ANÁLISIS DEL CICLO DE VIDA DE UNA VIVIENDA MODULAR Y PROPUESTAS DE MEJORA

Abstract

The building sector generates large environmental impacts throughout the whole life cycle of their products and constructions. Furthermore, the present economic crisis requires the responsible of the projects to add value in new constructions. One way to add value is through the improvement of the environmental performance of buildings. In this paper, we analyze the relationship between the building sector and the environment, as well as the possibilities to reduce the environmental impacts in general. The case study is based on the analysis of a single family home prefab, and this identifies the aspects with the higher environmental impacts during the life cycle through a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) following the standard methodology, as indicated by the ISO 14044:2006, from which some improvement alternatives will be proposed. LCA results showed that the highest impacts to the environment are come from steel and polyurethane. Through the “Wheel of strategies of ecodesign”, some interventions were proposed focusing on the reduction both of weight and the amount of materials used, and also the substitution of these materials by anothers with lower impact.