Open AccessLife Cycle Analysis of Vertical Building Extensions – Environmental Impacts of Different Material Selection
Author(s) -
Annette Hafner,
Michael Storck
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
iop conference series. earth and environmental science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.179
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1755-1307
pISSN - 1755-1315
DOI - 10.1088/1755-1315/290/1/012046
Subject(s) - life cycle assessment , greenhouse gas , metropolitan area , selection (genetic algorithm) , environmental science , roof , sustainability , material selection , architectural engineering , civil engineering , environmental resource management , computer science , engineering , geography , geology , ecology , oceanography , materials science , archaeology , artificial intelligence , production (economics) , economics , composite material , macroeconomics , biology
Adding storeys to existing buildings plays a large role in sustainable urban densification and helps to decrease the growing demand for urban city housings. Vertical building extensions create living space without the need for further land use, by extending existing buildings vertically by one or more storeys. Research points to the possibility of creating 1.1 million homes through storey additions in German metropolitan areas. A common method for investigating environmental impacts of a building is a life cycle assessment (LCA). Because of vertical building extensions being a relatively new concept, research is lacking, especially for LCAs. Therefore, this study describes frameworks and rules for LCAs of vertical building extensions. Moreover, environmental impacts of different material selection within storey additions are investigated. For this, a realised storey addition is analysed and main construction materials of the exterior wall and roof are replaced. The environmental impacts of material selection are then compared using the impact category global warming potential. Results show that the choice of material has a large influence on LCA results. In this case, the wood construction has the lowest greenhouse gas emissions and amounts to approximately 180 kg CO 2 eq/m 2 . The highest greenhouse gas emissions are emitted by a steel construction with approximately 230 kg CO 2 eq/m 2 .