Building sustainability assessment a methodological approach

Abstract

Construction industry is one of the most important European economical sectors, but it still relies too much on traditional construction methods and unskilled handwork, being characterized by an excessive use of natural resources and energy. One of the possible solutions for this problem is the use of building technologies more compatible with the environmental balance. In the last years, even with a small impact, an evolution in this domain has been observed, and now there are new materials and construction solutions more sustainable than the conventional ones. In the majority of the less 1eveioped countries, this subject is still very recent. In these countries, the biggest part of the construction companies and the population in general, are not sufficiently informed about the individual and collective advantages of the “Sustainable Construction” concept. In the developed countries, this subject is no more an environmentalist’s exclusive flag, being nowadays one of the most important aspects in the global quality assessment of construction. The sustainability of a building solution depends on the decisions taken by a large quantity of actors in the construction processes: owners, managers, designers, contractors, inhabitants, etc. Thus there is a necessity to help these actors to evaluate their choices in early stage of the projects. This way the goal of this paper is to present a first methodological approach for the building design assessment, from a sustainable point of view. The methodology is conceived to help the decision makers (engineers, architects, etc.) in the early stages of the projects, aiming the selection of more sustainable building solutions.