InfraTech Journal of Sustainable Architecture and Civil Engineering
Quantifying the Contribution of Bioclimatic Design to the Sustainable Level of Buildings. Case study: Torres Eco-House
Abstract
Luis De Garrido
In this study we evaluated the contribution of bioclimatic design to the a building’s sustainability level. To do this, the scores of a bioclimatic house, Torres house, were compared with those of a conventional design. In both cases, 11 of the most important Green Building Rating Systems (GBRS) were used: namely ASGB, BEAM, BREEAM, CEDES, DNGB, GBI, GG, GS, IGBC, LEED and SBTools. All GBRS determined that the bioclimatic house was more sustainable than the conventional one. However, the resulting scores varied widely and only three GBRS clearly detected the obvious advantages of bioclimatic design (CEDES, DNGB and GS), while the rest gave it a low score, and three barely assessed it (ASGB, GBI and SBTools) despite the fact that the bioclimatic house studied consumes 70.3% less than a conventional one and has other environmental advantages. Taking into account the average results of 11 GBRS, the contribution of bioclimatic design to the sustainability level is 11.1%. However, if the average results of the 3 highest-scoring GBRS are taken into account, the contribution of bioclimatic design to the buildings’ sustainability level is 20.28%.
