The Building Life Cycle: Definition, Stages And Assessment

The term “Building Life Cycle” refers to the fact that the building passes through several stages, starting from the pre-construction stage to the post-construction stage.

What does the term building life cycle mean, what are its stages, and what is life cycle assessment?

Well, read on because this is what we will learn about in the lines of this article.

What Is The Building Life Cycle?

The building life cycle is the creation of real-world modeling that accurately details all construction costs and processes required for a building or project over its entire life. This cycle starts from building planning to completing and operating it, and even how to demolish it and dispose of its remains or treat them, with the application of that modeling on the ground.

This name includes many basic considerations at every stage of the building life cycle, so we note that environmental study has become a prerequisite for studying the project. The purpose of the environmental study is to develop environmentally friendly green buildings that do not negatively affect the quality of the surrounding natural environment.

The life cycle analysis also considers various aspects of resource use in a building, such as how to conserve energy.

What are the stages of the building life cycle?

The building life cycle goes through four stages, which are the different periods of the building’s life (pre-construction, post-construction, during use, and after completion). Which:

1. Production Stage

The first stages of the building life cycle are in which raw materials are extracted, transported and converted into construction materials.

The extraction of natural resources has a great impact on the availability of non-renewable resources and might lead to their depletion. Besides, The manufacturing of construction products also requires a large amount of energy and water.

Studies estimate that the building materials production industry is one of the biggest energy consumers at a global level. Moreover, consuming that amount of energy leads to a significant release of air pollutants.

2. Construction Stage

Here the building takes its final form. The construction stage of the building requires a considerable amount of energy and materials of all kinds and involves a high number of stakeholders and manpower to achieve the desired result.

3. The Use or occupancy Stage

It is usually considered the longest in the building life cycle, and this is when the building is ready for use. Here, the physical characteristics of the building are depleted, so some activities such as maintenance, repair, and refurbishment are required to extend the life span of the building. This phase has a significant environmental impact resulting from energy and water use and waste generation.

4. The End-of-Service Stage

Upon reaching this stage, the building has been completely exhausted, meaning that there is no longer any benefit from it. Accordingly, the decision is made to safely disassemble the building into different components.

Thus, the demolition process results in huge amounts of waste that may constitute a burden on the environment or have a positive impact such as benefiting from it through reuse, recycling, or reforming and manufacturing for reuse in the production stage. In turn, reduces raw material extraction practices.

The environmental impact from this phase is related to the release of green gas emissions from machinery and transportation, as well as emissions related to landfill disposal.

What is a building life cycle assessment (LCA)?

Recently, architects have been focusing their attention on the environmental impact of the buildings they design due to the growing global demand. In light of this, the concept of building life cycle assessment was generated to allow these engineers and other construction professionals to know how to benefit from energy, common facility management KPIs, and all environmental impacts associated with all stages of the building life cycle, including: extraction, construction, operation, as well as demolition and disposal of rubble.

By definition, the term building life cycle assessment refers to a program or scientific methodology used to calculate the LCA of a building to find out how it will affect the environment throughout its whole existence, from the construction phase to disposal. This includes the carbon footprint of a product, service, or process.

Building life cycle assessment and carbon footprint are often used interchangeably, but the two meanings are slightly different. Here’s how!. An LCA goes beyond the information contained in a carbon footprint. A carbon footprint measures how much CO2 will be released into the atmosphere by a specific process.

Therefore, the LCA includes this in addition to identifying some other impact categories, such as measuring the Global Warming Potential ( GWP), and the impact of all greenhouse gases emissions, including but not limited to carbon.

Building LCA helps fight climate change. Buildings cause 39% of global carbon emissions.

Construction professionals and investors need to take responsibility for the environmental impact of their projects by applying life cycle assessment technology. Which in turn leads to a decrease in this percentage and the establishment of more sustainable buildings.

Healthy & affordable living and the upgrading of intellectual neighborhoods are one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals ( SDGs).

Especially since the impact of building materials is also critical in the assessment. By performing a building materials life cycle assessment (LCA), the environmental impacts of a specific material or product can be assessed. Building materials already contain embodied impacts when they are purchased and brought to the building site.

Their production has caused certain gases to be released into the atmosphere, the transportation of the materials to the manufacturing facilities has caused other impacts, and so on. and that makes it easier to calculate the environmental impacts of the building. This is why many countries are pushing toward creating EPD databases of materials produced by local manufacturers.

It’s not just about ecological benefits, there are also strong business benefits to LCA. Examples include measuring the impacts of potential building sites, using them for land sales competitions, refurbishments, or city planning, performing the LCA of an Infrastructure project, or achieving credits for green building certification schemes like LEED and BREEAM.

What are the challenges in conducting a building life cycle assessment?

There are some challenges to the wider adoption of LCA construction despite its earlier advantages:

• LCA is a bit expensive and time-consuming, requiring weeks and even months to be completed. Nevertheless, some digital tools help solve this problem, by automating all calculations and cutting down the time required to complete the assessment by up to 85%.
• Not all countries have databases of building materials; Which can be an obstacle for construction professionals. However, this problem can be solved by adjusting the evaluation results to local conditions.
• All the efforts to raise awareness about the impact of buildings on climate change, it is not enough. It takes more incentives and legislative initiatives to make the campaign more powerful and effective. While many European countries’ policies, such as France, Finland, and Norway, are pushing for zero-carbon buildings; this requires a lot of hard work to make a visible difference.

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