Sustainable Architecture and Energy Efficiency

The assignment discusses the importance of sustainable architecture in maintaining energy efficiency. It highlights the need to generate awareness at local and national levels to adopt strategies for reducing energy consumption. The organization is recommended to create a high-performance building, perform energy audits to increase existing equipment efficiency, and collaborate with regulatory bodies to promote sustainability and green initiatives.

SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE

ABSTRACT
This research paper is based on understanding the several aspects of sustainable
architecture in the field of construction sector. Herein it involved the significance of ecological
designing which support in minimising the negative aspects of environmental pollution. It has
emphasized on the identification of challenges that are associated with constructing of low-
income housing. There is a focus on minimising the energy efficiencies by brining radical
modifications in the various components of building a structure.
In context to constructing the low income housing, the government provides a platform in
collaboration with private construction companies in minimizing the overall costs in context to
GHG emissions, which substantially contribute to control the financial burden and overall energy
costs. This part has thrown light on the utilisation of several methods, tools and techniques by
Buckeridge Group of Companies to overcome the challenges of insulation for conducting the
retrofitting of existing buildings.
In addition, it has also added about the advantages of using computer led models to
analyse the measurements before taking the project on floors. It is also recommended in
performing energy and performance audits in order to increase efficiency of existing equipments
without incurring extra costs and must evaluate the overall performance of water systems for
proper assessment of operational conditions for energy use.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
RESEARCH TOPIC........................................................................................................................1
A. Opening statement ..................................................................................................................1
B. Research significance and scope.............................................................................................1
C. Aim and objectives..................................................................................................................3
Research questions.......................................................................................................................4
D. Methods...................................................................................................................................4
E. Conclusion...............................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

RESEARCH TOPIC
“To identify operational barriers in sustainable architecture in construction industries- A study
on Buckeridge Group of Companies”
A. Opening statement
Sustainable architecture is the modern concept that infers the scope of ecological designing
for allocated resources in collective manner. This reflects upon the maintenance of the buildings
and construction of other structures by inhibiting the negative impact on the environment. In this
regard, there is a great demand to incorporate energy efficient improvements to manage the
energy security. However, energy efficient improvement in architecture are focused on
decreasing the Green House Gas emissions and air pollution. Apparently, a robust program must
be developed to save energy efficiency, with the help of strategic planning methods such as
urban heat island reductions, smart growth and control measures in transportation like switching
to CNG, equipment pooling etc. Herein, it is imperative to understand the planning aspects
which aim at reducing use of energy in a house by optimizing the environmental benefits of
minimizing the air pollution, GHG emissions etc. It further supports in maintaining the health
benefits as well. Thus, urban planning facilitates several methodologies to employ each facility
or provision in such a manner that it leads to cost-effectiveness in exponential direction.
With respect to low income housing, the government along-with construction companies
have laid the foundation of minimizing the costs with GHG emissions, which substantially
contribute to control the financial burden and overall energy costs. Such low-income households
consume huge amount of energy in the form of light, heat, cool, etc. and in the span of few years,
over 70 thousand houses and businesses have installed more than one million items to improve
the energy efficiency (Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate-
Environment, 2019). Additionally, it is focused on demonstrating the relevancy that is associated
with the economic and environmental benefits while constructing affordable housing.
B. Research significance and scope
Background
Sustainable architecture is an important aspect in the construction industries which have
been effective in bringing favourable support with respect to improve environmental conditions.
There have been various obstacles and issues which raised due to energy usage by premises for
thermal balances such as heating and cooling of the buildings. Along with this, material and
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construction used by these industries are also affecting the environment which is challenging
(Kuzmina and et.al, 2019). The big amount of funds has been utilised on energy which is based
on insulation of buildings. The issues have been raises due to improper use of energy in
insulating houses which have affected environment and damages were made due to excessive
release of greenhouses gases.
