Study on the Suitability of Green Building Technology for Affordable Housing: A Case Study on Zhejiang Province, China

Abstract With the further promotion of green buildings in China, the adoption of green building technology (GBT) to improve building performance is a new requirement. Meanwhile, government-financed affordable housing to address the housing problems of a large number of low-income residents and migrant workers is in high demand. The specific service attributes of affordable housing determine its typical characteristics of low construction costs, its compact nature and short construction period, which distinguish it from commodity housing. However, the current research on the suitability of GBT mainly focused on individual technologies, or lack the capability to evaluate a given GBT system from a comprehensive performance aspect. According to the requirements of green affordable housing, this study established a multi-objective suitability evaluation model with maturity, economy and environmental load and quality as evaluation indexes. Based on 43 cases of green-certified residential communities in China’s Zhejiang province, this study screened 37 common GBTs and evaluated them using the aforenamed model. As a result, a list of suitable GBTs was obtained, among which 11 technologies were identified as the optimal GBTs for affordable housing, capable of improving the performance of buildings without unduly increasing their economic burden and construction difficulty. The results of this study provide clear guidance for affordable housing and GBT selection during the design and construction processes.