Beyond low carbon : long-lasting housing evaluation system study in Pearl River Delta, China

Abstract

Green Building and Low Carbon Building concepts have become important research issues in Pearl River Delta, where is facing the social and economic transformation towards the post–industrialization era and information society but confronting with short life span of housing. However, Green Building concept and practice are often misunderstood and constantly accompanied with the ignorance of interrelation between people and built environment, and an appropriate methodology framework to organize those elements in the temporal dimension. At the same time, the development of new society brings new challenges for housing’s longevity. Theories such as obsolescence, structuralism, typology, open building, local attempts of Lingnan School, and the theories and practices by Eberle, to varied degrees, have paid many attentions to the limitations of Green Building and the potential demands of information society. Furthermore, Eberle has a holistic view beyond the traditional architect’s role and has developed a methodological framework integrated with OB theory’s “level” strategy. This framework can better balance the social service life and physical life of buildings, providing openness and inclusiveness for people changing demands and upgrading technologies. Therefore, several important longevity issues have been initially concluded from the theory studies. Then, four spatial levels, including “infrastructure and public space level,” “load bearing structure and staircases level,” “facade and service core level,” and “interior and function layout level,” are divided and incorporated with the important longevity issues. Based on this combined methodology framework, selected cases of local traditional housing and Green Building evaluation systems were studied respectively, aiming to find out more valuable longevity factors and evaluation methods. Subsequently, two rounds of consultation from experts and a data analysis were conducted to finalize the index system. The first round of consultation can help determine the local indexes and the evaluation methods. The second round of consultation can help finally confirm the weighting value of each index through a questionnaire study and data analysis. Furthermore, in order to test the applicability of the final index system, several Green Neighborhoods and Green Buildings which acquired the highest scores from China’s Green Building Label in the focused area, will be selected, evaluated and compared by means of this evaluation system. This dissertation concludes that, Green Building and Low Carbon Building are questioned for their longevity according to their theories, practices, and evolution systems. While many traditional houses in the Pearl River Delta area can be summarized abundant valuable longevity features, which are also important evidences and preconditions for localizing the relevant assessment tool. Most importantly, in order to achieve long-lasting, the emphasis on the interrelation between human and built environment, as well as a flexible organization method, are necessary. Thus, establishing a long-lasting evaluation system in the Pearl River Delta can benefit future studies and practice of long-lasting housing in the local and wider context.