A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
Circular building : environmentally and financially beneficial?
The goal of the circular building strategy is to have a lower environmental and financial impact than the traditional linear way of building. To prove this is in fact the case, it is necessary to be able to calculate the environmental and financial impact of circular versus linear building elements. The environmental impact of buildings, building elements and materials can be determined through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and the financial impact can be calculated through Life Cycle Costing (LCC). There are established standards in the building sector on how to execute LCA and LCC studies. However, currently many LCA and LCC studies based on these standards are not set up to evaluate circularity. On the one hand, circular principles are not evaluated. On the other hand, usually only one life cycle scenario and fixed parameter values are considered, while it is very difficult to predict what will happen over the long lifespan of a building element. Especially for circular building elements, which enable more scenarios (adaption, reuse, recycling,…) than linear ones. The goal of my PhD research is to develop an LCA and LCC method that can evaluate the environmental and financial impact of circular (versus linear) building elements. The focus lies on incorporating variable parameters and including multiple scenarios throughout the lifespan of a building element. An important research question is which of the parameters and scenarios are the most determining for the environmental and financial impact. These parameters will be important boundary conditions to ensure circular building is environmentally and financially more beneficial than linear building.
Circular building : environmentally and financially beneficial?
The goal of the circular building strategy is to have a lower environmental and financial impact than the traditional linear way of building. To prove this is in fact the case, it is necessary to be able to calculate the environmental and financial impact of circular versus linear building elements. The environmental impact of buildings, building elements and materials can be determined through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and the financial impact can be calculated through Life Cycle Costing (LCC). There are established standards in the building sector on how to execute LCA and LCC studies. However, currently many LCA and LCC studies based on these standards are not set up to evaluate circularity. On the one hand, circular principles are not evaluated. On the other hand, usually only one life cycle scenario and fixed parameter values are considered, while it is very difficult to predict what will happen over the long lifespan of a building element. Especially for circular building elements, which enable more scenarios (adaption, reuse, recycling,…) than linear ones. The goal of my PhD research is to develop an LCA and LCC method that can evaluate the environmental and financial impact of circular (versus linear) building elements. The focus lies on incorporating variable parameters and including multiple scenarios throughout the lifespan of a building element. An important research question is which of the parameters and scenarios are the most determining for the environmental and financial impact. These parameters will be important boundary conditions to ensure circular building is environmentally and financially more beneficial than linear building.
Circular building : environmentally and financially beneficial?
Van Gulck, Lisa (author) / Steeman, Marijke (author)
2022-01-01
Faculty of Engineering and Architecture Research Symposium 2022 (FEARS 2022), Abstracts
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English
DDC:
690
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