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Feature Article

Waste Not, Want Not: Case Studies of Building Material Reuse

Reclamation and reuse of building materials can be a tough sell and hard to design for, but many project teams have learned to make it work. Here’s how.

by Katharine Logan

Mahlum wanted its new 7,500 square-foot Portland office, located in a former metal-stamping facility, to express the firm’s longstanding commitment to design for health and sustainability.

“ We simply can’t afford demolition after 2050,” Julian Allwood, professor of engineering and the environment at Cambridge University, said in a keynote address at a summit hosted recently by the Royal Institute of British Architects and the climate initiative Architects Declare . That’s because the climate emergency requires reducing buildings’ embodied emissions, as well as their operating emissions, to net zero: use less overall, and reuse more. (Embodied emissions are greenhouse gases generated during materials’ extraction, manufacture, and transportation, and during construction and disposal.)

It’s also because the expected doubling of global gross building area by 2060 will take a lot of material. And finally, in a zero-emissions world, there will be fewer new materials available: the techno-fixes that would allow emissions-free energy to supply current consumption levels have no real hope of being fully developed and implemented at scale in the available time, Allwood said. We’ll have to live well with less.

In the coming decades, local availability of materials will transform the design process, and reclamation and reuse will be significant factors, says Felix Heisel. Heisel is the director of the Circular Construction Lab at the Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, where he is an assistant professor of architecture. “I see this not as a limit to our design capacity, but as an advantage,” he says. “By starting with the local availability and specifics of materials, and letting these conditions drive the design process, we shift to an architectural language that’s more economic, more ecologic, and, most of all, more meaningful.”

Shifting to reclamation and reuse presents design teams with two main questions: How do we make use of materials in existing buildings that were not designed with reuse in mind? Salvaging from fixed assemblies is such a dirty process—one that releases toxins, pollutes water, and moves large volumes of material—that it is sometimes described as “urban mining.” So the second question becomes: How can we build differently starting now so that, in the future, buildings function as materials banks or depots, rather than as urban mines?

Originally published January 20, 2022 Reviewed August 1, 2022 Permalink  Citation

Logan, K. (2022, August 1). Waste Not, Want Not: Case Studies of Building Material Reuse. Retrieved from https://www.buildinggreen.com/feature/waste-not-want-not-case-studies-building-material-reuse

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A comprehensive review on green buildings research: bibliometric analysis during 1998–2018

• Environmental Concerns and Pollution control in the Context of Developing Countries
• Published: 16 February 2021
• Volume 28 , pages 46196–46214, ( 2021 )

Cite this article

• Li Ying 1 , 2 ,
• Rong Yanyu   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-0722-8510 1 , 3 ,
• Umme Marium Ahmad 1 ,
• Wang Xiaotong 1 , 3 ,
• Zuo Jian 4 &
• Mao Guozhu 1 , 3  

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Buildings account for nearly 2/5ths of global energy expenditure. Due to this figure, the 90s witnessed the rise of green buildings (GBs) that were designed with the purpose of lowering the demand for energy, water, and materials resources while enhancing environmental protection efforts and human well-being over time. This paper examines recent studies and technologies related to the design, construction, and overall operation of GBs and determines potential future research directions in this area of study. This global review of green building development in the last two decades is conducted through bibliometric analysis on the Web of Science, via the Science Citation Index and Social Sciences Citation Index databases. Publication performance, countries’ characteristics, and identification of key areas of green building development and popular technologies were conducted via social network analysis, big data method, and S-curve predictions. A total of 5246 articles were evaluated on the basis of subject categories, journals’ performance, general publication outputs, and other publication characteristics. Further analysis was made on dominant issues through keyword co-occurrence, green building technologies by patent analysis, and S-curve predictions. The USA, China, and the UK are ranked the top three countries where the majority of publications come from. Australia and China had the closest relationship in the global network cooperation. Global trends of the top 5 countries showed different country characteristics. China had a steady and consistent growth in green building publications each year. The total publications on different cities had a high correlation with cities’ GDP by Baidu Search Index. Also, barriers and contradictions such as cost, occupant comfort, and energy consumption were discussed in developed and developing countries. Green buildings, sustainability, and energy efficiency were the top three hotspots identified through the whole research period by the cluster analysis. Additionally, green building energy technologies, including building structures, materials, and energy systems, were the most prevalent technologies of interest determined by the Derwent Innovations Index prediction analysis. This review reveals hotspots and emerging trends in green building research and development and suggests routes for future research. Bibliometric analysis, combined with other useful tools, can quantitatively measure research activities from the past and present, thus bridging the historical gap and predicting the future of green building development.

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Introduction

Rapid urban development has resulted in buildings becoming a massive consumer of energy (Yuan et al. 2013 ), liable for 39% of global energy expenditure and 68% of total electricity consumption in the USA (building). In recent years, green buildings (GBs) have become an alternative solution, rousing widespread attention. Also referred to as sustainable buildings, low energy buildings, and eco-buildings, GBs are designed to reduce the strain on environmental resources as well as curb negative effects on human health by efficiently using natural resources, reducing garbage, and ensuring the residents’ well-being through improved living conditions ( Agency USEP Indoor Air Quality ; Building, n.d ). As a strategy to improve the sustainability of the construction industry, GBs have been widely recognized by governments globally, as a necessary step towards a sustainable construction industry (Shen et al. 2017 ).

Zuo and Zhao ( 2014 ) reviewed the current research status and future development direction of GBs, focusing on connotation and research scope, the benefit-difference between GBs and traditional buildings, and various ways to achieve green building development. Zhao et al. ( 2019 ) presented a bibliometric report of studies on GBs between 2000 and 2016, identifying hot research topics and knowledge gaps. The verification of the true performance of sustainable buildings, the application of ICT, health and safety hazards in the development of green projects, and the corporate social responsibility were detected as future agenda. A scientometrics review of research papers on GB sources from 14 architectural journals between 1992 and 2018 was also presented (Wuni et al. 2019a ). The study reported that 44% of the world participated in research focusing on green building implementation; stakeholder management; attitude assessment; regulations and policies; energy efficiency assessment; sustainability performance assessment; green building certification, etc.

With the transmission of the COVID-19 virus, society is now aware of the importance of healthy buildings. In fact, in the past 20 years, the relationship between the built environment and health has aroused increasing research interest in the field of building science. Public spaces and dispersion of buildings in mixed-use neighborhoods are promoted. Furthermore, telecommuting has become a trend since the COVID-19 pandemic, making indoor air quality even more important in buildings, now (Fezi 2020 ).

The system for evaluating the sustainability of buildings has been established for nearly two decades. But, systems dedicated to identifying whether buildings are healthy have only recently appeared (McArthur and Powell 2020 ). People are paying more and more attention to health factors in the built environment. This is reflected in the substantial increase in related academic papers and the increase in health building certification systems such as WELE and Fitwel (McArthur and Powell 2020 ).

Taking the above into consideration, the aim of this study is to examine the stages of development of GBs worldwide and find the barriers and the hotpots in global trends. This study may be beneficial to foreign governments interested in promoting green building and research in their own nations.

Methodology

Overall description of research design.

Since it is difficult to investigate historical data and predict global trends of GBs, literature research was conducted to analyze their development. The number of published reports on a topic in a particular country may influence the level of industrial development in that certain area (Zhang et al. 2017 ). The bibliometric analysis allows for a quantitative assessment of the development and advancement of research related to GBs and where they are from. Furthermore, it has been shown that useful data has been gathered through bibliometrics and patent analysis (Daim et al. 2006 ).

In this report, the bibliometric method, social network analysis (SNA), CiteSpace, big data method, patent analysis, and S-curve analysis are used to assess data.

Bibliometrics analysis

Bibliometrics, a class of scientometrics, is a tool developed in 1969 for library and information science. It has since been adopted by other fields of study that require a quantitative assessment of academic articles to determine trends and predict future research scenarios by compiling output and type of publication, title, keyword, author, institution, and countries data (Ho 2008 ; Li et al. 2017 ).

Social network analysis

Social network analysis (SNA) is applied to studies by modeling network maps using mathematics and statistics (Mclinden 2013 ; Ye et al. 2013 ). In the SNA, nodes represent social actors, while connections between actors stand for their relationships (Zhang et al. 2017 ). Correlations between two actors are determined by their distance from each other. There is a variety of software for the visualization of SNA such as Gephi, Vosviewer, and Pajek. In this research, “Pajek” was used to model the sequence of and relationships between the objects in the map (Du et al. 2015 ).

CiteSpace is an open-source Java application that maps and analyzes trends in publication statistics gathered from the ISI-Thomson Reuters Scientific database and produces graphic representations of this data (Chen 2006 ; Li et al. 2017 ). Among its many functions, it can determine critical moments in the evolution of research in a particular field, find patterns and hotspots, locate areas of rapid growth, and breakdown the network into categorized clusters (Chen 2006 ).

