The effect of air pollution on the cost of maintenance-repair and cleaning of facade materials; city hospitals

Air pollution, which is one of the biggest environmental problems of the 21st century, not only affects human health negatively but also damages the built environment. At this point, the first building sections where damages are observed are the facades that are in direct contact with the atmosphere. Correct material selection and rational facade configuration in facade designs are important both in obtaining the optimum initial investment cost and in minimizing the costs that will occur during the usage period. In the thesis study, the effects of the facade desing to the cost expenditures related to maintenance, repair and cleaning during the usage period of the buildings are discussed as a research subject. In this context, a two-stage field study was carried out. In the first stage, Ankara, Eskişehir, Isparta and Konya city hospitals with different facade configurations located in the continental climate of Central Anatolia were selected as the sample group. First of all, facade analyzes of existing city hospitals were made; The materials used, their proportions, costs and the maintenance-repair and cleaning costs resulting from the air pollution in the provinces where they are located were calculated with the Matlab program. The maintenance-repair and cleaning costs per unit area were mostly seen in Konya, which has 100% glass design. In addition, it has been concluded that the increase in the transparency ratio in the facade design increases the cost of the building. As a second step in the field study, an exemplary polyclinic front was taken as a reference, and the relationship of different opacity-transparency ratios with air pollution was examined with the data obtained from existing studies. It has been observed that the minimum maintenance and repair cleaning cost in each province is 25% glass-75% ceramic facade, and the maximum cleaning cost is reached in 100% glass. As a result, it has been concluded that the proportion of opaque material that the designer will use on the facade in cities with high air pollution should be higher than glass, considering the cleaning and maintenance costs. In the study, it has been revealed that in city hospitals, which appear as an important prestige element in health policy, not only aesthetic and structural concerns, but also the maintenance-repair cleaning cost which is one of the most important cost items, should be taken into consideration.