Assessment of energy and sustainability aspects in architectural competitions

Abstract

Architectural competitions are considered to be a driving force for architectural quality, providing benefits in terms of financial aspects, quality, functionality, energy efficiency and sustainability with relevance throughout the life cycle of buildings. Furthermore, up to certain threshold values of services, EU Directives on public tenders oblige public authorities to conduct architectural competitions for their buildings. The architectural competition and the programming stage are the most important phases for implementing energy and sustainability-relevant aspects in the planning of the building. Many decisions during this phase have a profound and irreversible impact on the sustainability of the building. Aspects like orientation, compactness and openings of windows are decided upon during the preliminary design phase (the scope of most architectural competitions) and determine the future energy performance and the operation costs of the building. However, consideration of energy related issues and LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) aspects is difficult due to the lack of information about the building (materials and components are not determined at that time) and due to the lack of suitable tools, in terms of objectivity, consistency and simplicity. The aim of this paper is to analyse possibilities and chances and suggest solutions which help to integrate the assessment of energy related issues and LCA aspects into architectural competitions. Based on an analysis of the documents and minutes of over 50 architectural competitions and workshops with an expert team the current practice of assessing project submissions to architectural competitions is investigated. Although clients often demand an ecologically sustainable building, these criteria are seldom controlled and do not play a significant role in jury decisions. As a possible solution to these shortcomings we will then present strategies which we have developed and tested in architectural competitions in Austria and which enable clients to assess the environmental quality of submitted design proposals. The presentation is based on our research in two projects: the EU-FP 7 project “LoRe - Low Resource consumption buildings and construction by use of LCA in design and decision making” and the Austrian research project “IEAA - Integration of energy-relevant aspects in architectural competitions”.