Big data method

The big data method, with its 3V characters (volume, velocity, and variety), can give useful and accurate information. Enormous amounts of data, which could not be collected or computed manually through conventional methods, can now be collected through public data website. Based on large databases and machine learning, the big data method can be used to design, operate, and evaluate energy efficiency and other index combined with other technologies (Mehmood et al. 2019 ). The primary benefit of big data is that the data is gathered from entire populations as opposed to a small sample of people (Chen et al. 2018 ; Ho 2008 ). It has been widely used in many research areas. In this research, we use the “Baidu Index” to form a general idea of the trends in specific areas based on user interests. The popularity of the keywords could imply the user’s behavior, user’s demand, user’s portrait, etc. Thus, we can analyze the products or events to help with developing strategies. However, it must be noted that although big data can quantitatively represent human behavior, it cannot determine what motivates it. With the convergence of big data and technology, there are unprecedented applications in the field of green building for the improved indoor living environment and controlled energy consumption (Marinakis 2020 ).

• Patent analysis

Bibliometrics, combined with patent analysis, bridges gaps that may exist in historical data when predicting future technologies (Daim et al. 2006 ). It is a trusted form of technical analysis as it is supported by abundant sources and commercial awareness of patents (Guozhu et al. 2018 ; Yoon and Park 2004 ). Therefore, we used patent analysis from the Derwent patent database to conduct an initial analysis and forecast GB technologies.

There are a variety of methods to predict the future development prospects of a technology. Since many technologies are developed in accordance with the S-curve trend, researchers use the S-curve to observe and predict the future trend of technologies (Bengisu and Nekhili 2006 ; Du et al. 2019 ; Liu and Wang 2010 ). The evolution of technical systems generally goes through four stages: emerging, growth, maturity, and decay (saturation) (Ernst 1997 ). We use the logistics model (performed in Loglet Lab 4 software developed by Rockefeller University) to simulate the S-curve of GB-related patents to predict its future development space.

Data collection

The Web of Science (WOS) core collection database is made up of trustworthy and highly ranked journals. It is considered the leading data portal for publications in many fields (Pouris and Pouris 2011 ). Furthermore, the WOS has been cited as the main data source in many recent bibliometric reviews on buildings (Li et al. 2017 ).

Access to all publications used in this paper was attained through the Science Citation Index-Expanded and the Social Sciences Citation Index databases. Because there is no relevant data in WOS before 1998, our examination focuses on 1998 to 2018. With consideration of synonyms, we set a series of green building-related words (see Appendix ) in titles, abstracts, and keywords for bibliometric analysis. For example, sustainable, low energy, zero energy, and low carbon can be substituted for green; housing, construction, and architecture can be a substitute for building (Zuo and Zhao 2014 ).

Analytical procedure

The study was conducted in three stages; data extraction was the first step where all the GB-related words were screened in WOS. Afterwards, some initial analysis was done to get a complete idea of GB research. Then, we made a further analysis on countries’ characteristics, dominant issues, and detected technology hotspots via patent analysis (Fig. 1 ).

Analytical procedure of the article

Results and analysis

General results.

Of the 6140 publications searched in the database, 88.67% were articles, followed by reviews (6.80%), papers (3.72%), and others (such as editorial materials, news, book reviews). Most articles were written in English (96.78%), followed by German (1.77%), Spanish (0.91%), and other European languages. Therefore, we will only make a further analysis of the types of articles in English publications.

The subject categories and their distribution

The SCI-E and SSCI database determined 155 subjects from the pool of 5246 articles reviewed, such as building technology, energy and fuels, civil engineering, environmental, material science, and thermodynamics, which suggests green building is a cross-disciplinary area of research. The top 3 research areas of green buildings are Construction & Building Technology (36.98%), Energy & Fuels (30.39%), and Engineering Civil (29.49%), which account for over half of the total categories.

The journals’ performance

The top 10 journals contained 38.8% of the 5246 publications, and the distribution of their publications is shown in Fig. 2 . Impact factors qualitatively indicate the standard of journals, the research papers they publish, and researchers associated with those papers (Huibin et al. 2015 ). Below, we used 2017 impact factors in Journal Citation Reports (JCR) to determine the journal standards.

The performance of top10 most productive journals

Publications on green building have appeared in a variety of titles, including energy, building, environment, materials, sustainability, indoor built environment, and thermal engineering. Energy and Buildings, with its impact factor 4.457, was the most productive journal apparently from 2009 to 2017. Sustainability (IF = 2.075) and Journal of Cleaner Production (IF = 5.651) rose to significance rapidly since 2015 and ranked top two journals in 2018.

Publication output

The total publication trends from 1998 to 2018 are shown in Fig. 3 , which shows a staggering increase across the 10 years. Since there was no relevant data before 1998, the starting year is 1998. Before 2004, the number of articles published per year fluctuated. The increasing rate reached 75% and 68% in 2004 and 2007, respectively, which are distinguished in Fig. 3 that leads us to believe that there are internal forces at work, such as appropriate policy creation and enforcement by concerned governments. There was a constant and steady growth in publications after 2007 in the worldwide view.

The number of articles published yearly, between 1998 and 2018

The characteristics of the countries

Global distribution and global network were analyzed to illustrate countries’ characteristics. Many tools such as ArcGIS, Bibexcel, Pajek, and Baidu index were used in this part (Fig. 4 ).

Analysis procedure of countries’ characteristics

Global distribution of publications

By extracting the authors’ addresses (Mao et al. 2015 ), the number of publications from each place was shown in Fig. 5 and Table 1 . Apparently, the USA was the most productive country accounting for 14.98% of all the publications. China (including Hong Kong and Taiwan) and the UK followed next by 13.29% and 8.27% separately. European countries such as Italy, Spain, and Germany also did a lot of work on green building development.

Global geographical distribution of the top 20 publications based on authors’ locations

Global research network

Global networks illustrate cooperation between countries through the analysis of social networks. Academic partnerships among the 10 most productive countries are shown in Fig. 6 . Collaboration is determined by the affiliation of the co-authors, and if a publication is a collaborative research, all countries or institutions will benefit from it (Bozeman et al. 2013 ). Every node denotes a country and their size indicates the amount of publications from that country. The lines linking the nodes denote relationships between countries and their thickness indicates the level of collaboration (Mao et al. 2015 ).

The top 10 most productive countries had close academic collaborative relationships

It was obvious that China and Australia had the strongest linking strength. Secondly, China and the USA, China, and the UK also had close cooperation with each other. Then, the USA with Canada and South Korea followed. The results indicated that cooperation in green building research was worldwide. At the same time, such partnerships could help countries increase individual productivity.

Global trend of publications

The time-trend analysis of academic inputs to green building from the most active countries is shown in Fig. 7 .

The publication trends of the top five countriesbetween 1998 and 2018 countries areshown in Fig 7 .

Before 2007, these countries showed little growth per year. However, they have had a different, growing trend since 2007. The USA had the greatest proportion of publications from 2007, which rose obviously each year, reaching its peak in 2016 then declined. The number of articles from China was at 13 in 2007, close to the USA. Afterwards, there was a steady growth in China. Not until 2013 did China have a quick rise from 41 publications to 171 in 2018. The UK and Italy had a similar growth trend before 2016 but declined in the last 2 years.

Further analysis on China, the USA, and the UK

Green building development in china, policy implementation in china.

Green building design started in China with the primary goal of energy conservation. In September 2004, the award of “national green building innovation” of the Ministry of Construction was launched, which kicked off the substantive development of GB in China. As we can see from Fig. 7 , there were few publications before 2004 in China. In 2004, there were only 4 publications on GB.

The Ministry of Construction, along with the Ministry of Science and Technology, in 2005, published “The Technical Guidelines for Green Buildings,” proposing the development of GBs (Zhang et al. 2018 ). In June 2006, China had implemented the first “Evaluation Standard for Green Building” (GB/T 50378-2006), which promoted the study of the green building field. In 2007, the demonstration of “100 projects of green building and 100 projects of low-energy building” was launched. In August 2007, the Ministry of Construction issued the “Green Building Assessment Technical Regulations (try out)” and the “Green Building Evaluation Management,” following Beijing, Tianjin, Chongqing, and Shanghai, more than 20 provinces and cities issued the local green building standards, which promoted GBs in large areas in China.

At the beginning of 2013, the State Council issued the “Green Building Action Plan,” so the governments at all levels continuously issued incentive policies for the development of green buildings (Ye et al. 2015 ). The number of certified green buildings has shown a blowout growth trend throughout the country, which implied that China had arrived at a new chapter of development.

In August 2016, the Evaluation Standard for Green Renovation of Existing Buildings was released, encouraging the rise of residential GB research. Retrofitting an existing building is often more cost-effective than building a new facility. Designing significant renovations and alterations to existing buildings, including sustainability measures, will reduce operating costs and environmental impacts and improve the building’s adaptability, durability, and resilience.

At the same time, a number of green ecological urban areas have emerged (Zhang et al. 2018 ). For instance, the Sino-Singapore Tianjin eco-city is a major collaborative project between the two governments. Located in the north of Tianjin Binhai New Area, the eco-city is characterized by salinization of land, lack of freshwater, and serious pollution, which can highlight the importance of eco-city construction. The construction of eco-cities has changed the way cities develop and has provided a demonstration of similar areas.

