M. Tech. Architectural Technology / This research project focuses on determining the costs involved in applying energy efficient green technologies and sustainable principles to Johannesburg's existing commercial building stock. Although South Africa is committed to contributing toward greenhouse gas reduction in terms of the Kyoto Protocol, such contribution unfortunately occurs at a slow pace. Although the current built environment is identified as a key element in the mitigation of climate change, developers and building owners argue that the associated costs remain the largest drawback. Retrofitting existing buildings to meet green standards could significantly contribute to mitigating climate change.

Sustainable development has been variously defined as: "the simultaneous pursuit of economic prosperity, environmental quality, and social equity" (Gissen 2002:185), and as society's ability to meet its current needs and fulfil its greatest potential without compromising its ability to address its needs and potentials in the future (WCED 1987). It is a far reaching concept which calls for action by the entire spectrum of society. It implies a focus on more than just financial profits, and is more holistic and systemic than simple environmentalism. Approaches to the subject differ depending on the global context, that is, the North sees the issue as leaning more toward conscientious environmental resource use and rehabilitation, whereas the South sees sustainable development more in terms of providing for the basic needs of the poor, which often takes priority over doing so in an environmentally and economically sustainable manner. Implementation of sustainable development tends to be implemented by governments in a number of ways, firstly by moving the indicators of development away from Gross Domestic Product and toward more holistic indicators such as Quality of Life indicators, in order to internalise factors that are typically considered external to normal economic pricing factors. The implementation of sustainable development into the architecture and construction industry requires architects to be aware of the issues involved and the solutions available. Then clients need to be educated in their role in the process, with particular emphasis on the advantages available to them. These advantages include lower running costs, improved corporate image, and improved worker contentment and productivity. Practical measures for sustainable architectural design are primarily environmental in nature, and include water, energy, and material resource efficiency, as well as indoor environmental quality. These can however, largely be validated in economic terms. Existing literature that are intended as 'design guides', are however, lacking in practical measures in which to implement the more social and economic sides of sustainable development, and for that, the designer needs to look toward various architectural assessment tools, of which South Africa's Sustainable Building Assessment Tool is useful because of the broad scope of its approach. Built examples have demonstrated greatly improved environmental performance in buildings, as well as improved worker and client satisfaction. In terms of architectural quality, they range from offices which look very similar to other 'non-sustainable' offices built in the North, to a more experimental and low-tech approach practiced by a number of architects from the South, which see this approach as an opportunity for a new architectural expression. Sustainable architecture requires acknowledging sustainable development goals from the very start of the project. Following this, the interrelationship between different components of a design is examined, particularly with respect to allowing advantages attained from one component or system to benefit other systems. A holistic approach of concurrently focusing on environmental, social and economic factors will be shown to benefit all of these factors rather than just the one being designed for - for example, environmental interventions can have economic benefits. Because of the wide scope of factors that need to be considered, it will be found that often there are conflicting issues. This can be resolved through analyses such as life-cycle-analysis and value judgments can be made by comparing different solutions. / Thesis (M.Arch.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2006.

Thesis (MTech (Design))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2011 / Sustainable architecture prescribes the conscious consideration and active contemplation of ways of meeting the housing needs of humans while attempting simultaneously to prevent our consumption patterns from exceeding the resources at our disposal. Sustainability in the built environment is infinitely complex as the very nature of modern architecture is based upon the extraction and exploitation of finite natural resources to feed a linear system ultimately ending in the depletion of those resources and the destruction of the ecosystem from which they are excavated. When considering built environments, the most visible and measurable components of any sustainable design is its ecological and economic sustainability. Social sustainability, on the other hand is of an unquantifiable nature, making it a most contentious topic in design and development discourse. This thesis uses a systems approach to sustainable architecture as a lens to focus on the practical applications of structural concepts made possible by the integration of textiles in the built environment and examines possibilities of adapting and incorporating vernacular and low-tech textile-based construction methods into contemporary sustainable architecture. More specifically, it explores the possibilities of using architextiles, or textiles in the building industry, as a vehicle for advancing sustainable development within the emerging economy of South Africa with its unambiguous diversity in all three bottom lines of sustainability; environment (ecology, resources, geography, built environment), society (community, culture, politics) and economy (employment, wealth, finance, industry, infrastructure, consumer behaviour).

