Life cycle potentials and improvement opportunities as guidance for early-stage design decisions

Fundamental planning decisions made early in the design process have significant impact on the final building’s performance. Computer-assisted approaches can currently only help in a limited way during these critical and recurring phases of design variants generation, assessment, and further elaboration. We investigate the concept of potentials and how it can support a digitally-aided design process. In this project potential is defined as the development possibilities of design variants or variant branches taking into consideration different evaluation criteria. These potentials serve as a link between the early stages of design and prospective future outcomes. To demonstrate potentials and their implementation we use life-cycle assessment (LCA). A real-world case study demonstrates the process of designing and detailing with guidance from potentials and improvement opportunities via a graphically laid out selective decision tree. This method helps designers locate areas with the greatest impact, communicate them to stakeholders, and make more informed design decisions.