Building Technology and Materials - Essay Example

PROJECT MANAGEMENT 344 – MS PROJECT Student Name Course Name Date 1. Building Environment The way that building and infrastructure are constructed has always fascinated me. All my life I have been thinking of how life would be if certain common engineering materials were nonexistent. A difference can be noted on the diverse difference within Building Environment. The building side seeks to introduce new structures while environment seeks to ensure that the planet is clean and sustainable. Despite the differences, the two differences act together since buildings are constructed on environments1. In the construction field, I have encountered many definitions of what green buildings are or do; some of them range from a building that us “remarkably better” than the average building or “not as bad” as an average building. The only fear that people have is based on the wrong concept that green building use technology and materials that cost far more that those used in convectional buildings2. The whole notion about sustainability and conservation is vital to the field of building Technology. I have come to learn that built environment is composed of not just the physical buildings and infrastructure but other associated elements such as urban planning public health and land architecture. I always believed that the concept of green building emanated after the population of the greenhouse effect and global warming phenomena, in the last century. However the first known green buildings dated back to 1AD: the stone structures of Anasazi Indians. The whole concept of sustainability and conservation is becoming vital in the field of environmentalism. I have encountered a range of issues that inhibit the adoption of green technology in Australia for instance. The is no clear research done on buildings in terms of the social economic and environmental tenets of conservation and sustainability during the entire buildings lifecycle; from construction utilization and ultimately demolition3. I have realized that the manner in which the buildings and infrastructure is constructed offers a range of opportunities for sustainability for instance the less resource intensive buildings. I have now appreciated that constructing green buildings is not just a matter of bringing together a collection of most modern green materials and technology, it is a process in which virtually all the elements are designed to optimum and the resultant interrelationship of the various assorted elements within the systems are re-evaluated optimized and integrated into the whole building solution4. After the completion of the course, I will be in a position to perform an number of designs of green buildings and the relevant analytical and practicality towards justifying my designs. 2. WHAT IS BUILDING PERFORMANCE The basic purpose of any engineering entity or undertaking is the functionality aspect, for instance abridge should be able to permit people to cross from one side to the other. However I have noted that in any building there are other parameters incorporated in the design but they do not perform the main function; with or without them the building will still perform its purpose5. It is after learning the concept of sustainability that I appreciated other areas of analyzing the performance of a building such as operational performance, commercial performance as well as broader definition of functional performance. Although the term ‘sustainability’ and ‘green’ have been used interchangeably; however according to sustainability concerns ecological, economic and social issues concerning a building From the course materials provided about sustainability and building performance, I found myself it is whole to understand things in their face value. There is more than meets the eye in every issue. For instance from the lecture I realized that a “building is not an island”, and thus cannot be evaluated on its own merits but rather as part of a location, vale of the land and any associated cultural significance and value. Ideally the future performance of any building is based on its capacity to adapt to the changing occupants needs in the future. Contrary to what I assume to be the norm, a design should not just solve the existing needs for building space but rather on the ability to meet the dynamic sustainability requirements and maintaining its integrity over the extended future time. In social sustainability, it has come clear to be me that a building impacts the immediate environment such as the general streetscape, impacts to the local economy, immediate community such as access to o transport and social amenities. One of the important and useful things I have discovered is the advantage of evaluating life in wholesome. For instance, looking at a building not just as a structure but rather a combination of numerous facets comprising the physical structure, the associated amenities, the services offered, the site location, occupants and the general community at large This realization has compelled me to reflect on the aims and objective of this unit- how significance of buildings to our lives and the needs for future building owners to embrace sustainability. This is reflected but the recorded increase in the number of developed who have embraced sustainable technology thus reaping the accrued economic, social and environmental benefits6. 3. BUILDING PROCESSES I have spent the better part of my life living with my uncle who owns a Building and construction firm. During my vacation while in high school, I used to accompany him to some of his numerous site visits. During such visits I did not understand how someone wakes up one day and think of building house of a particular size. Overtime, I began to understand the process, operations and the various individuals and stakeholders within atypical building project. I realized my uncle is a Contractor; his firm was basically implementing what the designer i.e. the Consultant has designed and specified while the entire job was for a particular faceless individual called the client. I came to realize during my college introductory units that all this was a product of a meticulous process called Cyclical building process. I became convinced that a client does not think overnight decide to put out a building the following morning. The cyclic begins with the assessment of the assessment of the ultimate needs and requirements called pre- occupancy assessment. Building processes involves adopting theoretical propositions and constructs across the various fields and sound empirical research7. Such assessment is not only necessary during the initial development of the building concept but can be adopted in future redesigning during renovations or resizing as a guide to noble design solutions. The most obvious thing I discovered during the lectures was the rationale behind the need to be conscious that the efficiency and effectiveness in any organization is impacted by the physical environment in which an organization is situated. I am not a stranger to building technology, but I must admit that it has been years since I visited the sites however my thought and feelings are well conscious on manner of activities that do occur in the construction field. It is very enlightening to understand that post occupancy evaluation is a complex undertaking which requires one to devote some considerable time to carry out on- site interviews, questionnaires and do a number of follow- up calls. A key response to this challenge is to clarify that the purpose of the research is to create a theory, through theoretical sampling to realize logical relationship among the constructs. This involves the use diverse groups of people and transparent methodology thus making the results to be interpreted with degree certainty8. Among the things I have been able to learn is the fact that the rationale behind the measuring of building performance in post occupancy occupation is the realization that the costs of the building construction is just a portion of the overall ownership cost of the building by the client. Therefore in analyzing buildings, physical assets and business resources are needed in the delivery of the accommodation/ occupancy services. 4. ENERGY USED DURING CONSTRUCTION Some years ago in an energy seminar, colleague students and I observed how much energy is used in the construction industry. We tried to argue out which construction material requires more energy to produce. Based on no apparent data or research backing, we came to a conclusion that steel is the most expensive construction material in terms of energy consumption. After attending this lecture I have realized that we may been right or whole depending on the perspective one would wish to look at it. First of all our argument was based on the manufacturing process alone, for instance the smelting process of iron ore. This negated other costs incurred during delivery of materials to site, such as transport, preparation prior to eventual use, appropriate joining methods to be used, and also but not least the supplementary materials needed for instance bricks and cement. Figure 1 above shows typical chart on the apparent energy used on materials in Australia . Figure 1: Building materials and the relative energy Consumption From the figure 1 above, it apparent that steel is most expensive; however we cannot arbitrarily assume that it is more expensive than bricks while considering their impact on a particular building project. It is obvious that it takes more bricks than steel to build a house. It also evident that we had not considered other activities such as cost which have a significant cost implication on the price of a material. From this information and realization I have found out that such conclusions do vary with the particular cases and thus extremely useful for adoption during te design stage of a building. The difference compelled me to reflect on the need for designers to keenly observe a phenomenon and carefully analyze and measure what they foresee. This may be very critical in developing alternative material or completely changing the design. The other issue which was quite interesting was the ideal of constructing green buildings which not only consume less energy but utilize more natural energy such as wide windows for light harnessing and natural ventilation. It was interesting to not such efforts can be achieved by merely altering the alteration of furniture of the building such as windows, doors, right source of materials and components. Read More