Ideas like embodied energy and carbon footprint are given much consideration in modern architecture and engineering, and rightly so, but another vital aspect of sustainable building design is simply choosing the right products for the job. After all, the better designed and constructed a building is, the longer it will remain useful, and the less likely it is to be gutted and refurbished, or knocked down and replaced. This holds true for projects of all scales and across all building functions, from structural elements and cladding to the fine detail of interior fitout.
We could make a fair argument for steel being the most important building material of the modern era. After all, steel frames have enabled the large-scale development that defines the twentieth- and twenty-first-century city, from the tallest skyscrapers to the deepest underground railways, as well as the sprawling shopping centres, factories and office buildings at ground level. We might not see them as we wander urban streets, but we’re forever surrounded by high-tensile steel purlins and girts, post anchors, steel piering systems, steel-reinforced concrete, steel wall cladding, high-capacity tie-downs, hold-down brackets and other steel products that provide structure to our built environment.
And around this steel skeleton a range of materials and products with different characteristics has proliferated. For example, aluminium and its alloys are light, corrosion resistant and malleable, which provides great design flexibility. Many buildings feature aluminium cladding in the form of lightweight aluminium panels, aluminium composite panels and louvres, and architectural battens, blades and fins. In some applications, these elements act as metal sunscreens, admitting natural light to the building interior while protecting it from the heating effect of direct sunlight. They can be custom-designed or installed with a modular batten screening system or other modular facade system.
Other options for architectural cladding that mitigate the impact of sunlight include perforated metal sheet and architectural woven wire, as well as translucent polycarbonate panels that bring diffuse illumination to an interior. But then, sometimes you just want to let the light in, and that’s why the other material that has defined modern architecture is glass. Much more than just the clear stuff you put inside a window frame, it now performs all kinds of roles: it can be decorative (curved glass, patterned glass, etched glass), it can control building access (glass security barriers) and it can create views that were previously impossible to achieve (frameless glass balustrades). Low-emissivity glass, also known as low-e glass, is a kind of energy-saving glass that stops heat from escaping the building, while solar-responsive glass tints itself darker in response to the sun’s intensity. But perhaps most remarkable is the glass that can generate electricity from the sun’s energy – walkable photovoltaic glass means that walkways and other building elements can help power the building itself.
An aspect of construction far less visible, but no less important, than glass is building insulation, and it too comes in many different guises tailored to different applications. Concrete slab insulation helps prevent heat transfer through floors, as soffit insulation board does through eaves and the underside of balconies, and carpark insulation panels, well, you get the picture. Materials vary and can be as simple as polystyrene insulation, or the product of highly sophisticated insulative building envelope technology.
But then there’s a building material that’s been in use for thousands of years and is still indispensable and pretty much ubiquitous – timber. Urban myth states that we’re never further than six feet from a rat in a city, but it probably holds true for timber bearers and timber joists too! And timber framing is making something of a comeback in even the busiest urban centres, with the emerging trend for frames for high-rise buildings constructed from engineered timber, which offers great strength and stability, and speed of construction. Meanwhile, seemingly everyday products like hardwood timber decking and cladding, glue-laminated timber beams and prefabricated timber roof trusses, continue to be staples of modern building.
The materials and products we specify for building interiors are generally chosen for their aesthetic value (for example, coloured MDF panels, photographic wall cladding or brass woven wire), to deliver a particular level of performance (fire-resistant plasterboard, acoustic panelling or bulletproof glass) or to enable a specific task or function (a digital building directory, hearing loop audio induction system or low-rise platform lift). However, one thing unites them all, and it’s the incredibly high level of expectation we now have for what a building interior should be. This is especially true for commercial projects, where interior design can define and reposition brands, blue-chip and start-up alike, and ensure employee health, productivity and loyalty. The opportunity for interior architects and designers is almost limitless, but so is the challenge!
And so much of that opportunity and challenge comes down to technology. First and foremost, it’s an enabler for design, with the days of hand-drawn plans and elevations almost completely gone. Not only are buildings designed and rendered digitally – it’s true to say that many of today’s buildings simply couldn’t have been designed without computers – software packages now provide for all kinds of niche requirements, such as vehicle turn simulation and vehicle swept path analysis for carpark design, 3D aircraft turning simulation for airport design and specialised railway design software.
But technology now exists within buildings themselves, as an additional, almost invisible layer over the top of the built fabric. In large projects, a building management system (or BMS) monitors and coordinates everything from heating, ventilation and cooling (HVAC) to lighting to security, fire alarms and fire suppression. Apart from the obvious functional benefit of having these separate, complex systems working together, a BMS can deliver significant energy and cost savings by ensuring that these systems are only activated when actually required. This kind of technology is increasingly common in houses and apartments, with home automation systems that incorporate entertainment functionality and remote operation via smartphones.
It’s easy to mentally correlate rapidly changing digital technology with wasteful obsolescence. But the flexibility that digital technology brings to architecture – it can be upgraded, augmented and expanded as new innovations appear, or as the needs of the building users change – is yet another way for buildings to have longer lives. Provided, of course, that we design great indoor and outdoor spaces, and choose the right products and materials in the first place.
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