ZEMCH 2015 - International Conference Proceedings | Page 552

3.3 Wood frame
Light Wood Frame is an industrialized building system whose use is expanding in Brazil. Although,
this building system is an alternative technology with potential for the rationalization of construction process, especially for low-income housing, it is not widely adopted in this kind of projects.
The main benefits to the production process are: (1) the possibility of a significant reduction in
the lead time, which is an important issue in low-income housing projects; (2) the opportunity to
simplify the tasks carried out in the construction site; and (3) the reduction of material waste if the
design takes account of the components’ connections; and (4) the insertion of the pipe building
facilities (electrical, water and sewage) in the empty space between two wood structural panels
(OSB - Oriented Strand Board). This last benefit has implications also in the elimination of the interdependence between production tasks and in the reduction of waste, since it eliminates the need
to demolish walls for the insertion of building facilities and for the maintenance in the use phase.
In this system, the walls consist of a light frame with a sheathing (Oriented Strand Board - OSB)
nailed to each side of the framing which provides strength, rigidity, a space for piping and insulation and also a framework for supporting interior finishing and exterior components (Canada
Mortgage and Housing Coorporation 2014).
3.4 Thermal comfort and energy efficiency
In 2010, the energy crisis has triggered a labeling methodology for evaluating the level of energy
efficiency in residential buildings. This initiative generated the RTQ-R (Technical Regulation of
Quality for Energy Efficiency in Residential Buildings) (Galindo 2014). In order to meet the energy
efficiency principles proposed by ZEMCH Network, some thermal simulations were applied to the
unit on focus in this study.
Using the 8.1.0 release of EnergyPlus software, more than 90 simulations were conducted to understand the behavior of the building, according to the materials used and the weather (Galindo 2014). The design analyzed was the initial preliminary draft proposed by the multidisciplinary
team of ZEMCH: a dwelling unit with 42,48m² of floor area and 47,70m² of total area comprising:
two bedrooms, living room, kitchen and bathroom. The simulations considered the standard
plan, without the options for customization. Despite the limitation of the analysis (simulation), it
was possible to define important guidelines for the product design.

4. Discussion and results
The Collaborative Design implies that the team shares a specific perspective of their knowledge,
including aspects related to the process and to the design content. The purpose of this iterative
practice of sharing experiences is to create a common understanding, enabling to integrate and
exploit the accumulated knowledge of the team to achieve the ultimate goal: the new product
to be designed.
In addition to the working meetings, there were formal meetings to understand the purpose of
the ZEMCH research in Brazil and to share specific information about each of the disciplines involved in the design process.
The definition of project scope, the survey of conditions and requirements as well as the definition of action strategies and design decisions are the result of the collaboration of several agents,
within an academic environment.
By hypothesis, the incorporation of rational solutions, the prefabrication of components and the
mass production, reduce construction costs. In a conventional process of product development
in construction, costs are estimated only when the design is quite advanced or even completed.
Adopting a Target Costing-based approach is an alternative to manage costs during the design
development.

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ZEMCH 2015 | International Conference | Bari - Lecce, Italy