Study of the tools used for early-stage carbon footprint in building design
Yaw-Shyan Tsay, Yu-Chun Yeh, Huei-Yu Jheng
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to construct a digital tool and design process for building a carbon footprint calculation to change the current status of Taiwan's carbon footprint calculation in post-use assessment, and to incorporate both carbon emissions and energy consumption in the environmental impact assessment into the initial considerations of the architectural design. Through the connection of carbon emission calculation tools and optimization tools, the advantages and disadvantages of multiple schemes in relation to carbon emissions and energy consumption can be compared simultaneously, thereby assisting designers to achieve faster results when making design decisions. In addition to the building's area, orientation, and height, various schemes could also further facilitate architectural design plans with lower carbon emissions by adjusting factors such as the external shading depth and the window-to-wall ratio by calculating the building dimensions to pursue the maximum percentage of the visual field (maximum window area), thereby reducing carbon emissions. This study is expected to meet the needs of users by simplifying the calculation tools and operation interface required for carbon emission calculations, visualizing the calculation results, and enabling a comparison of multiple design schemes. In addition, it provides recommended projects that can be reviewed in the early decision-making stage of the architectural design process, and provides designers and planners with approximate building carbon emission calculations for projects. Furthermore, to facilitate a calculation process with the best view, the scheme simulation is optimized under the existing design conditions, and the optimal solution (Pareto optimal solution) is obtained following calculation classification and analysis. The simulated data can be listed for design reference, whereby users can make design decisions based on the design conditions.