Environmentally-friendly apartment buildings using a sustainable hybrid precast composite system

Recently, as part of an effort to comply with the low-carbon green growth policy adopted in Korea, the building of new long-life apartment buildings has been encouraged to replace existing apartment buildings with bearing walls. The regulations imposed regarding floor area ratios, height, and available sunlight can all be alleviated when apartment buildings are built using the Rahmen structural frame instead of conventional bearing walls, which are difficult to remodel. However, a Rahmen structural frame with reinforced concrete increases the floor height due to the increased beam depth, resulting in economic issues. This paper introduces a hybrid precast composite structural system. Apartment buildings optimized using the hybrid precast composite Rahmen structural system was compared with concrete Rahmen structural frames. The results show that the lower material quantity used in the hybrid precast composite structural system reduces carbon emissions and as well as energy inputs related to construction. It is expected that the hybrid precast composite Rahmen structural system will play a significant role in building sustainable and healthy long-life apartment buildings. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.