ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT Life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology is an effective tool in determining the environmental impact of buildings. However, the LCA process requires extensive time and effort when applied to systems as complex as the life cycle of buildings. The development of Building Information Modeling (BIM) Platforms offers interesting opportunities to simplify the process for drawing up LCAs in the case of buildings. Recent research shows that the use of BIM-based methods leads to a significant reduction in time and effort which practitioners dedicate to applying the LCA methodology to entire buildings. LCA phases such as Life Cycle Inventory, traditionally extremely time-consuming, is almost self-operating when BIM resources are in use. The level of automation of LCA elaboration could be optimized by using a) the programming possibilities within the BIM platform framework; and b) the standardization of the models for analysis. In the last few years there has been significant progress in these two fields, based on a line of research proposed by the Master's in Innovation in Architecture: Technology and Design in the University of Seville. There has been a considerable development of programming software integrated in BIM. Many regions have encouraged countries to use BIM platforms when documenting the construction process. This new conceptual framework provides the opportunity to assess the life cycle of numerous buildings in terms of the environment, obtaining specific environmental benchmarks for the different types. This communication describes a method proposed to obtain specific environmental benchmarks, - such as global warming potential and cumulative energy demand - for different types of dwellings using LCA methodology and BIM platforms. The application of this approach to different case studies is presented. The case studies selected for this research are those of housing located in different geographical and climate contexts and using different constructive systems (e.g. masonry construction, wood construction, steel construction). Finally, this paper provides the benchmarks resulting from the application of the proposed method to the case studies.
