Utilization of an Automatic Tool for Building Material Selection by Integrating Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment in the Early Design Stages in BIM

Bernardette Soust-Verdaguer (), José Antonio Gutiérrez Moreno and Carmen Llatas
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Bernardette Soust-Verdaguer: Instituto Universitario de Arquitectura y Ciencias de la Construcción, Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, Universidad de Sevilla. Reina Mercedes Avenue 2, 41012 Seville, Spain
José Antonio Gutiérrez Moreno: Instituto Universitario de Arquitectura y Ciencias de la Construcción, Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, Universidad de Sevilla. Reina Mercedes Avenue 2, 41012 Seville, Spain
Carmen Llatas: Instituto Universitario de Arquitectura y Ciencias de la Construcción, Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, Universidad de Sevilla. Reina Mercedes Avenue 2, 41012 Seville, Spain

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 3, 1-17

Abstract: Recent international scientific studies have described the current situation regarding CO 2 emissions and have provided evidence of its catastrophic short- and medium-term consequences. The implementation of solutions of a more sustainable nature to reduce and mitigate this situation is becoming increasingly urgent. To this end, the integration of multi-dimension and life cycle assessment into the design process of buildings can help and support decision making. Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) is one of the scientific community’s most widely recognized methodologies for this purpose, combining the evaluation of the social, economic, and social dimensions (Triple Bottom Line). One of the main obstacles to implementing this methodology lies in the difficulties in automatically comparing alternative design options for the selection of different materials. To overcome this limitation, the authors developed the BIM3LCA (Building Information Modelling Three Life Cycle Assessment) tool conceived to guide the decision-making process during the early design steps. This study introduces a Building Information Modelling (BIM) plug-in development and validates its application in a case study to support the multi-criteria building material selection based on the LCSA implementation at the early design stage. Three building material alternatives for the structural system of a multi-family residential building are employed to validate this plug-in. The results show the viability of using this tool during the early design stages and demonstrates the consistency of the results regarding the use of the BIM model to conduct the LCSA. The study discusses the benefits and limitations of the BIM3LCA tool. This research contributes towards the integration of multi-dimension real-time assessment in the building design process by using semantically rich BIM models.

Keywords: sustainability; life cycle sustainability assessment; building information modelling; tool development; building early design steps (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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