Long-term design, management and finance for the built environment

Introduction Modern interest in life cycle costs of buildings dates back to the 1950s. However, the idea of the long-term behaviour of buildings goes back to Vitruvius’ requirement of ‘firmitas’ and has been an essential part of Western building culture up to the pre-modern tradition of solidity, based on the rules of the art of craftsmanship. A significant part of the European building stock still illustrates daily how qualities of use, form, construction, durability, and solidity can very successfully coexist. In the last decade a considerable amount of research and development has again been dedicated to predict and improve the long-term behaviour of buildings and infrastructures, but there are still difficulties to realize constructions that are comparable in durability to standard buildings of the 19th century. How building costs relate to long-term behaviour of buildings is a multifold question that specifically arises in modern economic culture where previously it was accepted as a common ‘good’. Modern business practices based on payback periods, financial discounting, etc. have eroded one’s confidence and ability to take a whole-life view, but this book provides professionals and clients with a useful set of alternatives.