Post-war Sustainability-Driven School Buildings: A Review of the Literature

The Safe Schools Declaration of 2015 is an inter-governmental political agreement signed by several countries designed to protect the schooling of the school-aged population during armed conflicts.Yet,in countries where civil war erupted,schools were demolished.Several school-aged children were either forcibly recruited by governments or coerced by rebel groups to serve in armed fights.As a result,several children were deprived of their education and have remained suffering from deep psychological scars.The central question of the study is:What kind of sustainability-driven school buildings can be initiated in countries that are now enduring peace so that the learning environments are more comfortable and improve the well-being of the war-impacted children and school employees?After reviewing the literature,a strategic conceptual framework that incorporated the synergistic relationship between economic,social,and environmental aspects of sustainability was initiated to map out sustainable school buildings.In short,the conceptual framework proposed to construct school buildings in some of the war-affected developing countries includes assembling cost-efficiency and eco-effectiveness inputs,using renewable energy sources powered by natural sunlight,collecting rainwater in mud cisterns,reducing emissions of carbon oxides,and empowering the local community to be the main actors to design sustainable buildings during the preconstruction,construction,and post-construction stages to serve as learning spaces for the war-affected occupants and their neighborhoods.

Seismic design analysis of the country masonry school buildings in the meizoseismal area

Several reinforcing schemes are illustrated that are based on the loading characteristics of typical country masonry school buildings with sparsely spaced transversal walls and large depth. From the seismic damage observed following the Wenchuan Earthquake, the effects of reinforcing schemes, tie-columns and tie-beams on the seismic resistance of masonry buildings are analyzed. The concept of improving the ductility of these types of buildings is presented. Finally, some suggestions are proposed for the design of masonry buildings with sparsely spaced transversal walls and large depth.

Energy Consumption, Thermal Performance and Thermal Comfort in Public School Buildings in Jordan

Good learning outputs in schools require an acceptable physical environment inside schools. Whatever the climatic context that surrounds any school buildings, energy flows of different types should be provided. Concerns may include thermal environment, luminous environment and acoustics environment. Types of energy used are an important variable that contributes to thermal comfort. Physical structure of the school building is another factor to be taken into consideration. This article established a relationship between thermal comfort inside schools and types of energy flows which have been consumed to maintain the level of comfort required, controlled by the building fabric and consequent economic factors that affect energy consumption of school buildings. Different approaches were applied in order to achieve the research objectives. Field surveys, field measurements and analyzing historical data were the most approaches followed to implement this study. The final outputs of this work have a national value nationwide： establishing a relationship among thermal comfort, energy flows and building fabric is of importance. Furthermore, it is of great importance to the decision maker for educational facilities. Research will also establish a wide platform based on scientific investigations for developing climate responsive school architecture in Jordan.

Creation of Zero CO2 Emissions School Buildings Due to Energy Use in Crete-Greece

Decrease of energy consumption in buildings and increase of the share of renewable energies in them are currently technologically and economically feasible and it is promoted by E.U. policies. After 2019, all the new public buildings in EU countries must be near zero energy buildings reducing their energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Use of various renewable energies for heat and power generation in school buildings in Crete-Greece can result in zeroing their fossil fuels consumption and CO2 emissions. Purpose of the current work is to investigate the possibilities of creating zero CO2 emissions school buildings in Crete-Greece due to operational energy use in them. A methodology which allows the replacement of fossil fuels with renewable energies in school buildings is proposed. Solar energy, solid biomass and low enthalpy geothermal energy, which are abundant in Crete, can be used for that. School buildings in Greece consume significantly less energy, 68 KWh/m2 year, and emit less CO2, 28 kgCO2/m2 year, than the corresponding buildings in other countries. The installation cost of renewable energies systems in order to replace all fossil fuels used in school buildings in Crete-Greece and to zero their CO2 consumption due to energy use in them has been estimated at 47.42 - 87.71 €/m2, which corresponds to 1.69 - 3.13 €/kg CO2 saved.

