Einfluss von Nutzeranforderungen auf die ökonomische Bewertung von Stahl als Konstruktionswerkstoff für nachhaltige Bürogebäude

Impact of requirements of users on the economic valuation of steel as construction material for sustainable office buildings.

The concept of integral design with life cycle perspective is one precondition to implement sustainability in the building sector. Applying this method means to already include possible changes of use during the life cycle in design processes. This approach helps to safeguard, sustain and develop environmental, economic and social resources. In design processes of this kind, not only every single dimension has to be optimized but also the interdependency between all three dimensions as a whole. With reference to office buildings, the following article shows how the social dimension can influence the economic one and provides with it an insight into the research project "Sustainable office and administration buildings in steel and steel-composite construction" (P 881). Using the sociotechnical system approach, it becomes obvious that office buildings are technical subsystems which affect the social subsystem (user) - and vice versa - significantly. Studies about future work and buildings point out that flexibility is a key quality of office buildings to meet requirements of present and future users. Finally, this article presents a method which enables investors to document the profitability of flexible building structures made of steel constructions.