DESIGNING FOR THE LIVING BUILDING CHALLENGE
An Integrated Material Environment Visibility Framework for New Zealand
Designers
CHITRAKALA MUTHUVEERAPPAN
1
, MARC AUREL SCHNA-
BEL
2
and RYAN SIMPSON
3
1,2
Victoria University of Wellington, NZ.
3
Frequency, NZ
1
chitrakala.muthuveerappan@vuw.ac.nz, 0000-0003-4460-1193
2
marcaurel@gmail.com, 0000-0002-2923-1609.
3
ryans@frequency.nz
Abstract. To achieve rigorous performance in sustainability toward
zero-carbon in the Built Environment, the New Zealand government
also promotes Living Building Challenge (LBC) in design. The LBC
seeks detailed material specifications till disposal with environmental
impacts to measure sustainability in design and insists 75% of the
project materials supply within 90 km of the project location. This study
explored the constraints related to LBC material requirements and
found the major barriers for designers are a) the sustainability
imperatives namely red list and material lifetime are not considered by
online material catalogue providers, b) no material data is shared among
the primary stakeholders for acceptance and compliance evaluation,
and c) no facility to identify the supply chain and suppliers within a
certain distance of the project location. As a solution, this research
designed a hybrid material catalogue having all possible material
parameters classified into 5 major categories and developed an
integrated material environment visibility framework linking the
processes among the designers, contractors, suppliers, and the client.
This proposed integrated framework provides a shared environment on
material viewing, similar alternatives, accurate compliance evaluations
in design, material suppliers availability, and other supply chain details
at design stage itself. This new framework is currently under industry
evaluation for compatibility, reliability, and industry professionals'
acceptance.
Keywords. Building Material Supply Chain Management, Centralised
Construction Material Catalogue, Integrated Building Material, Living
Building Challenge, Sustainable Design Materials.
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HUMAN-CENTRIC, Proceedings of the 28th International Conference of the Association for Computer-Aided
Architectural Design Research in Asia (CAADRIA) 2023, Volume 1, 423-432. © 2023 and published by the
Association for Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia (CAADRIA), Hong Kong.