Life cycle assessment of adaptive skins and structures

The assessment of environmental impacts is crucial in the development of sustainable and environmentally friendly technologies and concepts. The development of adaptive buildings is no exception and also places far-reaching demands on all disciplines involved. The full integration of life cycle assessment into the planning and design process makes it possible to use environmental impacts as optimization parameters in the complex, dynamic calculation tools. The results of SFB 1244 to date confirm that adaptive load-bearing structures and facades have great potential for saving resources and environmental impacts. The holistic approach, both in terms of the life cycle and the interdisciplinary dependencies, ensures that the relevant effects and influences are taken into account in the assessment. However, this confronts the life cycle assessment method with new challenges in dealing with a large number of variants and the extensive interactions between design and influences on parameters in the use phase, such as energy consumption or service life.