In this handbook we briefly describe the relation of the building and its surroundings (Chapter 1), as well as the materials, structures, and building services systems (Chapter 4 and 6) that contributes to the forming and operating of the house. Moving on from simple conceptions, we summarise in detail why and how our buildings affect their environment and what sustainable construction stands for (Chapter 1). Our book presents the scientific method used to quantify and measure sustainable construction, life cycle assessment (Chapter 2), which makes different materials, structures,buildings, and even settlements comparable. We discuss in separate chapters (Chapter 3) the opportunities to improve sustainability at different stages of a building’s life, during design, use, maintenance, renovation, and demolition, and then, describe such currently-known passive (Chapter 5) and active solutions (Chapter 6), which are considered good and recommended. In the annexes, we regrouped the descriptions and properties of the most typical building materials and we present some already implemented, good examples from the participating countries.
It is quite difficult to phrase how should we relate to the environment. At first glance, it seems really simple: trying not to harm the environment and to use only as much from the goods provided by nature as it is really needed. But if we think about it again these are more complex queries. What do we understand under wasting and not wasting?
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The preparation of the construction starts with the conception of the idea, when the owner(s) decides that they want to build a house. There may be several reasons behind this decision, which cannot be detailed here, in any case, after polishing the sparks of thought and refining the ideas, the basic decisions have to be made at this stage. A design program must be developed, a designer be picked and a decision shall be taken regarding where to build the house.
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Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a standard method to quantify potential impacts applying such a life cycle approach. LCA gives us numbers that help to manage our environmental impacts: we can identify the so called “hot spots” where our impact is the highest, and so it spots where and how can we achieve the highest possible reduction of our direct or indirect impacts.
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The growing demand for green buildings presents both challenges and opportunities in terms of used raw materials. The aim is to encourage the use of materials that have a lower environmental impact during their life cycle, and to recognize and encourage the use of materials produced in a responsible way, in both the starting and finishing phases of the construction.
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For the reader to be able to use the book usefully, it is necessary to have a common understanding about the same phenomena and titles and, conversely, to define the same things in the same way. To this end, of course, we list a non-exhaustive list of some of the more important concepts and expressions. It is essential to know that different things are named variably by the everyday language use, differently by professional language, and again differently by legal language and terms.
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A demand of heating and cooling energy of buildings can be reduced by passive solutions. In contrast to active methods, these solutions use only the building elements and the energy of the Sun without the need for any additional energy sources. It is a generally accepted approach that energy efficiency should be the first step towards a low energy house: saved energy is the cheapest energy. It is only worth installing active renewable energy systems if demand is already reduced by passive means.
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Building technology system is a category that is made up of all mechanical, gas, electrical, sanitary, heating, air conditioning, ventilating, elevator, plumbing, life-safety, telecommunication and other service systems of a building. In the following chapter, we give a short overview of the most common building technical systems and their environmental relevance.
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In Hungary the so-called Building Act defines the basic requirements, tools, rights and obligations related to the shaping and protection of the built environment, as well as the related duties and authorities. We can call it as the general legislation of construction.
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We have come to the end of our handbook. At the beginning, we didn’t promise an easy and quick read, and the reader will surely agree with us that we kept our word. We are aware that the handbook contains a lot of new information and technical terms, seemingly complicated or really complicated professional excursus, but we hope that we have managed to present all this in an understandable, readable format.
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