Comparison of Brazilian Social Interest Housing Projects Considering Sustainability

Abstract

Considering the importance of the development of new housing projects, the purpose of this research is to provide a model oriented to the identification of the most sustainable alternative in single-family housing projects of social interest from the perspective of life cycle thinking (LCT) and the analytical hierarchical process (AHP). A ceramic masonry project and a concrete masonry project were evaluated. In the environmental dimension, the results showed that the ceramic masonry project had more significant environmental impacts and greater damage to human health and the availability of resources and ecosystems. In the social dimension, it was found that there are discrepancies between the salaries in the construction supply chain and that the concrete masonry project had better social characteristics than the ceramic masonry project. The economic dimension revealed that the concrete masonry project was more attractive. Relating the environmental, social, and economic dimensions’ results, through the combination of LCT and AHP, it was found that the concrete masonry project presented a combination of more sustainable characteristics than the ceramic masonry project in the majority of the results. Among the implications of the study carried out here is the advancement of sustainability applied to the construction sector.