Integrated design for green building in China : the obstacles and the way forward

Abstract

Throughout the world, the green building movement has engulfed the building sector and has introduced various new requirements into the building design. There are many obstacles in applying the green building rating systems to the building design process. Such obstacles are mainly due to the fact that performance-based targets and extra environmental concern of the rating systems require high levels of design collaboration and coordination among the structural, envelope, mechanical, electrical, and architectural systems. The integrated design process (IDP) was developed to overcome these obstacles and facilitate green building design. IDP theory has been reported to effectively assist the design team in planning high-performance green buildings. Currently, green building development in China is still at its initial stage; emphasis is on the comparison of different green building rating systems and the implementation of green technologies. Given that not much research on the implementation of the green building rating systems and actual investigation on the obstacles encountered during the green building design process have been conducted, architects tend to have negative attitudes toward the green building design and leading to lost opportunities in smoothly integrating the green building concept into the building design plan. At the same time, lack of consideration for the green building design process causes low-efficiency working pattern, frequent repairs, and low design quality. Therefore, there is an urgent need to investigate the green building design process and provide effective measures to help architects adopt the green building rating systems more easily.

The purpose of the current research is to investigate the architectural design influences of the green building concept and related rating systems, and the reforms it has undergone. This study employs the general research methodology and three different approaches, namely, documentary study, one-to-one interviews, and case analysis to accomplish its purpose.

The first analysis section explored IDP theory and related effective assistance to aid architects in developing an appropriate green building plan and achieving the target green certificate level. After conducting an in-depth examination of the design requirements and certification procedures of two dominant rating systems in China, the study found that the green building rating systems require an integrated design process which featured by performance targets, cross-disciplines workshops, simulation guidance, new consultancy, qualitative environmental analysis, database and reference of green building. The second analysis section featured three-round interviews with selected architects in different periods to reveal the main obstacles of green building design and to explore the effectiveness of the seven elements of IDP. The final part of the analysis tested the seven IDP elements using two cases from China. In two case studies, these seven elements were used as evaluation guidelines to verify their impacts on the decision-making skills of the design team.

Through the abovementioned analyses, the obstacles in green building design and the barriers of applying IDP theory in China were identified, the main points and experiences in the implementation of green building were examined in detail, and various solutions and guidelines were discovered toward the successful delivery of green building through IDP.