The Importance Of Building Design

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The South African SANS 204 and SANS 10400-XA regulate the design of new buildings and current building extensions. In order for this to be regulated properly, building plans must be approved for meeting the standards set out in the SAB regulations (Botes, 2011). The intention of the regulations is to ensure that buildings are built to be more energy efficient by designing them to be well insulated, more resistant to air leakage via windows, doors and ceilings with weak seals. This makes a building more efficient with regards to wastefully using energy to heat and cool (Mnguni & Tucker, n.d.). These areas of design are instrumental in creating an energy efficient building. UKZN curricula dealing with building design and construction should cover…show more content…
This will become the project brief (Architecture Courses, 2014; RIBA 2013). In terms of duties in stage one relating to energy efficiency, BKIA (2012) suggest that the design team should be capable of performing research on energy consumption patterns of the intended final users of the building and consumption patterns of the type of building itself. Following this, the main factors that affect the buildings energy consumption must be determined by taking into account the environmental conditions and movement of users and goods. Any methods of reducing required energy for the building should be discussed and examined. Using the SAB standards as a starting point, the design team should determine energy targets for the proposed building and review them with the client. After this, feasibility studies can be conducted to determine possible site locations or buildings that will allow the client to achieve his energy efficiency goals (BKIA, 2012; RIBA,…show more content…
Large standby/ alternative energy sources are required to main operations Power cuts can be accommodated and less power from standby generators or alternative power sources is required to keep the building in

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