Utilization of an automatic tool for building material selection by integrating life cycle sustainability assessment in the early design stages in BIM

Recent international scientific studies have described the current situation regarding CO2 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 incr...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Soust-Verdaguer, Bernardette, Gutiérrez Moreno, José Antonio, Llatas, Carmen
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repositorio:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:idus.us.es:11441/144803
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/11441/144803
https://doi.org/10.3390/su15032274
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Sustainability
Life cycle sustainability assessment
Building information modelling
Tool development
Building early design steps
Descripción
Sumario:Recent international scientific studies have described the current situation regarding CO2 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.