Life cycle environmental assessment of temporary building constructions

The paper analyses the impact of embodied energy over a building’s life cycle as an important factor in construction planning, particularly for temporary structures. In fact, a choice of low-embodied energy construction materials, technological components, and construction systems is essential to guarantee a very high-energy performance of those constructions. Temporary buildings are exempted from the application of the minimum requirements to reduce energy in use as set by the European directive 2010/31/EU due to their short expected service life. Hence, it becomes even more important to consider the impact of their embodied energy and the one of their end of life. Results from a case study, a temporary building designed for Milan Expo 2015, are presented to compare embodied energy of construction materials, including scenarios for their end-of-life, and predicted energy consumption at use stage.