A Combinatory Life Cycle Assessment Approach for the Ex-ante Evaluation of Adaptive Facades

Global efforts to meet the 1.5 °C target of the Paris Agreement are falling short, with the construction sector accounting for 38 % of global CO2 emissions. Adaptive facades offer a solution by reducing both building resource consumption and energy demand, but their uptake is limited by high initial costs and complex systems. Using a case study, new Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) motivators have been identified that take into account second-order effects when integrating building services equipment into an adaptive facade. The design of environmentally optimised facades poses new challenges for LCA, including large numbers of potential design configurations (> 1 million) and complex interdependencies between the design and use phases. A new methodology combining LCA with data science tools and visual analytics has been developed to evaluate all potential product configurations within a defined parameter space. This data-driven approach, supported by advanced visualisation, improves decision-making by uncovering opportunities that may be missed in traditional LCA approaches, paving the way for sustainable, adaptive building solutions.