Environmental Building Design: Sustainability in Residential Projects

This report defines sustainability and explores its application in medium-density residential projects in Australia, focusing on energy, water, and waste systems. It discusses integrated passive design for energy efficiency, highlighting advantages like cost reduction and disadvantages such as knowledge gaps and climate limitations. The report also examines wastewater systems, emphasizing environmental sustainability and proper waste segregation, along with their benefits and drawbacks, including maintenance complexity and potential ecological disruption. Furthermore, it analyzes the positive and negative environmental effects of these practices and offers an opinion on their likely cost to the construction industry and consumers, suggesting that while promising, these technologies require proper implementation and maintenance to avoid hazards. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and resources for students.

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Sustainability in Residential Projects
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Table of Contents
Definition of sustainability............................................................................................................3
Energy systems (integrated passive design)................................................................................3
Wastewater systems.......................................................................................................................4
Effects on the Environmental Footprint......................................................................................5
References.......................................................................................................................................7

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e inition o taina ilitD f f sus b y
Environmental sustainability involves maintenance of non- renewable and renewable
resources through proper harvest, the creation of more resources, pollution control and
conservation.The activities prevent the depletion of the resources, benefits the present generation
as well as the future one.In building and construction, sustainability ensures the application
process and the structures are resource efficient and environmental friendly throughout the life-
cycle of the building (Lu, Chen, Ho and Wang, 2016, 522).Residential projects in Australia are
currently being designed in a way that helps in environmental performance through efficient
energy use, proper designing of water and waste systems.Sustainable residential building focuses
on minimizing impacts or effect to human health as well as the environment itself during the
lifecycle of the building.
ner tem inte rated pa i e de i nE gy sys s ( g ss v s g )
The residential project can help in the improvement of environmental performance
through the minimization of energy consumption as well as maximize energy efficiency.It can be
achieved through sustainable and proper designing of the building such as layout and orientation
(Miller, Doh, Panuwatwanich and van, 2015, p. 39).Utilization of passive solar heating,
ventilation, and use of natural daylight can help in improving the performance of the
environment.This would be realized through the incorporation of passive design features in the
new building during the initial or the early stages of planning and designing process.It also has
the capability of acting as a heat sink during the summer thus providing cooling effects. Use of
insulations of the highest level to minimize unwanted heat loss as well as unwanted gaining of
the heat through walls, floors, roof, and window.

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Advantages of integrated passive design
Cost reduction because the rate of energy consumption is less. Sustainable building has
all energy saving means, strategies, and designs for saving energy put in place during the initial
stage of the construction.Sun is a clean source of energy which does not pollute the environment
and does not have adverse effects to the living thing as well as the environment.
Disadvantages of integrated passive design
There is a lack of knowledge amongst people about integrating passive design system. So, it
becomes very difficult to convince people and make them understand the usefulness of
integrated passive design in buildings and houses (Chang, Kim and Choi, 2013).Another issue is
the severe winters which will decrease the building heat. Also, reverse action by the loss of cool
air can take place due to the high temperature of the exterior (An and Lee, 2015).Their
installation also requires a large scale of the area, which is very difficult to provide in the modern
buildings.
a te ater temW s w sys s
The design team and the constructors of waste systems should come up with a plan that
minimizes environmental pollution and focus on environmental sustainability and the well-being
of the occupants or residents.During the construction process, excellent storage facilities should
also be incorporated in the process, for the raw material to reduce damage and environmental
contamination (Sha'ar, Assaf, Bambang, Babsail and Fattah, 2017, p. 238). Segregated waste that
is recyclable should be stored in well-designed facilities to avoid mixing and spilling into the
environment. All the wastewater and drainage systems for the residential projects or building

