Shaping Low-Carbon Building Design Decisions: Drivers, Limitations, Influences

Building design is a very complex process, being dependent on the input of a high number of variables and stakeholders. The interaction between various social and technical factors creates limitations and influences on the designers` decisions, which directly or indirectly shape the end product, and define the whole life carbon and energy impact. Little is known about the effect of various stages and stakeholders on the end product as well as the various interdependencies. Drawing evidence from qualitative studies within the real-world setting of the construction industry in three European contexts including interviews with industry practitioners, this research seeks to identify and understand the various interactions of the building design process and their impact on the sustainability of a project. Participants include the main decision-makers of each project, initially selected based on previous literature and built up as identified through the data collection and analysis