China has many emerging areas and old centers, so erecting new, energy efficiency buildings and refurbishing existing buildings are the best steps towards saving energy.

Baidu Search Index of “green building”

In order to know the difference in performance among cities in China, this study employs the big data method “Baidu Index” for a smart diagnosis and assessment on green building at finer levels. “Baidu Index” is not equal to the number of searches but is positively related to the number of searches, which is calculated by the statistical model. Based on the keyword search of “green building” in the Baidu Index from 2013 to 2018, the top 10 provinces or cities were identified (Fig. 8 ).

Baidu Search Index of green building in China 2013–2018 from high to low

The top 10 search index distributes the east part and middle part of China, most of which are the high GDP provinces (Fig. 9 ). Economically developed cities in China already have a relatively mature green building market. Many green building projects with local characteristics have been established (Zhang et al. 2018 ).

TP GDP & Search Index were highly related

We compared the city search index (2013–2018) with the total publications of different cities by the authors’ address and the GDP in 2018. The correlation coefficient between the TP and the search index was 0.9, which means the two variables are highly related. The correlation coefficient between the TP and GDP was 0.73, which also represented a strong relationship. We inferred that cities with higher GDP had more intention of implementation on green buildings. The stronger the local GDP, the more relevant the economic policies that can be implemented to stimulate the development of green buildings (Hong et al. 2017 ). Local economic status (Yang et al. 2018 ), property developer’s ability, and effective government financial incentives are the three most critical factors for green building implementation (Huang et al. 2018 ). However, Wang et al. ( 2017 ) compared the existing green building design standards and found that they rarely consider the regional economy. Aiming at cities at different economic development phases, the green building design standards for sustainable construction can effectively promote the implementation of green buildings. Liu et al. ( 2020 ) mainly discussed the impact of sustainable construction on GDP. According to the data, there is a strong correlation between the percentage of GDP increments in China and the amount of sustainable infrastructure (Liu et al. 2020 ). The construction of infrastructure can create jobs and improve people’s living standards, increasing GDP as a result (Liu et al. 2020 ).

Green building development in the USA and the UK

The sign that GBs were about to take-off occurred in 1993—the formation of the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), an independent agency. The promulgation of the Energy Policy Act 2005 in the USA was the key point in the development of GBs. The Energy Policy Act 2005 paid great attention to green building energy saving, which also inspired publications on GBs.

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), a popular metric for sustainable buildings and homes (Jalaei and Jrade 2015 ), has become a thriving business model for green building development. It is a widely used measure of how buildings affect the environment.

Another phenomenon worth discussion, combined with Fig. 7 , the increasing rate peaked at 75% in 2004 and 68% in 2007 while the publications of the UK reached the peak in 2004 and 2007. The UK Green Building Council (UKGBC), a United Kingdom membership organization, created in 2007 with regard to the 2004 Sustainable Building Task Group Report: Better Buildings - Better Lives, intends to “radically transform,” all facets of current and future built environment in the UK. It is predicted that the establishment of the UKGBC promoted research on green buildings.

From the China, the USA, and the UK experience, it is predicted that the foundation of a GB council or the particular projects from the government will promote research in this area.

Barriers and contradicts of green building implement

On the other hand, it is obvious that the USA, the UK, and Italian publications have been declining since 2016. There might be some barriers and contradicts on the adoption of green buildings for developed countries. Some articles studied the different barriers to green building in developed and developing countries (Chan et al. 2018 ) (Table 2 ). Because the fraction of energy end-uses is different, the concerns for GBs in the USA, China, and the European Union are also different (Cao et al. 2016 ).

It is regarded that higher cost is the most deterring barrier to GB development across the globe (Nguyen et al. 2017 ). Other aspects such as lack of market demand and knowledge were also main considerations of green building implementation.

As for market demand, occupant satisfaction is an important factor. Numerous GB post-occupancy investigations on occupant satisfaction in various communities have been conducted.

Paul and Taylor ( 2008 ) surveyed personnel ratings of their work environment with regard to ambience, tranquility, lighting, sound, ventilation, heat, humidity, and overall satisfaction. Personnel working in GBs and traditional buildings did not differ in these assessments. Khoshbakht et al. ( 2018 ) identified two global contexts in spite of the inconclusiveness: in the west (mainly the USA and Britain), users experienced no significant differences in satisfaction between green and traditional buildings, whereas, in the east (mainly China and South Korea), GB user satisfaction is significantly higher than traditional building users.

Dominant issues

The dominant issues on different stages.

Bibliometric data was imported to CiteSpace where a three-stage analysis was conducted based on development trends: 1998–2007 initial development; 2008–2015 quick development; 2016–2018 differentiation phase (Fig. 10 ).

Analysis procedure of dominant issues

CiteSpace was used for word frequency and co-word analysis. The basic principle of co-word analysis is to count a group of words appearing at the same time in a document and measure the close relationship between them by the number of co-occurrences. The top 50 levels of most cited or occurred items from each slice (1998 to 2007; 2008 to 2015; 2016 to 2018) per year were selected. After merging the similar words (singular or plural form), the final keyword knowledge maps were generated as follows.

Initial phase (1998–2007)

In the early stage (Fig. 11 ), “green building” and “sustainability” were the main two clusters. Economics and “environmental assessment method” both had high betweenness centrality of 0.34 which were identified as pivotal points. Purple rings denote pivotal points in the network. The relationships in GB were simple at the initial stage of development.

Co-word analysis from 1998–2007

Sustainable construction is further enabled with tools that can evaluate the entire life cycle, site preparation and management, materials and their reusability, and the reduction of resource and energy consumption. Environmental building assessment methods were incorporated to achieve sustainable development, especially at the initial project appraisal stage (Ding 2008 ). Green Building Challenge (GBC) is an exceptional international research, development, and dissemination effort for developing building environmental performance assessments, primarily to help researchers and practitioners in dealing with difficult obstacles in assessing performance (Todd et al. 2001 ).

Quick development (2008–2015)

In the rapid growing stage (Fig. 12 ), pivot nodes and cluster centers were more complicated. Besides “green building” and “sustainability,” “energy efficiency” was the third hotspot word. The emergence of new vocabulary in the keyword network indicated that the research had made progress during 2008 – 2015. Energy performance, energy consumption, natural ventilation, thermal comfort, renewable energy, and embodied energy were all energy related. Energy becomes the most attractive field in achieving sustainability and green building. Other aspects such as “life cycle assessment,” “LEED,” and “thermal comfort” became attractive to researchers.

Co-word analysis from 2008–2015

The life cycle assessment (LCA) is a popular technique for the analysis of the technical side of GBs. LCA was developed from environmental assessment and economic analysis which could be a useful method to evaluate building energy efficiency from production and use to end-use (Chwieduk 2003 ). Much attention has been paid to LCA because people began to focus more on the actual performance of the GBs. Essentially, LCA simplifies buildings into systems, monitoring, and calculating mass flow and energy consumption over different stages in their life cycle.

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) was founded by the USGBC and began in the early twenty-first century (Doan et al. 2017 ). LEED is a not-for-profit project based on consumer demand and consensus that offers an impartial GB certification. LEED is the preferred building rating tool globally, with its shares growing rapidly. Meanwhile, UK’s Building Research Establishment Assessment Method (BREEAM) and Japan’s Comprehensive Assessment System for Building Environmental Efficiency (CASBEE) have been in use since the beginning of the twenty-first century, while New Zealand’s Green Star is still in its earlier stages. GBs around the world are made to suit regional climate concerns and need.

In practice, not all certified green buildings are necessarily performing well. Newsham et al. ( 2009 ) gathered energy-use information from 100 LEED-certified non-residential buildings. Results indicated that 28–35% of LEED structures actually consumed higher amounts of energy than the non-LEED structures. There was little connection in its actual energy consumption to its certification grade, meaning that further improvements are required for establishing a comprehensive GB rating metric to ensure consistent performance standards.

Thermal comfort was related to many aspects, such as materials, design scheme, monitoring system, and human behaviors. Materials have been a focus area for improving thermal comfort and reducing energy consumption. Wall (Schossig et al. 2005 ), floor (Ansuini et al. 2011 ), ceiling (Hu et al. 2018 ), window, and shading structures (Shen and Li 2016 ) were building envelopes which had been paid attention to over the years. Windows were important envelopes to improve thermal comfort. For existing and new buildings, rational use of windows and shading structures can enhance the ambient conditions of buildings (Mcleod et al. 2013 ). It was found that redesigning windows could reduce the air temperature by 2.5% (Elshafei et al. 2017 ), thus improving thermal comfort through passive features and reducing the use of active air conditioners (Perez-Fargallo et al. 2018 ). The monitoring of air conditioners’ performance could also prevent overheating of buildings (Ruellan and Park 2016 ).

Differentiation phase (2016–2018)

In the years from 2016 to 2018 (Fig. 13 ), “green building,” ”sustainability,” and “energy efficiency” were still the top three hotspots in GB research.