Moreover, these challenges have incurred costs, environmental obstacles as well as
barriers which affects sustainable construction process. Additionally, adoption of changes in the
architectural structure will also lead to positive improvements in sustainability in construction
industries. The development of green building techniques will help low income housing group in
improving energy efficiency. Thus, invitation to these techniques by BGC will make effective
reforms in the architectural designs. The emphasising factor is for controlling the environmental
issues such as carbon emission, GHG, NO2, SO2. Thus, considering these issues will be effective
in developing the innovative techniques in BGC to bring changes in architectural development.
Significance
This research project will be effective and helpful for Buckeridge Group of Companies to
adopt the reforming techniques for improving sustainability in the organisation. Identification of
various obstacles will be effective with respect to bring the innovative changes as well as
sustainable development in the construction process of industries. Professionals at BGC will be
beneficiary as they would have effective productivity, improved business health, utilisation of
resources, waste management as well as effective use of materials in the business.
On the other side, positive impacts of project will be beneficial to society for good
environmental protection, improves living standards as well as brings economic development.
Moreover, costs of using energy in the low-income housing and in buildings will be reduced as
per use of Green Building Techniques. Various local and state government will require the
appropriate energy saving plans which meets the criteria for promoting the effective
environmental control. Therefore, emphasising the development of affordable housed for the
low-income group will be effective for them in making payment of the bills with reference to
have sound economic standard as well as use of proper technology to control insulation in the
premises. It will be helpful in managing the sustainability in the environment.
Scope
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The study comprises various element’s which have been used in this study. In the
introductory part of the research project there have been identification of topic, defining the
background, scope and constructing the aim and objective of report based on considering the
environmental challenges relevant with the poor architectural operations. In this, analysis have
been made on The Local Government Climate and Energy Strategy Series provides a
comprehensive, straightforward overview of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction
strategies for local governments. Topics include energy efficiency, transportation, community
planning and design, solid waste and materials management, and renewable energy. City, county,
territorial, tribal, and regional government staff, and elected officials can use these guides to
plan, implement, and evaluate their climate change mitigation and energy projects. Each guide
provides an overview of project benefits, policy mechanisms, investments, key stakeholders, and
other implementation considerations. Development of framework with impact of mythology will
be effective in funnelling the researchers in the right direction. The collection of information and
its analysis will be effective in drafting valid justification of research issues. Moreover, this
research study will highlight all the possible obstacles as well as improvements which are stated
in current architectural operations in Australia.
Moreover, there can be several areas on which researchers will present the effective
guideline to make smart plans and develop construction policies. Research will be fruitful in the
filed of community planning and designing of building by implicating the smart techniques. It
will result in better reduction in urban heat, effective energy efficiency as well as raise in the
economy of nation.
C. Aim and objectives
In respect with analysing the barriers and challenges which are associated with the
architectural issues there have been creation of several objectives which will be effective in
evaluating all the obstacles incurred in the current market scenario.
Aim: “To identify operational barriers in sustainable architecture in construction industries- A
study on Buckeridge Group of Companies”
Objectives:
 To identify the issues related to insulation for retrofitting existing buildings.
 To determine building ventilation and energy barriers in construction process.
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 To analyse techniques, methods and material which can be used for sustainable
architecture
 To suggest the effective changes which are required to be adopted by construction
industries for sustainable operations in low income housing
Research questions
 What are the issues related to insulation for retrofitting existing buildings?
 What are the determinants for building ventilation, diagnostics and energy barriers in
construction process?
 What are the techniques, methods and material used for sustainable architecture?
 Recommend effective changes which are required to be adopted by construction
industries for sustainable operations in low income housing?
D. Methods
Buckeridge Group of Companies must apply new and innovative methods to bring
consistency in their sustainability approach while maintaining the green building initiatives. This
part will shed light on the usage of several methods and techniques by this organization to
overcome the challenges of insulation for conducting the retrofitting of existing buildings. Here,
the concept of GEB (Greening the existing buildings) would be useful. Already, Green Star
system is prevalent and is focusing on designing parameters to fulfil the green standards while
doing retrofits. Additionally, there must be predictions that would be gathered through computer
model predictions and provide the utility-metered consumption in such affordable buildings
(Lechner, 2014). For instance, BLAST, REAP,DOE-2 are the computer complex models that
gives accurate percentage of total energy use. This will assist in formulating the measurements to
calculate the overall capacities of the materials such as insulating concrete forms, precast
concrete, autoclaved aerated concrete, green roofs and walls to be used to improve the energy
efficiency (Peters and Peters, 2018).
