Environmental Impacts of Multi-Storey Buildings Using Different ...

- 105 -9 Discussion9.1 The BuildingsMuch of the research covered by this report is built solidly upon the very successful earlystages of the project which produced structural and architectural designs for four buildingsconstructed out of different materials. These designs were all based on the exacting designspecifications and drawings for the Biological Sciences building produced by CourtneyArchitects and presently under construction at the University of Canterbury.In other words, the designs are based on a ‘real’ building, which became a template for thealternative Concrete, Steel, Timber and TimberPlus designs. In the case of the Steel andTimber buildings, major changes were made to the structural engineering and materials,accompanied by appropriate alterations to architectural design and materials to suit a typicalNew Zealand location. The TimberPlus building was similar to the Timber design withadditional modifications to the architecture to increase the use of timber and timbercomponents.All the designs are considered at least reasonably comprehensive for a preliminary designstage and address the main structural elements. All have been carefully checked andreviewed. The Steel building, initially proposed by Steel Construction NZ Ltd., was modifiedat the University of Canterbury in consultation with Holmes Consulting Group engineers inChristchurch (see the letter in Appendix E).The Timber and TimberPlus buildings are based on innovative timber engineering researchwhich builds on proven post-tensioning technology employed in pre-cast concreteconstruction. The timber engineering is presently undergoing rigorous collaborativeexperimentation and testing at the University of Canterbury, Auckland University andUniversity of Technology, Sydney.Most importantly, the building designs go beyond providing comparable constructionsoffering the same net lettable area, facilities, operations and lifetime. Each building, whilsteasily meeting the standards for being a low energy building (average 86 kWh/m2/yr),achieves an operational energy consumption within 3% of each other.The Timber and TimberPlus designs and associated research have clearly helped to “fill theinformation gap” identified by MAF in the Request for Proposal (POR/7811) as to thegreatest amount of wood that can be used in the construction and fit-out of commercial andlarge-scale residential buildings in NZ.The production of the four alternative building designs fully meets Objective 1 set out in theUniversity of Canterbury response to RFP POR/7811.