Material Emissions as Design Drivers - Theory

This course is a prerequisite for and supports and underpins the design course AAR4546, and it supports the Circular Studio -Transformation and Experiment AAR4690. It can also be taken as a stand-alone course and as part of the of the minor in architecture.

The course comprises of a series of specific theoretical lectures and exercises centered on life cycle thinking, with the related methods, (environmental) life cycle analysis (LCA), life cycle costing (LCC) and social LCA, and the underlying concepts resource efficiency and circularity.

The course focuses on greenhouse gas emissions (i.e., environmental LCA) of building materials throughout their life cycle, providing methods and practical examples relevant to building design.

The lectures are complemented by a series of labs introducing tools to conduct LCA in a building design process to be applied in the design course AAR4546 and in Circular Studio AAR4690.

Knowledge:

• Know state of the art concepts and strategies for lowering environmental impact of material use in buildings
• Know state of the art concepts of circularity in the built environment
• Understand a building’s life cycle and the environmental challenges related to the different life cycle phases, including building use, transformation and end of life

Skills:

• Calculate life cycle material emissions of building materials, components and buildings
• Use of advanced software for LCA with computer aided design

General competence:

• Analyse and communicate life cycle emissions of buildings in a clear and precise manner to the general public and the professional community.
• Structure and write a research report on building LCA

Lectures, exercises, presentations and discussions.

The students will work on calculating an LCA for a part of a building and writing of an LCA report according to ISO 14040.

There will be a mandatory final presentation before the hand-in of the report.

This course is offered to international master's students. Language of instruction is English.