Assessment of energy and sustainability aspects in architectural competitions

Panel: 5. Saving energy in buildings: The time to act is now

This is a peer-reviewed paper.

Authors:
Heimo Staller, Inter-University Research Centre for Technology, Work and Culture, Austria
Wibke Tritthart, Inter-University Research Centre for Technology, Work and Culture, Austria

Abstract

Architectural competitions offer an excellent way to find the best solutions concerning design, economy, functionality, energy efficiency and sustainability. The European Commission considers architectural competitions to be a driving force for architectural quality, providing benefits in terms of financial aspects, quality, functionality and efficiency with relevance throughout the life of buildings [(COM 2007) 501]. Furthermore EU Directives on public tenders oblige public authorities to conduct architectural competitions for their buildings.

The most important phases for implementing energy and sustainability-relevant aspects in the building planning are the programming stage and the architectural competition. In those phases of the planning stage all decisions that have to be made are of upmost importance to create sustainable buildings. For example in the preliminary design phase (which is the scope of work in almost all architectural competitions) decisions on aspects like orientation, compactness and openings of windows determine the future energy performance and the operation costs of buildings.

So far consideration of energy related issues and LCA aspects (or at least Life Cycle Thinking) in architectural competitions is difficult to introduce due to the lack of knowledge and suitable tools, in terms of objectivity, consistency and simplicity.

The background of this presentation is to ask for possibilities and chances that could take us some steps further towards integrating the assessment of energy related issues and LCA aspects into architectural competitions.

The presentation is part of the EU-FP 7 project “LoRe - Low Resource consumption buildings and construction by use of LCA in design and decision making” and the Austrian research project “IEAA - Integration of energy-relevant aspects in architectural competitions”. These projects aim to contribute to an increased use of assessment methods for energy and sustainability in the building sector.