A Life-Cycle View Of Green Architecture Design

With the rapid progress of urbanization and the concomitant prosperity in thebuilding industry, China is now faced with unprecedented energy and resourcedeficiency and environmental crisis. Conventional architectural design ishuman-centered. Neglecting the environmental function of buildings in a broad sense,it can no longer fit the new situation. Practitioners in the building industry shouldreconsider the profit-oriented development mode and the self-complacent designs ofarchitects. A common view of improved ideology, method and regulation should bereached by a broader and longer sight of sustainable approach. The present designobjective, scope, method, process and evaluation guidelines should be improved inorder to promote overall advancement in sustainable architectural design.The theory of life-cycle thinking and life-cycle assessment (LCA) presents a newvision of the relationship between architecture and the built environment. Asindustrial product, buildings have responsibilities over the ecological environment ina life cycle of construction, function and demolition. Integrating life-cycle thinking inthe whole process of decision making, design, construction, use and management,LCA provides an effective decision-support tool for green architectural design.Based on the theory of LCA, this paper discusses "a life-cycle view of greenarchitectural design". The paper is divided into five chapters. Chapter One introducesthe background, objective, signification and methods of the study;Chapter Twointroduces the definition, origin, development and theory of LCA, and discuses therelationship between LCA and green architectural design;Chapter Three explains howLCA is integrated into the deign process and influences the design decision byintroducing a design process based on LCA;Chapter Four summarizes and analyses aseries of design principals in the conceptual phase of life-cycle architectural design;Chapter Five discuses the prospects of the development of green architecture in chinaby contrasting and analyzing the supportive methods in green architecturedevelopment in the developed countries and in China.