ABSTRACT
In the recent years, high-rise and multistory office buildings face numerous new challenges. Shortage of land in urban areas, increasing costs for energy and construction material and the pressure on the real estate market are inter alia pushing the market for innovation. These innovations take place in a political environment requesting to build energy efficient buildings, mainly with focus on energy consumption during the use phase of the building, but also more and more in terms of embodied “grey” energy of the building. Besides, conversion and/or refurbishment of existing buildings of the buildings stock is a topic on the political agenda and is considered to significantly contribute to achieve the energy-efficiency goals set in the agenda EUROPE 2020 as well as the targets for the minimization of construction and demolition waste in the European Waste Directive. Therefore structural flexibility for Improved Service Life of new and existing buildings is to be considered by the architect and designer. Structural flexibility depends on:
- Decoupling of building layers and elements with different service lives to make replacement and upgrading possible;
- Capacity to allow for unforeseen changes.