Co-word analysis from 2016–2018

Zero-energy building (ZEB) became a substitute for low energy building in this stage. ZEB was first introduced in 2000 (Cao et al. 2016 ) and was believed to be the solution to the potential ramifications of future energy consumption by buildings (Liu et al. 2019 ). The EU has been using ZEB standards in all of its new building development projects to date (Communuties 2002 ). The USA passed the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, aiming for zero net energy consumption of 1 out of every 2 commercial buildings that are yet to be built by 2040 and for all by 2050 (Sartori et al. 2012 ). Energy consumption became the most important factor in new building construction.

Renewable energy was a key element of sustainable development for mankind and nature (Zhang et al. 2013 ). Using renewable energy was an important feature of ZEBs (Cao et al. 2016 ; Pulselli et al. 2007 ). Renewable energy, in the form of solar, wind, geothermal, clean bioenergy, and marine can be used in GBs. Solar energy has been widely used in recent years while wind energy is used locally because of its randomness and unpredictable features. Geothermal energy is mainly utilized by ground source heat pump (GSHP), which has been lauded as a powerful energy system for buildings (Cao et al. 2016 ). Bioenergy has gained much popularity as an alternative source of energy around the globe because it is more stable and accessible than other forms of energy (Zhang et al. 2015 ). There is relatively little use of marine energy, yet this may potentially change depending on future technological developments (Ellabban et al. 2014 ).

Residential buildings receive more attention because people spend 90% of their time inside. Contrary to popular belief, the concentration of contaminants found indoors is more than the concentration outside, sometimes up to 10 times or even 100 times more (agency). The renovation of existing buildings can save energy, upgrade thermal comfort, and improve people’s living conditions.

Energy is a substantial and widely recognized cost of building operations that can be reduced through energy-saving and green building design. Nevertheless, a consensus has been reached by academics and those in building-related fields that GBs are significantly more energy efficient than traditional buildings if designed, constructed, and operated with meticulousness (Wuni et al. 2019b ). The drive to reduce energy consumption from buildings has acted as a catalyst in developing new technologies.

Compared with the article analysis, patents can better reflect the practical technological application to a certain extent. We extracted the information of green building energy-related patent records between 1998 and 2018 from the Derwent Innovations Index database. The development of a technique follows a path: precursor–invention–development–maturity. This is commonly known as an S-type growth (Mao et al. 2018 ). Two thousand six hundred thirty-eight patents were found which were classified into “Derwent Manual Code,” which is the most distinct feature just like “keywords” in the Derwent Innovations Index. Manual codes refer to specific inventions, technological innovations, and unique codes for their applications. According to the top 20 Derwent Manual Code which accounted for more than 80% of the total patents, we classified the hotspots patents into three fields for further S-curve analysis, which are “structure,” “material,” and “energy systems” (Table 3 ).

Sustainable structural design (SSD) has gained a lot of research attention from 2006 to 2016 (Pongiglione and Calderini 2016 ). The S-curve of structure* (Fig. 14 ) has just entered the later period of the growth stage, accounting for 50% of the total saturation in 2018. Due to its effectiveness and impact, SSD has overtime gained recognition and is now considered by experts to be a prominent tool in attaining sustainability goals (Pongiglione and Calderini 2016 ).

The S-curves of different Structure types from patents

Passive design is important in energy saving which is achieved by appropriately orientating buildings and carefully designing the building envelope. Building envelopes, which are key parts of the energy exchange between the building and the external environment, include walls, roofs, windows, and floors. The EU increased the efficiency of its heat-regulating systems by revamping building envelopes as a primary energy-saving task during 2006 to 2016 (Cao et al. 2016 ).

We analyzed the building envelope separately. According to the S-curve (Fig. 14 ), the number of patents related to GB envelops are in the growth stage. At present, building envelops such as walls, roofs, windows, and even doors have not reached 50% of the saturated quantity. Walls and roofs are two of the most important building envelops. The patent contents of walls mainly include wall materials and manufacturing methods, modular wall components, and wall coatings while technologies about roofs mainly focus on roof materials, the combination of roof and solar energy, and roof structures. Green roofs are relatively new sustainable construction systems because of its esthetic and environmental benefits (Wei et al. 2015 ).

The material resources used in the building industry consume massive quantities of natural and energy resources consumptions (Wang et al. 2018 ). The energy-saving building material is economical and environmentally friendly, has low coefficient heat conductivity, fast curing speed, high production efficacy, wide raw material source and flame, and wear resistance properties (Zhang et al. 2014 ). Honeycomb structures were used for insulating sustainable buildings. They are lightweight and conserve energy making them eco-friendly and ideal for construction (Miao et al. 2011 ).

According to the S-curve (Fig. 15 ), it can be seen that the number of patents on the GB “material” is in the growth stage. It is expected that the number of patents will reach 50% of the total saturation in 2022.

The S-curves of a different material from patents

Building material popularly used comprised of cement, concrete, gypsum, mortar compositions, and boards. Cement is widely used in building material because of its easy availability, strong hardness, excellent waterproof and fireproof performance, and low cost. The S-curve of cement is in the later period of the growth stage, which will reach 90% of the total saturation in 2028. Composite materials like Bamcrete (bamboo-concrete composite) and natural local materials like Rammed Earth had better thermal performance compared with energy-intensive materials like bricks and cement (Kandya and Mohan 2018 ). Novel bricks synthesized from fly ash and coal gangue have better advantages of energy saving in brick production phases compared with that of conventional types of bricks (Zhang et al. 2014 ). For other materials like gypsum or mortar, the numbers of patents are not enough for S-curve analysis. New-type green building materials offer an alternative way to realize energy-saving for sustainable constructions.

Energy system

The energy system mainly included a heating system and ventilation system according to the patent analysis. So, we analyzed solar power systems and air conditioning systems separately. Heat* included heat collecting panels and a fluid heating system.

The results indicated that heat*-, solar-, and ventilation-related technologies were in the growth stage which would reach 50% of the total saturation in 2022 (Fig. 16 ). Photovoltaic technology is of great importance in solar energy application (Khan and Arsalan 2016 ).

The S-curves of energy systems from patents

On the contrary, air conditioning technologies had entered into the mature stage after a decade of development. It is worth mentioning that the design of the fresh air system of buildings after the COVID-19 outbreak is much more important. With people spending the majority of their time inside (Liu et al. 2019 ), volatile organic compounds, formaldehyde, and carbon dioxide received the most attention worldwide (Wei et al. 2015 ). Due to health problems like sick building syndrome, and more recently since the COVID-19 outbreak, the supply of fresh air can drastically ameliorate indoor air quality (IAQ) (Liu et al. 2019 ). Regulating emissions from materials, enhanced ventilation, and monitoring air indoors are the main methods used in GBs for maintaining IAQ (Wei et al. 2015 ). Air circulation frequency and improved air filtration can reduce the risk of spreading certain diseases, while controlling the airflow between rooms can also prevent cross-infections. Poor indoor air quality and ventilation provide ideal conditions for the breeding and spreading of viruses by air (Chen et al. 2019 ). A diverse range of air filters coupled with a fresh air supply system should be studied. A crucial step forward is to create a cost-effective, energy-efficient, intelligent fresh air supply system (Liu et al. 2017 ) to monitor, filter outdoor PM2.5 (Chen et al. 2017 ), and saving building energy (Liu and Liu 2005 ). Earth-air heat exchanger system (EAHE) is a novel technology that supplies fresh air using underground soil heat (Chen et al. 2019 ).

A total of 5246 journal articles in English from the SCI and SSCI databases published in 1998–2018 were reviewed and analyzed. The study revealed that the literature on green buildings has grown rapidly over the past 20 years. The findings and results are summarized:

Data analysis revealed that GB research is distributed across various subject categories. Energy and Buildings, Building and Environment, Journal of Cleaner Production, and Sustainability were the top journals to publish papers on green buildings.

Global distribution was done to see the green building study worldwide, showing that the USA, China, and the UK ranked the top three countries, accounting for 14.98%, 13.29%, and 8.27% of all the publications respectively. Australia and China had the closest relationship on green building research cooperation worldwide.

Further analysis was made on countries’ characteristics, dominant issues through keyword co-occurrence, green building technology by patent analysis, and S-curve prediction. Global trends of the top 5 countries showed different characteristics. China had a steady and consistent growth in publications each year while the USA, the UK, and Italy were on a decline from 2016. The big data method was used to see the city performance in China, finding that the total publications had a high correlation with the city’s GDP and Baidu Search Index. Policies were regarded as the stimulation for green building development, either in China or the UK. Also, barriers and contradictions such as cost, occupants’ comfort, and energy consumption were discussed about the developed and developing countries.

Cluster and content analysis via CiteSpace identified popular and trending research topics at different stages of development; the top three hotspots were green buildings, sustainability, and energy efficiency throughout the whole research period. Energy efficiency has shifted from low to zero energy buildings or even beyond it in recent years. Energy efficiency was the most important drive to achieve green buildings while LCA and LEED were the two potential ways to evaluate building performance. Thermal comfort and natural ventilation of residential buildings became a topic of interest to the public.

Then, we combined the keywords with “energy” to make further patent analysis in Derwent Innovations Index. “Structure,” “material,” and “energy systems” were three of the most important types of green building technologies. According to S-curve analysis, most of the technologies of energy-saving buildings were on the fast-growing trend, and even though there were conflicts and doubts in different countries on GB adoption, it is still a promising field.

