School of Architecture

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Start date: 2020End date: 2021

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    “Cradle to Gate” assessment of material related embodied carbon: A design stage stratagem for mid-rise housing in Sri Lanka
    (Elsevier, 2021-01-01) Jayawardana, A; Perera, N; Perera, R
    Achieving low carbon buildings is seen as a key concept in order to reduce carbon emission and mitigate climate change. In contrast to operational emission, material related embodied carbon (EC) in the built environment plays a pivotal role, with the continuous consumption of high carbon emitting materials. This research relates to the ‘Cradle-to-Gate’ system boundary, while limiting its focus on building design stage decisions. A hybrid analysis approach was adopted - a bottom-up process with steps encompassing mass analysis, EC calculation, highlighting carbon hotspots, and ultimately the identification of critical building components. As a case study, multi-storey housing was selected as a critical building typology, in Sri Lanka. The results reveal ‘walls’ as a carbon hotspot that needs to be explored in strategies for mitigation. Substantial EC savings were seen in the selection of fly ash blocks as an alternate material to clay brick or cement block. Changes to the configuration of walls, specifically, bonding patterns and non-inclusion of a plaster layer, also showed savings. This paper, contributes to the understanding of material selection implications - in the cradle-to-gate stage - for the reduction of carbon emissions in mid-rise housing, in the context of Sri Lanka.
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    PublicationOpen Access
    Inhabitants’ Satisfaction in Neighbourhood Sustainability: Insights from Colombo
    (Center for Environmental Planning and Technology University, 2021-01) Wijesundara, J; Weerasinghe, U. G. D; Perera, L. S. R
    Despite an increasing number of studies on the evaluation of sustainable neighbourhoods, only a few have paid attention to the identification of the components that influence the degree of inhabitants' satisfaction. A neighbourhood is a built entity that situates the experiences of daily lives of a group of inhabitants in an identifiable geographical space, while neighbourhood sustainability is the process of nurturing its environment to support and meet both economic and social needs of its inhabitants. A sustainable neighbourhood should ensure a desired quality of life and satisfaction to its inhabitants by inter-twining the local,social, environmental, and economic aspects to enable its sustenance as a wholesome place to live. However, most neighbourhoods do not do so. This paper investigates an urban residential neighbourhood in Colombo: the Newham Square, and examines the degree of inhabitants’ satisfaction based on their evaluations. It assesses neighbourhood sustainability under the three main sustainability parameters: environmental, social, and economic facets. Physical and non-physical elements of the neighbourhood form is investigated by using secondary data. Structured interviews were carried out to ascertain inhabitants’ satisfaction while physical observations were made to identify the deterministic elements. Finally, it concludes that the neighbourhood form has a significant role to play in ensuring inhabitants’ satisfaction and therefore neighbourhood sustainability.