The seminar introduces practice-oriented strategies that can assist design development towards emissions reduction (climate mitigation) and minimal waste production (circular economy). Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a methodology for assessing environmental impacts associated with all life cycle stages of a material/product, process or service. The assessment method provides transparency to the way design decisions are made and opens up for discussions on how to improve societal and/or commercial systems to meet the UN Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs). Building upon their studio projects, the course theoretical set-up and associated design assignments will provide an opportunity for in-depth investigation that can further lead to innovative results across studio environments and institutes. The course outcome is an illustrated report documenting the actual assessment (comparative study) and a reflection upon the potential for systems improvement.

Illustrated report (A4) documenting an extended LCA assessment of common building components. The chosen elements should be relevant for the students studio project. The exercise will address an experimental build-up of a wall/roof assembly, foundation or other relevant component and compare this to a more conventional building systems of today (linear economy). The report will include investigations of the material resources in use, inherent cultural aspects and concerns in the case of re-use, and finally; environmental footprint.