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should be constructed according to the Water industry Act and Sustainable Urban Drainage
Systems (SUDS) requirements that ensure that there is less release of waste to the environment.
Advantages of waste and water systems
In a medium density construction project, waste systems help in the segregation of the
waste such that the one that can be recycled in proper stored. Therefore, waste can be used as a
raw material due to scarcity of resources. Waste management and recycling ensure there is
resource conservation and prevents their depletion. To the occupants, proper designing of waste
systems that improves the performance of the environment provides a healthy, comfortable and
conducive environment. Some of the organisms living beneath the soil are displaced and others
killed.Generally,the constructions interfere with the biodiversity of that area and can affect
ecological balance. The design teams should highly qualify, and the whole process of wastewater
system construction can be expensive.
Disadvantages of wastewater systems
The maintenance of the sewage system is very complex,expensive and difficult to understand in
one practice (Chow, 2016).The plants will need a minimum of three tanks. It does not matter
what the objective is, to have a maximum storage or to process the waste, the plants need tanks
and the structural requirement of these wastewater systems require at least three tanks (Ji, 2013).
Their installation also requires a huge space and have to build in an area from where it is easily
accessible (Kim et al., 2015).Various chemicals which are utilized to treat the water, is not an
appropriate method. The chemicals also have strong odors.
ect on t e n ironmental ootprintEff s h E v F
Positive effects-

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 By the installation of techniques like integrated passive design system and wastewater
system, there will be a reduction in air pollution,and other harmfull gases in air.
 These practices also help in reducing the adverse effect of constructing a building on the
environment.
Negative effects-
 These practices will affect the ecosystem. The man-made products which use toxic,
chemicals and various unnatural things on a continuous base, this will ultimately affect
the ecosystem.
 These practices include large facilities which are required by various industries. Now,
the large the industrialization, the bigger impact it will have on the environment. This is
disturbing the environmental balance which will have massive effects in the future.
Opinion on Residential Development and the Construction Industry
These practices are being implemented in the residential development. Buildings and
houses are being made with these new designs. They are promising, but their installation and
maintenance is so high that this will turn into a hazard for the residential people affecting their
environment heavily. It can only be successful in a residential area if they are regularly and
properly cleaned. The construction industry is going to experience a very huge boom by such
techniques and treatment, as people are already attracted towards them.

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e erenceR f s
An, M. and Lee, H. (2015). Design of the Integrated Logistics Information System Based
on Cloud Computing. Lecture Notes on Software Engineering, 3(1), pp.31-34.
Chang, S., Kim, S. and Choi, J. (2013). Design of integrated passive safety system (IPSS)
for ultimate passive safety of nuclear power plants. Nuclear Engineering and Design,
260, pp.104-120.
Chow, T. (2016). Building Integrated Active and Passive Solar Design. Journal of
Fundamentals of Renewable Energy and Applications, 6(5).
Ji, W. (2013). The Design of Passive Optical Networking+Ethernet over Coaxial Cable
Access Networking and Video-on-Demand Services Carrying. Fiber and Integrated
Optics, 32(4), pp.268-279.
Kim, S., Chang, S., Choi, Y. and Jeong, Y. (2015). A passive decay heat removal strategy
of the integrated passive safety system (IPSS) for SBO combined with LOCA. Nuclear
Engineering and Design, 295, pp.346-359.
Lu, W., Chen, X., Ho, D.C. and Wang, H., 2016. Analysis of the construction waste
management performance in Hong Kong: the public and private sectors compared using
big data. Journal of Cleaner Production, 112, pp.521-531.
Miller, D., Doh, J.H., Panuwatwanich, K. and van Oers, N., 2015. The contribution of
structural design to green building rating systems: An industry perspective and
comparison of life cycle energy considerations. Sustainable Cities and Society, 16,
pp.39-48.
Sha'ar, K.Z., Assaf, S.A., Bambang, T., Babsail, M. and Fattah, A.A.E., 2017. Design-
construction interface problems in large building construction projects. International
Journal of Construction Management, 17(3), pp.238-250.

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