Assignment Sample on BUIL1059 The Business Case for Sustainability

Introduction

The project manager will prepare a project for “Robin Hood Gardens brutalist residential council estate” based in London. Some kind of technical intervention is required which will improve the life-cycle of the old building. Robin Hood Gardens is one of the famous residential estates which were set up in the late 1960s (Thoburn, 2018). Sustainable Corporate Social Responsibility is the main drive that will be focused on through the project. The client desires some reconstruction of the multi-dimensional building, so the project managers are required to make some plans which will help in the proper reconstruction of the multi-layout building. Passive House standards and Passivhaus plus Standard will be kept in mind before there reconstruction of the building. All the UK policies and practices will be considered before the development of the project (Mould, 217). Considering all the climatic factors which are coming across in the recent time the lifecycle of the project will be given utmost importance.

Identification and estimation of benefits and drawbacks of various measures

Robin Hood Gardens is very famous for its social housing complex which is based in London. This garden was made during the time of war so it is an old architectural building that was developed by the architects. The Balfron Towers were the brutalist styles that are present inside the Robin Hood Gardens. Robin Hood Gardens need to be reconstructed by architects with low cost and good quality material (Ortlepp, 2020). Each building needs to be designed keeping in mind its location and its use. The multi-family construction projects mainly focus on the quality, cost, and effectiveness of the project. The aim of developing a project is to improve the standard for the buildings by improving efficiency. Investors invest in this type of multi-family building as it provides a strong return on their investment.

Robin Hoods Garden is mainly built with different panels of precast concrete which is based on two horizontal structures that include almost 213 apartments. In these apartments, it is found that there are mainly one and two-story apartments which have bent slightly in recent years. It is difficult for the project manager to design the idea as there is one building right beside it which is ten storeys and the other one is seven storeys. Robin Hood Garden also has a garden in the centre which appears to be like a rising hill. Any architectural change in the building is becoming very pricey. The serious problems faced by the people living in this flat made them undesirable to live in. The developers wanted to demolish the flat for the sake of their benefit. Instead of demolishing the flat, it is much preferable to renovate the multi-family building that will be much more cost-effective. Robin Hood Gardens is an important architectural apartment and monument of British modernization. The multifamily building has already retreated with the legislation to shift it from a public apartment to a private apartment.  Sustainable Housing should be developed for the wellbeing of the residents and to reduce environmental problems.

The cost of building is set as per the code of sustainable homes (Department of Communities and Local Government, 2011). The project manager will consider the aspects of sustainability that will help in the better reconstruction of the building. A comprehensive study by the managers will help develop sustainability in their architecture. The project manager is also doing this project for their fame, this project is not done to earn a profit for the reconstruction or redevelopment of Robin Hoods Gardens; instead, this project is developed by the project managers to get fame in the global industry and construction industries. Meanwhile, the designers will also keep in mind that they do not have to incur a loss from the redevelopment of the project. It should meet a break-even point where the project manager is neither getting any profit from the project nor they are incurring any loss.

A residence is one of the most important places for an individual’s well-being. Robin Hood Gardens is meanwhile facing a variety of environmental problems. The climatic changes have become a very important reason behind the reconstruction and demolition of the old buildings. Investors should use natural resources properly so that anything does not get wasted. Thus, the project manager is designing the project to strengthen its functioning in the long run. Encouraging sustainable houses will protect the multi-family building from the environmental burden. Sustainable development is a goal-oriented task that should be focused on by the project managers.

Developing Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery (MVHR) will provide fresh air in the reconstructed building and regain the energy that has already been used while heating the building. A heat recovery ventilation system is well suited in those buildings which require fresh and filtered air (Wang et al. . Transforming the windows into triple glazing will be very worthwhile as it will offer many values compared to double glazing, it will help in reducing heat loss which will impact on the energy bills. Triple glazing is supplied with an overall thickness of 28-44mm (Shadloo et al. 2020). Solar Thermal energy will also be very helpful where the sun’s energy is converted into heat energy and that is transferred into the multi-family house. The project managers will develop solar Thermal panels that will be helpful for heat emission. The reconstruction will be done in such a way that the stakeholders and the tenants do not have to bear the maintenance expenditure.

