Methodology to evaluate building construction regarding the suitability for further application

Abstract

With decreasing energy demand, the ecological impact related to the building fabric becomes more relevant and climate goals can only be reached when considering both. In the last decades, political regulation and standards were released to promote the reduced consumption of primary resources. Architects and planners approached this topic with different strategies by working with reused building elements, developing new products or using types of connection which provide easy disassembly in the future. In the last decade, the instruments to quantify the ecological impact advanced from life cycle assessment (LCA) data in spreadsheets to tools which connect ecological data with building volume and self-optimizing solutions. The treatment of the building materials after the use phase is subject to speculations as framework conditions in the future will develop. Today deconstruction (in difference to demolition) is rarely executed and research is limited. Construction and material choice impact the environmental qualities by the energy and emissions related to the production and the treatment scenario at the end of life. Against this uncertain background, a method is needed to indicate the environmental impact by evaluating the suitability for further use, like reuse or recycling. The paper introduces three approaches to indicate parameters available in the planning phase to possible treatment paths for the material after usage regarding practicability and reliability. The most sufficient method was integrated in an architectural drawing software and evaluated.

Keywords

• deconstruction
• design for disassembly
• LCA
• secondary resources
• type of connection