OPTIMAL WINDOW GEOMETRY FACTORS FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BUILDINGS IN PORTUGAL

INTRODUCTION With respect to thermal performance, windows are the weakest component of the building envelope, essentially because the U-value is usually higher than the opaque envelope. This would allow the highest heat conductance of the building envelope. However, it also helps buildings to gain useful solar heat during winter. Therefore, it has been generally accepted that passive buildings would have small windows towards the poles and large windows facing the equator (Persson, Roos, and Wall 2006). In spite of this guideline, large or fully glazed facades have been used in modern architecture. The intensive use of air conditioning is the result of overheating and high thermal loss problems, which otherwise would lead to thermal discomfort. This extensive use of large windows associated with high energy consumption has motivated researchers to study this building component. Window areas were investigated by Persson et al. (Persson, Roos, and Wall 2006) on 20 terraced houses with larger windows facing the equator and built in Gothenburg. The building envelope was well insulated and fitted with energy efficient windows. It was found that energy efficient windows do not have a major influ-ence on the heating demand in the winter, but it is relevant for the cooling need in summer. Therefore, reduced indoor illuminance due to small windows can be solved by enlarging them in order to obtain relevant daylighting conditions. When efficient windows are designed for a warm climate, as in Mexico, reducing heat flux and solar transmittance indoors was the best option for energy savings (Aguilar et al. 2017). However, reducing solar transmittance influences the indoor illuminance, which was not analyzed.

Evaluation of the performance of demand control ventilation system for school buildings located in the hot climate of Saudi Arabia

The advantages of the demand control ventilation system(DCV)have been widely discussed in previous research studies.However,the literature has not addressed the benefits of DCV on controlling indoor CO_(2)concentration and minimizing cooling energy consumption for school buildings located in extremely hot climates.Therefore,this paper contributes to the development of DCV and mechanical ventilation systems through a comprehensive evaluation of these systems to maintain acceptable indoor air quality(IAQ)while minimizing cooling energy demands for school buildings located in the harsh hot climate of Saudi Arabia.The evaluation is based on a calibrated whole-building energy model and validated IAQ predictions using field data obtained from a school case study in Jeddah.The results of this research study confirm that hourly and sub-hourly monitoring of indoor CO_(2)concentration is required to ensure optimal design and operation of the ventilation systems in schools.In addition,the analyses indicate that a 13%increase in cooling energy end-use can result for any additional 0.1 students/m^(2)density increase in the classrooms.However,the energy penalties related to ventilation needs can be reduced by up to 25%using DCV instead of conventional mechanical ventilation systems for school buildings located in Saudi Arabia’s hot climate.

Evaluation （POE） of Yildiz Technical University （YTU） School of Foreign Languages （SFL）

This paper deals with the post-occupancy performance evaluation of the SFL （School of Foreign Languages） that was designed by the authors and is located within the YTU （Yildiz Technical University） Davutpaa campus in Istanbul. After the completion and occupation of the building, project review came into question and a POE was performed. Post-occupancy performance evaluation tries to answer the questions of space provision for social interaction： ＂How is this building working？＂ ＂Is it intended？＂ ＂How can it be improved？＂ and ＂How can future buildings be improved？＂ Answers to these vital questions are searched under four main sections. In the first section, the study discusses the physical location and functional properties of the building, in the second, the design decisions of the building are discussed in the context of and design principles, in the third, the method of performance evaluation is explained, and in the final section, the results are analyzed and discussed. These results will lead to a path to improve the quality of the building.

Assessing Occupational Exposure to Surface Contaminants in Kuwaiti Educational Buildings

The prevalence of surface contaminants,such as potentially harmful bacteria,within building environments in the State of Kuwait is not known.To the authors’knowledge,this article is the first of such a report.A total of 342 stool samples were collected from 46 secondary schools to evaluate indoor occurrences of E.coli bacteria within selected lavatory surfaces.After microbiological testing,the results for the spread of the E.coli bacteria were categorized by total count,sampling location dependency,contamination level comparison between genders,and lavatory fixtures(i.e.seat and squat toilets).The results revealed that 7 schools have a bacterial contamination problem,there is cross-contamination between surfaces in the lavatory stalls,the boys’lavatories were less sanitary than the girls’,and that the squat-style toilets are more contaminated than the seat-style.The results suggest that there is significant risk of spread of bacterial infection among students via contaminated hands and surfaces in the lavatory area in some schools.Thus,this study emphasizes the need to improve environmental hygiene and enhanced sanitation in these schools.In addition,conclusions can be drawn as to the effectiveness of the janitorial staff employed by the schools and the efficacy of the cleaning regime used in the lavatories.Furthermore,based on the findings,there are architectural design consequences as squat-style toilets might be excluded in lavatories designed for schools to be constructed in the future.

