Wissenschaftlich-ökologische Bewertung dreier Konstruktionsweisen für Bürobauten anhand Grauer Emissionen am Projektbeispiel/Scientific Environmental Assessment of Three Office Building Construction Methods Based on Embodied Emissions: A Project Case Study/Scientific Environmental Assessment of Three Office Building Construction Methods Based on Embodied Emissions: A Project Case Study/Wissenschaftlich-ökologische Bewertung dreier Konstruktionsweisen für Bürobauten anhand Grauer Emissionen am Projektbeispiel

At the Siemens Campus in Erlangen, new office buildings of equivalent architecture, cubature and use but differing structural systems were constructed. This provided a unique opportunity for systematic life cycle assessment (LCA) comparing structural systems with regard to embodied carbon. For this purpose, a research project conducted jointly by Siemens Real Estate (SRE) and the University of Kaiserslautern-Landau (RPTU) carried out a detailed LCA of three realised reference buildings: a reinforced concrete frame, a timber-concrete hybrid and a reinforced concrete system. The assessment was based on the total Global Warming Potential (GWP-total). The comparison of embodied carbon covered the assessment scenarios Cradle to Site, Cradle to Grave and Cradle to Cradle. At building level, the analysis focused on the structural design of the load-bearing system and the directly associated construction elements. Notably, in the Cradle to Cradle reference scenario, the embodied carbon at building level differed by less than 10 % between the three structural systems. In contrast, the Cradle to Grave scenario clearly illustrates the effects of the choice of system boundaries in LCA involving timber building material. In addition to floor slabs, walls, foundations, windows and roof structures, floor build-up was also identified as an emission-intensive component group. Based on the assessment, well-founded and practice-oriented findings and recommendations were derived regarding the selection of structural systems as well as procurement and documentation requirements for low-emission construction.