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K. Kiesel, U. Pont, A. Mahdavi:
"Including sustainability criteria in architectural competition: A critical case study of current practices";
Talk: envibuild Buildings and Environment 2012, Brno, Tschechische Republik; 2012-10-25 - 2012-10-26; in: "envibuild Buildings and Environment 2012 digital proceedings", M. Kalousek et al. (ed.); Buildings and Environment / wissenschaftliches Eigenlektorat, (2012), ISBN: 978-80-214-4600-7; Paper ID 60, 8 pages.

Architectural projects in Austria, as well as in most other European countries, regularly
mention sustainability as a fundamental factor for the decision-making process. The consideration
of energy performance, environmental performance of materials (embodied energy, reuse or
recycling potential, toxicity), natural ventilation, and daylight availability are typically mentioned in
the list of project aims. However, from the point of view of sustainability, some of the planning
decisions have to be made at a very early stage of the project. Given the popularity of architectural
competitions as a tool to find the best concept, these considerations have to be included in the
competition phase. In the last years there have been attempts in some European countries to include
sustainable criteria in architectural competitions. In this context, the present contribution looks into
requirements of architectural competitions in Austria. Thereby, we investigated the kinds and depth
of sustainability-related criteria as included in the competition announcements (e.g., hard versus
soft requirements, qualitative versus quantitative benchmarks). Toward this end, two approaches
were selected: A qualitative approach focused on the use of certain terminology within the
competition announcements. The second approach takes a closer look on forms and numeric
performance indicators such as heating demand and OI3 Index (sustainability). Several competition
announcements have been analyzed and compared. It appears that currently the sustainabilityrelated
requirements in competition documentations do not lead to entries, which provide sufficient
information for accountable jury evaluation. Thus, alternative and/or additional comprehensive
indicators of sustainability and ecological performance must be included in a clear and systematic
fashion in architectural competition narratives.

none - see english version

architectural competitions, sustainability criteria