Life Cycle Approach to designing, manufacturing and assessing a Living Wall System

Abstract

In recent times Life Cycle Approach in building design and construction was set up by means technical standards (e.g. CEN/TC 350) as well as comprehensive impact assessment methods (e.g. LEED® and ITACA). Although standards and methods may be considered as accurate and exhaustive, product and system design needs a further organisation and systematisation of those environmental requirements tricky to take into account in preliminary design. It stands to reason such trickiness becomes more important in industrial research projects.
Starting with the assumption that there is an urgent need to overcome the gap between design and production, the paper deals with the outcomes of a research project focused on detailed designing, manufacturing and monitoring of a Living Wall System (LWS) aimed at carrying into action a Life Cycle Approach.