Creating Sustainable Buildings: Structural Design Based on the Criterion of Social Benefits for Building Users

Abstract

Sustainable building involves reducing negative environmental impacts with a simultaneous increase in life quality. The aim is to optimize building performances while considering all aspects of sustainability: environmental, economic, and social. The building structure determines the building’s performances, and it should be designed and evaluated as a subsystem of the building, in line with the objectives of the system–building. This paper investigates structural design based on integrated design objectives within the criterion of social benefits for users throughout the use phase of the building, focusing on protection and safety, aspects of comfort, spatial organization, spatial adaptability, and maintenance. The problem was studied using integrative literature review methodology and system theory. The main findings of the research are a review and critical analysis of the representative literature and the derived conceptual framework for structural design based on the criterion of social benefits for building users, which should support more comprehensive and more efficient decision-making during systemic design and optimization of buildings. The presented integrated literature review indicates the need for the application of a systemic approach to structural design in order to create sustainable buildings.

Socially sustainable housing and built environments to support the health and social inclusion of older adults: protocol for a scoping review and stakeholder consultation

“…One approach to creating such knowledge for design is to create sustainable built environments that have social benefits for building users. 25 Although the concept of sustainable development has three pillars, most attention has been on the economic and environmental domains of sustainability and less on the third pillar, social sustainability. 26 27 Unlike the other domains, social sustainability is neither consistently defined nor commonly reflected in government policies.…”

Geography, Indoor Mobility and Activity Space: Informing Inclusive Healthcare Design

“…However, there remains a research-to-practice gap in informing the architectural design process in each area (Tvedebrink and Jelić 2021). Meanwhile, there is a movement to create socially sustainable buildings designed to benefit the users by understanding what they need from places and how they interact with built environments (Lami and Mecca 2021;Nenadović and Milošević 2022). Translating the dynamics of human interaction with built environments into design and architecture requires a theoretical and methodological understanding.…”

Traditional Passive Design Solutions as a Key Factor for Sustainable Modern Urban Designs in the Hot, Arid Climate of the United Arab Emirates

“…The Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) is used to quantify thermal comfort since it is connected to the heat-balance equilibrium of the human body [6]. Thus, sustainable architecture and urban planning can contribute to creating sustainable built environments that provide good thermal conditions with less energy consumption [7]. Tawayha et al [8], Salameh et al [9], Biqaraz et al [10], and Drach and Karam-Filho [11] mentioned the capability of traditional passive design concepts to improve the thermal conditions in traditional buildings with less energy intake; they noted that contemporary buildings require a huge amount of electrical energy to facilitate and control the interior comfort conditions, resulting in high maintenance and operational costs, as well as the significant carbon emissions from generating electricity.…”