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  4. Accounting for Other Lives in Life Cycle Assessment: A Case Study in Designed Reuse and Decay
 
research article

Accounting for Other Lives in Life Cycle Assessment: A Case Study in Designed Reuse and Decay

Deng, Cynthia
•
Erez-Henderson, Elif  
•
Stringer, Thomas
Show more
2025
Technology Architecture and Design

Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) are essential for evaluating the environmental impact of buildings but often rely on incomplete or unverifiable data. Even more troublesome is the typical LCA assumption of cradle-to-grave design, which runs counter to urgent calls for building and material reuse and precludes alternative timelines of “life” in the life cycles assessed. Through a small-scale case study—a structure made from reused components, designed for zero operational emissions, and intended to weather and decay in collaboration with other species— the authors highlight the challenges of assessing structures composed of salvaged materials through conventional LCA methods. Thus, this paper proposes rethinking LCA methodologies, particularly the “reuse factor” and its assumptions about the useful lifetimes of buildings and their constituent parts.

  • Details
  • Metrics
Type
research article
DOI
10.1080/24751448.2025.2476884
Scopus ID

2-s2.0-105007296430

Author(s)
Deng, Cynthia

Tecnológico de Monterrey

Erez-Henderson, Elif  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Stringer, Thomas

Polytechnique Montréal

Nakarado, Christian Hart

Wesleyan University Middletown

Date Issued

2025

Published in
Technology Architecture and Design
Volume

9

Issue

1

Start page

203

End page

216

Subjects

Decay

•

Environmental Impact

•

Life Cycle Assessment

•

Materials

•

Multispecies Cohabitation

•

Reuse

•

Reuse Factor

•

Salvage

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
RIOT  
FunderFunding(s)Grant NumberGrant URL

Wesleyan University

Bailey College of the Environment at Wesleyan University

Lea Schaffer and Beatrice Campamori

Available on Infoscience
June 13, 2025
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/251278
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