Indicateurs de durabilité pour la conception préliminaire de bureaux du point de vue énergétique

Abstract

The building sector currently represents 40% of the energy consumption and one of the major emitters of greenhouse gases in the world. This, combined with the characteristic long lifespan of buildings, means that the decisions behind building design have long-term and multidimensional impacts on both society and the environment. As a result, there is a growing interest in the assessment of buildings based on the concept of sustainability, considering its three basic dimensions: economic, ecological and social. However, current evaluation systems are usually developed in the context of the declaration or certification of buildings, while only a limited number are designed to provide decision-support during the preliminary design phase. It is during these early design stages that key decisions such as construction principles and operation strategies are defined, usually with a limited amount of information available. In order to assist in decision-making during the preliminary building design, a set of indicators is proposed in this present work to evaluate early design alternatives by following a life-cycle analysis approach and according to the three pillars of sustainability. Indicator selection is based on consensus from the international projects and initiatives that compose the state of the art, as well as operational aspects such as database availability for calculation parameters, the evolution of information available and of specific design decisions at every stage of the design process. The conclusions of this study are focused on the energy design of commercial buildings, specifically offices, in the French context.