Future directions

An establishment of professional institutes or a series of policies and regulations on green building promulgated by government departments will promote research development (as described in the “Further Analysis on China, the USA, and the UK” section). Thus, a policy enacted by a formal department is of great importance in this particular field.

Passive design is important in energy saving which is ensured by strategically positioning buildings and precisely engineering the building envelope, i.e., roof, walls, windows, and floors. A quality, the passive-design house is crucial to achieving sustained thermal comfort, low-carbon footprint, and a reduced gas bill. The new insulation material is a promising field for reducing building heat loss and energy consumed. Healthy residential buildings have become a focus of future development due to people’s pursuit of a healthy life. A fresh air supply system is important for better indoor air quality and reduces the risk of transmission of several diseases. A 2020 study showed the COVID-19 virus remains viable for only 4 hours on copper compared to 24 h on cardboard. So, antiviral materials will be further studied for healthy buildings (Fezi 2020 ).

With the quick development of big data method and intelligent algorithms, artificial intelligence (AI) green buildings will be a trend. The core purpose of AI buildings is to achieve optimal operating conditions through the accurate analysis of data, collected by sensors built into green buildings. “Smart buildings” and “Connected Buildings” of the future, fitted with meters and sensors, can collect and share massive amounts of information regarding energy use, water use, indoor air quality, etc. Analyzing this data can determine relationships and patterns, and optimize the operation of buildings to save energy without compromising the quality of the indoor environment (Lazarova-Molnar and Mohamed 2019 ).

The major components of green buildings, such as building envelope, windows, and skylines, should be adjustable and versatile in order to get full use of AI. A digital control system can give self-awareness to buildings, adjusting room temperature, indoor air quality, and air cooling/heating conditions to control power consumption, and make it sustainable (Mehmood et al. 2019 ).

Concerns do exist, for example, occupant privacy, data security, robustness of design, and modeling of the AI building (Maasoumy and Sangiovanni-Vincentelli 2016 ). However, with increased data sources and highly adaptable infrastructure, AI green buildings are the future.

This examination of research conducted on green buildings between the years 1998 and 2018, through bibliometric analysis combined with other useful tools, offers a quantitative representation of studies and data conducted in the past and present, bridging historical gaps and forecasting the future of green buildings—providing valuable insight for academicians, researchers, and policy-makers alike.

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The datasets generated and analyzed throughout the current study are available in the Web of Science Core Collection.

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Li Ying, Rong Yanyu, Umme Marium Ahmad, Wang Xiaotong & Mao Guozhu

Tianjin University Research Institute of Architectural Design and Urban Planning Co., Ltd, Tianjin, 300072, China

Center for Green Buildings and Sponge Cities, Georgia Tech Tianjin University Shenzhen Institute, Shenzhen, 518071, Guangdong, China

Rong Yanyu, Wang Xiaotong & Mao Guozhu

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Ying Li conceived the frame of the paper and wrote the manuscript. Yanyu Rong made the data figures and participated in writing the manuscript. Umme Marium Ahmad helped with revising the language. Xiaotong Wang consulted related literature for the manuscript. Jian Zuo contributed significantly to provide the keywords list. Guozhu Mao helped with constructive suggestions.

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Topic: (“bioclimatic architect*” or “bioclimatic build*” or “bioclimatic construct*” or “bioclimatic hous*” or “eco-architect*” or “eco-build*” or “eco-home*” or “eco-hous*” or “eco-friendly build*” or “ecological architect*” or “ecological build*” or “ecological hous*” or “energy efficient architect*” or “energy efficient build*” or “energy efficient construct*” or “energy efficient home*” or “energy efficient hous*” or “energy efficient struct*” or “energy saving architect*” or “energy saving build*” or “energy saving construct*” or “energy saving home*” or “energy saving hous*” or “energy saving struct*” or “green architect*” or “green build*” or “green construct*” or “green home*” or “low carbon architect*” or “low carbon build*” or “low carbon construct*” or “low carbon home*” or “low carbon hous*” or “low energy architect*” or “low energy build*” or “low energy construct*” or “low energy home*” or “low energy hous*” or “sustainable architect*” or “sustainable build*” or “sustainable construct*” or “sustainable home*” or “sustainable hous*” or “zero energy build*” or “zero energy home*” or “zero energy hous*” or “net zero energy build*” or “net zero energy home*” or “net zero energy hous*” or “zero-carbon build*” or “zero-carbon home*” or “zero-carbon hous*” or “carbon neutral build*” or “carbon neutral construct*” or “carbon neutral hous*” or “high performance architect*” or “high performance build*” or “high performance construct*” or “high performance home*” or “high performance hous*”)

Time span: 1998-2018。 Index: SCI-EXPANDED, SSCI。

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Li, Y., Rong, Y., Ahmad, U.M. et al. A comprehensive review on green buildings research: bibliometric analysis during 1998–2018. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28 , 46196–46214 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-12739-7

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-12739-7

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• Published: 26 August 2021

Investigation of sustainability embodied in existing buildings: a case study of refurbishment adopted in a Chinese contemporary building

• Yi Huang   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2731-5240 1 , 2 ,
• Chong Xu 2 , 3 ,
• Yufan Xiao 4 &
• Bart Dewancker 2  

Scientific Reports volume  11 , Article number:  17283 ( 2021 ) Cite this article

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The Liyuan courtyard buildings are considered as contemporary architectural symbols of the spirit in Qingdao, China. The sustainability potentials embodied in the building is evaluated by building performance simulations analysis based on field investigation in this case study. Two models with optimization refurbishment were made through building simulation software. One model with façade supplemented in the insulation layers of the envelope walls and the other model with further upgrade with consideration of recycling materials mixed were discussed and estimated with building performance simulation method. The energy performance in the building and both scenarios designed can improve the energy efficiency, while the advanced model could achieve better result in the building energy behavior dramatically. Technologies innovation are proved to be good tools to improve energy performance the existing buildings by renovation actions such as insulation improvement and so on. It is concluded the sustainability regain its authentic appearance while achieve energy efficiency embodied within contemporary buildings through adaptational renovation strategies. Multicriteria considerations might influence the balanced between different factors when making decisions in the building restoration project, it is also expected to empower the fresh glory in the development of building protection and restoration.

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Introduction

Climate changes and environmental issues have drawn concerns by many countries in consensuses with developing sustainable measures to overcome the crisis in energy shortage and living ecology. It comes up with an agreement on meeting human development goals while simultaneously sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depends 1 . The United Nations set 17 sustainable development goals as the blueprint for all the member nations to achieve a better sustainable future. They list the global challenges to overcome, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate change, peace and justice, especially environmental degradation. The 17 Goals are planned to be achieved by 2030 with no one behind 2 (2021.7.31). As the largest energy consumption resource, the global architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry is also responsible for providing the social and economic tenement to the global population, including preserving or retrofitting the buildings and infrastructure already in use. In 2010, Meggers et al. 3 appraised the true capability of CO 2 emissions reduction from buildings sector covering challenges of cutting emissions from building construction, operation and maintenance, throughout the whole life cycle. Mazria concluded in 2007 4 that once taking the building’s whole life cycle into consideration, more than half of the emissions are relevant to building sector. Roodman and Lenssen evaluated that 35% of energy in the world are used by buildings, while they are directly responsible one third of global emissions with the certain consumption level 5 .

Various strategies have been developed to achieve better living environment with sustainable goals. The U.S. Green Building Council committed to a sustainable, prosperous future with LEED rating system, which is recognized as the leading system as sustainable solution to the buildings sector development. The system enables the buildings and communities to regain and sustain the health and vitality of all life within a generation, by the way buildings and communities are designed, built and operated, to achieve an environmentally and socially responsible, healthy, and prosperous environment that improves the quality of life 6 . In Europe, various member nations established their own low-energy building standards under the European Union's management guidance, in order to upgrade the building standard towards zero-energy goals 7 . In Japan, there are policies in control and regulatory; economic-based, fiscal and information actions to realize building energy saving, with purpose to realize zero energy goals as the average for new housing by 2030 8 . Compared to Japan, China is suffering more obstacles such as inefficient enforcement, insufficient levels of information and awareness and immature financial regulation system etc. 9 . In China, under the premise of sustained and stable economic growth in recent years, the proportion of building energy consumption is still likely to continue to rise. To harness the energy potential of existing buildings is a mile stone to meet the targets for a low carbon economy in 2050 10 .

The new trend of scale expansion and population concentration in urban development threaten the global energy balance and the recovery from environmental pollution. Insufficient natural resource and global warming have become new international concerns, which encouraged new innovation as positive solution to keep the global balance between natural and human society. The architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry sector is believed to be responsible for considerable amount of global energy demand resulting in a significant negative environmental impacts 3 , they are evaluated to be responsible for 35% of direct emissions with the certain consumption level 5 .

