Embodied carbon and economic cost analysis of a contemporary house design using local and reused materials

Abstract

This paper presents a house design that uses adobe in the walls and wood in the roof, a mixed building system that vernacular houses in the region where it is located already use, however it presents a contemporary strategy based on less, more natural, reused, and local materials, implying also less transport. The environmental impact analysis of the Case Study was made considering the Embodied Carbon of the construction materials used and compared with conventional building systems. In spite of presenting a much lower embodied carbon than all the conventional solutions in comparison, it turns to be more expensive.

Keywords

• Sustainable construction
• Reuse
• Local materials, Adobe, Wood frame