What is platform construction and why is it important? Built Environment Matters podcast with our Head of Global Systems, Jaimie Johnston MBE

The atrium aids with facilitating natural and easy way-finding, says Wood, adding that the building’s concentration on flow efficiency, as well as the sense of legibility the space provides, actually lends itself to a reduction in stress.

All the above items added up together would mean just a reduction of around 4.7 kgCO2/m2, mainly due to the simplification of the heating and photovoltaic systems.Compared to a residential LETI 2020 (Band C) target building (A-C) with a total embodied carbon of 675 kgCO2/m2, that is equivalent to just 0.7% reduction in carbon..

Comparison of embodied carbon (A-C) between a baseline residential building based on LETI Band C and same building with Passivhaus characteristics.The adoption of the above Passivhaus standard does not have a substantial impact on the embodied carbon compared to a standard residential building.The adoption of Passivhaus does not prevent the incorporation of additional strategies to reduce embodied carbon and all designs retain the potential to achieve low embodied carbon performance if it is part of the design intent.. Further potential benefits from Passivhaus arise from the compact shape and the use of timber, although full life cycle analysis is required to quantify this.

The compact shape is predicted to reduce the absolute quantity of materials whilst timber is a material with low embodied carbon which can be ultra-low depending on its end-of-life treatment..Timber shows its maximum potential if it can be continuously reused at the end of a buildings’ lifecycle.

If it is burnt or sent to landfill it will release CO2 and methane to the atmosphere, losing its properties as a heat sink.

In order to enable timber to be continuously reused, the building should be designed for deconstruction.“Design for Manufacture and Assembly” is a design approach.

Conventional design either has a presumption towards conventional construction or is agnostic regarding the construction method.Conversely, a DfMA design is developed to be constructed in a particular way..

When designing for manufacture and assembly, the designer must find the best way to meet the client’s requirements by considering the most efficient way to manufacture elements of the building and the most efficient way to assemble them on site.Manufacturing and assembly processes can be carried out in off-site or near-site factories and consolidation centres and also within the site itself.. DfMA means the designer needs to consider the construction methods that will be used from early in a project.