Although much research has been conducted on the greening of universities in the international context, not many studies focus on this topic in the South African context. A literature overview also identified that there are insufficient guidelines for green buildings at South African universities. Even though the Green Star rating tool is implemented in South Africa, no set of guidelines for green buildings exits at South African universities. The development of guidelines for green buildings at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan is a challenge which needs to be investigated. From the literature overview, it was possible to develop a framework containing seventeen green building aspects which could assist in developing green building guidelines. For this study, a two stage process was used to obtain information to evaluate green building guidelines critically at South African universities. Green building guidelines, as available at South African universities, were firstly explored by conducting a content analysis of all South African university websites. The information available on South African university websites regarding green buildings was scant and only two universities, namely the University of Cape Town and the University of Pretoria, reported that they had a green building. Stage two in the research process involved the empirical investigation of guidelines for green buildings at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. The results of the descriptive statistics showed that most building guidelines were perceived as important, but difficult to implement. The building guideline that was ranked the most important was the design of buildings that required low levels of maintenance or were maintenance free. The building guideline that was ranked the easiest to implement was to save energy in general. Considering the 17 suggested aspects and the five groups identified, a proposed set of green building guidelines was developed. The data gathered in this study is important as it could be utilised by the university to develop and implement the proposed green building guidelines.

M. Tech. Architecture (Professional) / A substantial proportion of the African population is deprived of access to safe and reliable food. Many people in Tshwane currently live with long-term malnutrition, seeing that food insecurity is growing most rapidly in formal urban areas, referred to as food deserts, due to their limited access to food. Designing urban environments for local food security has become imperative. This dissertation presents the design of a research centre to promote a resilient urban food systems in Sunnyside, Pretoria. A combination of high- and low-intensity cultivation methods is integrated into the building to create a balance between optimised crop yield and community participation and education. The holistic integration of systems, people and the built environment aims to create a building that is not merely a machine for living, but a living machine.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Building structures have a major impact on the quality of the macro-climates of the world, in particular in terms of pollution and environmental costs associated with their creation, operation and maintenance. Emerging global trends to make buildings more efficient, effective and sustainable, led to the question can one establish how sustainable existing buildings are? Building rating tools like LEED, BREEAM and Green Star, can already be used to rate and certify buildings in terms of their environmental performance and sustainability, but seem to fall short of establishing true overall building performance sustainability. As an architect, the researcher was involved in a project to develop a process for the Provincial Government Western Cape to comply with the Government Immovable Asset Management Act, Act no.19 of 2007 (GIAMA). The problem statement of this study links to the objective to comply with GIAMA, which requires that all government buildings be assessed in terms of their sustainability. This led to a number of research questions being asked. The first of these questions are what can be learnt from currently available rating systems and would it be possible to track and monitor the sustainability performance of a building over time. This triggered a series of related questions: What role can benchmarking play in establishing and tracking a building’s sustainability over time? How can benchmarking help to identify which part of a building’s overall sustainability is most in need of resourcing, to bring it closer to overall