Furthermore, establishing an exterior insulation must be done to by using control
mechanism, tools like LED lightings, Motions sensors, Laminated glazing etc. There will also be
adoption of use of advanced and high quality diagnostic equipments to help in minimising the
costings and bringing radical changes to mitigate the energy use. Blower door would support in
monitoring the air leakage between the building's adjoining sections. With this, a theatrical fog
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machine can be used to examine the air barrier controls in both new and existing construction
areas to manage the integrity and in retrofitting parts.
However, this sustainable architecture is useful in maintaining the overall impacts while
building a low income house. These contains few factors like use of fuels, pattern of land and the
maintenance component etc. to understand the type of materials or techniques to be used to
improve the energy consumption (Kibert, 2016) There are practices that accelerate the
economical maintenance and durability in ventilation strategies by giving appropriate amount of
tightness through proper measurement of air resistance. Here, implementation of advanced
thermal bridging would play crucial role in reducing the low cracking in drywalls, footage of
boards with easy accessibility in plumbing and electrical installations.
For this, there is also need of few structural modifications can be done in the outlining of
the building construction. It involves installing Energy Star Labelled windows, sealing gaps
through the interiors to halt the drafts and more. This will help in approximate 20 percent
reductions in the heating and cooling energy systems. Alongside, there are additional
opportunities to be used to overcome the barriers for energy consumption while constructing any
structural modifications. This enhancements process will prove beneficial to avoid situational
issues like damp basements, formation of moisture on windows, poor duct performance that
result in cold flooring with drafty rooms. Therefore, BGC must use technical expertise to ensure
proper execution in managing the overall effectiveness by achieving the required energy
efficiency in proficient manner. They must focus on using wide range of mechanisms to
encourage standards of energy efficiency in low income housing.
E. Conclusion
It has been summarized that sustainable architecture is one of the important features in
maintaining the energy efficiency. In recent times, it has become important to generate
awareness at both local and national levels to adopt strategies to bring innovative approaches for
reducing the energy efficiency drastically. This organization must try to create a high-
performance building in order to laid the integrated framework in terms of designing, planning,
accessibility and decreasing the hindered components like penetration of moisture, decreasing
the molds etc. Along with this, it has also highlighted the determination of existing systems
which would be useful when installing the new and better efficiency equipments.
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It is recommended to perform energy and performance audits in order to increase
efficiency of existing equipments without incurring extra costs (Tucker and Izadpanahi, 2017). In
addition, the auditing part must be done to evaluate the overall performance of water systems of
buildings with assessing the operational conditions for energy use. This would assist in
recognising the improvements areas for bringing appropriate sustainability in the existing
buildings. Lastly, Buckeridge Group of Companies should collaborate with local regulatory
bodies and other governmental institutions to bring concrete changes to promote sustainability
and green initiatives program.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Kibert, C.J., 2016. Sustainable construction: green building design and delivery. John Wiley &
Sons.
Kuzmina, S. and et.al., 2019. Sustainable architecture: trends in higher professional
architectures’ education. In MATEC Web of Conferences (Vol. 265, p. 07017). EDP
Sciences.
Lechner, N., 2014. Heating, cooling, lighting: Sustainable design methods for architects. John
wiley & sons.
Peters, B. and Peters, T., 2018. Computing the Environment: Digital Design Tools for Simulation
and Visualisation of Sustainable Architecture. John Wiley & Sons.
Tucker, R. and Izadpanahi, P., 2017. Live green, think green: Sustainable school architecture and
children’s environmental attitudes and behaviors. Journal of Environmental
Psychology.51. pp.209-216.
Online
Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate-Environment. 2019. [Online].
Accessed through:<https://www.environment.act.gov.au/energy/smarter-use-of-energy/
energy-efficiency-improvement-scheme/latest-updates>.
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