Life Cycle Design

This book proposes an economic and environmental assessment tool to aid private or public building designers and owners to find the global sustainability value of a green building within a life cycle perspective. Sustainable life cycle tools for buildings design and construction help to achieve successfully integrated architecture. The first part of the book defines the relationship between environmental and economic aspects in a sustainable design approach. It also illustrates how the life cycle methodology, including Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Costing, can be applied to life cycle design. It shows methods for calculating costs from LCA data, taking into consideration discounted cash flow, as well as, external costs. It introduces the concept of multidisciplinary approach that characterized the life cycle design. In addition, the second part of the book presents an experimental design model, called the Life Cycle Design Model (LCDM), based on a life cycle design approach that can be used to produce two different outcomes based on two assessment levels. Some case studies illustrate the practical application of life cycle analysis and show how the environmental impacts and costs can improve the sustainability of the building, extending the building time horizon to the whole life cycle (including construction, maintenance, renovation and end of life).