Now showing 1 - 10 of 16
  • Publication
    Analysis and visualisation of large scale life cycle assessment results: A case study on an adaptive, multilayer membrane façade
    The importance of visualisations in context of life cycle assessment has been widely discussed and acknowledged in the literature. Especially with the increasing ability to process and create large-scale LCA results, visualisations are vital tools to not only analyse and interpret but also check and validate underlying datasets. Based on a dataset containing 1.25 million LCA results for all potential configurations within a defined parameter space, different visualisations and analysis methods were applied to identify hotspots, assess parameter sensitivity, gain insights to optimise environmental sustainability, and provide benchmarks for an adaptive, multilayer membrane façade. Box plots for the identification of hotspots, parameter sensitivity, and benchmarking, as well as colour-coded scatter plots, have proven to be incredibly versatile and effective for understanding the results and providing multiple perspectives to gain further insight. The ability to interact directly with interactive visualisation in order to identify and isolate specific areas of interest allows for a very efficient analysis of the relevant aspects of data. However, the usefulness of the proposed visualisations is not only dependant on the quality and characteristic of the underlying data but also on the objectives and scope of the study, as well as the intended medium illustrating the results.
  • Publication
    Ökobilanzierung adaptiver Hüllen und Strukturen
    ( 2023-04-06)
    Borschewski, David
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    Bischoff, Manfred
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    Blandini, Lucio
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    Bosch, Matthias
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    Dazer, Martin
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    Efinger, Dshamil Daniel
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    Eisenbarth, Christina
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    Haase, Walter
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    Kreimeyer, Matthias
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    Nitzlader, Markus
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    Roth, Daniel
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    Sawodny, Oliver
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    Adel, Friederike van den
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    Voigt, Michael
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    Die Bilanzierung von Umweltwirkungen spielt eine entscheidende Rolle bei der Entwicklung nachhaltiger und umweltfreundlicher Technologien und Konzepte. Dies gilt auch in der Entwicklung von Gebäuden mit adaptiven Hüllen und Strukturen und stellt darüber hinaus weitreichende Anforderungen an alle beteiligten Disziplinen. Die vollständige Integration der Ökobilanzierung in den Planungs- und Auslegungsprozess ermöglicht, Umweltwirkungen als Optimierungsgrößen in den komplexen, dynamischen Berechnungswerkzeugen einzusetzen. Die bisherigen Ergebnisse des SFB 1244 bescheinigen adaptiven Tragwerken und Fassaden großes Potenzial zur Einsparung von Ressourcen und Umweltwirkungen. Die ganzheitliche Betrachtungsweise, sowohl in Bezug auf den Lebenszyklus als auch auf die interdisziplinären Wechselwirkungen, stellt sicher, dass die relevanten Effekte und Einflüsse in der Bilanzierung berücksichtigt werden. Das stellt die Methode der Ökobilanzierung selbst jedoch vor neue Herausforderungen im Umgang mit einer Vielzahl an Varianten und den umfangreichen Wechselwirkungen zwischen Auslegung und Einflüssen auf Parameter in der Nutzungsphase, wie z. B. den Energieverbrauch oder die Lebensdauer.
  • Publication
    Why are adaptive facades not widely used in practice? Identifying ecological and economical benefits with life cycle assessment
    ( 2023-03-15)
    Borschewski, David
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    Voigt, Michael P.
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    Roth, Daniel
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    Kreimeyer, Matthias
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    The challenges concerning climate change require innovative approaches. Adaptive façades (AF) represent a promising approach, as making the façade adaptable brings several benefits such as less energy usage or increased comfort. Nevertheless, they are not widely used in practice, since the known advantages/motivators appeal in particular to stakeholders who have little involvement in the decision-making of the design process and entail compromises to stakeholders who do. In this article it is shown that besides the known advantages and compromises of AF, there are further motivators for stakeholders with high decision-making power. In a case study, a building with typical centralized ventilation is compared with a building where an AF with an integrated ventilation system was installed to substitute the centralized ventilation system. This results in a lower building height and corresponding weight of the construction, as the central duct system can be eliminated. 3 m of building height and up to 340 tons of material can be saved, which results in avoided impact on climate change of 110 tons CO2-eqviv. (-7%). During utilization, 615 tons of CO2-eqviv. Can be avoided. The lifecycle costs can be reduced by 485,000 € while the rentable floor space can be increased by 4%.
