Search Results (3)

Architects and building designers are pivotal in mitigating climate change by shaping the environmental footprint of buildings from their inception, with life cycle assessment (LCA) serving as a crucial tool for quantifying these impacts. Given that structural systems contribute significantly to embodied carbon, accounting for approximately 24% of a building’s life cycle emissions, this research investigates the relationship between structural span length—a key design factor influencing material choices and construction methods—and overall environmental performance. Through a scenario-based analysis employing building information modeling (BIM) and whole building life cycle assessment (WBLCA) tools, this study evaluates various building configurations to reveal that in long-span scenarios, steel demonstrates a lower environmental impact compared to timber. This finding offers a novel, quantifiable insight for architects and designers to assess and optimize building designs, particularly in the context of emerging architectural trends featuring longer spans, ultimately contributing to more sustainable building practices. Full article

The urgent need for climate change mitigation has increased the focus on reducing embodied carbon and energy, particularly in the construction sector. Utilizing sustainably sourced mass timber products provides a low-carbon alternative to traditional concrete and steel structural systems in buildings. These carbon impacts can be quantified by evaluating the total environmental impact of a building, from material extraction and product manufacturing to construction, operation, and demolition. This study evaluated the environmental impacts of a 14-storey mass timber–steel hybrid building in Madison, USA, through a Whole-Building Life Cycle Assessment (WBLCA) using the Tally LCA tool integrated with Autodesk Revit. The hybrid design was compared to full mass timber, full steel, and post-tensioned concrete structures, which are common structural systems for high-rise buildings, enabling meaningful comparisons of their environmental performance. The results showed that the full mass timber design had the lowest global warming potential (GWP), reducing emissions by 16% compared to the concrete structure. The hybrid design achieved a 14% reduction, with both timber-based systems demonstrating about 30% lower non-renewable energy use. In addition, they provided significant biogenic carbon storage during the building’s lifespan. However, the mass timber and hybrid systems showed higher impacts in categories such as acidification, eutrophication, ozone depletion, and smog formation. Full article

The pressure to reduce the environmental impacts of buildings over their lifetime has driven certification bodies and the government to require a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). However, LCA is a data-intensive and time-consuming process which complicates design activities, especially when performing a Whole Building LCA (WBLCA). Software tools can simplify the assessment by providing information more aligned with the users’ needs. This research surveyed 178 building designers who utilise WBLCA software as a decision-making tool. The aim was to identify patterns in the usage of the software and provide guidance to WBLCA software developers. For this purpose, statistical analyses identified the software preferences within each group of users, e.g., the users’ geographical location, professional background and years of WBLCA experience, among others. The results identified challenges faced by the construction industry, such as the need for more efficient communication among stakeholders. Therefore, attributes that allow designers to share information were rated as the most valuable. Two main groups of users were identified, and guidelines were drawn based on the profiles of the groups. Improving software support to designers will enable WBLCA to be integrated more efficiently with BPP by improving the users’ experience and their ability to make more informed decisions. Full article