ASSESSMENT OF EFFECTIVE ENERGY RETROFIT STRATEGIES AND RELATED IMPACT ON INDOOR ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY A case study of an elementary school in the State of Maryland

1.0.INTRODUCTION In the United States,K-12 school buildings spend more than$8 billion each year on energy-more than they spend on computers and textbooks combined[1].Most occupied older buildings demonstrate poor operational performance-for instance,more than 30 percent of schools were built before 1960,and 53 percent of public schools need to spend money on repairs,renovations,and modernization to ensure that the schools’onsite buildings are in good overall condition.And among public schools with permanent buildings,the environmental factors in the permanent buildings have been rated as unsatisfactory or very unsatisfactory in 5 to 17 percent of them[2].Indoor environment quality(IEQ)is one of the core issues addressed in the majority of sustainable building certification and design guidelines.Children spend a significant amount of time indoors in a school environment.And poor IEA can lead to sickness and absenteeism from school and eventually cause a decrease in student performance[3].Different building types and their IEQ characteristics can be partly attributed to building age and construction materials.[4]Improving the energy performance of school buildings could result in the direct benefit of reduced utility costs and improving the indoor quality could improve the students’learning environment.Research also suggests that aging school facilities and inefficient equipment have a detrimental effect on academic performance that can be reversed when schools are upgraded.[5]Several studies have linked better lighting,thermal comfort,and air quality to higher test scores.[6,7,8]Another benefit of improving the energy efficiency of education buildings is the potential increase in market value through recognition of green building practice and labeling,such as that of a LEED or net zero energy building.In addition,because of their educational function,high-performance or energy-efficient buildings are particularly valuable for institution clients and local government.More and more high-performance buildings,net zero energy buildings,and positive energy buildings serve as living laboratories for educational purposes.Currently,educational/institutional buildings represent the largest portion of NZE(net zero energy)projects.Educational buildings comprise 36 percent of net zero buildings according to a 2014 National New Building Institute report.Of the 58 net zero energy educational buildings,32 are used for kindergarten through grade 12(K-12),21 for higher education,and 5 for general education.[9]Finally,because educational buildings account for the third largest amount of building floor space in the United States,super energy-efficient educational buildings could provide other societal and economic benefits beyond the direct energy cost savings for three reasons:1)educational buildings offer high visibility that can influence community members and the next generation of citizens,2)success stories of the use of public funds that returns lower operating costs and healthier student learning environments provide documentation that can be used by others,and 3)this sector offers national and regional forums and associations to facilitate the transfer of best design and operational practices.

THE EFFECT OF OCCUPANCY ON ELECTRICITY USE IN THREE CANADIAN SCHOOLS

Through building performance simulations, previous studies showed the effect of occupants on buildings’ energy consumption. To further demonstrate this effect using empirical evidence, this study analyzed the effect of occupancy on real-time electricity consumption in three case-study schools in Manitoba. Within each school, one classroom as well as the gymnasium were sub-metered to collect real-time electricity consumption data at half-hourly intervals. The study focused on electricity consumption for lighting and plug loads, which make up 30% of energy consumption in Canadian commercial and institutional buildings. A comprehensive method was developed to investigate energy-related occupant behaviour in the sub-metered spaces using four different tools simultaneously: 1) gymnasium bookings after school hours over a four-month period, 2) half-hourly observations of lighting and equipment use in the sub-metered spaces in each school over a two-week period, 3) a daily survey administered to teachers in the sub-metered classrooms over a two-week period, and 4) occupancy and light sensors to evaluate actual recorded occupancy and light use durations over a four-month period. Results showed that recorded occupancy durations over a 4-month period only explained less than 10% of the variations in classrooms’ lighting electricity consumption, meaning that lights may have been used frequently while classrooms were unoccupied. Results also showed the differences in gymnasiums’ electricity consumption were still statistically significant between the three schools, even after school hours and when the gymnasiums were not used or booked for other activities. This study is the first to provide in-depth evaluation of the effect of occupancy on electricity consumption in Canadian schools.

