Course - HND in Construction and the Built Environment
Introduction: Unit 35 Alternative Methods of Construction in an HND Construction and the Built Environment program explores sustainable and innovative building techniques. Students examine the environmental impact of traditional construction and analyze alternative methods like prefabrication, modular construction, and green materials. They evaluate government policies, safety considerations, and economic benefits associated with these methods. The unit culminates in proposing a design that incorporates an alternative construction strategy.
Table of Contents
Part A: Brochure
1. An overview of the development of construction and its impact on the built environment
1.1 Overview
1.2 Impact on the built environment
2. Assessment of government targets' effectiveness and statistics on environmental protection
2.1 Government targets
2.2 Statistics on environmental protection
3. Impact of construction on the environment, society and the economy and alternative ways to minimize them
3.1 Impacts
3.2 Alternative methods of construction
4. Analysis of alternative construction methods
4.1 Historical context
4.2 Comparison
4.3 Use of Alternative Construction Methods for commercial and domestic purposes
5. Government policies, strategies and legislations
5.1 Development of industrial sites and heritage industrial buildings
5.2 Legislation that support alternative methods of construction
5.3 Implications and constraints of the government policies related to Alternative Construction methods
Part B: Design Proposal
1. Design Brief
1.1 Justification
2. Plans, sections, and details
3. Research materials
4. Alignment of the designed proposal with the government policies and regulations
References
Alternative Methods of Construction
Assignment - Alternative Construction Strategy
Part A: Brochure
Question: Examine how the construction industry impacts on the environment, and how changes in the industry can create broader social and economic benefits.
1. An overview of the development of construction and its impact on the built environment
1.1 Overview
Construction can be defined as the term that at its basic form describes the art of forming any system, object, or firm via the utilization of science. In the subject of architecture and civil engineering, the term represents the processes that are associated with providing infrastructures, buildings, and industrial facilities (Córdoba et al. 2019). Also, the term is used to describe the activities that are associated with these man-made structures after their development phase, throughout their life span. These activities can include financing, repairing, maintenance, and even demolition of the structures (Belachew, 2019).
Presently, the global construction industry contributes to more than 10 % of the global GDP, and have provided jobs to about 7 % of the workforce, such as, professional builders, architects, engineers, and more, on a global basis. In 2017, the output generated by the global construction sector was approximately $ 10.8 trillion (Lyalin & Pugach, 2021).
1.2 Impact on the built environment
Construction practices and the concept itself has been one of the many boons for the humankind, which has been in practice from the early times, such as the construction of Pyramids in Egypt from 2780 B.C, Byzantine architectures, like the construction of Hagia Sophia around the year 535, and countless more. However, these are negative sides of erecting these huge structures as well. As per a new research paper by Bimhow, a construction blog, the construction industry contributes to about 50 % of the global climatic change, 23 % of the air pollution, 40 % of pollution related to drinking water, and about 50 % of the landfill wastes. Another research by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) shows that the construction industry is responsible for an about 40 % of energy usage on a global basis. Also, it has been estimated that by 2030, the toxic and hazardous emissions from the commercial structures will increase by about 1.8 % (Nobahar, Azadi & Doostie, 2019).
FAQ: Construction Industry's Impact and Sustainable Solutions
- How does construction impact the environment?
- What are some specific environmental concerns?
- What changes can the industry make to be more environmentally friendly?
- How can sustainable construction create social benefits?
- How can sustainable construction create economic benefits?
- What are some of the challenges to implementing these changes?
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2. Assessment of government targets' effectiveness and statistics on environmental protection
2.1 Government targets
Some of the most common and key areas of legislation, polices, and practices aimed towards the protection of environment from construction projects by the UK government are as follows:
• Building assessment
• Operational carbon emissions
• Materials
• Waste generated
• Planning activities
Although the majority of these principal areas of legislation and strategies are usually applicable for domestic building within the UK, certain components are applicable to industrial and commercial building as well. Furthermore, the government has taken certain drastic steps to fight the issues caused by the global climate change emergency by urging the construction sector of the UK to actively contribute to achieve the national 2050 targets of carbon reduction as per the Climate Change Act, in addition of other initiatives (Paik & Na, 2019). Although the UK government currently has not introduced any major legislation to reduce carbon emissions, it is working on developing regulations and policies focused on reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
2.2 Statistics on environmental protection
In the year 2018, the government of the UK spent about £ 14.5 billion on the establishment and development of practices and acts aimed towards environmental protection. This amount can be seen as 1.7 % of all the expedites in the UK. However, the government's Environmental protection expenditure (EPE) as a certain part of the gross domestic product (GDP) has been static, remaining at 0.7 % since 2016. In the year 2018, the businesses within the UK spent an approximate amount of £ 2.5 billion on the environmental protection activities and initiatives, necessary to fight the causes, effects, and work on minimizing greenhouse emissions, emission of other pollutants, and illegal disposal of wastes on lands. Furthermore, the firms of the manufacturing sector spent about £ 1.5 billion on the aspects of environmental protection, thereby accounting for about 2/3 of the net EPE by the businesses within the UK in 2018 (Poomchalit, Suzuki & Suzuki, 2017).
