Building Design from an Environmental Perspective: A Review on Sustainable Building Design Models and Analysis of their Application in Practice

The construction sector is known for enormous resource consumption and the generation of solid waste. Considering construction is essential for economic development and for providing facilities to ever increasing populations around the globe, there is a need to make construction activities more environmentally friendly. As architects and technocrats are increasingly facing the need to achieve more sustainable and efficient buildings, they are empathizing with ways for reducing the environmental impact and consumption of energy in buildings. The present study aimed at reviewing various sustainable development models and technology initiatives like Building Information Modelling (BIM), Building Energy Modelling (BEM), Urban Building Energy Modelling (UBEM), and integrated frameworks like Circular Economy (CE) that enable improved environmental performance of the structures. Out of these models, the circular economy seems to be the most promising approach that can have a massive effect on the environmental impact of the buildings, but the concept is new and it requires industrywide restructuring at various levels.