Design-integrated environmental performance feedback based on early-BIM

Architects largely define the environmental impact a building will cause throughout its lifetime in early design stages. Therefore, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) would be ideally used to optimize the environmental performance in these stages. Conventional LCA tools based on BIM require detailed information only available in detailed design stages when it is too late for major changes. Therefore, a novel tool based on simple 3D models and a parametric LCA method is developed. The cloud-based tool called CAALA is designed as a plug-in for 3D CAD software and provides the results in real-time. The applicability of this early-BIM approach is validated using three case studies, each highlighting different aspects. The results show that CAALA provides meaningful information to architects and clients, is easy to learn, and applicable in early design with a reasonable effort. Finally, it can be concluded that holistic environmental performance optimization in the most important early design stages is now practically feasible.