Building and impact on the environment: the case of the earth and others materials

Abstract

The assessment of the impact on the environment of the diverse human activities becomes more unavoidable as the signs of the ecological damage become more evident. Here, the relative merit of several formulations for the physical cost of building (embodied energy, exergy cost and matter cost of materials) is analysed; it is also analysed the structure of the aggregate physical cost, including the relative evaluation of its more meaningful items. As a way of concrete examples, the energy and matter embodied into different building functions is evaluated depending on the material used (earth, steel, concrete, brick). Lastly, some conclusions about the attributes of a future, "sustainable" building are taken out.