  • Publication
    Ökobilanzierung adaptiver Hüllen und Strukturen
    ( 2022-09)
    Borschewski, David
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    Bischoff, Manfred
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    Blandini, Lucio
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    Bosch, Matthias
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    Dazer, Martin
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    Efinger, Dshamil
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    Eisenbarth, Christina
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    Haase, Walter
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    Kreimeyer, Matthias
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    Nitzlader, Markus
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    Roth, Daniel
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    Sawodny, Oliver
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    Adel, Friederike
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    Voigt, Michael
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    Life cycle assessment of adaptive skins and structuresThe assessment of environmental impacts is crucial in the de-velopment of sustainable and environmentally friendly techno-logies and concepts. The development of adaptive buildings is no exception and also places far-reaching demands on all dis-ciplines involved. The full integration of life cycle assessment into the planning and design process makes it possible to use environmental impacts as optimization parameters in the com-plex, dynamic calculation tools. The results of SFB 1244to date confirm that adaptive load-bearing structures and façades have great potential for saving resources and environmental impacts. The holistic approach, both in terms of the life cycle and the interdisciplinary dependencies, ensures that the rele-vant effects and influences are taken into account in the as-sessment. However, this confronts the life cycle assessment method with new challenges in dealing with a large number of variants and the extensive interactions between design and in-fluences on parameters in the use phase, such as energy con-sumption or service life.
  • Publication
    The dilemma of balancing design for impact sound with environmental performance in wood ceiling systems - A building physics perspective
    ( 2021)
    Müller, Theresa
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    Borschewski, David Sven
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    Due to the high consumption of resources and energy in the construction sector, the development of resource-efficient and sustainable construction solutions is gaining increasing attention. The awareness of sustainability and resource conservation results in the interest of using natural and renewable materials in contemporary architecture. Timber construction methods offer both constructive and ecological potential for sustainable solutions. From a building physics perspective, the acoustic performance of lightweight buildings, such as those made of timber, presents a challenge. Even if standard requirements are met, the increased low-frequency sound transmission typical for light-weight construction can cause discomfort and is already the subject of questions in building physics, which are currently increasingly extending to timber construction. Within the framework of a holistic approach, this paper compares the problem of acoustic properties, design optimizations and the ecological properties of timber-frame and solid timber construction components. The comparison with heavy materials, such as concrete, shows the relation of acoustic optimization with the change of the environmental profile. In order to establish the interaction between acoustic quality of wooden ceiling constructions and their ecological characteristics, this article aims to demonstrate the potential of materials used in the building sector under ecological aspects considering a life cycle analysis.
  • Publication
    Reliable design of adaptive load-bearing structures with focus on sustainability
    ( 2020)
    Ostertag, Andreas
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    Dazer, Martin
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    Bertsche, Bernd
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    Schlegl, Friederike
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    Gienger, Andreas
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    Wagner, Julia
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    Tarín, Cristina
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    Sawodny, Oliver
    Nowadays large amounts of raw materials are used in the building industry. Conventional design methods for passive constructions are at the limit of what's permissible according to standard and oversized for most of their design life. In order to reduce the consumption of raw material and the environmental impact caused by its production, an actuation of the load-bearing structure is a possible way forward. Such a structure is able to adapt to different load cases by specifically manipulating internal stresses using actuators installed in the structure. This paper introduces a design procedure applied to an adaptive high-rise load-bearing structure demonstrating reliability and includes the changing environmental impact. The trade-off between oversizing, which leads to high reliability and savings of raw material for minimal environmental impact needs to be solved for unique structures with quantity one. By use of a linear-elastic model the effect of wind loads is simulated and actuator forces and tensions were calculated. In the total balance the energy consumption of the actuators and its related greenhouse gas emissions as well as the intended savings due to the reduced need for raw materials in production is included. In conclusion, replacing building material with energy can be a promising way forward on the condition, that electric energy will become increasingly environmentally friendly in the near future, whereas natural resources for materials are limited.
  • Publication
    LCA of buildings in Germany: Proposal for a future benchmark based on existing databases
    ( 2019)
    Schlegl, Friederike
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    Gantner, Johannes
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    Traunspurger, René
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    The evaluation of environmental aspects in the early planning phase of buildings can support the reduction of the resource use and environmental impacts associated with the building sector over the whole building life-cycle. The integration of life cycle assessment (LCA) benchmarks in the planning phase is one potential measure. To derive these benchmarks a large database of existing building assessment is essential. Potential data input is available from the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB), as it certifies more than 200 buildings annually and the certification includes a mandatory LCA. In this study, the current submission files and database of the DGNB are assessed and critically reviewed with regard to their usability for automated LCA benchmarks. First, a harmonized database is created from the large number of assessed buildings. Second, the data is examined for its suitability for benchmarking with regard to data format, structure and level of detail. The data that were declared fit for purpose were used to create an exemplary, harmonized data set with 22 office buildings. The evaluation of these data for various environmental indicators of the individual life-cycle phases shows their respective relevance and can thus serve as a benchmark. Another focus is to encourage improvement of the additional documentation like the energy source required for better benchmarking, interpretation of results and auditing of the LCA rules for building certification. The results of this study highlight the opportunities and challenges in the development of a database for benchmarking. Before long-term LCA benchmarks can be developed and deployed, a standardized and uniform submission format of results, that is indifferent regarding the used LCA software, needs to be developed. In the future the submission process should be extended by an automated quality assurance to prevent restraints from low data quality and data gaps that otherwise have to be detected manually.
