Sustainable Building Adaptation

Innovations in Decision-making

Sara J. Wilkinson, Hilde Remøy, Craig Langston

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781118477182
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Sustainability in Architecture

How to adapt existing building stock is a problem being addressed by local and state governments worldwide. In most developed countries we now spend more on building adaptation than on new construction and there is an urgent need for greater knowledge and awareness of what happens to commercial buildings over time.

Sustainable Building Adaptation: innovations in decision-making is a significant contribution to understanding best practice in sustainable adaptations to existing commercial buildings by offering new knowledge-based theoretical and practical insights. Models used are grounded in results of case studies conducted within three collaborative construction project team settings in Australia and the Netherlands, and exemplars are drawn from the Americas, Asia, Japan, Korea and Europe to demonstrate the application of the knowledge more broadly.

Results clearly demonstrate that the new models can assist with informed decision-making in adaptation that challenges some of the prevailing solutions based on empirical approaches and which do not accommodate the sustainability dimension. The emphasis is on demonstrating how the new knowledge can be applied by practitioners to deliver professionally relevant outcomes.

The book offers guidance towards a balanced approach that incorporates sustainable and optimal approaches for effective management of sustainable adaptation of existing commercial buildings.

Part I

Building Adaptation

The author for this part is Dr Sara J. Wilkinson. Sara is Associate Professor of Property and Construction at the University of Technology Sydney, Faculty of Design Architecture and Building, Sydney, Australia. She has a combination of professional industry and academic experience spanning more than 30 years.

The research described in this part is the result of work undertaken over a 16-year period and has been funded by Jones Lang LaSalle and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. Sara’s research focus is building adaptation within the context of sustainability, and represents areas of professional practice prior to becoming an academic. Her PhD examined building adaptation and the relationship to property attributes, whilst her MPhil explored the conceptual understanding of green buildings. Sara is a member of the RICS Oceania Sustainability Working Group. She is the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) Vice-Chair of Commission 10 ‘Construction Management & Construction Economics’. Sara is also the author of eight books/book chapters and was awarded the RICS COBRA Conference Best Paper Award in 2012 for her paper ‘The increasing importance of environmental attributes in commercial building retrofits’, RICS COBRA, Las Vegas, NV, USA. September 2012 . http://www.rics.org/au/knowledge/research/conference-papers/cobra-2012-environmental-attributes-in-commercial-building-retrofits/

This part of the book establishes the definition of adaptation within the context of this book. It reviews and synthesises the relevant literature, while progressively developing the research questions, hypotheses and the conceptual model towards a knowledge-based approach to sustainable office adaptation. It describes and substantiates latest research demonstrating how to make a preliminary assessment of adaptation potential using Melbourne as an illustrative case study. Further, this part covers the issue of decision-making in commercial building adaptation. It uses empirical data to identify and explore the factors that are most important in adaptation and how they relate to sustainability. Whereas many previous studies relied on relatively small data sets of adaptation on which to base models and findings, this research is built on a significant number of cases over an extended time period.

Chapter 1 commences with a definition of building adaptation and alternate terms. Sustainability is explored within the context of social, economic and environmental paradigms. The relationship between building life cycles and adaptation is also explained and how it can affect the timing and degree of adaptation. The various decision options and different levels of adaptation are illustrated to demonstrate the numerous options available.

Chapter 2 describes the drivers and barriers for adaptation. Building life cycle theory is introduced and the ways in which adaptation occurs at different stages after completion. These adaptations may occur as a result of legal, economic, physical, social and environmental drivers. The relevance of building performance theory to adaptation is explained in this chapter as well as how performance inevitably declines over time. In the context of the social, environmental and economic factors, the links between building adaptation and sustainability are then highlighted. Finally, other attributes associated with adaptation, such as physical, locational, land use and legal attributes, are discussed.

Chapter 3 focuses on how to assess adaptation using a robust method developed to identify the most important attributes associated with adaptation. Using a large database of adaptation events, principal component analysis is undertaken to establish which attributes are most important. From this analysis a Preliminary Adaptation Assessment Model (PAAM) is developed. Critically this model is designed for non-experts to use in making an initial assessment of a building’s potential for minor adaptation. The chapter concludes with an illustrative case study to demonstrate the application of the model in practice.

Chapter 4 uses case studies to explore sustainable building adaptation in Melbourne, Australia. The City of Melbourne is committed to encouraging sustainable adaptation through its innovative 1200 Buildings Program. This chapter identifies the measures typically adopted in sustainable building adaptation before describing ten sustainable building adaptations. The case studies highlight the rationale and objectives for each adaptation, their sustainable features, key challenges and the outcomes of adaptation. The remainder of the chapter compares the adaptations with regards to a number of attributes previously shown to be important.

1

Defining Adaptation

1.1 Introduction

This chapter defines adaptation and alternate terms commonly adopted around the world. The distinctions between in-use and across-use adaptations are identified before describing the significance of adaptation within the context of sustainability. Sustainability is discussed to illustrate why the need to adapt our existing stock becomes more of an imperative as time passes. Adopting the standard convention, sustainability is explored with the context of environmental, social and economic paradigms. The chapter then moves on to show the relationship between adaptation and building life cycles and how this can vary the timing and extent of adaptation yprojects.

