Design Strategies Toward Low-Carbon Buildings and Neighborhoods. The Use of LCA to Support a Project Proposal for Reinventing Cities

Abstract

Within building design competitions, the use of LCA method is increasingly required to demonstrate the lower impact of project choices. However, in response to the European Green Deal and decarbonisation objectives, the attention is generally focused only on carbon footprint. In the context of C40 Reinventing Cities call, the article highlights the chosen design and energy strategies to achieve low-carbon buildings and neighbourhoods, with specific reference to a project proposal. In particular, the LCA methodological approach aimed at quantifying the reduction of carbon footprint and the results obtained are discussed, as well as some critical issues faced by the authors in responding to the call requests related to carbon footprint reduction. The paradoxes that derive from stressing the use of low-carbon without a wider environmental and LCA attention and the unbalanced trends towards low-carbon design solutions which fail to target material resource efficiency are argued.