Marc Méquignon

Building and Sustainable Development

This section explains the concept of sustainable development in terms of a building. Multiple sources for environmental indices imply the need for a thorough qualitative analysis on the basis of established criteria. The first part lays the background and the second specifies the indicators and associated data to measure performance. The next part presents different assessment tools or guides that improve performance. Finally, the fourth and last part presents and analyses the scientific literature.

Conditions for Generalizing the Approach

This chapter sets out the conditions of the generalization of the method and results to other building components.

The Construction Industry and Lifespan

This chapter presents the state of the art of the lifespan of buildings and their components. It describes the mechanisms of ageing, lifespan assessment tools and its consequences. The actual life of a building is generally the shortest amongst the technical or functional life of the building. The technical life is linked to product quality and functional life depends on the owner and user care and practices. Maintenance is a common factor that may alter both lifespans. Finally, other exogenous factors could be the cause for demolition.

Interest and Prospects

This chapter presents the contributions and the interest of our approach for improving the actual performance in terms of sustainable development.

Results and Analyses

In this chapter, we show that it is indispensable to take the lifetime of a wall into consideration if responsible decisions are to be taken in the choice of technical solutions intended to optimize environmental performance.