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The purpose of this paper is to determine the usability of design reviews to inform designers about low carbon technologies and building performance. The design review of three domestic and two non-domestic case studies are evaluated.

Data collection and analysis methods include interviews and meetings with design teams and contractors, design tools audit and revision of drawings and project documentation. In addition, building's envelope and systems, and in-use performance evaluations are used to inform design teams about the actual performance of the buildings.

This study showed that targets and intentions defined in the design process are not always compatible or reality checked. These contradictions between targets within a project can undermine the performance of a building. The design review can identify unrealistic expectations to assess fairly the performance of buildings. The study showed that changes made during construction to the original design are related to lack of specifications or experience with low carbon technologies. Design reviews can help designers to identify the knowledge gaps within their practice. Furthermore, the results showed that building-related energy consumption was close to expectations, while user-related consumption was higher than expected due to occupancy assumptions made during the design. The design review showed that designers require more knowledge about buildings’ in-use performance in order to take informed-based design decisions.

This paper showed the main stages of a design review, and their usability to assess building performance and to inform designers. The results of this study suggest that designs can benefit from design reviews by learning about low carbon technologies installation and building's operation.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the environmental performance of construction trends in houses in central Mexico by assessing the type and quantity of material used in construction elements.

Three reference Mexican houses are used for the analysis: a traditional house, a house with mostly masonry elements, and a house with mostly concrete elements. The reference houses indicate the construction trend followed in central Mexico. Quantitative analysis of the types and weights of various materials used to construct the houses is undertaken. The environmental performance is measured according to their sustainability potential. The indicators used are based on the Three Step Strategy, which sets the steps needed to achieve sustainable construction: use fewer materials, use renewable materials and be efficient with the remaining need.

The analysis shows that there is a trend to use faster and cheaper construction processes, which are often concrete and prefabricated elements, especially for dwellings built in series. Although this has the positive impact of decreasing the stress on housing demand, it might have negative impacts on the environment because more energy‐intensive and artificial materials are used. In addition, the low homogeneity of these materials decreases the potential of construction elements to be reused or recycled.

The findings of this study aim at providing more information to practitioners on the sustainability of material choices during the design process. Thus practitioners will be better informed to design more environmentally sustainable buildings. The results are based on analysis of data from Central Mexico but may have relevance to other parts of the world.

The study provides quantitatively derived evidence to support sustainable design decisions.