Structural Design for Adaptability and Deconstruction: A Strategy for Closing the Materials Loop and Increasing Building Value

摘要

Structural engineers sometimes wonder what they can do to advance the practice of “sustainable” or “green” design. While for building design it is true that the architect and mechanical engineer tend to play larger roles than the structural engineer, the structural engineer can contribute in a number of significant ways. For example, designing efficient structures and using recycled and salvaged materials conserve non-renewable resources. One emerging strategy with far-reaching consequences is Design for Adaptability and Disassembly (DfAD). DfAD may in fact be the most important strategy we can use to conserve materials, thereby reducing the energy consumed and the pollution and global warming gases emitted during their extraction and manufacture. Applying these strategies should greatly increase the probability that (1) the life of the structure will be extended, and (2) at the structure’s end-of-life the materials will be reused or recycled.