Life-Cycle Assessment

Is restoring a house more climate friendly than renovating it? Or Is it better to build a completely new house? Restoration or renovation are two common transformation processes to make old buildings inhabitable again. However, little information can be found about which of them is the most environmentally friendly. A new digital model helps making the process more transparent. 

The Apprentices’ House is a small neglected half-timbered house from 1887 located on Bornholm, Denmark. A life-cycle assessment (LCA) has been conducted to quantify the impacts of different transformation scenarios for this house and identify which of them has the lowest impacts on the environment. In this project, we present the results for an impact category of great concern: climate change. Is restoring this house more climate friendly than renovating it? Is it just better to build a completely new house? Explore the digital model to find the answer.