Volume 48

A Design Workflow Based on Life Cycle Assessment, For a Rammed Earth House in Rural Yunnan Xingda Guo, Jieming Yan, Shan Dai

Abstract

Addressing global challenges such as climate change, energy crises, housing shortages, and regional inequality, this paper explores sustainable building design workflow in Yunnan’s rural area. This study developed a data-driven approach to achieve climate-adaptive, affordable rammed earth house design. It assesses environmental impacts based on cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment and assesses indoor comfort and energy efficiency through dynamic building performance simulations. The study culminates in guidelines for rammed earth house design based on extensive data analysis. Several design plans for the rammed earth house project were developed and evaluated, together with a conventional brick house. The outcome of our study offers a sustainable housing design workflow that could inspire similar initiatives in regions with comparable social and climatic conditions.

Keywords data-driven design workflow, building performance simulation, climate-adaptive, indoor climate, life cycle assessment, rammed earth house