Demolishing or Renovating? Life Cycle Analysis in the Design Process for Building Renovation: The ProGETonE Case

Abstract

It is well known that a large part of the existing European building stock needs to be renovated to increase structural and energy performance. Unfortunately, deep renovations come with high initial costs, and therefore, owners and real estate developers often prefer complete demolition and reconstruction. Both options depend on specific factors, and to select which option could be the closest to the optimal scenario, it is necessary to evaluate all environmental, social, and economic indicators. Life Cycle Analysis is of great significance to evaluate building sustainability, in particular through the comparison between different design alternatives. However, the life cycle impacts of the construction stage depend on selected materials and technologies that can be subject to change during the subsequent stages of the design process, i.e., moving from preliminary design to detailed design and execution plans. With the aim of understanding the role of LCA during the design process, the case study of “ProGETonE—Proactive Synergy of Integrated Efficient Technologies on Buildings’ Envelopes” has been addressed, leading to the observation that the impacts, in particular the global warming potential (GWP), raised significantly. Building Information Modelling (BIM) helped the information sharing and management of this project, which consists of the deep renovation and architectural reshaping of an existing student residence through the construction of integrated façade systems.