"Green" Technologies and Construction Methods for Affordable Housing
Today, environmental aspects within the construction industry should be everyone's concern. Since building construction accounts for 40% of raw material consumed, and demolition wastes equal up to 40% of the materials going to landfills. In addition to this, buildings consume 40% of the world's energy. These and many other reasons support the implementation of the "green architecture program" in the construction industry. This research focuses on evaluating the design of an affordable house in terms of how "environmentally friendly" it is and aims to present recommendations for its improvement. In order to evaluate the design, this study will use the L.E.E.D. (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) rating system. L.E.E.D. is a self-assessing system designed for rating both new and already existing buildings. It is a feature-oriented system where credits are earned for satisfying the following criteria: sustainable site, water efficiency, energy & atmosphere, materials & resources, indoor environmental quality and innovation & design process. In conclusion, the importance of this research is to show how the 'green architecture' principles can be used to build an environmentally safe house at an affordable price.
School:
University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez
Department:
Civil Engineering
Research Advisor:
Michael J. Andrejasich
Department of Research Advisor:
Architecture
Year of Publication:
2002