Designing Adaptability in Practice: Causes and Consequences

The objectives of this research were to study buildings’ design characteristics associated with buildings’ intrinsic and major qualities that might provide sustainable design benefits as measured by achievement in the LEED rating systems for new construction and major renovation for whole buildings (NC) or core and shell (CS) projects – and to make comparisons between new construction projects and building reuse projects via their credit point achievement levels. Given the predominance of existing buildings and the estimated demands for new buildings, it is vital to make use of existing building stock, and design for adaptation and change whilst maintaining a low carbon footprint. This necessity is supported by reports from the IGPCC 5th Assessment Report and US 3rd National Climate Assessment Report on climate change effects, and by the US EPA on construction and demolition (C&D) waste and materials production greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions factors. In order to make this need for adaptation and reuse feasible, designers must understand the factors that support adapted building designs, or the extent of influence that the building project parameters can have on these decisions – as well as the environmental values that building reuse may support The methodology in this study is to use the USGBC LEED certified projects credit achievement data and to characterize key attributes of these buildings via credit achievement between new construction and major renovations. Results are that there is a size range, specific space use types that correlate to building reuse apart from overall amount of construction within certain sizes and types. In addition it was found that LEED Core and Shell and New Construction and Major Renovation (NC) versions 2.X and 2009 new projects achieved equal to better energy reduction than major renovation projects in the same versions, while consistently performing less well in the major sustainable site performance categories.