Geometric Aspects of Assessing the Amount of Material Consumption in the Construction of a Designed Single-Family House

Edwin Koźniewski and Karolina Banaszak
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Edwin Koźniewski: Faculty of Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences, Bialystok University of Technology, 15-351 Białystok, Poland
Karolina Banaszak: Faculty of Building Services, Hydro and Environmental Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology, 00-661 Warszawa, Poland

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 20, 1-19

Abstract: In this paper, we present a new approach for the analysis of the dependence of construction costs on the geometric shape of a building. Instead of difficult or even impossible-to-establish uniform prices and costs, we propose a cost analysis concerning the amount of materials needed for construction. We show that the basic parameters are the base area of the building (plan), assumed in the study as the building area, and the area of the external walls of the building. The amount of consumption of most materials is proportional to the base area and the area of the external walls. The materials required for construction consume large amounts of energy during their manufacture. Therefore, shape optimization is not only economically significant for the investor but is also important in terms of the energy consumption, i.e., embodied energy. We propose a set of indicators to help a designer optimize the shape of the building at the initial design stage.

Keywords: cost of building; embodied energy; building shape; correlation; design of a building; geometric efficiency of a building; compactness indicator; cuboid; relative defect of perimeter; relative defect of area (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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