sustainability? How can capital and maintenance expense budgets associated with the building life-cycle be effectively utilised to bring buildings closer to overall sustainability? How can the availability of detailed information pertaining to the costs and benefits of green investments in existing buildings help building owners to identify the best initiatives to invest in? The methodology used in this study to answer the above questions is based on two research approaches. The first part made use of a literature review to establish and define the knowledge framework to be used in the second case study portion of the study. The methodology used for the case study was based on applied research, where the real life problems associated with the development of a suitability benchmarking process for the PGWC was documented and assessed. The results of the study found that there exist a missing link between theoretical knowledge of sustainability benchmarking and the legislative requirement of GIAMA and that this missing link is the standardised accurate and verifiable data required for the benchmarking process. In addition to this it was also found that the social aspects of buildings are generally neglected. A universal standard for collection of the required data is also needed. The study also highlighted that a general misperception exist that Environmental Sustainability is synonymous with the Sustainability paradigm. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Bou strukture het 'n groot impak op die gehalte van die makro-streke van die wêreld. Veral in terme van besoedeling en die ekologiese koste wat verband hou met die ontwikkeling, werking en onderhoud daarvan. Globale opkomende tendense om geboue meer doeltreffend en volhoubaar te maak, het gelei tot die vraag: Hoe kan 'n mens die volhoubaarheid van 'n bestaande gebou vasstel? 'n Aantal bou-graderings-stelsels, soos LEED, BREEAM en Green Star, kan reeds gebruik word om geboue te gradeer en sertifiseer in terme van hul omgewingsvolhoubaarheid, maar skiet te kort ten opsigte van algehele volhoubaarheid van ʼn gebou. As ʼn argitek was die navorser betrokke by ʼn projek om ʼn proses te ontwikkel vir die Provinsiale Regering van die Wes-Kaap (PGWK) om te voldoen aan die Wet op die Bestuur van Onroerende Regeringsbates, Wet no. 19 van 2007. Die probleemstelling van hierdie studie koppel aan die vereiste om te voldoen aan Wet 19 van 2007, wat vereis dat alle regeringsgeboue geassesseer word ingevolge hul volboubaarheid . Dit het gelei tot 'n aantal navorsingsvrae: Eerstens, watter lesse kan geleer word uit die bestaande bou-graderings-stelsels en tweedens, is dit moontlik om op die volhoubaarheid van 'n gebou te monitor en gradeer oor tyd? Dit het tot verwante vrae gelei, naamlik: Watter rol die stel van maatstawe kan speel om die volhoubaarheid van ʼn gebou te monitor? Hoe kan die stel van maatstawe bepaal watter aspekte van 'n gebou die meeste hulpbronne benodig, ten einde dit nader aan algehele volhoubaarheid te bring? Kan die kapitaal- en instandhoudingsbegrotings, wat verband hou met die lewens-siklus van die gebou, effektief gebruik word om ʼn gebou nader aan volhoubaarheid te bring? Hoe kan die beskikbaarheid van inligting met betrekking tot die koste en voordele van groen beleggings van bestaande geboue, gebou-eienaars help om die beste inisiatiewe te identifiseer om in te belê? Die metode wat in hierdie studie gebruik is om bogenoemde vrae te antwoord, is gebaseer op twee navorsings benaderings. Die eerste deel van hierdie studie het gebruik gemaak van 'n literatuuroorsig om ʼn kennisraamwerk te definieer en te vestig, wat dan in die tweede deel van die studie, ʼn gevallestudie, gebruik word. Die metode wat gebruik is vir die gevalle studie is gebaseer op toegepaste navorsing, waar die werklike probleme wat verband hou met die ontwikkeling van 'n geskikte volhoubaarheid maatstawings proses vir die PRWK gedokumenteer en geassesseer is. Die resultate van die studie was die bevinding dat daar 'n vermiste skakel bestaan tussen die teoretiese kennis ten opsigte van ‘n maatstawings stelsel vir volhoubaarheid en die wetlike vereiste van Wet 19 van 2007. Die vermiste skakel is dat gestandariseerde, accurate en verifieerbare data bemodig word vir die maatstawings proses. Daar is ook gevind dat die sosiale impakte van geboue verwaarloos word. Die studie stel voor dat ʼn universele standaard benodig word vir die versameling van die vereiste data. Die studie het ook n belangrike observasie gemaak dat daar 'n algemene wanopvatting in die industrie bestaan dat Omgewingsvolhoubaarheid sinoniem is met die Volhoubaarheid paradigma.