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Adaptive Reuse of Historic Buildings (ARHB) is a new concept in developing countries like Sri Lanka. One of the main concerns for the intendancy of decision makers to ARHB is the operational energy. This paper analyzes the research gap of reusing historical buildings as office spaces by utilizing their structural and architectural designs and preserving the buildings’ authenticity for the future. It further aims to protect energy-efficient historical buildings from getting demolished and replaced with new modern buildings. A set of operational energy variables of modern office buildings and the potential historic buildings that can be reused as office spaces was established. During the early 1990s, old Dutch-era buildings in the country were mainly used as government office buildings. Three Dutch-era buildings in Galle Fort and three modern buildings in Colombo City have been selected as the case studies. Design-Builder (DB) software was used to comprehensively analyze sets of operational energy consumption variables. Selected historic buildings in Galle consumed 143.74 kWh/m2, 156.34 kWh/m2, and 209.39 kWh/m2 while modern buildings consumed 337.29 kWh/m2, 210.99 kWh/m2, and 382.57 kWh/m2 as operational energy, respectively. According to the analysis, the operational energy requirement of ARHB is comparatively lesser than that of modern buildings. This study, therefore, mainly concludes that the historical buildings saved more operational energy than the modern building envelopes while considerably reducing environmental impacts and saving the building energy cost.

This paper looks into the 2022 writing workshop sponsored by the British Academy with Nigerian and Ghanaian participants. It was focussed on the present status of modern buildings, which are quickly replaced by newer ones, eroding the prevailing vernacular of the landscape of African university campuses. A new approach was adopted to documenting the stories of these buildings, which had existed prior to the time, by Africans, not foreigners. Postgraduate students were co-opted to participate in a five-day writing workshop across three universities in Nigeria. The teams were headed by Early Career Researchers (ECRs) led by a Nigerian Co-Investigator (Co-I), similar to a workshop held in Ghana just a week before. The Principal Investigator (PI) was based in the United Kingdom and assisted by two co-investigators, one from Nigeria and one from Ghana. For the Nigerian contingent, the loci group comprised four participants per group (12 participants in each of the three universities in Lagos, Jos, and Enugu campus). At each university, the participants selected modern buildings on the campus to write about, guided by the ECRs. Scheduled meetings were arranged for expert presentations, site visits, and group meet-ups to discuss their working papers. Recommendations were made for architectural histories and criticisms to be introduced into the students’ curriculum, from which publications and documentation of these buildings can be carried out concurrently. Grants and awards can also be targeted at universities both locally and globally to further improve this approach. Emphasis on the cultural point of view was encouraged in the writing exercise to preserve the heritage aspects of the buildings.

Adaptive Reuse of Historic Buildings (ARHB) is a new concept in developing countries like Sri Lanka. One of the main concerns for the intendancy of decision makers to ARHB is the operational energy. This paper analyzes the research gap of reusing historical buildings as office spaces by utilizing their structural and architectural designs and preserving the buildings' authenticity for the future. It further aims to protect energy-efficient historical buildings from getting demolished and replaced with new modern buildings. A set of operational energy variables of modern office buildings and the potential historic buildings that can be reused as office spaces was established. During the early 1990s, old Dutch-era buildings in the country were mainly used as government office buildings. Three Dutch-era buildings in Galle Fort and three modern buildings in Colombo City have been selected as the case studies. Design-Builder (DB) software was used to comprehensively analyze sets of operational energy consumption variables. Selected historic buildings in Galle consumed 143.74 kWh/m2, 156.34 kWh/m2, and 209.39 kWh/m2 while modern buildings consumed 337.29 kWh/m2, 210.99 kWh/m2, and 382.57 kWh/m2 as operational energy, respectively. According to the analysis, the operational energy requirement of ARHB is comparatively lesser than that of modern buildings. This study, therefore, mainly concludes that the historical buildings saved more operational energy than the modern building envelopes while considerably reducing environmental impacts and saving the building energy cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks into the 2022 writing workshop sponsored by the British Academy with Nigerian and Ghanaian participants. It was focussed on the present status of modern buildings, which are quickly replaced by newer ones, eroding the prevailing vernacular of the landscape of African university campuses. A new approach was adopted to documenting the stories of these buildings, which had existed prior to the time, by Africans, not foreigners. Postgraduate students were co-opted to participate in a five-day writing workshop across three universities in Nigeria. The teams were headed by Early Career Researchers (ECRs) led by a Nigerian Co-Investigator (Co-I), similar to a workshop held in Ghana just a week before. The Principal Investigator (PI) was based in the United Kingdom and assisted by two co-investigators, one from Nigeria and one from Ghana. For the Nigerian contingent, the loci group comprised four participants per group (12 participants in each of the three universities in Lagos, Jos, and Enugu campus). At each university, the participants selected modern buildings on the campus to write about, guided by the ECRs. Scheduled meetings were arranged for expert presentations, site visits, and group meet-ups to discuss their working papers. Recommendations were made for architectural histories and criticisms to be introduced into the students' curriculum, from which publications and documentation of these buildings can be carried out concurrently. Grants and awards can also be targeted at universities both locally and globally to further improve this approach. Emphasis on the cultural point of view was encouraged in the writing exercise to preserve the heritage aspects of the buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Builder (1896-0642) is the property of PWB MEDIA Zdzieblowski sp.j. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

