Sustainable material selection for building enclosure through ANP method

Abstract One of the most optimal strategies to achieve sustainable constructionis to select materials which reduce the environmental footprint. In this regard, designers and architects are suggested to observe these considerations in the earliest stages of the design process. This study presents a model to choose the best sustainable material for buildings. Hence, life cycle assessment is used to perceive the holistic impacts of materials on the environment which considers all phases of the product’s life. Herein, through sustainable principles, selection criteria were divided into four groups which are marked as economic, technical, socio-cultural and environmental factors. Then, each of them was assigned to a number of sub-criteria. Analytic Network Process was applied as a multi-criteria decision-making method, assuming relationships among the criteria and the sub-criteria. Priorities of the criteria were computed based on experts’ consensus, extracted from pairwise comparison questionnaires. To establish the selection model, three alternatives, including brick and mortar wall, aluminum siding, and cedar siding, were proposed for exterior enclosure. The results revealed that aluminum siding is the best sustainable alternative while cedar siding represents itself as the least sustainable option. The importance of the criteria and sub-criteria in choosing sustainable materials was determined through this model.

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