Sustainable Building and Construction - International Environmental ...

Sustainable Building and Construction
The influencing factors for the multifunctional use of building constructions are
manifold and may play an important role in the decision making process for or
against a buildings modification for different utilisations. The primary basic
conditions are the structural design and the characteristics of the building itself.
Among these it is also influenced by economical, social and political aspects, which
are very specific to time and place and therefore will be not further discussed in this
paper. The basic building and construction related factors can be classified to
functional and constructive aspects:
The functional aspects concern the utilisation of buildings. In history we find many
examples for the modification of buildings, especially in the industrialised countries
in Europe and the USA. The majority of modifications have been realised between
commercial and residential buildings. Commercial buildings have been modified to fit
for habitation (e.g. production buildings to loft apartments) as well as residential
buildings have been modified to fit for commercial utilisation (e.g. apartments to
offices). The structure and space on offer are the most important influencing
factors for the potential multi functional utilisation of buildings. They can be
partitioned into the following aspects:
- Room dimensions (height, length, width)
- Coverage of the whole building (vertical und horizontal)
- Natural ventilation and lighting of rooms
The constructive aspects, influencing the flexibility and potential modification of
building constructions for multifunctional utilisation can be partitioned into the
following main aspects:
- spatial structure
- building envelope
- building component splices
- building service engineering
The spatial structure of a building is interacting with the multifunctional aspects and
is one basic condition for which changes of a buildings use are realisable at justifiable
effort. First of all the origin function is crucial for it. The modification of structures
for high loads (industrial buildings) to utilisations with smaller loads produces no
expenditure, while the subsequent reinforcement of structures for small loads can
become very complex or may lead to the construction of additional structures with
own foundations.
Compared with other structures, post, beam and frame constructions can relatively
easy be modified, because additional openings in floors and walls can be created in
between the posts and beams, generally without touching the buildings statics. The
modification of massive constructions, which are relatively inflexible, is more
difficult because it requires the consideration of all structural elements (floors and
walls), and the evaluation of the elements which are load bearing and do create the
spatial structure.
The building envelope often is the area which requires the most effort for adjustment.
On the on hand this is influenced by the fact that the receivables on the building
envelope may be lower for the original use (e.g. commercial) than for another use (e.g.
habitation). Additionally it may be influenced by new demands, e.g. concerning the
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