These contemporary buildings exist not only as the representative symbol of the history, but also a positive cultural resource for the future generations. Reasonable refurbishment gained more attention and accepted as an urgent issue as the practical solution in sustainable development in architectural industry 11 . Protection and restoration might bring new concepts in conservation which is essential as contributor to the reduction in environmental impacts. It is of great significance that appropriate approaches are carried out to preserve the whole body in consistent with reduction of general energy consumption applying impacts on the natural environment.

The renovation of the existing buildings and indicators for sustainability

The energy savings potential by retrofitting existing buildings is a milestone to meet the targets of a Low Carbon Economy. The construction industry has been evolving to embrace sustainability. This has highlighted the necessity to inspect sustainable performances throughout the post-construction building lifecycle. How to implement the retrofit of an existing building efficiently, furthermore, to evaluate the energy performance for low energy goals in environmental impacts is really the problem in the building sector. Considering specific active optional alternatives, it might be an active solution to those 100 years old buildings to overcome the energy hog problem. Deep assessments towards architectural heritages upgrades can be the great opportunities in which the users and residents could face the problem directly. Reasonable retrofit of existing buildings and keep the budget balance would be another option. As such, it relies more on the process, which can be adapted and optimized, than on the results.

A sustainability analysis of building renovation can include many factors; the energy performance, material efficiency, environmental impact, durability, affordability, and social benefit 12 . While the sustainability assessment of buildings and renovation should be based on a lifecycle analysis. Technical performance indicators are added to the environmental performance indicators in a sustainability assessment. Durability of renovation measures is one example of a technical performance indicator. Durability of a building envelope component depends on more factors such as constructional and material properties, maintenance and climate robustness. In a sustainability perspective, the economic performance should be evaluated as life cycle cost 13 . There are many methods are described in the literature as decision making support tools for sustainability assessment 14 , 15 . Quantitative multicriteria models are the engineering approach for sustainability evaluation. Models with linear functions in the simulation tools on thermal comfort and environmental impact potential are used to evaluate renovation measures in the energy production and environmental 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 .

Birgit 13 made sustainability assessment of zero energy renovation of a Norwegian dwelling based on the standard from the British Institute for sustainability, which published an iterative method as a classical retrofit guide. Brito 20 took his perspectives on promotion the renovation alternative from a single heritage house into the whole neighborhood scale, which is quite an collective action by accumulating every single effort to achieve the common aim. The author agrees with the iterative method of the sustainability assessment on energy saving, because the whole process itself is complicated involved many factors to think about, meanwhile, different stakeholders would concentrate on their concerned points subjectively. The author also argues that different perspective can provide more possibility on the sustainability analysis of energy saving potential. The uncertainty of the human factor might result in variations in the final achievement of renovations, succeed in various efficiency and appearance of the final improvement. Therefore, this paper proposed a comprehensive strategy to complete the renovation works towards energy saving and even achieve zero energy ready house in the future prospect. It provides an explore attempt on the existing contemporary building with century history, at the same time, it is expected to show another possibility to manage the sustainability retained in the local residential buildings. while acknowledging that incomplete assessments are used to justify demolition, or to layer fashionable “innovations”.

The renovation project of Qingdao Liyuan buildings

Liyuan buildings are built based upon the European style courtyard style of 1900s. There are typical design features with court surrounded by two to three floors of buildings. This building styles were used as the main residential buildings in the urban planning accompanying the early time when the main urban area appeared its original appearance.

The Liyuan courtyards mentioned in this article refers to the buildings firstly built in the 1900s under the colonial rule by Germany intruders, which was retained its basic appearance till today (Fig.  1 ). Once upon a time, the Liyuan courtyard buildings spanned a century is still a typical representative symbol of the early urban construction of Qingdao. The "blocks" here are defined with boundary of urban traffic nets, including the neighboring buildings served functionally for the courtyards, contains internal plugging and corridors as well as social living spaces. Business and residence are mixed, shops and shops are intertwined. The "Li" concept in “Liyuan” was originally referred to the commercial function, which means the shops outwards to the streets for business negotiation by merchants. They can check goods samples when walked into the "Li” or collect products inside the "Li". On the other hand, the "Yuan" concept referred more specific in the living function, with larger scale than "Li". These two concepts were combined by government architectural department as the current definition of “Liyuan” courtyard only in 1999 21 , 22 , 23 . The Liyuan courtyard building is an important representative architectural style, it also represents a living form of middle-lower-level recognition in Qingdao at earlier period.

The evolution of the Liyuan building according to the time clue.

Incredible development is pushing forward the great changes all over the world and many changes in human behavior results in ultra-large cities with million population in highly concentrated urban scale. To harness the energy potential of existing buildings is a mile stone to meet the targets for a low carbon economy in 2050 10 . Therefore, in China, the urban development is seeking the solution to achieve better energy performance in the limited land area with suitable actions on the existing buildings. Meanwhile, some traditional old town areas are shrinking and might be eventually disappeared 24 , 25 . Similar to that, the distribution of Liyuan courtyard building is turning to shrinkage trends in area size (Fig.  2 ).

The shrinking of the distribution of Liyuan courtyard buildings in Qingdao.

As the purpose of upgrading the appearance of the city and improving the life quality for the domestic people, the municipal government of Qingdao started a series projects on exploration of the revitalization and urban renewal for the old town area from 2015. About 28 square kilometers of old town area are involved in this project, including a large number of Liyuan courtyard buildings protection and retrofit. With the general policy orientation of "Repair the old town and keep its originality, rely on industry-driven and remain technological empowerment", comprehensive assessments and renovation actions have been proposed in order to reform urban infrastructure construction, social livelihood and ecological improvement.

The general layout of the Liyuan courtyard consists of two sections, the outer building looks like the rows of noisy street shops (Fig.  3 ). While the inner part is filled with the private corners with daily lives. A courtyard separates crowed public from quiet corners. When the construction of an open, modern, dynamic and fashionable international metropolis becomes Qingdao's mission, this old building style become the new starting point for the revival of the history of the city. Although neighborhoods are composed of houses, communities are more than just sticks and bricks. They include and are formed by people and social relationships, both within and across houses. This was as true in old times as it is today.

The authentic appearance of a typical Liyuan building example.

It is far from satisfaction by implementation energy saving technologies and renewable energy sources alternatives only in the new built buildings. There is only small percentage of new built buildings in most of the countries all over the world, the large number of existing buildings with high energy consumption in use contains great opportunities to reduce global energy demand and pollution potential in the future. It agrees with the facts in EU project Annex 56 26 that “the greenest buildings” is the one that is already built for long time 27 .

The research objectives

This research is aiming to draw sustainable concept on the energy issues within existing contemporary buildings. Beginning with brief assessments in the case study, the physical and energy performance embedded is illustrated with parametric models and analyzed. With building performance simulations in software Ecotect, it calculated the energy performance in the total energy consumption and discussed motivations of different strategies through renovations and optimization options. It is expected to discover the sustainability embedded within the certain old buildings with feasible upgrades and to emphasize the sustainability and vitality in the architectural preservation. There are several goals to be observed in this paper:

Simulate multiple optimization scenarios and calculate thermal performance though computational simulations;

Evaluate energy saving potentials by comparing parametric results from simulations in renovation scenarios and analyze the energy improvement with suitable renovation.

Discuss the retrofit strategies on different energy efficiency actions in old buildings upgrade and benefits relatively, conclude the sustainability embodied within the comtemporary buildings from different perspectives.

Materials and methods

There are two parts in this research. The first part focuses on finding out the parametric characteristics and dimensional data from observations and field investigation in the architectural features. With other collective data, such as meteorologic, building materials etc., the parametric models was built in Rhino SketchUp for visualization analysis. It is a direct reflection from static state. The second part focuses on the perspective of building energy from computational building performance simulation with all collective data input into Ecotect for further simulation. SketchUp is a 3D modeling computer program for drawing applications such as architectural, interior design and etc. Autodesk Ecotect Analysis is an environmental analysis tool that allows building performance simulation throughout the whole lifecycle covering every stage of conceptual design. The two programs combined analysis functions with an interactive display that presents analytical results directly within the context of the building model.

The enhancement in the building envelope and proposed common upgrade scenarios in the refurbishment were simulated and compared. The aim is to allow the actions shifting resources, maximizing development efforts on BIM solutions for building performance analysis and visualization. It supports the further discussion in sustainability through the energy performance simulation.

Parametric model analysis from static dimensional investigation

Comprehensive field investigation is the most efficient measures to get insight of the building performance, while acknowledging that complete assessments are necessary to justify demolition before any actions of renovation on the heritage buildings. Through literature records study, the historical and physical development documents provide the image on the storyline embedded within the buildings. The detailed field investigation has been carried out from 2017, including external observation, internal assessment, random interview, dimensional measurement and illustration analysis etc.

There are several major parameters influenced the building energy performance analysis, including environmental, insulation and instruments installed. The geographical information decides the meteorological conditions of the area, which provided temperature, humidity and solar radiation etc. It determined the necessary heating and cooling demand and the possible options for refurbishment. The insulation is another important parameter influenced by the structure and materials. Great improvement in materials provided better efficiency and possibilities to reduce the energy consumption and achieve sustainable goals. It is also considered as the recent research focus. New type of instrument with lower energy consumption and green energy supply could supply new developing points in sustainable building performance.

