Sustainable Housing Assessment Method in the City of Cuenca, Ecuador

Abstract

At present, Building Sustainable Assessment methods (BSA) have developed systems to measure and rate the level of compliance of buildings. However, many authors have identified potential problems that could arise from a poor import of these assessments. The present method was the result of an investigation that proposes to observe and analyze a series of specific performances of the dwelling and its parts, which allow to ensure the quality of the project and to certify the future performance of the dwelling based on appropriate sustainability indicators for the city of Cuenca. The methodological design of the research went through three stages of development: First, a new approach on sustainable building assessment is presented, which may be suitable for developing countries, based on an exhaustive review of the state of the art. Second stage, based on the study of the city’s housing stock, defines criteria and indicators. Finally, weightings for each evaluation topic are defined by different experts in the area. The result of this research is an evaluation scheme composed of a hierarchical structure of 3 levels ranging from general to specific: 8 categories, 38 requirements and 80 evaluation criteria that apply to single family and multifamily houses.