an individual barrier, such as rebates, is insufficient to overcome energy efficiency barriers for all homeowners. The National Energy Leadership Corps (NELC) was developed and implemented using consumer energy segmentations to holistically address the heterogeneous nature of homeowners’ behaviors and the varying motivators that drive energy investments. A survey of homeowners participating in the NELC program between 2012 and 2015 was designed and deployed, measuring adoption rates of recommended measures, homeowners’ perceptions of motivators, and the implementation of self-identified efficiency measures. The results of two-sample hypothesis tests revealed that homeowners’ perceived lack of skill may have potentially inhibited adoption of envelope and heating, ventilation and air conditioning measures, even though these measures were statistically indistinguishable from perceptions of cost savings and improved comfort (p-values less than 0.05). Further, a chi-square test of independence showed envelope improvements were correlated with homeowners’ budgets, time, information, and prioritization (p-value less than 0.05). In response, two recommendations are presented: (1) a policy for the standardization of publicly available energy conservation program reporting and (2) re-exploration of motivators and barriers for investment in energy efficiency.

Green building projects are experiencing a rapid growth in numbers in recent years. Although green building projects around the world face different needs and challenges, delivering successful green building projects has become imperative. Therefore, this study aims to identify the critical success and failure factors for managing green building projects. Responses from 67 green building experts were collected through a questionnaire survey, and descriptive statistical analysis was conducted to identify the key success and failure factors. The results were then verified with four green building project cases. The findings show that (1) effective collaboration, (2) early involvement, and (3) commitment of all participants are the three major success factors for managing green building projects. Whereas (1) cost-related factors, (2) lack of collaboration from project team, and (3) lack of interest from client and market demand are the three major failure factors. The findings will help green building practitioners to effectively strategize and manage their green building projects.

Several studies indicate that the building sector has the highest contribution to world energy consumption. Also, it is predicted that the energy demand in commercial buildings will increase to 1.2% per annum from 2006 to 2030 due to population and economic growth. This has forced governments to focus on a reduction in the energy costs of commercial buildings by promoting the construction of new buildings and retrofitting existing ones. Many different parameters, such as building orientation, thermal mass, and building-envelope elements, affect building energy performance. The building envelope, as the mediator between buildings’ outside and inside conditions, plays a critical role in reducing energy consumption. Windows, as the eyes of the building, are the most sensitive elements of the building envelope and should be given considerable attention. Due to the number of passive-design variables for windows (e.g., window-to-wall ratio, shading, reveal, and aspect ratio) involved in the design process, selecting suitable design parameters for windows is always a major challenge for designers. This article presents a simulation-based optimization model that is used during the early stages of design to identify the optimum window design parameters to minimize the energy consumption of office buildings. The proposed optimization model employs a harmony search algorithm coupled with EnergyPlus 8.4.0 software to identify the optimum or near-optimum design parameters. Additionally, a case study of an office building in two different climate regions is presented to illustrate the application of this model. The results show that by identifying the optimum window design parameters, the total energy consumption of the office building model can be reduced by 37%. In addition, the computational tool can be valuable for architects and engineers in determining the optimum design parameters at the early stages of the design.

The objectives of this study were to use SAP 2000 v16 to investigate lateral load paths and system behaviors in a modular, light-frame wood structure by investigating different foundation configurations and to further develop and validate existing modeling techniques for shear walls according to the perforated shear wall method. The modeling methods were validated using full-scale tests conducted by previous researchers on subassemblies and rectangular and L-shaped houses. A main lateral force–resisting system and components and cladding wind loads were applied in perpendicular directions to the exterior walls. Analysis was performed for a series of foundation types to examine the effects on overall and local behaviors. The effectiveness of the different foundation schemes was evaluated. The racking shear stiffness calibration procedures implemented previously for light-framed construction were found to be applicable to modular, light-frame, shear walls also. In addition, anchorage elongation was found to substantially affect the racking shear stiffness of shear walls with aspect ratios within limits similar to those provided by the specific design provisions for wind and seismic design. For regularly shaped modular structures, assumptions that tributary areas of resisting elements for lateral loads were found to produce conservative demands when contributions from the uplift pressures of wind loads were ignored. Thousands of structures such as these have been used throughout the United States in various applications. Because wind loads have been a major contributor to the annual structural damage of light-framed wood structures and methods to evaluate load paths sufficiently are needed, this study is an important development in the design of modular buildings and the subsequent acceptance of them by building code officials.

