Expertise and Methodology in Building Design for Sustainable Development ; Expertise and Methodology in Building Design for Sustainable Development: A Franco-British Comparison

Sustainability introduces new goals in building design and requires new skills and project management methods. These include environmental assessment methods, the choice and use of which often has a marked impact on the outcome. Comparing the use in practice of the French evaluation system HQE and that most often used in Britain, BREEAM, permits the identification of shared trends in these two countries but also suggests that one of the reasons for a variety of outcomes lies in the structure of these assessment methods. To some extent, these depend, too, on national traditions of development, and of governance. After a description of the differences in context, the chapter reports case studies of a number of construction projects in France and in the Southwest of Great Britain. The cases illustrate the impact of introducing Environmental Evaluation methods while taking account of the fact that bringing Sustainable Development into play differs between the two countries. The two groups of cases, taken together, suggest that the initial goals of a development team cannot be maintained throughout a project without compromises to meet the needs of local communities and politicians. In addition, they suggest that the new roles to be played by the various professions are especially problematic for architects and engineers. To some extent the outcomes differ from country to country because of the different frameworks of professional responsibility