Architectural and Management Strategies for the Design, Construction and Operation of Energy Efficient and Intelligent Primary Care Centers in Chile

Eric Forcael, Alberto Nope, Rodrigo García-Alvarado, Ariel Bobadilla and Carlos Rubio-Bellido
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Eric Forcael: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universidad del Bío-Bío, Concepción 4051381, Chile
Alberto Nope: Department of Architecture, Universidad del Bío-Bío, Concepción 4051381, Chile
Rodrigo García-Alvarado: Department of Architecture, Universidad del Bío-Bío, Concepción 4051381, Chile
Ariel Bobadilla: Department of Construction and Center for Research in Construction Technologies CITEC, Universidad del Bío-Bío, Concepción 4051381, Chile
Carlos Rubio-Bellido: Department of Building Construction II, Universidad de Sevilla, 41012 Sevilla, Spain

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 2, 1-18

Abstract: Primary care centers are establishments with elevated social relevance and high operational energy consumption. In Chile, there more than 628 family healthcare centers (CESFAM) have been built in the last two decades and with plans for hundreds more in the next few years. We revised the architecture, construction management and energy performance of five CESFAM centers to determine possible instances of overall improvement. Staff was interviewed, and state documents reviewed, which allowed the conceptualization of the architectonic and energy structure of the centers, as well as the process of implementation. At the same time, energy simulations were done for each one of the centers, controlling for different climates, construction solutions and orientations. Our study revealed that strategies employed by the primary healthcare centers in Chile have aided a progressive implementation of establishments with elevated costs and materialization times, as well as neglect for climatic conditions. These energy evaluations show relevant and consistent impacts of the architectural form and material conditions, especially in southern zones, demonstrating the need to work with shared knowledge resources such as BIM. There is a clear necessity to define technological, morphological and construction strategies specific to each climate zone in order to achieve energetically efficient and intelligent healthcare establishments.

Keywords: architectural strategies; energy efficiency; hospitals; intelligent buildings; primary care centers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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