The EPE estimates by the government can be categorised into the following categories: water waste management, solid waste management, protection and safekeeping of biodiversity and landscape, ambient air and climate, research and development, administration and education, and other relevant abatement costs.
3. Impact of construction on the environment, society and the economy and alternative ways to minimize them
3.1 Impacts
The construction industry is a volatile one with frequent responses to the fluctuations, both in terms of business and customer confidence. A sustained period of low economic growth usually results in a drastic recession of construction, whereas, higher levels of economic growth can result in a drastic acceleration of activities, operations, and growth of the construction sector. There are both positive and negative sides of construction. The positive side includes opportunities for job and growth for individuals and groups, shelter for people, significant contribution to the economy and society in terms of economy upliftment and mass social well-being.
On the other hand, construction operations and practices can significantly affect the surrounding environment and society in a negative way. It leads to increased amounts of pollution, including release of hazardous metals, chemical, gasses, and other pollutants into the air, water, and land. The emissions and deposits heavily deteriorate plant and animal life, along with that of the humans as well. This when seen from the perspective of a long-term basis can lead to increased states of global warming, earth's climatic change, depletion in ozone layer, loss of land and water species (both flora and fauna), and countless other issues. Humans, in terms of society and communities are being affected as well with ever increasing levels of toxicity in the air, increase of carbon dioxide, depletion of oxygen, and toxic substances deposited by the construction sites in the surrounding areas (Pousley, 2018).
3.2 Alternative methods of construction
Alternative construction methods refer to the processes or procedures involved within a construction system that widely differs from the traditional methods of construction principle, including architecture. In an alternative construction method, natural building materials are relied upon to develop sustainable and eco-friendly structure. In this way, a minimal footprint of the surrounding environment, economy, as well as the society can be ensured. Therefore, practicing alternative construction methods can help to tackle the above-mentioned issues and challengers related to the environment, the society, and the economy. There are various types of alternative construction methods, such as SIPs, ICFs, radiant wall systems, Strawbale, Log, Timber frame, Adobe, Cob, Earthship, and Rammed earth. Here, a combination of SIP and ICF will be relied upon to build a multistorey building that will provide a robust thermal insulation combined with a high level of r value. Although use of ICFs is usually seen in the development of foundations, this can be a great material to build multistorey buildings without compromising the aspect of sustainability. Also, SIPs provide extremely high levels of insulation with extremely high r value along with having airtight properties. Due to their limitations while being applied to an entire structure solely, it has been combined with ICFs at certain parts to maintain structural stability.
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Question: Explore alternative construction methods which are fit for purpose in a given context.
4. Analysis of alternative construction methods
4.1 Historical context
The history of construction combines numerous fields, such as civil engineering, structural engineering, and architecture along with other subjects, like technology science, population growth analysis, and history in order to examine the conservation criteria of a building or structure. This is also applicable for recording the details of accomplishments in the field of construction. Traditional methods of construction have been practiced throughout the history, from building of pyramids in Egypt to the Roman Colosseum in the ancient Rome. However, there were some methods that have been used from the ancient times to build sustainable and eco-friendly structures, usually small ones. Furthermore, the unavailability of technology and knowledge at the time was one of the reasons for depending upon these eco-friendly techniques to build structures. Some of the most commonly used techniques that were derived from the early times are cob, timber frame structures, Adobe, rammed earth, earth-ship, and cob. The majority of these techniques utilizes clay and soil for constructing the structures. Furthermore, hybrid structures, usually comprising of multiple construction methods are being used at the present times, combining two or multiple methods stated above.
4.2 Comparison
Here, as mentioned previously, a mixture of two methods, SIP and ICP will be used to construct the multistorey building. Although these two methods of alternative construction have certain similarly, they vary widely when seen intricately, especially in terms of strength and their properties (Radvanský & Lichner, 2021).
SIP is the abbreviation for Structural Insulated Panels. They are primarily rigid foam insulations that are compressed between two panels of OSB. They can be utilized to build roofs and walls having no thermal bridging. The buildings or structures that are made using this method are highly airtight, having high r values. They provide extremely high thermal performance having a comparatively thin wall than the traditional methods. Although these methods can be used to build multistorey buildings, there are certain structural limitations that have to be adhered to. In terms of demerits, it has very less fire resisting properties (Yakhin et al. 2019).