Contextual placing of adaptation within our systems of governance is then discussed with reference to the drive for climate change adaptation such as carbon neutrality that is prompting city authorities around the world to implement legislation and policy to encourage sustainable building adaptation. The scope and extent of these initiatives will increase as the manifestations of anthropogenic climate change become more apparent with the passage of time. The framework currently adopted in Melbourne, Australia, is used to illustrate what is being done in this respect.

The final section examines the stakeholders and decision-making issues in sustainable building adaptation and how they affect the degree of adaptation and sustainability that may be achieved. The numerous levels of adaptation as well as the different stakeholders can make the possible outcomes vary extensively.

1.2 Terminology

Adaptation, in the context of buildings, is a term that has been broadly interpreted and defined by many researchers (Ball 2002; Mansfield 2002; Douglas 2006; Bullen 2007). Adaptation is derived from the Latin ‘ad’ (to) ‘aptare’ (fit). Typically the definitions refer to ‘change of use’, maximum ‘retention’ of the original structure and fabric of a building as well as extending the ‘useful life’ of a property (Ball 2002; Mansfield 2002; Douglas 2006; Bullen 2007). Frequently there are terms such as renovation, adaptive reuse, refurbishment, remodelling, reinstatement, retrofitting, conversion, transformation, rehabilitation, modernisation, re-lifing, restoration and recycling of buildings used to define adaptation activities. The terms all have different meanings, for example, ‘refurbishment’ comes from the word refurbish which means, ‘re’, to do again and, ‘furbish’, to polish or rub up. On the other hand, ‘conversion’ literally means to convert or change from one use to another, for example, a barn converted to a residential property, and this aspect of adaptation is dealt with specifically in Part II. Three decades ago Markus (1979) noted these terms existed in an ‘unhappy confusion’; it is an unhappy confusion which still exists and one we must be cognisant of.

Building adaptation occurs ‘within use’ and ‘across use’; that is, an office can undergo adaptation and still be used as an office (i.e. within-use adaptation), or it may change use to residential (‘across-use’ adaptation) (Ellison and Sayce 2007). Adaptation of existing buildings can encompass some or all of the terms renovation, adaptive reuse, refurbishment, remodelling, reinstatement, retrofitting, conversion, transformation, rehabilitation, modernisation, re-lifing, restoration and recycling of buildings. For this part of the book, a broad definition is adopted, which includes all forms of adaptation, except for minor day-to-day repair and maintenance works. A useful definition of building adaptation, adopted for this book, is

any work to a building over and above maintenance to change its capacity, function or performance, in other words, ‘any intervention to adjust, reuse, or upgrade a building to suit new conditions or requirements’. (Douglas 2006:4)

1.3The Significance of Building Adaptation

With the rise in consensus within the scientific community regarding anthropogenic activity and climate change, increased sustainability in the built environment is an imperative (Stern 2006; Garnaut 2008). One method of reducing mankind’s environmental impact is to adapt buildings rather than default to demolish and new build. This book examines the case for adaptation, adaptive reuse and decision-making with regard to the building adaptation.

Buildings are inextricably linked to sustainability issues, and the construction industry has a major role in reducing the adverse effects on the environment as buildings contribute around half of all greenhouse gas emissions (UNEP 2006). Sustainability has a broad and differing definition depending upon the context in which it is used. It is most commonly defined as ‘meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (WCED 1987:2) or ‘using, conserving and enhancing the community’s resources so that ecological processes, on which life depends, are maintained, and the total quality of life, now and in the future, can be increased’ (Commonwealth of Australia 1992). Brundtland (WCED 1987) described the concept of sustainable development as a strategy to optimise the relationship between the global society and its natural environment with consideration of the social, economic and environmental goals of society.

International concern for the environment was reflected via the UN conference in Stockholm in 1972 and the idea of eco-development emerged as ‘an approach to development aimed at harmonizing social and economic objectives with ecologically sound management’ (Gardner 1989). Although eco-development was the precursor of the concept of sustainability, the early concept of sustainable development was firmly entrenched within the environmental movement, and sustainability was often interpreted as sustainable use of natural resources (Hill and Bowen 1997). Debate continued on the appropriate definition of the concept of sustainability. It was argued that development inevitably leads to some drawdown of stocks of non-renewable resources and that sustainability should mean more than the preservation of natural resources (Solow 1993), while it was believed that sustainability had three dimensions, those of environmental, social and economic sustainability (Goodland 1995; Elkington 1997). The divergence of opinions demonstrated that sustainability is so broad an idea that a single definition cannot capture the concept; however, there is agreement that uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources is not beneficial to humankind in the long term (Hill and Bowen 1997). It was proposed that sustainable construction meant ‘creating a healthy built environment using resource-efficient, eco...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Innovation in the Built Environment
• Title page
• Copyright page
• About the Authors
• Preface: The Rise of Building Adaptation
• Part I: Building Adaptation
• Part II: Adaptive Reuse
• Part III: Adaptation Decision-Making and Optimisation
• Advertisements
• Index