Material choice made simpler: a methodology for humanitarian construction projects, and beyond
Open access
Date
2023-12-12Type
- Conference Paper
ETH Bibliography
yes
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Abstract
The humanitarian sector, including its construction component, committed to greener operations, necessitating a reevaluation of decision-making processes. Sustainable construction tools mostly neglect early project design, requiring detailed project data, often scarce, and restituting in the complexity of incorporating corrections.
Moreover, within crises and conflict-affected context, specific hazards and risks often limit the ease of adoption of conventional sustainability considerations.
The obstacles of data availability, feedback delay and local hazards and risks are identified as critical areas to simplify the assessment process for architects and engineers in the humanitarian context. A digital sustainable construction tool was developed with the ICRC to respond to this need, and a general methodology to simplify material choice within the decision making process was extracted based on the tool development process.
Data availability in an early design stage was addressed by proposing a range of relevant material packages as alternatives, and utilized for a preliminary emissions assessment. Automatically, location and program-informed estimations on energy use are provided for a more integrated assessment.
Feedback delay was resolved by adopting a progressive phasing mode, providing incremental information from site analysis to development and monitoring stages, gradually.
Local hazards and risks together with socio-cultural considerations were additionally integrated to the assessment via automatic alerts and checklists.
Such method, developed to respond to the specific humanitarian needs, can be of relevance to the broader construction sector, simplifying adoption of sustainable practices. Show more
Permanent link
https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000650237Publication status
publishedBook title
Proceedings of 19th International Conference on Non-Conventional Materials and Technologies (IC-NOCMAT 2023)Pages / Article No.
Publisher
Federal University of ParaíbaEvent
Subject
Material selection; early assessment; digital tools; sustainable construction tool; humanitarian construction; emergencyOrganisational unit
03972 - Habert, Guillaume / Habert, Guillaume
02655 - Netzwerk Stadt u. Landschaft ARCH u BAUG / Network City and Landscape ARCH and BAUG
Notes
Conference lecture held on November 7, 2023More
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ETH Bibliography
yes
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