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Project Summary Project Description Application of Tools Opinion of Tools Decision making process Contact Details

Opinion of tools

Name der Fallstudie
Llandarcy Urban Village - Das Urbane Dorf


Name of tool
A project based design code;

Opinion of tool - argumentation for choosing the tool
To ensure an overall standard of design through out the development, a design code was developed voluntarily (not required by regulation). "The Prince?s Foundation is leading the renaissance in the UK of the use of urban codes and pattern books" (<a href="http://www.princes-foundation.org/projects.html"target="blank">http://www.princes-foundation.org/projects.html</a>) .The Prince?s Foundation is a strong advocate of design.

Opinion of tool - barriers for the tool implementation
Too early to be able to state what the main problems with tool implementation are as yet.


Name of tool
BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method).

Opinion of tool - argumentation for choosing the tool
The project team agreed that all new buildings should pass the BREEAM assessment to ensure a certain level of sustainability. BREEAM, despite its shortcomings, was, at that time, regarded as the most suitable criteria based assessment tool for attaining sustainable buildings. It is a standard assessment for buildings – with transferable benchmarks.

Opinion of tool - barriers for the tool implementation
Too early to be able to state what the main problems with tool implementation are as yet.


Name of tool
Building Research Establishment (BRE) Sustainability Checklist;

Opinion of tool - argumentation for choosing the tool
An external consultancy Parsons Brinkerhoff (PB), who specialise in planning, engineering, program and construction management, were employed to ensure that sustainability issues were considered at all stages of development. For Llandarcy Urban Village, PB were looking for a toolkit that gave a final score in order that the toolkit would provide a measure for comparison to other projects.</p> <p> A number of tools were considered to ensure sustainability would be taken account of throughout the development of the project, these included: <br> • SPeAR (Sustainable Project Appraisal Routine) tool (ARUP), <br> • Prism (a tool under development by Parsons Brinkerhoff),<br> • Eco Compass - World Business Council for Sustainable Development, <br> • Building Research Establishment (BRE) Sustainability Checklist for Developments tool, <br> • Danish Eco Span Tool.<br> The BRE Sustainability Checklist was found to be the most appropriate to the project as it provides a final ?score? of sustainability. This tool was considered to be the most helpful to answer Welsh Assembly Government questions on sustainability of the project. The tool provides a "sustainability" score for land use, transport, energy, buildings, natural resources, ecology, community and business and provides reference material for benchmarks. The tool has been peer reviewed by relevant experts in the field, which provides confidence at all decision making levels of the project. </p>

Opinion of tool - barriers for the tool implementation
Too early to be able to state what the main problems with tool implementation are as yet.


Opinion of tool - assessment by tool users
BRE Sustainability Checklist;
The use of the tool raised the following issues, that might not have been otherwise considered:
? bus routes and timing of buses,
? the project as a whole did not have an energy strategy, an issue that has now been rectified through using the tool,
? density - Llandarcy will be below the UK development density levels, but with the help of this tool this can be verified.

The use of the BRE Sustainability Checklist for Developments ensures that sustainability aspects are constantly managed and reviewed. By using the tool in management meetings it ensured that all partners are aware of the sustainability aspects that were falling short of best/good practice encouraging discussion on how to improve the project.

The use of the tool has helped to put forward a sustainability statement/ framework for the project, that might not have existed otherwise. The Prince?s Foundation traditionally focuses more on concepts of traditional urbanism and construction rather than issues such as passive solar heating, pipe lagging, energy strategies etc.. However, Consultants for Llandarcy believe that the BRE tool is very effective at revealing requirements that need to be fulfilled which may have been overlooked, and for providing a strong sustainability framework and strategy to a project. The consultants Parsons Brinkerhoff, and those involved in the project would recommend this tool for use on other projects.

A project based design code;
The development of the project has not yet begun so the improvements as a result of this tool are unable to be measured yet. It is too early to comment on the real impacts of the use of this tool.

BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) on the Environment Agency Building.
Use of BREEAM has ensured that a number of environmental best practice features are incorporated into the building design including rain water harvesting, low flush toilets, tap restrictors, and a state of the art Building Management System which monitors, controls and optimises energy consumption (BP D?arcy, 2004). It is too early to comment on the real impacts of the use of this tool.

Opinion of tool - reviewer\'s assessment
BRE Sustainability Checklist for Developments tool
The Checklist has many positive points including it is well presented and easily understandable layout whether on paper or on computer, as well as the fact that it is clearly laid out and well explained, making it very user friendly. The information it seeks is thorough and well considered, however the scoring can be subjective. Therefore to ensure comparability throughout the process it is best to have a team of people scoring together and to keep the same people throughout the project. The new downloadable format is also very helpful and cheaper compared to the cost of the paper version. The tool is very useful for reference material when considering a particular aspect of a development and information can be quickly and easily found.

The BREEAM assessment is regarded by the UK?s construction and property sectors as the measure of best practice in environmental design and management to assess the environmental performance of both new and existing buildings. Comparisons can be easily made between buildings. Credits are awarded in each area according to performance. A set of environmental weightings then enables the credits to be added together to produce a single overall score. The building is then rated on a scale of PASS, GOOD, VERY GOOD or EXCELLENT, and a certificate awarded that can be used for promotional purposes.

However, this is an expensive tool to use (?1,000s) and requires a BREEAM approved assessor to make the assessment which is an additional expense. This method is building specific and requires detailed information to be collected ? ie knowledge of whether an air cooling tower is designed to CIBSE TM1312 however it would be the job of the consultant to collect the information required.

Welche Tools wurden verwendet, um Nachhaltigkeit zu beurteilen?

A project based design code;

BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method).

Building Research Establishment (BRE) Sustainability Checklist;

Weiterführende Informationen (nur auf Englisch):

Für den vollständigen Bericht hier klicken (pdf)