Sustainable Building Guide - Christchurch City Council

Design for Change
Try to design so that the building is flexible for change of use in the long term. Use design
devices such as demountable walls; movable partitions; retractable fixtures and fittings
(bolts & screws rather than nails etc); recyclable materials (notation and labelling generally
greatly helps later reuse); easy access to services, and space provision for future additions.
Ensure as a building owner that you are provided with thorough ‘as built’ records from
all of your consultants. Being able to alter or extend an existing building to make it meet
new requirements is much more efficient than demolition, disposal and then construction
of a new building.
Ensure efficient use of materials by using industry standard material sizes to reduce wasteful
off-cuts. Design internal spaces to be airtight through draught sealing around openings
in the building envelope and through the envelope itself. Controlled ventilation is essential
to minimise heat losses but at the same time to maintain fresh air requirements and to
prevent moisture build up and consequent condensation and mould growth.
Inevitably some degree of compromise will be needed in any design. Glazing has a high
thermal conductivity and so allows a relatively large amount of heat to be lost at night; but
during the day it facilitates solar gain and negates the need for artificial lighting as well as
helping to create a pleasant and varied internal environment. Double glazing would help
and external insulating shutters would further reduce the heat loss but would either have
to be powered or manually put in place each evening. A workable solution is required and
this may require some training on how to operate the new structure. An ‘Operators Manual’
may be called for just like a new car or washing machine to advise on the systems present
in the building and how to get the most out of them for the least inputs.
Lessons can be learnt and inspiration gained from the design of and materials used in
older buildings which have had a successful relationship with their surrounding environment.
There is however no desire for slavish replication of the existing built environment. The
building design dilemmas we face now are distinctly different from previous problems and
the available solutions are much more varied and complex with new technology and ideas
playing major roles.