Design technology based on resizing method for reduction of costs and carbon dioxide emissions of high-rise buildings

Construction materials are known to cause a considerable environmental impact during their manufacturing and construction phases. The environmental impact such as CO2 emissions can be calculated based on the amount of materials used. To reduce CO2 emissions, it is necessary to develop technologies that can reduce the amount of materials used in the design phase. This study proposes a design technology that applies a resizing method to reduce the cost and carbon dioxide emissions of high-rise buildings. This technique increases the natural frequency of the structure and decreases the structural weight by reducing the wind load acting on high-rise buildings. The proposed technique is applied to a 37-story real building in order to compare the cost and CO2 emissions pre- and post-application of the technique. The cost and CO2 emissions in the phases of material manufacturing, material transportation, and on-site construction are considered. As a result of the application, it was confirmed that the redesign obtained with the proposed technique reduces the cost by 29.2% and CO2 emissions by 13.5%, when compared to the initial design. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.