  • Publication
    Bauphysikalische und ökologische Bewertung adaptiver Fassadenkonstruktionen auf Raumebene
    ( 2019)
    Harder, Nadine
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    Schlegl, Friederike
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    Flemming, Daniela
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    Eine Antwort auf den großen und fortschreitenden Ressourcenverbrauch im Bauwesen können leichte und zugleich adaptive Lösungsansätze für Gebäudehüllen und -strukturen darstellen. Dazu müssen sie sowohl für schadensfreie Bauwerke mit passender Aufenthaltsqualität als auch für eine deutlich höhere Ressourceneffizienz sorgen. Beides gilt für den gesamten Lebensweg und trotz der für die Adaptivität benötigen zusätzlichen Betriebsenergie. Im Rahmen einer vorangegangenen Untersuchung adaptiver Leichtbaukonstruktionen für Fassaden wurde die bauphysikalische Funktionalität und Umweltwirkung einiger Beispiele auf Bauteilebene behandelt. Im hier vorliegenden Beitrag wird nun der Betrachtungshorizont auf die Raumebene erweitert, um z. B. neben Kennwerten für Wärme- und Feuchteschutz der Hülle auch die Behaglichkeit im Raum als Bewertungsmaßstab heranzuziehen. Natürlich erhöhen sich damit der Aufwand und die Komplexität der Bilanz, dafür lässt sich aber fundierter das Anwendungspotenzial adaptiver Alternativen einschätzen und über deren Weiterverfolgung entscheiden. Dazu werden drei herkömmliche, teils massive und teils leichte Konstruktionen, sowie vergleichbare adaptive Fassaden auf Raumebene untersucht und bewertet. Als wesentliche Bewertungskriterien gelten dabei quantitative Aussagen zur Erfüllung bauphysikalischer Anforderungen und zu ökologischen Umweltwirkungen. Im Ergebnis der methodenübergreifenden Forschung zeigt sich, dass adaptive Konstruktionen fallspezifisch, z. B. standortbezogen, beachtliches Potenzial zur Ressourcenreduktion ohne Funktionseinschränkungen mit sich bringen.
  • Publication
    Bio-inspiration as a Concept for Sustainable Constructions Illustrated on Graded Concrete
    ( 2019) ; ;
    Haase, Walter
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    Langer, Max
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    Schmeer, Daniel
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    Sobek, Werner
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    Speck, Olga
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    The building industry is one of the main contributors to worldwide resource consumption and anthropogenic climate change. Therefore, sustainable solutions in construction are particularly urgent. Inspired by the success principles of living nature, biologists and engineers present here an interdisciplinary work: The sustainability assessment of a bio-inspired material technology called graded concrete, which was developed at ILEK. Gradient structural materials can be found in plants on different hierarchical levels, providing a multitude of creative solutions for technology. Graded concrete applies this biological concept of structural optimization to the interior structure of concrete components to minimize material and resource expenditure. To evaluate the sustainability of this innovation, a newly developed quantitative Bio-inspired Sustainability Assessment (BiSA) method is applied. It focuses on the relationship of environmental, social and economic functions and the corresponding burdens quantified basing on life cycle assessment. The BiSA of graded concrete slabs shows significant improvements over conventional concrete for the applied use case. While an overall reduction of environmental burdens by 13% is expected, economic burdens can be reduced by up to 40% and social burdens by 35.7%. The assessment of the graded concrete technology identifies its potential with regard to sustainable construction. The presented work provides a blueprint for the interdisciplinary, integrative work on sustainable, bio-inspired innovations. It shows that the synergies of bio-inspiration and BiSA within technical product development can be fruitful.
  • Publication
    Integration of LCA in the planning phases of adaptive buildings
    ( 2019)
    Schlegl, Friederike
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    Honold, Clemens
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    Leistner, Sophia
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    Roth, Daniel
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    Haase, Walter
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    Binz, Hansgeorg
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    Sobek, W.
    The high consumption of resources in the building industry requires a significant reduction of material in buildings and consequently a reduction of emissions over all phases of the life cycle. This is the aim of the Collaborative Research Centre 1244 Adaptive Skins and Structures for the Built Environment of Tomorrow, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), which addresses research on the development and integration of adaptive systems in building structures and skins. New approaches in building planning are required for the implementation of adaptive buildings. Therefore, a multidisciplinary team from various fields such as architecture, civil and mechanical engineering, and system dynamics is necessary. The environmental impacts of the whole life cycle have to be considered for an integral planning process for adaptive buildings right from the beginning. For the integration of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), four temporal and content-related interfaces were identified in the planning process. Inputs and outputs of the LCA were defined for the relevant planning stages in order to enable the greatest possible benefit for the planners and to minimize the environmental impacts as far as possible. The result of the research work is a methodology that can be used in the future to reduce life cycle-related environmental impacts in the planning process of adaptive buildings (ReAdapt).