No description available.

No description available.

This is an empirical study of the rationale the lays behind the decisions made to refurbish or demolish 20th century social mass-housing. The study is based on four case studies located in Edinburgh. From these studies, the decision-making criteria are identified. These fall into three broad categories, which are structural integrity, sociocultural value, and economic practicality. The analysis of these three categories of criteria sheds light on the way in which each is used in justifying the decisions taken. The case studies include 1) the demolition of West Granton Housing Scheme-A; 2) the·. demolition of Tweedsmuir and Grampian Houses; 3) the demolition of Grampian and Cairngorm Houses; and 4) The mixed solution of demolition and refurbishment applied to Ebenezer MacRae's Housing Estates. The study analyses the decision-making process according to three criteria: structural integrity, economic practicality, and sociocultural value. While structural integrity is a precondition for a building's survival and economic viability the fundamental language in which the discussion is conducted, sociocultural value is also of critical significance, as it most clearly indicates the precise and often complex nature of the problem and its solution. The broader context in which these competing agendas operate, however, is political, and as this study makes clear, the ultimate decision and justification on why a building might be demolished or conserved is political.

The use of models to simulate full scale structural effects has long been attempted and various types of models have been developed. One type, the replica model, in which prototype materials are used was selected for this study. Much interest has been shown in the past on damage prediction based on extrapolation of the results from small explosive charge tests. In this study, scale model concrete ground slabs have been subjected to high rates of loading using explosively propelled copper and aluminium projectiles impacting on the concrete to air surface and explosive devices buried in the soil beneath the concrete slab. The copper or aluminium projectile was produced from a truncated cone of metal in direct contact with a shaped charge of RDX/TNT explosive. The subsurface charge was uncased PE4 plastic explosive inserted into a hole through the slab and into the soil. In many tests the hole was produced by the metal jet impact without any modification. Other scaled concrete targets have also been tested using explosively propelled projectiles. Transient results from the tests have been collected using high speed photography, electrical resistance strain gauges, crack velocity detection devices and a projectile velocity measurement system. Other measurements of post test damage have utilised stereoscopic photography, coloured particles of soil in the foundations of the concrete slabs and a scanning electron microscope. Concretes of various strengths and densities have been used but all conformed to a scaled down specification for pavement quality concrete. Explosive charges were similarly scaled in size from prototype devices. Some additional experimental work has been carried out to obtain fundamental data on the explosive charges and on 'perspex', metal and concrete blocks for calculation and comparison purposes. Comparisons are also made with work of a related nature undertaken at larger scales.

The negative environmental impacts of buildings are now recognised as being of great concern. Increasingly, these concerns are being addressed in both the construction and the operational phase of a building's lifecycle. The specification of renewable or low impact materials and the criteria for designing for energy efficiency are now commonplace, but what about the final stage of a building's life-the demolition phase? The construction industry produces 24 kg of waste per person per week in the UK, and the majority of this is caused by decisions taken at the design stage. Conversely most of the current discussion in this area has been focused on dealing with the waste once it has arisen. If we are going to do more than 'end of pipe', remedial clean up of building waste we need to rethink how we design, build, use and demolish our built environment. In effect this means taking the filters out of the pipes and placing then instead in the designers heads. In addressing this situation, the aim of this thesis is to define guideline strategies that will reduce the negative environmental impacts of buildings by designing for the whole lifecycle. The research is presented in four parts. In the first part, the literature is reviewed and developed to define buildings within a cyclical systems context. This entails drawing upon relevant debates within the fields of systems thinking, architecture, bio-mimicry, industrial ecology, and industrial product design. In the second part, an investigation carried out with demolition experts is presented. In this study knowledge and opinions were sought via a number of semi-structured interviews with demolition experts. The conclusions of the case study identify strategies, which if implemented at the design stage could reduce the lifetime impacts and increase the reuse and recycling potential of buildings, their elements and material components. Following the detailed focus on end of life, the research is now expanded to consider the changes that occur throughout a building's lifetime. The aim of this is to determine where the greatest use of resources and major impacts occur throughout the building life cycle. Therefore Part III presents an investigation of the lifetime environmental impacts of office buildings. The building is fragmented into its time dependent layers (foundations, frame, claddings, services and internal fit out) and the impacts of these layers over the building lifetime are investigated. The study also examines the relative impacts of different frames and floors, which allow varying degrees of disassembly. Finally, to complete the lifecycle investigation, the embodied impacts are compared with the operational impacts over a sixty-year lifecycle. Part IV presents the conclusions of this research, based on a synthesis of the findings of the earlier chapters. Finally those areas that would benefit from further research are identified.

published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management

Thesis (M.Env.Sc.) -- University of Adelaide, Degree of Master of Environmental Management, 2003. / "November 2003" Bibliography: leaves 76-80.

Thesis (M.Hous.M.)--University of Hong Kong, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

No description available.

Near the end of a building's lifecycle, many times when the building is no longer deemed useful, decisions are made whether to wait out a new tenant for the structure or to destroy it to make way for new construction. If the latter, while the building waits, its materials are left to the elements to decay away through natural weathering over time. To give these environments new life would not only reinvigorate the surrounding area with a renewed purpose, but is also a much more sustainable process of construction than simply demolishing and creating whole new structures. To be able to capitalize on the structure, material, and identifying characteristics of an existing building is the goal of a well performed adaptive re-use project. This project outlines steps and the process in which an architect should complete as they go through the phases of construction for this process. The steps that I developed to complete this process are Observation, Preservation, Renovation, and Activation. Through the completion of this process a respectful interchange of ideas, character, and structure is shared between the old and new. The host of this process of adaptive re-use is a Catholic school located in Pittsburgh PA, originally built in 1875. Over its long history it has seen many changes and additions to its original construction but has since been abandoned for over ten years. This thesis takes this building and explains the process of re use for taking this abandoned Catholic school and creating an artist residency and community complex. / Master of Architecture / As the defining edge of human expansion raises our population to a critical point, to house and provide for this continuous growth requires the construction of spaces to grow with it at a comparable rate. As newer spaces get created, older spaces become emptied to hopefully be filled by another entity. Brand new buildings, as exciting as the notion can be, will continuously become less prevalent in the world of architectural design as our method of conservation and architectural preservation gets better to match this rise in density. This thesis outlines the process one should complete when renovating or adding onto an existing structure. The host of this study is a catholic school from 1875 that is being adapted and re-used to become an artist residency and cultural art space.