Housing requirements commonly transition over time, and there are financial, social and environmental impacts associated with altering and moving houses. With possible future alteration in mind, this paper looks at the viability of deliberately incorporating flexibility into houses at the time they are designed and built, as compared with no specifically incorporated flexibility (yet still possibly capable of being altered). A comparative analysis, rather than an absolute analysis, is outlined. The financial viability is performed as an options analysis, while the social and environmental matters are evaluated along life cycle assessment lines. As a case example, the paper considers the viability of incorporating deliberate two-storey flexibility into a single-storey house using Australian practices. It is shown on the case example that incorporating deliberate built-in flexibility can perform positively against all sustainability criteria -financial, social and environmental, separately or combined -however the generality of this conclusion remains to be proven.
Infrastructure providing fundamental services for societies may become obsolete under changing environments such as climate or demographics changes, creating the need for adaptability. Designing infrastructure for adaptability may affect life cycle costs as well as environmental and social issues such as resources consumption, waste production or disruption to services provided. Sustainability valuation of adaptable infrastructure is thus required. The Real Options Analysis (ROA) is widely used to evaluate financial viability of investing in adaptable infrastructure. But, the environmental and social aspects have been barely noticed and incorporated. Hence, a valuation method is required to properly address all aspects of sustainability. This paper bridges the gap and advances the literature by presenting a methodology for designed-in adaptability valuation, considering all the sustainability aspects. To this end, a hybrid approach is suggested through integration of Social and Environmental Costing (SEC) with ROA, providing a single measure for sustainability of adaptable infrastructure. In this approach, the outputs of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tools are monetized using SEC methods; and then incorporated in the ROA that is built on the probabilistic Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) analysis, suitable for engineering applications. The application of the proposed approach is illustrated on a case example involving seawalls under changing climate effects. For the case example, including sustainability issues in the analysis improved the viability of designing in adaptability. This conclusion cannot be generalized and each situation requires an individual analysis. However, the proposed approach and methodology will be the same in all the situations.
The architecture literature acknowledges building adaptability as a means of contributing to sustainability, but falls short in valuation of this contribution. The paper demonstrates how to value sustainability of Open Plan (OP) buildings, where adaptability is deliberately incorporated in the floor plan design with future refurbishment in mind. The literature is reviewed to clarify the notion of OP building as a form of built-in adaptability and to highlight the lack of sustainability valuationof OP buildings. A case study on refurbishment of a university school building is conducted to value the adaptability. A comparative analysis of OP (built-in) adaptability and conventional (non-built-in) adaptability is carried out. Options analysis is utilized for financial valuation, in conjunction with life cycle analysis addressing social and environmental issues. The results show that the OP design is financially viable for early adaptations; and that the inclusion of environmental and social criteriain analysis improves the viability. However, the results cannot be generalized and each situation requires an individual analysis. The paper demonstrates the analysis approach and guides construction practitioners and researchers on how to value adaptablefloor plans.
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