Soust-Verdaguer, B.; Gutiérrez, J.A.; Llatas, C. Development of a Plug-In to Support Sustainability Assessment in the Decision-Making of a Building Envelope Refurbishment. Buildings2023, 13, 1472.
Soust-Verdaguer, B.; Gutiérrez, J.A.; Llatas, C. Development of a Plug-In to Support Sustainability Assessment in the Decision-Making of a Building Envelope Refurbishment. Buildings 2023, 13, 1472.
Soust-Verdaguer, B.; Gutiérrez, J.A.; Llatas, C. Development of a Plug-In to Support Sustainability Assessment in the Decision-Making of a Building Envelope Refurbishment. Buildings2023, 13, 1472.
Soust-Verdaguer, B.; Gutiérrez, J.A.; Llatas, C. Development of a Plug-In to Support Sustainability Assessment in the Decision-Making of a Building Envelope Refurbishment. Buildings 2023, 13, 1472.
Abstract
Existing studies provide evidence that buildings and the construction sector are the largest consumers of natural resources and carry the greatest responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions. In order to reverse this situation, future challenges involve utilising the least resources possible. To this end, building refurbishment becomes a crucial strategy given its potential to improve operational energy efficiency and to extend the life span of existing building stock, thereby reducing the environmental impact while also providing social and economic benefits to our cities. Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) has become one of the scientific community’s most widely recognised methodologies for the evaluation of the social, economic, and environmental dimensions (Triple Bottom Line), since it assesses sustainability using quantitative metrics. However, the implementation of this methodology to support the refurbishment process at the project stage in building design tools, such as BIM, remains scarce. One of the main obstacles lies in the difficulties of accessing the building information, given that the system boundaries only cover new materials and products. Hence, this study proposes a BIM plug-in development to support the multi-dimensional building material selection in the early design steps based on the LCSA of a building during the refurbishment stage and validates its application in a case study. The results show the viability of using this tool during the early design stages and demonstrate the consistency of the results to evaluate various material and product alternatives for the refurbishment of the envelope system of a multi-family residential building. This study contributes towards the integration of decision-making by providing real-time assessment of the building envelope.
Keywords
Sustainability; Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment; Building Information Modelling; Tool Development; Building Early Design Steps; Building refurbishment; Building Envelope
Subject
Engineering, Architecture, Building and Construction
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