Consideration of financial mechanisms and incentives for the implementation of sustainability measures

The project of Robin Hood Gardens requires reconstruction considering the finance mechanism and incentives as their factor. For the implementation of sustainability measures, it is important to find the financial resources which include the transfer of technology (Adabre and Darko, 2021). The financial mechanism prioritizes the environmental factors and the various climate change policies before creating the funding ideas. The client of the project is financially much more aware regarding the various aspects so it is much more important to control the capital. During the time the construction was completed it cost approximately 1,845,585 euros, now the cost of reconstruction is going to rise during the current year and the cost will also be very high.

Enhanced Fabric in the buildings will help to reduce 32% of the heat. It is mainly incorporated for sustainable homes. This has been implemented for cooling of the apartments and the new reconstructed as well as the old buildings. The average price of double glazing cost from 225 Euros to a range of 1900 Euros (Somasundaram et al. 2020).

Double glazing is estimated to be 25% in energy saving; it will cost £850 to £1500. High-performance double glazing depends on the windows and the doors, the colour of the window, the size of the window, and the energy-saving rate of the window or the door. Triple glazing is also done to reduce the heat; triple glazing reduces the energy by 32%.

Triple glazing of the windows and doors will cost approximately 485euros, whereas the cost of double glazing will range from approximately 350 Euros. The Robin Hood Gardens is generally based in London where severe cold is expected so the project manager wanted to implement triple glazing for the doors and the windows (Gorantla et al.2021). Double glazing is sufficient for the regions where it has a moderate climate. Solar shading provides natural heat and light in the building, so for the reconstruction of the Robin Hood Gardens, it is advisable to implement solar shading which will reduce the cooling load by 40%.

Solar shading is mainly implemented to optimize the solar heat that is admitted in the building. It will be very much helpful for the visual comfort of the residents residing in the Robin Hood Gardens (Kumar et al. 2021).

The MVHR system is implemented in the project for healthy and purified air in the building. The domestic MVHR system installation in the UK for a 2-4 bedroom house costs approximately 3000 Euros. The commercial MVHR system installation for an average office costs 9500 Euros and the boiler flue economizer which is used for large heating systems costs approximately 7000 Euros. It is seen to be a bit pricey in terms of the reconstruction of the multi-family building. The cost will range from 2000 euros to 8000 euros. The cost will be depending on the size of the property and number of supply points and the different specific units that are expected to be controlled. Depending on the type of MVHR the cost of the system will be dependent. The project managers have done research on many energy performance standards among which Passivhaus is one of the famous international energy performance standards.  The main aim of the Passivhaus standard is to reduce the area of heating and cooling, thus, creating a neutralized level of comfort indoors (Echarri-Iribarren et al. 2019).

The Passivhaus standard can be achieved by the use of mechanical ventilation and air tightness at exception levels. Passivhaus mainly focuses on the high level of comfort and clear air in the new buildings. The Robin Hood Gardens can implement Passivhaus Standard as it will be beneficial for the residences. These standards are mainly adopted by high-level construction sites and Robin Hood Gardens is one among those to implement the Passivhaus standard in their reconstruction development. The cost of Passivhaus ranges between 108304 euros to 172644 Euros. Fully Passivhaus classic complaint reduces the energy by 80% whereas fully Passivhaus Plus complaint will spread positive energy in the Robin Hood Gardens. In order to implement sustainability measures in the Robin Hood Gardens, incentives and financial mechanisms are key factors (Sigalingging et al. 2020). By offering incentives through taxes, the government in the UK can encourage eco-friendly reconstruction sites for the Robin Hood Gardens. By implementing minimum business requirements, the cost of the project can be reduced.

Table 1: Estimated costs

(Source: Created by Learner)

Recommendations

The department of communities and local government in the Uk are implementing policies that will be favourable for the managers to develop the construction project of Robin Hood Gardens. The project managers were required to redevelop the Robin Hood Gardens which is one of the residential estates which was set up in the late 1960s. The building condition has become worse in the course of time, the estate was considered to face many climatic challenges which can be refined with the help of sustainable development plans. The multi-family building was facing a lot of challenges that were occurring due to the back-dated construction techniques which were used while developing the construction sites. Previously the demolition plans had been already passed by the Tower Hamlets Council in early 2012 (Muldavin, 2010).

