Q-LCA. Analysis of the Ecological Impact of Different Types of Housing Developments in New Neighbourhoods Over Their Life Cycle

Life cycle assessments (LCA) are an established method for components and buildings, but at the neighbourhood level there is a lack of studies and models that holistically assess the energy requirements and the associated ecological impact of all construction and infrastructure for the production and use phase.

The aim of the Q-LCA project is to use life cycle analyses to determine the material flows used, the energy consumption including grey energy and the associated emissions of different common types of settlement and to make them comparable. As a prerequisite for the evaluation of the settlement structures, a validated balancing model will be created, with which the exemplary balancing of real settlement types will be carried out, but which also enables the investigation of further building and infrastructure variants (morphological construction kit).

The results will be published in an energy atlas of settlement construction (working title), in which the morphological characteristics, characteristic values for building density, space requirements, energy and heat supply, including the grey energy of the respective structure types, are presented over their life cycle. The atlas is aimed at experts and, in particular, decision-makers from politics, planning and the housing industry. The project is a joint project with Prof Tim Rieniets from Leibniz Universität Hannover.