Qatar is considered to have predominantly low seismic activity despite being close to some of the most active seismic zones in the world, including the Zagros thrust belt. However, the strong earthquakes that have recently taken place in Iran (2013) and Afghanistan and Pakistan (2015) were felt in Qatar, highlighting the fact that the country is not immune to earthquakes. Until recently, no seismic design criteria had been established for Qatar. The only horizontal load the designers had considered was wind loading. Although national construction standards established in 2010 for Qatar did not mandate seismic requirements, a 2014 update included some seismic accelerations to be adopted for the design of new buildings, which brought up the need for examining the status of existing buildings with respect to these new requirements. This paper presents the investigation into the performances of existing RC buildings in Qatar that were not originally designed for the seismic loads associated with the 2014 criteria. The study covered low- and midrise RC buildings because they represent the majority of buildings in Qatar. For the first time in Qatar, a number of existing buildings were selected and analyzed for both wind and seismic loads in accordance with the ACI and ASCE standards with the accelerations from the 2014 Qatar construction standards update. The results showed that the 2014 seismic loads were usually more critical than the wind loads for low- and midrise RC buildings, which led to a significant increase in the demand: capacity ratios for the lateral force-resisting system members originally designed per the 2010 standards. The four buildings analyzed in this study had sufficient margins to accommodate the increase in the design forces per the 2014 update; however, other existing buildings in Qatar may not meet these standards. Also, results revealed that the lateral movements of the structures under seismic loads were significantly greater than the movements under wind loads, which may be the result of the previous building separation requirements, specified by ASCE standards, not being satisfied. If movement joints were designed for only wind or thermal loads, then adjacent buildings may collide during earthquakes.

The building industry has a high energy consumption, which results in natural resource depletion, land use, ecosystem degradation, atmospheric pollution, and many other environmental impacts. Therefore, in modern construction, while maintaining a satisfactory and comfortable interior environment, less energy consumption and resource use is a major objective of building design. This research explored life cycle energy (LCE), life cycle assessment (LCA), and life cycle costing (LCC) to evaluate the sustainability performance of building facades for their selection. A research framework was proposed considering environmental, social, and economic impacts (triple bottom line approach). The proposed framework was applied to a medium-rise commercial building in the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Four building facades (brick, granite, aluminum, and glass facades) were selected and compared by their life cycle impacts (i.e., impacts in the preuse, use, and postuse phases). An energy model was developed in DesignBuilder 4.2 to estimate the impact of the energy demand of each facade during the operational phase. LCA of each facade was performed using SimaPro 8 software. Later, selected facades were compared using multicriteria decision analysis for three proposed scenarios: proenvironment, neutral, and proeconomic. Based on the analysis, brick facade was identified as the most sustainable facade in the neutral and proeconomic scenario, whereas a granite facade was the most sustainable alternative in the proenvironment scenario. Life cycle emergy analysis was conducted to validate the proenvironment scenario results. This study provides decision support to architects and engineers for the selection of sustainable building facades based on the triple bottom line of sustainability.

On the basis of a critical analysis of damage produced by earthquakes, over time, traditional construction techniques have developed effective solutions for earthquake-resistant buildings. Meaningful examples of this can be found within the vernacular tradition of the Mediterranean area, which is characterized by frequently recurring seismic events. Specifically, in southern Italy and in the Greek Ionian Islands, two interesting construction types still survive and merit special attention in relation to the structural solutions adopted, which are consistent with modern views of earthquake-resistant design. In both cases, the mixed use of timber and masonry is present, although with different modalities and purposes; indeed, in the Italian case, timber elements are present over the building’s entire height as an additional bracing system, whereas in the Greek one, timber is used at the second and third stories to reduce the structural mass. In this work, two selected case studies are presented, through which the distinctive construction details of each tradition are commented on.

Plasterboard panels attached to cold-formed steel trough screw connections are commonly used in prefabricated and modular building construction. Building modules are built in a factory as panelized or volumetric units and then delivered to site for assembly. Those modules experience different loading scenarios during lifting and transportation that may cause damages to nonstructural elements such as plasterboard panels and their connections. Therefore, the connection capacity of plasterboard to steel becomes an important design consideration for modular buildings. This paper presents an experimental and analytical study of the load capacity of such screw connections. Bearing tests were first conducted to examine the bearing behavior of plasterboard with screw shanks or metal strips as the bearing components. The connection performance with different screw sizes was then studied through single-lap shear tests. Finally, as validated by the experimental results, an analytical formulation was proposed based on the concept of equivalent diameter for the estimation of connection capacity.

Building design is a strategic stage for meeting sustainability requirements. Many decisions that have impact on building performance are made in this stage. Hence, research about design firms’ management and their processes is essential for achieving suitable designs. This paper investigates the relation between sustainability and management processes of architectural design firms. Three case studies were conducted in architectural design firms from São Paulo city, Brazil. Semi-structured interviews and document analysis were carried out to collect research data. Thematic tables were used in the data analysis. The results show that sustainability automatically demands management processes in investment, technical knowledge, activities, and agents in the firms’ daily work. Facing daily work, design firms have not entirely taken into account sustainability, especially in strategic management processes. Architectural design has gained complexity due to the diversity of design requirements and new activities, new agents, and tools in its process. Therefore, understanding this context and preparing firms in terms of management should be a concern in the strategic sphere of design firms.