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I. Kovacic, M. Honic:
"BIM-­supported Life-­cycle Analysis In The Early Design Stages";
Talk: WBC16 - CIB World Building Congress 2016, Tampere; 2016-05-30 - 2016-06-03; in: "Proceedings of the CIB World Building Congress 2016-Understanding impacts and functioning of different solutions", Tampere University of Technology. Department of Civil Engineering Tampere 2016, 4/Tampere (2016), ISBN: 978-952-15-3744-8; 12 pages.

Building Information Modelling (BIM) as emerging technology, bears promise to enhance the
process-integration in the AEC industry and thereby enable life-cycle optimization of built
environment. BIM model should serve as a joint knowledge database for the interdisciplinary
planning team, offering thereby significant potentials for analysis and optimization of the overall
energy- and resources efficiency already in the early design stages; however these potentials
remain largely still unexplored.
This paper explores the potentials of BIM as support tool for life-cycle assessment (LCA) and
structural analysis in the early design stages on a case study of a timber-structure housing block.
The timber-based structure and wooden façade promise higher eco-efficiency in terms of CO2
saving, however in order to support the decision making process towards such more sustainable
construction, a decision making process towards optimisation of the structure based on life cycle
and structural analysis is needed in the design stage.
Upon initial creation of BIM architectural model in Archicad, we carried out a comparative life
cycle analysis study for assessment of the environmental impacts of the construction materials.
The automated process using BuildingOne Tools with direct access to BIM model linking the
eco-indicators to the specific materials and building elements and assessing overall ecoefficiency
was compared to the "manual" data handling and LCA-calculation using Exel
Software.
The varying needs concerning the Level of Development (Level of Development is the degree
to which the element´s geometry and attached information has been thought through) and
semantical differences in the modelling procedures of the part-taking disciplines (architecture
and engineering) were identified as main reasons for the defects of the building models.
Further on, lack of standards for parameterization of intelligent, digital building products in
terms of LCA, that would unify property definitions used by eco-inventories or environmental
product footprints and BIM libraries represents difficulty for the automation of life-cycle
assessment. zIn order to improve BIM based life-cycle analysis, not only interoperability of the
software has to be improved, as well as re-design of the design process and enhancement of
individual capabilities.

BIM, LCA, Analysis, Simulation