Flexibility as foundation of Sustainability

Abstract

Our society and economy are constantly changing. In spite of this the demands and wishes of users also changes. Most of the current building stock is developed as mono-functional buildings to fulfil the demand at a particular moment. They are not designed for the lifespan in which they are functional. Because of their shortcomings in adaptability they are more likely to become vacant as we see in the current Dutch office stock. Due to the constantly changing requirements, needs and wishes of the client/market, projects can become unfeasible or vacant during their lifespan. If we continue to develop buildings as we did in the past decades then we will remain with the same or even a bigger amount of vacancy in the future. Only if we start considering the total lifecycle of building / areas already from the initiative phase then we can react on this problem. Only in this way we can be really sustainable. The current construction industry needs a method based on a lifecycle focus to tackle this vacancy problem and in this way making the new to be developed real estate sustainable. To fulfil this aim the following research question was formulated: To what extent and in which way can a process approach based on lifecycle focus optimize a building to make it react on changes during its lifespan? During our research we noticed that there are already many existing principles based on lifecycle focus like: Drager & Inbouw, Lean Construction, Solids. These theories are mainly focused on technical, organizational, functional and architectural aspects of flexibility and sustainability. But they mostly lack in a holistic process approach towards lifecycle focus in real estate, which embodies the process from initiative until demolition. According to this literature studies a process approach was gradually redesigned and tested on our own design project for architecture. We graduated on a HighRise design for the Schiekadeblok in Rotterdam. This design project was used as a test and example of how the research results could be implemented in a design process. Also the critics from actors in practice helped to shape this process approach. In spite of this the process approach has undergone several changes throughout our graduation period. Beside the products for Real Estate & Housing and Architecture a Strategic Manual was created as a final combined product. The Strategic Manual will be published during the spring of 2011. This manual guides the user, question based, through the design process. In every phase the client is made conscious about his decisions in relation to flexibility / sustainability and the impact on technical / financial feasibility. The manual uses flexibility as a foundation on which sustainability can ‘evolve’. Finally, the manual makes us consciousness about the way we build today and its impact on our ‘City of Tomorrow’. Yet, the following and inevitable step is to be taken. In cooperation with project management office Draaijer+Partners we will test the Strategic Manual on projects in practice in combination with a PHD on the same subject at Delft University of Technology.