Assignment Brief and Guidance:
Task 1:
You are employed by a large general contractor, as a Design Build Technician. The company has recently appointed a new Managing Director who has decided to shift the company’s focus towards greater use of sustainable practices. To achieve this, the Managing Director has asked a number of staff to prepare presentations on how to improve sustainability within the construction process.
You have been asked to prepare a presentation on ‘Improving Sustainability through Material Selection.’
The Managing Director suggests that your presentation covers:
an overview of health and safety regulations related to the handling of materials on site, using examples
a discussion of how material choice may be influenced by environmental and sustainability factors
an assessment of how risk assessments are used to mitigate certain hazards (use examples related to two materials and two activities)
an explanation of environmental profiling and life-cycle assessment together with a brief overview of product declaration and environmental certification together with an example using ONE relevant construction material.
a short discussion of how multiple regulations and legislation apply to a construction site
the preparation
As an example to show your audience, the MD suggests that you prepare a typical waste management plan for the types of developments the company specialise in (i.e. small high end detached housing developments of 6-8 four and five bedroom detached properties).
Task 1 addresses Learning Outcome 1; P1, M1, D1 and Learning Outcome 3: P2, P3, M2.
Task 2:
Your MD unexpectedly visits the Design Team office and suggests that it needs “decorating” with some relevant materials such as posters. She suggests the theme to be how the use of sustainable practices and materials can improve the environmental rating of buildings. As the junior in the office, you are tasked with preparing the posters as follows:
Create three posters on performance characteristics of materials related to the type of construction in which the company is involved.
Your posters should assess the effects of loading the structural materials, comparing their behaviour and performance in carrying out the same function.
Task 2 addresses Learning Outcome 2; P4, P5, P6, M3, D2
Task 3:
As the company you work for is involved in housing developments, they are very keen to evaluate the performance of their buildings in relation to human comfort. The MD, impressed with your previous work for her, has now asked that you design a materials selection strategy for human comfort requirements that the design team can use in their future selection of materials.
Identify five different materials used in house development and using relevant calculations for thermal, illumination, sound and ventilation, evaluate how the use of active or passive strategies can minimise energy, materials, water and land use.
The outcome will be a report of some 1500 to 2000 words.
