Economical profitability and social awareness

In the past, the main object of construction industry was how to achieve our needs with efficient cost, materials, time, etc. For example, if domestic building is built, providing what we need, such as light, water supply, heating system, etc. within the acceptable cost range, was the only things that to be concerned. However, since industrial revolution, exploded construction industry led the many problems on environment. Huge increasing on consumption of natural resources emitted significant amount of CO2, and this emission was the main causes of global warming.
Moreover, depletion of ozone layer, acid rain, smog, biodiversity loss and eutrophication were come out as another environmental issues. These environmental impacts have gradually increased and people started to think how to reduce the environmental impact with fulfil our needs. In other word, how to balancing between the environmental, economical social needs. This is the basic concept of sustainable development. Figure 1: Risk and impacts of global warming1 Sustainable development is defined as: development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs2.
Sustainable development, especially, in the construction industry has become critical. In fact, it is surprising that building related energy consumption is 40% of UK’s total energy consumption3. According to the 2005 UK Sustainable Development strategy, it is mentioned that the following factors can be used to achieve sustainable development4. Figure 2: Sustainable development factors In the construction industry, above factor can be adopted in a various way such as Eco House, which is the one of good example that explaining how sustainable development can be achieved by adopting above factors.

Solar powered electricity, solar heated water and micro wind turbine will reduce the use of energy and therefore achieving a sustainable economy. Moreover, double-glazed windows, cavity wall insulation, rainwater storage and recycling bin will help reducing energy loss and waste. Following diagram shows the suggested eco house system in order to achieve sustainable developmentAbove factors can support the concept of sustainable development in various ways.
For example, precast concrete and no need of deep fill in poor soil condition, can reduce the period of construction and therefore cost reduction on labour can be expected. Moreover, improved thermal performance on the floor can reduce the energy consumption on heating (less emission) and sound insulation improves the quality of life. However, there are few problems of this construction system such as moisture penetration and gas from ground rock in the sub floor space, which can harm the human health.
These problems can be reduced/eliminated by putting vapour control layers, damp proof membrane and ventilation in sub floor space. Victorian House Victorian domestic building (house) is the building that built during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901). During the industrial revolution, successive housing booms resulted in the building of many millions of Victorian houses, which are now a defining feature of most British town and cities12. The key aspects of Victorian houses are as follows.