Energy Performance versus Indoor Environment QualitymNon-traditional Form of Elementary Schools Renovation in Terms of Slovak Republic

The content of contribution is to analyse suggested renovation of school building in term of energy performance and indoor environment quality. There were three selected variants of possible reno ration of school building. At first, it was installation of equipment for heat recovery into existing mechanical ventilation system. There were further evaluated possibilities how to use glass atrium or ground air-heat exchanger in mechanical ventilation system. These suggested variants were analysed in field of energy performance, namely in term of impacts on heat demand for space heating in order to keep required parameters of indoor environment quality according to standard STN EN 15251 （operative temperature, relative air humidity, air change rate）. The analysis was elaborated by using energy simulation tool Design Builder in order to evaluate yearlong operation of buildings.

Building Features in Schools That Influence Academic Performance

School decision makers are faced with a great many decisions when considering a school renovation or new school building. All stakeholders want a building that is safe and provides an optimal learning environment. However, it is often difficult to know which building features will have the greatest effect on student learning. Because of a limited understanding of the relationship between individual building features and student learning, researchers at the University of Oklahoma hope to explore how building components influence student and teacher performance. This paper explores the importance of school building features that can be designed and changed during a renovation project. The hope is to one day determine which features have the greatest impact on student test scores. The research team believes that although it is difficult to find the exact relationship between each building features and student outcomes with one study, if multiple users repeat the same or similar studies, hopefully we will one day know the effect of these building features. In order to develop feature building users survey and physical assessment tools, it was necessary for investigators to develop a list of important building features and their associated definitions in layman terms. This was accomplished through utilization and conducting of a CAB （community advisory board） and subject matter expert materials. In addition, previous research relating to different school building features and their associations with student performance were reviewed. To define and narrow the list the researchers, community educational, and building professionals rated based on their professional experience, how directly related each feature is to student performance. The building feature list serves as a starting point to determine which features should be analyzed in a later phase of the project. It is hoped that resulting tools based on the work of this project can be used by school decision-makers and researchers to access building features that have been identified through research as being important for student and teacher performance.

Quantifying the effect of improved school and residential building codes for tornadoes in community resilience

Tornadoes can destroy or severely damage physical infrastructure including buildings in a community.This can result in direct losses but also indirect losses such as the closure of key social institutions reverberating further through the community(e.g.,schools).Despite significant losses in past events,building codes and standards have not previously included tornado hazards because of the relatively low probability of a direct strike.The recent release of the ASCE 7-22 standard considers tornadoes for Risk Category 3 and 4 buildings,i.e.ranging from schools to critical facilities.This study proposes a series of design combinations of a reinforced masonry school building with different performance targets intended to enable schools to reopen sooner.Tornado fragilities were developed for a school building having improved designs using tornado loads determined based on the new tornado chapter in ASCE 7-22,and then integrated into a community level model with school attendance zones to examine the effect.The ultimate goal in this study is to investigate the effect of improving school building designs would have on maintaining school continuity(and more rapid return)for school children.

COMMUNICATION TURNS GREEN CONSTRUCTION PLANNING INTO REALITY

Green planning is critically important during the design phases of construction projects but continually gets less attention during construction.Project owners and planners need to understand how communication influences green implementation.To address a gap in the extant research,this paper presents the evaluation results on how sustainability awareness of field supervision personnel impacts the successful completion of school projects by proving that communicating sustainability goals with them is vital for decision-making during the construction stage of the project.This paper uses data collected from 162 new school construction projects to compare sustainability design goals with their successful incorporation into completed projects.Seventy-one project managers and inspectors were surveyed to assess their awareness of key high-performance sustainability requirements that were built into the designs.The responses from these two groups were compared to examine the positive or negative impacts.The analysis results show that early and continuous communication of sustainability design goals with field supervision personnel has a significant impact on whether those goals are realized when the project is turned over to the owner for occupancy.Successful implementation of sustainability goals not only provides economic benefits from fully exploiting life-cycle costs,but also holds the promise of providing a healthier working environment.

REGENERATIVE URBAN COMMUNITY DESIGN

INTRODUCTION Global sustainable development is inextricably tied to the development of cities,as accelerating growth in urban populations becomes a major driver of social,environmental and ecological change.Cities are major consumers of natural resources and producers of pollution and waste.Development solutions that can reduce urban environmental impacts,as well as increase urban quality of life,are urgently needed.How to ensure that rampant growth in urban communities follows a regenerative and sustainable path therefore becomes a critical and increasingly relevant question.