An increase in the world population has led to a sharp decrease in fossil fuel sources; and, therefore, substituting them with renewable sources as well as optimizing energy consumption could be considered ideal solutions. One of the major problems is the excessive use of energy in residential buildings, with Iran's consumption rate in this field being five times the global average. Building façades play a fundamental role in optimizing energy consumption. This paper aims to study the factors affecting the performance of coherent façades in terms of climatic conditions, using a comparative study between traditional-indigenous and modern building façades in the city of Mashhad. In addition, it employs an analytical descriptive method and applies case analysis by numerical calculations as well as software simulations using the DesignBuilder software tool. Other researchers have conducted similar studies, but no comprehensive research has yet been done by making a comparison between traditional-indigenous buildings and modern buildings in Mashhad, Iran, with existing climatic conditions considered. By studying and comparing the window-to-wall ratio, building materials, and façade thickness, it was concluded that the ratio of openings to walls was 20–35% and 30–42% in traditional-indigenous houses and in modern houses, respectively. Similarly, the range of the thermal resistance of façades in traditional buildings was 0.56–0.87 (m2C/W), and it was 0.38–0.48 m2C/W in modern buildings. The analysis of the simulated models showed less thermal dissipation in traditional models than in modern ones. Thus, traditional-indigenous models are more optimized when it comes to energy consumption, apart from creating thermal comfort for building residents. By referring to past architecture and gaining inspiration from the features of traditional building façades in constructing modern buildings, we will be able to help reduce energy consumption in these buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to develop a list of building sustainability criteria and prioritize them in order to identify the most important ones for the context of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This study also aims to assess buildings as heritage, ordinary modern or sustainable modern buildings with respect to defined sustainability criteria, using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). Comparing sustainability aspects in both heritage and modern buildings can clarify which ones use more sustainability principles and this can integrate the best principles in both heritage and modern buildings to produce new buildings with better performance. The methodological approach is survey-based, using the answers obtained through questionnaires. Based on a literature review, the main criteria and sub-criteria were defined. A comparison of the relative importance between the rating criteria was made within the framework of the AHP, based on expert opinion, that would allow unambiguous prioritization of the decision-making factors and lead to a consistent result. The study assumes that all participants in the survey are experts who have knowledge of sustainability and buildings and their answers were truthful and reliable. The opinions of stakeholders, owners and building occupants were not taken into consideration. This research contributes to the field of building industry and sustainability. It broadens the understanding of sustainability assessment criteria as well as the degree of importance and validity of each criterion applied to assess the level of sustainability of heritage and modern buildings in the UAE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advances in distributed generation and increased contribution of renewable energy source (RES) require development of smart grid technologies. Smart metering systems, as a part of smart grid technologies, in cooperation with modern buildings equipped with building management system allows for improvement of energy efficiency. It is possible to partially cover the power demand of a building from the local RESs. However, in order to ensure maximum added value, energy management system (EMS) is essential. This article presents the project and practical implementation of an EMS implemented in smart-meter. The designed system is based on an original algorithm using fuzzy logic. The rule base was created in FCL language and the implementation was carried out in C++ with the object-oriented programming (OOP). For the efficiency rating indicator, peak-to-average ratio (PAR) was selected. This ratio depending on the daily load profile decreased within a range from 15 to 54%, and the average value was 30%. The proposed energy management algorithm helps to reduce energy consumption at peak demand by 34%, with the total reduction of energy consumption during the day of 7%. The described solution demonstrates a potential for real implementation and was tested in hardware.

The concept of GeoCluster is a virtual homogeneous trans-regional area where strong similarities are found in terms of climate, environmental context, culture, construction typologies. It allows to export relevant results and guidelines, studied in a specific area, in others trans-regional areas with strong similarities. Present research regards the modern building heritage constituting framed buildings that represent, at the international level, a large part of the existing heritage and is characterized by poor performance in environmental and energetic aspects. In particular, this paper identifies guidelines to approach the optimization of the intervention for the energetic restoration of a building's heritage belonging to the GeoCluster that we call “Mediterranean”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Educación y Ciudad is the property of Instituto para la Investigacion Educativa y Desarrollo Pedagogico and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract: Thermal comfort studies on traditional residential buildings of Kerala that is known for its use of natural and passive methods for a comfortable indoor environment, are under progress. Scientific analyses of the environmental parameters determining thermal comfort have already been reported. Similar studies on modern residential buildings are underway. In order to compare the results of the scientific analysis with the user responses from the residents of traditional as well as modern residential buildings, a questionnaire survey was conducted during various seasons such as winter, summer and monsoon. A questionnaire was prepared in detail to understand the effect of factors which affect thermal comfort such as temperature, humidity and air flow in the evaluation of thermal comfort. This paper is based on the compilation of responses from the conducted survey. A comparison of the study results with that of scientific analysis already reported is also incorporated at the end of this paper. This study further confirms that Kerala traditional residential buildings are very effective in providing comfortable indoor environment irrespective of various seasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]