On the other hand, contrary to SIP, Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF) can be used to build entire structures as a result of having comparatively less structural limitations than SIP. However, it has similarities with SIP in terms of high insulation property and having an extremely high r value. It can be combined with SIP to make economic, sustainable, and robust structures. However, it required significantly more concrete per square foot as compared to most of the other methods.
4.3 Use of Alternative Construction Methods for commercial and domestic purposes
As mentioned above, a combination of SIP and ICF method will be relied upon to build the desired multistorey building (a hotel). The ICF methodology and procedures will be used to develop the commercial building's foundations and the majority of the walls, outer, and inner sections. SIP will be used to develop the roof and the surrounding components around it.
FAQ: Choosing the Right Alternative Construction Method
- What factors should I consider when choosing an alternative construction method?
- What are some examples of considering context?
- Where can I find information on different alternative construction methods?
- What are some of the common benefits of alternative construction methods?
- What are some important considerations for alternative methods?
Question: Discuss government policy implications, the role of Local government and health & safety constraints associated with alternative construction methods.
5. Government policies, strategies and legislations
The key and most common UK government's legislations and policies associated with heritage industrial buildings are as follows:
The Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: This act sets out the guidelines and rules for various historic and heritage buildings, listed under the act.
The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979: This act initially developed in 1979 states the regulations and policies required for scheduled monuments.
The Protection of Wrecks Act 1973: The given act provides the guidelines and regulations for protecting the wreck sites within the UK.
5.1 Development of industrial sites and heritage industrial buildings
According to Foreman-Peck and Federico (1999), an industrial policy can be defined as all the possible forms of state intervention that are responsible for affecting industry being the economy's a distinct segment. Similarly, other definitions of industry policies have been developed over the years. The UK's government in 2013 published strategies for the construction sector, names as Construction 2025, under which a statement regarding the reduction of greenhouse gas emission from the built environment has been mentioned. The amount of the updated reduction as per the policy is about 50 % lesser than that stated in the 1990's version of the act.
5.2 Legislation that support alternative methods of construction
Some of the UK's legislations related to alternative construction methods are as follows:
• Building Regulations 2010
• The Environment Act
• Environment Bill 2020
5.3 Implications and constraints of the government policies related to Alternative Construction methods
Presently, the UK's construction industry is relatively weaker than its other counterparts, such as the construction industry in the United States and Australia. Furthermore, the economic contribution of the sector to the nation is relatively less. Despite the efforts of bringing sustainable changes in the construction sector, the UK's government has failed to implement noticeable sustainable policies, such as control of greenhouse gas emissions and regulations on minimizing uncontrolled waste generation and disposal. Furthermore, the issue of Brexit has made the situation more complex than it previously was, thereby acting as a barrier for the organizations as well as the government to implement alternative methods of construction, which would help to maintain a touch of sustainability within the construction projects (Shao, Liu & Zhao, 2020).
FAQ: Government Policy, Local Government Role, and Safety in Alternative Construction
- How do government policies impact the adoption of alternative construction methods?
- What are some challenges with current policies?
- How can local governments promote alternative construction methods?
- What are some potential challenges for local governments?
- What are some potential health and safety concerns with alternative construction methods?
- How can these safety constraints be addressed?
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Question: Present a design proposal and design intervention during construction, utilising a selected alternative construction method.
Part B: Design Proposal
1. Design Brief
A 7-storey hotel will be developed here by utilizing SIP and ICF as the alternative construction methods. All the portions of the building, except the roof and the surrounding areas will be built using ICF (including the building foundation). SIP will be used only to construct the building roof and the surroundings along with providing reinforcements on the weak sections of the structure.
1.1 Justification
The reason behind choosing SIP and ICF over other alternative construction methods is that they are the most ideal ones to make multistorey buildings, having strong thermal insulation properties, and a high r value. As SIP alone is not usually sufficient enough to hold heavy loads, they have been used in the building's roof and surrounding areas bearing a lot less load than the other parts. When used carefully, ICF can be used to make entire building structures.
2. Plans, sections, and details
3. Research materials
The research materials required for the construction are as follows:
• Rigid foam insulation panels
• OSB panels
• Concrete
• Reinforced concrete beams
• Sand
• Fibre
4. Alignment of the designed proposal with the government policies and regulations
The majority of the materials to be used to construct the planned building are sustainable ands eco-friendly, and will put a relatively lower amount of footprint on the surrounding environment, communities, and the society. Also, production of these raw materials along with the construction procedure will be well under the limit of the legal thresholds of greenhouse gas emissions set by the UK's government. Furthermore, the ethical standards along with the procedures for the entire construction will be carried out in sustainable ways as per the Environment Bill 2020 and The Building Regulations 2010 guidelines.
FAQ: Design Proposal with Alternative Construction Method
- What is the purpose of this exercise?
- What kind of project is this for?
- What should my design proposal include?
- What are some examples of alternative construction methods?
- What is a design intervention?
- What kind of design intervention could occur?
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