architectural professionals’ needs and preferences for sustainable building guidelines in korea

The issue of sustainability has become one of the major concerns among architectural professionals throughout the world. As a way of providing information, many countries have developed and distributed sustainable building guidelines. This paper aims to investigate architectural professionals’ needs and preferences with regard to sustainable building guidelines in Korea, with a specific focus on various guideline attributes. We conducted a review of existing sustainable building guidelines in many countries and undertook a questionnaire survey among professionals in Korea to gain insight about their opinions. Forty guidelines were examined and characterized by their attributes, including main purpose, target building type, communication format, hierarchy of the information, and information type. As the main purposes of guidelines, professionals identified “to provide education on the significance of sustainable buildings and promote a better understanding of sustainable principles” and “to provide comprehensive and detailed information on sustainable building design strategies and technologies”. Cost, financial information, as well as comprehensive implementation methods were found to be crucial information types for professionals.