Subsequently, to determine the influence of the construction materials, the analysis have been assessed over four main stages; energy consumption and CO2 emissions by operation during the life-cycle (60 years) of the buildings, energy consumption and CO2 emissions during the production of construction materials (initial and recurrent embodied energy and CO2 emissions), energy consumption and CO2 emissions produced by the transport of construction materials, finally, energy and CO2 emissions which could be recovered during the recycling of these materials (EoL potential). Design Builder software was used to calculate the operational energy consumption and CO2 emissions of the buildings while CES eco-audit (2011) software was used to calculate the other three stages.

The results of this thesis determined that the total embodied energy (initial and recurrent embodied energy) of construction materials is among 18 % and 32 %, the energy consumed by the transport of these materials is between 0.2 % and 0.6 %, while the operating energy consumption represents between 68 % and 82 % of the total energy consumption during the life-cycle of the buildings. Beside this, the CO2 emissions results show that the trends are practically equal to those of the energy consumption results.

On the other hand, the analysis conducted in this thesis relating to the potential of recycling construction materials, has determined that from 17 % to 63 % of the embodied energy and CO2 emissions of these materials could be reduced.

To conclude, with this analysis it was established that the construction materials represent a significant influence on the total energy consumption and CO2 emissions of the buildings subject to analysis. The difference between the buildings with lower and higher total embodied energy and CO2 (including transport) during the life-cycle of these is equivalent of 17.4 years of operating energy consumption and 17 years of operating CO2 emissions.

1. Introduction

1.1 Contamination and Global Warming

1.2 Environmental implications of the buildings

1.3 Environmental implications of Central / South America and emerging countries

1.4 Venezuela

1.4.1 Environmental implications of Venezuela

1.4.2 Climate

1.4.3 Architecture

1.4.4 El Tocuyo

1.5 Materials

1.5.1 Life Cycle - assessment

1.6 Problem statement

1.7 Scope

1.8 Research questions

2.1 Life-Cycle Energy consumption and CO2 emissions components

2.2 Operating energy consumption and CO2 emissions components

2.3 Embodied energy and embodied CO2 emissions

2.3.1 Initial embodied energy and embodied CO2 emissions

2.3.1.1 Structural and non-structural embodied energy and embodied CO2 emissions

2.3.2 Recurrent embodied energy and recurrent CO2 emissions

2.3.3 Demolition energy consumption and demolition CO2 emissions

2.4 End-Of-Life (EOL) potential energy recycle and CO2 emissions

2.4.1 Selective demolition

3.1 Location of the project

3.1.1 History of the construction in the city

3.1.2 Plot for the project

3.2 Project requirement

3.3 Design of the building

3.3.1 Restoration of the ruins of Belen

3.3.2 The volumes schemes

3.3.3 Description of the design

3.3.3.2 Sections

3.3.3.3 Façades

3.3.4 Sun protection and natural ventilation

4. Methodologies

4.1 Alternatives of building

4.1.1 Concrete building

4.1.2 Timber building

4.1.3 Metal building

4.1.3 Local materials building

4.2 Assessment of the operating energy consumption and CO2 emissions of the building

4.2.1 Simulation method

4.2.1.1 HVAC

4.2.1.2 Schedule

4.2.2 Floor area for simulation

4.3 Assessment of embodied energy and embodied CO2 emissions of the building

4.3.1 LCA scope in this research

4.3.2 Measurement of quantities

4.3.2.1 Recurrent embodied energy and embodied CO2 emissions

4.4 Embodied energy and embodied CO2 emissions data used

4.4.1 Eco-audit tool by CES

4.5 Summary of methodology

Bibliography.

Appendixes.

A. Literature review

B. Methodology

C. Results

D. Discussion

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