Building Archetypes of Climate Compatible Buildings until 2050

Abstract

In this Master Thesis the focus is laid on buildings in Switzerland. Four different Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approaches of a recently finished case study were performed. The results were compared with the embodied target values to see if the climate goal set by the Paris Agreement can be achieved until 2050 and if the analysed case study can be used as a building archetype in the future. This Master Thesis considered the carbon storage of the biogenic materials as negative emissions for the performed LCA’s. Furthermore three scenarios for the sensitivity analysis of the case study were conducted, to analyse the change in the results compared to the Original case study.
The performed LCA’s are a Cradle-to-Grave approach with a building lifetime of 60 years and the calculations were performed as such, that there will be no modern technology able to capture carbon at the end of the buildings lifetime (2080). Thus the assumption was made that the only way to further delay emissions is by reusing biogenic materials.
The results show that the Paris Agreement is feasible in case most of the biogenic materials are reused at the End-of-Life. The different scenarios for the sensitivity analysis show that the emissions can be additionally reduced if the number of replacements during the Use-Stage can be lowered and the whole building lifespan can be increased.
The case study proves to be a possible building archetype for achieving the Paris Agreement at the moment, since carbon storage can delay the emissions during the Use-Stage. But further research has to be conducted on the reuse possibility of the case study or modern technology on carbon capture until 2080.