Abstract
Decision-making in the design of sustainable building envelopes will mostly consider the trade-off between initial cost and energy savings. However, this leads to an insufficiently holistic approach to the assessment of the sustainable performance of the building envelope. Moreover, the decisions that designers face are subject to uncertainties and risks with regards to design variations. This research examines a range of concepts and definitions of risk, uncertainty and sustainability in the context of climate, building construction and overheating. These concepts are then combined to objectify a range of risks and uncertainties affecting the decision. A simple computer model was used to analyze different building cladding constructions in terms of an overheating risk inside a building. The paper concludes by considering how the cladding materials may be chosen to optimize a model that will aid decision-making in design. The research suggests that none of the cladding systems would completely eliminate the risk of overheating for a range of climate change scenarios.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Al-Homoud, M.S.: Design optimization of energy conserving building envelopes. PhD thesis. Texas A&M University, Texas (1994)
ASHRAE. Standard for the design of high – performance green buildings except low-rise residential buildings. Atlanta: American Society of Heating. Refrigerating and Air-conditioning Engineers organization (2010)
Athienitis, A., Santamouris, M.: Thermal Analysis and Design of Passive Solar Buildings. Jame & James (Science Publishers) Ltd., London (2002)
Collins, L., Natarajan, S., Levermore, G.: Climate change and future energy consumption in UK housing stock. Building Services Engineering Research & Technology 1, 80–86 (2010)
Dunster, B.: Housing and Climate Change: Heavyweight vs. Lightweight construction. RIBA (January 2005), http://www.architecture.com/Files/RIBAProfessionalServices/Practice/UKHousingandclimatechange.pdf (accessed June 28, 2012)
Gupta, R., Gregg, M.: Using UK climate change projections to adapt existing English homes for a warming climate. Building and Environment 55, 8–17 (2012)
IPCC. contribution of working groups I, II and III to the fourth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Geneva: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2010)
Orme, M., Palmer, J., Irving, S.: Control of overheating in well-insulated housing. In: Building sustainability: value and profit. (2003), http://www.cibse.org/pdfs/7borme.pdf (accessed March 7, 2012)
Vesilind, P.A., Lauren, H., Jamie, R., Hendry, C., Susan, A.: Sustainability Science And Engineering: Defining Principles, vol. 1. Elsevier, Oxford (2006)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Sajjadian, S.M., Lewis, J., Sharples, S. (2013). Risk and Uncertainty in Sustainable Building Performance. In: Hakansson, A., Höjer, M., Howlett, R., Jain, L. (eds) Sustainability in Energy and Buildings. Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, vol 22. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36645-1_80
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36645-1_80
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-36644-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-36645-1
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)