The research of refurbishment would be mainly focus on the insulation improvement here. In order to illustrate the structure and show up the inner design within these Liyuan residential buildings, a digital drawing describing dimensional details was conducted after survey studies. The dimensional information has been visualized to provide a brief look into the facts of these existing buildings throughout hundred years history.

Renovation scenarios and iterative sustainability analysis

It is necessary to fulfill the local architecture building standard before reasonable sustainability analysis of the renovation actions. In China, JGJ26-2018 is published as the green building renovation goal for the renovation standard in Qingdao located in the cold climate zone 28 . Therefore, one scenario of renovation is to fulfill the green building standard for the whole building scale, which contains the consideration of local climate condition and majority of local heating demand and living habits. The other scenario of renovation is to mix part of the exterior insulation layer with recycling concrete materials, in order to discover the energy saving potential embedded within the traditional buildings. Optional alternatives with renewable energy, such as solar panels, taken as for heat demand resources will be discussed as specific supplement choice to the energy supply.

Energy consumption within complicated procedure of renovation requires high quality of modeling effort from captured building data and keep updating, uncertainty of information, objects and relations among software data is a big challenge. Meanwhile, it is agreed that the building performance simulations (Fig.  4 ) can be great helpful to engage the interests from different stakeholders based on their individual background knowledges with intuitive and direct images. Visualization tools empower owners and users with a better understanding of their house’s physical behavior but have limited effect on their renovation decisions.

The building models (left) and performance simulation through Ecotect software (right).

With hypothesis of certain potentials existing in the static and dynamic states, it expected the results would give more impressive imagination of the listed building and old contemporary building when restoration would be the energy improvement embodied this characteristic building structure. It is expected to attract potential stakeholders and users to realize the positive impact from the process of renovation for heritage buildings, meanwhile, to consider and encourage more active positive policy on the sustainability in the building retrofit and use. The results and findings from this paper are extension of the knowledge for all potential stakeholders, to consider the old contemporary buildings as architectural heritage from both static and dynamic states, to broader their awareness on the energy properties in accordance with modern standard.

There are certainly limitations existed in the simulation procedure. The results from building simulation could be only suitable to the certain situation in the case study with specific local information. The complicated building performance is simplified and focus on the energy parameters in the data collection and calculation procedures.

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This manuscript does not involve any animals, humans, human data, human tissue or plants.

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This manuscript does not contain any data from any individual person.

In this paper, the dual-perspectives assessment method was carried out in a case study located in the No. 84 of Zhifu Road, which is called “ZF-84” for short. The building locates in the highlighted area at the northern boundary of the original distributed area (Fig.  5 ). The building is in the block surrounded by Licun road, Yizhou road, Jimo road and Zhifu road, underneath the newly built elevated road.

The location of the Liyuan courtyard buildings of the case study in Qingdao on the map.

This ZF-84 building is a two-stories with traditional German style, installed red tiles on top and half-timbered brick structure, from the initial records in historical document and the dimension measurement collected in documents collection, the original land occurrence in the very beginning was 838.74 m 2 , while the current is 968.23 m 2 ; The original building area was 1695.91 m 2 , while the current is 1825.40 m 2 (Table 1 ).

The building was used to be an iron blacksmith store in the early 1930s, which was further modified as an iron plant, together with other surrounding workshops, which was recognized as the predecessor of “Qing gang” Iron factory. It was the most glorious time for this building. After the war time, it was changed as an Asian-American firm store selling skin care products, and also a workshop producing thread rolls. There was some maintenance in partial elements in the 1980s. The original wooden handrails and stairs were changed to stone ones at that time. The pillars used to be made of iron was also replaced by wood materials. There happened other restoration actions in the roof tiles, but it only focused on spray painting on the façade, appearing as a new one from outside. To get rid of the leakage of rain water, during that time, the residents built some personal facilities on their own tiles and added handrails of stairs with cement.

Demonstration of architectural features

The general judgement of the current condition described the building in a bad condition mostly due to the devastated along the long time. There is limited living area in each room space and narrow access available in accordance with the modern living condition, even less public space than imagine due to plenty private additional facilities in the atrium yard. There are obvious defects from the initial observation, which are opponent to the modern comfort demand in the living environments.

With the help of architecture software, the results from investigation on current spatial situation of the buildings are analyzed following different functions for detailed analysis, which focused on the building plans, public areas, function areas and added areas (as shown in Table 2 ). Different colors are labeled in the planning drawings, which are used to explain the relationship between different space area.

The statistical database was summarized based on architecture features from the plan layout analysis in Table 2 . There are totally 28 families still living in the building based on the statistical data collected in 2019. The architectural distribution here are mostly changed by private additional facilities building to meet their basic requirements (Fig.  6 ).

Spatial analysis of rooms in the case study building ZF 84 (Red for 1st floor; Black for 2nd floor).

Simulation of energy performance

For the energy perspective, there are two comparative scenarios analyzed in the building performance simulation, see Table 3 . The original performance of the building labeled as “Model_1” is referred to the original built reference for the listed building, which induced the single glazed timber framed windows, wooden doors, old clay tile roofs, and brick timber framed walls. “Model_2” is one scenario with modification in accordance with conservation requirement standard implemented double glazed windows, exterior walls of insulation and renewal of roofs and doors to improve the thermal properties and physical behavior of the building to fulfill the conservation requirement. “Model_3” is another model implemented with suggested modification by replacement of recycling construction materials 29 in envelope wall and further optimization in other building components. Both renovation scenarios are going to improve the whole building energy saving goals to achieve the green building standard and even higher efficiency.

With suggested analysis on the building energy perspective, comparative review on the three analyzed models of the ZF building in the case study explain how it is working and possible changes with the common suggested refurbishment measures in the terms of energy (Table 3 ) through the building performance simulation. The calculation of the energy consumption didn’t include the associated facilities because the lighting and appliances were installed separately according to the individual intentions.

The thermal transmittance (U-value) of the materials in different construction elements for the three models were calculated according to the National green building standard in the cold zones of China (2019) and the materials properties were obtained from the local design guidance for construction. The U-value of the possible energy refurbishment measures are also shown in Table 3 .

Considering the rate of use of the equipment, lights and occupancy are the same in the three models, the most indicative aspect is the heating and cooling energy demand. From the results of the energy performance simulating presented in Table 3 , it is obviously the Model_3 outperforms a little bit better than the ordinary in Model_2 and it is a significant improvement of the baseline in Model_1.

The energy performance of the three models throughout the year is shown in Fig.  7 . The peak heating demand occurred in period from December to February, the peak cooling demand happened in July to August period. Compared to the peak value of heating demand in the Model_1, it decreased to 24,700 kWh in the Model_2 which was 11.8% reduction, while the value in the Model_3 was decreased to 24,550 kWh which was approximately 12.3% less than the number in Model_1, and even 1% less compared to Model_2 in the same weather condition. There is not a long season required cooling demand, the peak values in cooling demand of all the three models happened around August and have big various due to different modification. But generally, the cooling demand is a slightly increased after insulation modification, but still small percentage compared to the heating demand over the year.

Monthly energy consumption of the models. ( A ) Model_1; ( B ) Model_2; ( C ) Model_3.

The monthly heating loads variation are displayed in Fig.  8 . It is evident the heating loads in Model_2 and Model_3 was significantly reduced than the Model_1 in the winter period. While the cooling demand was increased slightly due to the better insulations retained better thermal properties.

Monthly energy load profile. ( A ) Model_1; ( B ) Model_2; ( C ) Model_3.

There might also certain limitation in the results, because the building is old and most part are under maintenance. There almost too few people to check the validation of the building. However, the simulation and calculation results are expected to aid the stakeholders understand the building performance through different restoration strategies.

Findings and discussion

Every city has its unique historical culture standing for its soul, it is specifically shown in the physical space among the historical blocks and daily life forms of the citizens live in it. As a typical buildings style with 100 years history combining Western and Chinese culture, the Qingdao Liyuan building request a better comprehensive assessment in accordance with modern living standard. According to the dual-perspectives analysis, the deep assessment on the Liyuan buildings is examined and explained from the two perspectives.

Analysis in architectural features

A general spatial analysis of the rooms was conducted focused on various building facilities inside the buildings according to the field measurements data. As shown in Fig.  9 , the minimal to maximum dimensional information was illustrated, it summarized the general features in this Liyuan courtyard building. (1) There is limited access space as the stairs width are from 0.95 to 1.8 m and corridor width are 1–1.4 m; (2) The living space is relatively spacious compared to the commercial space which is normally narrow while the space is generally small in size; (3) the kitchen space is average in size but very little sanitary space arrangement as the dimension in toilets are quite small even smaller than the access space. In general, the rooms in the Liyuan courtyard buildings are quite old-fashioned with small size for living and little space for access and sanitary and kitchen.

Statistical analysis in the spatial information in case study buildings.

There are obvious defects existed in the Liyuan building design which opposed to the development trend of modern comfort in the living environments.

Bad sanitary condition. Only one or two public toilets arranged in the original design in this courtyard for all the residents which reflect the outdated sanitary prohibitions and class discrimination to Chinese workers for low residential standard in the colonial time.