The redevelopment scheme came into force in December 2012. The project manager did vivid research from various places and analyzed that a feasible reconstruction structure should be implemented by them. The project was formulated by the managers taking into account all the simple calculations so that the Robin Hoods Gardens is reconstructed in a better way. The enhanced business fabric was insulated so that estimated costs can be reduced. External solar shading was done to balance the heat energy and keep the room cool. Some sustainable housing development was designed so that environmental problems can be minimized (Evangelisti et al. 2020). A sustainable reconstruction will help to avoid negative impacts on the environment. The materials and the resources which are used to redevelop the construction site will be helpful for the residents. The project managers have research on orientation, which is when every building gets proper natural heat and light.

Conclusion

The redevelopment of the project was done by the project manager; keeping in mind all the requirements of its client. The redevelopment was mainly done for fame, not for earning a profit, the main aim behind the redevelopment of Robin Hood Gardens’ brutalist residential council estate is to build an image in the society. The client wanted the layout and fenestration pattern of the building to be the same. The Passive House Standard and Passivhaus Standards are advised by the project architect but the Quantity Surveyor advised the client to keep the redevelopment minimalist. The project architect has implemented the sustainable development housing standard to reconstruct the building so that it can face climatic challenges in the future. The project is planned in such a way that the tenants do not have to bear any expense for its maintenance in the future. The project is planned in such a way that the client does not have to invest a lot of money in it.

Reference list

Adabre, M.A., Chan, A.P. and Darko, A., 2021. Interactive effects of institutional, economic, social and environmental barriers on sustainable housing in a developing country. Building and Environment, p.108487.

Department of Communities and Local Government (2011). The Cost of building to the Code for Sustainable Homes.

Echarri-Iribarren, V., Sotos-Solano, C., Espinosa-Fernández, A. and Prado-Govea, R., 2019. The Passivhaus standard in the Spanish Mediterranean: Evaluation of a house’s thermal behaviour of enclosures and airtightness. Sustainability, 11(13), p.3732.

Evangelisti, L., Guattari, C., Asdrubali, F. and de Lieto Vollaro, R., 2020. An experimental investigation of the thermal performance of a building solar shading device. Journal of Building Engineering, 28, p.101089.

Gorantla, K., Shaik, S., Kontoleon, K.J., Mazzeo, D., Maduru, V.R. and Shaik, S.V., 2021. Sustainable reflective triple glazing design strategies: Spectral characteristics, air-conditioning cost savings, daylight factors, and payback periods. Journal of Building Engineering, 42, p.103089.

Kumar, K.R., Chaitanya, N.K. and Kumar, N.S., 2021. Solar thermal energy technologies and its applications for process heating and power generation–A review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 282, p.125296.

Mould, O., 2017. Brutalism redux: Relational monumentality and the urban politics of brutalist architecture. Antipode, 49(3), pp.701-720.

Muldavin, R. (2010). Value Beyond Cost Savings. How to underwrite Sustainable Properties.

Ortlepp, A., 2020. Building Concrete Democracies: New Brutalism in Great Britain, the United States, and Brazil from the 1950s to the 1980s. Amerikastudien, 65, pp.193-212.

Shadloo, M.S., Xu, H., Mahian, O. and Maheri, A., 2020. Fundamental and engineering thermal aspects of energy and environment. Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry, 139(4), pp.2395-2398.

Sigalingging, R.C., Chow, D. and Sharples, S., 2020. Applying the Passivhaus standard to a terraced house in a hot and humid tropical climate–Evaluation of comfort and energy performance. Building Services Engineering Research and Technology, 41(3), pp.247-260.

Somasundaram, S., Chong, A., Wei, Z. and Thangavelu, S.R., 2020. Energy saving potential of low-e coating based retrofit double glazing for tropical climate. Energy and Buildings, 206, p.109570.

Thoburn, N., 2018. Concrete and council housing: The class architecture of Brutalism ‘as found’at Robin Hood Gardens. City, 22(5-6), pp.612-632.

Wang, C., Wang, Q., Nourozi, B., Pieskä, H. and Ploskić, A., 2021. Evaluating the cooling potential of a geothermal-assisted ventilation system for multi-family dwellings in the Scandinavian climate. Building and Environment, 204, p.108114.