I am looking for literature reviews conducted on the contribution of residential buildings during their total life cycle, i.e. material production and transportation, feasibility assessments, design and planning, construction, operation, and demolition phases for Co2 and GHG mitigation. I would like to know about the previous studies conducted in different countries, or if there is any cross comparison studies comparing the various research works from different countries. I am also interested in knowing if there is any literature review on the effect of housing structure and settings, end-users' perceptions and behaviors, or experiences about passive housing. I am also interested in expanding my knowledge about the barriers detracting the practical approach to the mitigation in residential sector.
better to have a look on following journal paper
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378778810001696
Dear Farid and Asela, Thanks a lot for your kind and sincere response.
Well, your research topic is quite interesting. From my understanding, you are interested to obtain articles on life cycle assessment for residential housing and how housing structure can help in mitigating the environmental impact.
I am in the process of researching how affordability and sustainability can be achieved through housing design. So, I think I might be able to provide you some insights to your research.
From my point of view, having a good housing design is critical to ensure its affordability throughout its entire life cycle (from construction to operation and maintenance) and sustainability. A good design can contribute to affordability through reducing the construction costs and the life-cycle costs while maintaining liveability.
Given that each dwelling unit is a primary structure which would contribute to the quality of life, and the root causes leading to housing quality problem are identified as issues related to housing layout and design, surrounding environment, maintenance, location, amenities, and building material, we should be aware of the potential for a good design in responding to the evolving social behaviour, and strike to take advantage of technology in the housing production process through integrating housing design with industrial construction system.
In other words, each dwelling unit should be designed, in such a way that it is economically and easily adjustable, while adheres to the context of contemporary technology, tropical adaptation, and cultural responses. The key element for a good design is the realization that lifestyle – as one of the defining characteristics of peoples’ lives as citizens, consumers, and householders – is a feature that shifts in accordance with a dynamic lifecycle process. A home that can be altered with minimum effort and expense at a time of change in the lives of its owners is a home that evolves with the lifecycles of its household rather than becoming rigidly obsolete in the conventional manner.
As such, a good design should entail open plan that enable retrofit and reconfiguration to be made quickly, economically, and repeatedly, without involving excessive site labour, time, and cost; as compared to the currently adopted design strategy which is associated with rigid structure, interlocking plan, and predetermined function.
Besides, it has to be a combined design and construction system that makes use of the Industrialised Building System (IBS) construction method to produce a variety of housing design options that meet possible user requirements not yet identified at the design stage, while retaining principal uniformity to facilitate the execution of simple but accurate construction with a minimal initial cost. In terms of sustainability, a good design should take into consideration the passive design strategies extracted from the local vernacular architecture, so that the resulting housing design can make possible the creation of dwellings that adheres to the context of contemporary technology, local climate adaptation, and cultural responses.
Please find some of my articles on the above mentioned topic. You may also visit my Research Gate publication as there will have new articles on the mentioned topic from time to time.
Dear Chee ... Thanks for kind and sincere response, My great pleasure ...
In our latest publication we compared bio-based and mineral based construction materials. It might be interesting for you
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360132316301172
Here are a few recent general guides on the topic that may help frame your LCA arguments for buildings (1 download and 2 books...)
AIA Guide to Building Life Cycle Assessment in Practice, 2010 - http://www.aia.org/aiaucmp/groups/aia/documents/pdf/aiab082942.pdf
Kate Simonen - Life Cycle Assessment, Routledge, 2014
Ravi Srinivasan & Kiel Moe - The Hierarchy of Energy in Architecture - Emergy Analysis, Routledge, 2015
God luck!
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