These 9 webinars are focused on green and circular buildings, aiming to enhance understanding of sustainable construction. Key areas include environmental impacts, circularity in the construction sector and the utilization of wood and end-of-waste and bio- based materials in architectural design and construction.

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In this course you will become familiar with circularity as a systemic, multi-disciplinary approach, concerned with the different scales, from material to product, building, city, and region.

Some aspects of circularity that will be included in this course are maximizing reuse and recycle levels by closing the material loops. You will also learn how the Circular Economy can help to realign business incentives in supply chains, and how consumers can be engaged and contribute to the transition through new business models enabling circular design, reuse, repair, remanufacturing and recycling of building components.

In addition, you will learn how architecture and urban design can be adapted according to the principles of the Circular Economy and ensure that construction is more sustainable. You will also learn from case studies how companies already profitably incorporate this new theory into the design, construction and operation of the built environment.

Learning Objectives

The webinars are focused on discussions that encompass several topics, such as sustainability in building materials, building Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) and certifications, restorative environmental and ergonomic design, wood design and innovation in the building sector. The webinar explores GPP (Green Public Procurement) legislation and best practices and in the application of Minimum Environmental Criteria in the wood supply chain.

The courses provide in these webinars important concepts such as:

• Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) as a tool for assessing and measuring the sustainability of construction products and for the management, maintenance and decommissioning of buildings. This tool can be used both to compare similar products and as a support in planning and designing products and services (ecodesign);
• GPP in the new European and national regulatory framework and in the Public Contracts Cod, and the application of Minimum Environmental Criteria in the wood supply chain;
• Environmental certification in CAM, and its focus in the wood industry

Moreover, the courses are focused on the production of new materials, led by biomimicry, and of properties like biological sources of mimetic inspiration. These materials are the basis for the development of a new generation of building materials with remarkable properties, typically not achievable by a traditional approach. The main challenges regarding possible innovations in the green building sector are described from the point of view of developing materials inspired by nature: an interdisciplinary vision of biology, materials engineering and architecture will be presented. Participants learn how bio-inspired solutions can be identified, developed and applied to design a new generation of building materials.

It is also important to consider the benefits that nature brings to people: natural environments, from which it is possible to learn (bio-inspired design), are shown to provide regenerative properties for people visiting them. In modern society, the built environment often separates us from nature, making it difficult for many to access. Bringing nature to the places where people spend most of their time, through nature-inspired design solutions, can provide rejuvenating and wellness benefits to people living, working and playing.

Considering nature as a producer of certain materials requires illustrating the correlations between the choice of wood technologies and architectural results, exploring the different building types, the most innovative and experimental research and the various components of the project, analysing the evolution of traditional construction systems, seriality and customisation, multi-storey wooden buildings, and Living Architectures.

Then, the focus is on wood and the technological and constructive solutions for wood construction: the control and verification of construction phases are illustrated through the analysis of some significant case studies at national level.

Furthermore, some lessons refer to the noise determined in the built environment, considered as one of the most common causes of complaints, which means that we cannot design buildings and/or simply do not understand what is relevant from an acoustic point of view. Another challenge is the use of lightweight materials such as wood, which is necessary to build sustainably but can compromise the acoustic performance of buildings if used improperly. In the webinar, requirements for acoustic comfort, quantitative assessments and parameters such as sound insulation and reverberation time are presented. Sound perception is discussed and methods to assess users' perceptual preferences are presented. The aim is to better understand the acoustic design requirements leading to a healthier and more productive built environment.

Effort

12.5 hours

Format

All the courses are delivered online in an asynchronous way, each of which can be followed independently.

For whom?

• Professionals: architects, engineers, designer, project managers
• Technicians and timber experts
• Building managers
• Companies
• Policymakers and public officers
• Institutions at local, regional, national and EU level
• Higher education and Post-graduates Students
• Higher education Professors
• Citizens

Provider

Delft University of Technology / Faculty of Architecture and the Built Enviromnent

Prerequisites

None.

Hub

South

Topic

• Circular
• Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and eco-design in building sector
• Introduction and insights about Green Public Procurement (GPP)
• Engineered living materials for architecture
• Restorative environmental and ergonomic design
• Wood construction and architectural design
• Wood construction and challenges of innovation in the building sector
• Comfort of the users through acoustics