Review of visualising LCA results in the design process of buildings
Review article, 2021

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is increasingly used for decision-making in the design process of buildings and neighbourhoods. Therefore, visualisation of LCA results to support interpretation and decision-making becomes more important. The number of building LCA tools and the published literature has increased substantially in recent years. Most of them include some type of visualisation. However, there are currently no clear guidelines and no harmonised way of presenting LCA results. In this paper, we review the current state of the art in visualising LCA results to provide a structured overview. Furthermore, we discuss recent and potential future developments. The review results show a great variety in visualisation options. By matching them with common LCA goals we provide a structured basis for future developments. Case studies combining different kinds of visualisations within the design environment, interactive dashboards, and immersive technologies, such as virtual reality, show a big potential for facilitating the interpretation of LCA results and collaborative design processes. The overview and recommendations presented in this paper provide a basis for future development of intuitive and design-integrated visualisation of LCA results to support decision-making.

Design

Visualisation

Life cycle assessment (LCA)

Buildings

Author

Alexander Hollberg

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Building Technology

Benedek Kiss

Budapest University of Technology and Economics

M. Röck

Technische Universität Graz

B. Soust-Verdaguer

University of Seville

Aoife Houlihan Wiberg

Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

Ulster University

Sébastien Lasvaux

University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland

Alina Galimshina

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (ETH)

Guillaume Habert

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (ETH)

Building and Environment

0360-1323 (ISSN)

Vol. 190 107530

IEA EBC Annex 72 - Assessing Life Cycle Related Environmental Impacts Caused by Buildings

Chalmers University of Technology, 2017-04-01 -- 2021-03-31.

Subject Categories

Environmental Management

Interaction Technologies

Human Computer Interaction

DOI

10.1016/j.buildenv.2020.107530

More information

Latest update

6/29/2023