Insufficient facilities served. No associated facilities supporting daily lives to meet the privacy and space requirements of the modern living style.

Small spatial arrangement in the rooms. The space allowance is limited to the minimum living needs, unable to meet more public and flexible areas.

Analysis in energy performance features

The energy performance is always complicated involving considerations on many factors. The analysis through building performance simulation with concerns on the energy performance tried to give deeper impression on the building from dynamic state.

With a comparative analysis of the peak values variation in the heating and cooling demand of the simulation models (Fig.  10 ), the upgrading of thermal insulation and materials improve the building performance greatly. The heating load of the building in the cold season is greatly reduced, saving nearly half of the heat energy. While the cooling load slightly increased during summer period. It shows that changing the thermal performance of building exterior envelope materials can effectively improve indoor comfort and reduce energy consumption in severe cold seasons, but it will also bring negative effects slightly in hot seasons.

The variations in the heating and cooling consumption from the accumulative amount and peak value.

Meanwhile, the data shows that although the energy consumption in the hot season has increased, from a year-round perspective, the heat consumption in Qingdao is several orders of magnitude higher than the cold consumption. The amount of energy saved by increasing the thermal performance of building exterior walls is still considerable. Therefore, it is still a very efficient measure to transform the thermal performance of listed building.

The passive grains breakdown distribution displayed in the Fig.  11 illustrate more consideration on the energy perspective. There are several considerations from the pictures.

The annual heat loss is much higher than the income in the listed building, thus, heat preservation in winter will be far more energy-saving than heat dissipation in summer.

The three models all start from improving the thermal functionality (K value) of the building’s external walls, which succeed in reducing the heat loss caused by heat transfer from 19.3% of the total loss to 12.3% and 12.1%. It is very effective and gradually reduces the energy consumption of the building. However, heat loss from ventilation and heat dissipation is still a drop in the bucket. Therefore, in the conservation of Liyuan building, not only the thermal performance of the material itself, but also the design correction on airtightness of the interior and exterior spaces of the building should be handled well.

The passive grains breakdown analysis. ( A ) Model_1; ( B ) Model_2; ( C ) Model_3.

Related to Qingdao Liyuan building style, the existence of the courtyard increases the building surface area, and the short depth in the rooms also makes it relatively easier access the wind to take away heat from the inside. The general wooden structure of the listed building and wall have high coefficient of expansion, porosity, and poor airtightness, which also increase the ventilation heat loss to a certain extent.

Obviously, the selection of building wall insulation materials has a great impact on building energy conservation. At present, the building wall insulation performance of Liyuan buildings in China is poor, resulting in relatively high heating and air conditioning load of buildings in China, that is, under the same indoor environment, the building energy consumption demand per unit area is relatively high. By increasing the thickness of the external wall and reducing the heat transfer coefficient of the external wall, increasing the thickness of the external wall could increase the weight of the external wall and consume a lot of building materials. Therefore, in energy-saving buildings, the heat transfer coefficient of the external wall could be generally reduced by reducing the heat transfer coefficient of the material and improving the structure.

Sustainability embodied within the contemporary buildings

The existing Liyuan buildings are strongly demonstrate resilience and versatility, their capability to persist throughout long time should be appreciated as a symbol of sustainability. The demand to preserve such heritage buildings and prevent further decay, while preserving embodied unique historical characteristics provide extended perspectives in the project of retrofitting. By protecting the authentic brick façade and maintaining the continuity of the original purpose of the building, it initialized more consideration on other perspectives besides the improvement of the energy performance.

The proposed dual-perspectives method on assessment of retrofitting upgrade was not only focused on the authentic visual appearance, but also estimate the energy performance through reasonable simulations based on the information collected. This can help to verify the extent of how the retrofitting meet the living standards on energy efficiency and comfort conditions comprehensively.

The simulations in this case, analyzed and explained adequate renovation measures with statistical data. By empowering the envelop properties enhancement, it is obvious to gain better energy efficiency and thermal performance in heating demand during winter, while get certain loss in cooling demand during summer. This could be further improved according to the frequency of use of the room in different seasons, so as to adjust the heat energy consumption as much as possible while keeping the cold energy consumption in a stable level.

The proposed upgrade measures reduced the thermal loss from 19.3 to 12.3%, which increased energy efficiency greatly. It is evident the building energy efficiency can be improved with adequate measures, with certain careful consideration of necessary premises for the existing contemporary buildings as following conditions:

Use the environment friendly materials to get rid of the possible embodied emission.

Execute comprehensive analysis of the current conditions of the building.

Determine the restoration goals in different perspectives and the extent.

Decide suitable construction measures to ensure the energy retrofitting goals and maintain the original function following the guidance in the conservation requirement.

Estimate the energy efficiency with reasonable simulation to help making decisions on the choice between different methods, to obtain the general judgement on the building conservation in full-scale.

It is suggested for all the architects to better understand the old contemporary buildings from multi-perspectives, especially with more consideration in the combination of architecture design with energy performance. With the aims to overcome the energy crisis and reduce heat losses, it is necessary to apply adequate thermal insulation in the building envelope elements, which is the most effective measures because the devastated building cannot ensure thermal properties in good condition. While respecting the conservation requirements and maintaining the authentic appearance of the listed building, various models of restoration were suggested and analyzed through building performance simulation (BPS) method. The results and findings of the paper verified the success in the energy efficiency improvement within the example in Qingdao Liyuan buildings, and it contributed with practical certification by applying the principles and retrofitting measures in the restoration project.

This individual approach is necessary in every old contemporary building to ensure the realization of restoration in all the perspectives could be implemented with satisfying results. It suggested the knowledge gained from this case study would serve as support for possibility discussion of specific strategy explore based on the guideline upgrade of the whole neighborhood scale in the retrofit of old buildings in a more comprehensive extent.

Conclusions

This paper investigated the sustainability embodied within a typical contemporary residential building date back to 1900s in China, which still exists nowadays as symbol of traditional culture and classical architectural style. The research is going to consider how the initial residential demands could be satisfied with reasonable renovation actions under energy consumption optimization direction. Field investigation and deep assessment on aesthetic succession were proposed as triggers for new target toward better energy efficiency in building performance. Two scenarios executed in the simulation of case study towards lower energy consumption purpose. This environment friendly practice could fill up the gap between excessive natural resource and limited requirement for architecture buildings. To sort out the internal meaning and information of the traditional architectures in the backward time period, it can be great help to understand how unique they are to maintain detailed records of its characteristics and recover its brightness with the modern technologies. The comprehensive result from the survey investigation in the case study proposed a feasible and ecological design database for the retrofit and improvement of Liyuan courtyards.

Associated with the specific case studies, intuitive descriptions make representations of the reality attractive and understandable by others beyond specific areas of knowledge. Limitations like the difficulty to read plans and cuts, to anticipate cost scenarios and to include holistic complexity find in these models the multidisciplinary convergence needed for applied interdisciplinary studies. Most Liyuan courtyard buildings in Qingdao still have it basic functions for use, and they can somehow retain distinctive architectural forms and pleasant street environment through reasonable renovation and retrofit. As an excellent supplement to tourism resource, this can be valuable attempt to recover the original characteristics and charms by this practice of retrofit and refurbishment operation on the existing Liyuan courtyards. The purpose of reviving the historical architecture can be realized by the careful retrofit constructions. This attraction from history presented as a new form of architectural retrofit will be another achievement of sustainability in the economic manner.

Energy perspectives assessment provided an opportunity to get deeper insight into more detailed information embodied within the contemporary buildings. There are possible measures to improve the living comfort by changing the arrangement of the rooms and purpose of using, which may change the using time and occupancy in the building and furthermore change the human behavior inside the building. By applying insulation or changing the glazing windows and other various measures, the building energy performance could be improved and achieve the modern green building standard. In conclusion, this dual-perspective method provided a chance to explain the old buildings with better acknowledgement within the building and require the architects to apply more comprehensive consideration in the design phase, and get better retrofitting measure in the project of individual contemporary building.

Data availability

The datasets during and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully appreciate the suggestive comments from the editors and reviewers for further modification in the manuscript submission. Special appreciate to Mrs. C. X’s. contribution to the experiment design improvement in the revision process, also to the modification suggestions and language edit by Professor B.D.

This research was supported by a project of Shandong Province Higher Educational Science and Technology Program (J18KA090).

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Contributions

Y.F.X. and F.Y. conducted the dimensional measurement and random interviews in the field survey investigation, they also took photos of the Liyuan courtyards. Y.F.X made some of the digital drawing of illustrations. Y.H. made sustainability analysis from historical and environmental perspectives, modified and organized the methodology, analyzed the illustrations with further modification and wrote the paper; C.X. and Prof B.D. modified and improved the manuscript in the revision and modified the design of the experiment. Prof B.D. is the supervisor of the research. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Huang, Y., Xu, C., Xiao, Y. et al. Investigation of sustainability embodied in existing buildings: a case study of refurbishment adopted in a Chinese contemporary building. Sci Rep 11 , 17283 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96687-9

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Received : 16 June 2021

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96687-9

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