Currently, there is a great deal of discussion on the environmental protection of interior decoration panels. This is mainly due to the increasing awareness about the environment and its effects on human beings. In addition, the importance of environmental issues is gaining much attention among all stakeholders, especially in the field of architecture, interior design and construction. As a result, a lot of researches and studies have been conducted to ensure that the design and building of the building will not harm the environment. One of the researches is the life cycle assessment (LCA) for interior decoration panels. It has been proven that the LCA can be an effective tool to determine the environmental impact of different materials.
Research on Interior Environment Design Based on Green and Sustainable
The design of interior spaces affects users’ well-being and their psychological and cognitive levels. In turn, these spaces shape the way people perceive, interact with and relate to the interior and its environment. Environmentally sustainable architectural design is one way of reducing the negative impact of interior space. It enables designers to create environments that can be used for a long time without compromising future generations’ health and welfare.
Currently, a majority of interior design programs include only limited exposure to sustainability. These programs focus mainly on environmental management techniques, such as energy efficiency, material conservation, and the incorporation of recycled products. Moreover, few faculty members offer autonomous courses on sustainability. This is particularly true in the case of interior architectural design. However, it is essential for students to understand how design strategies can reduce the environmental impact of a project and stimulate pro-environmental behavior among end users.
One of the most effective ways to accomplish this is through the use of professional design tools. Some of these tools include environmental drawings. Drawings allow the designer to visualize how an interior can be remodeled to minimize its environmental impact. Additionally, these drawings can also serve as supportive tools for interdisciplinary design teams.
In addition to the drawing, the most important criteria for saving the planet is the selection of the right materials. Ideally, the materials should be chosen based on their social and ecological attributes. For example, GSFT (Global Sustainable Furnishings and Textiles) fabrics are marketed for their eco-friendly credentials.
In order to implement these principles, an integrative design class was introduced to the curriculum. Using an innovative concept, this class was designed to encourage students to think critically about environment-oriented education and design.
The main objective of the class was to identify and introduce innovative design intervention modes that can effectively decrease the negative impact of interior spaces on the environment. Students were encouraged to think about the effectiveness of various design methods, including the use of eco-design and the resource efficiency strategy. They were also asked to assess the significance of environmental-responsibility-oriented stimulation of users’ behavior through interior design.
LCA (life cycle assessment)
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a comprehensive approach to environmental impact assessment. It is used to understand the full environmental impacts of products and services. The information obtained from LCA can inform decisions on how to improve processes or reduce environmental impact.
While the use of LCA in the building industry has been growing, it has encountered some limitations. These include the lack of internationally-comparable data inventories and a lack of agreement on the methodological approaches to be employed.
LCA for buildings is a complex ecosystem that involves a wide variety of products and materials. In addition, the buildings have their own unique characteristics and occupancy patterns that influence the LCA results.
However, traditional LCA methodologies do not consider indoor and outdoor environmental impacts. This is especially true during the early design phase.
As a result, LCA results often do not reflect the actual impacts of the building. There is a need to develop methods that accurately account for the environmental impacts of buildings.
LCA tools are available in the form of plug-in software or stand-alone applications. Both methods can help simplify the process of performing LCA. Some of these tools also include the development of simulation models.
Although these tools are useful in generating accurate LCA results, they still have a few limitations. They omit some of the steps, and they can produce inconsistent results.
Another limitation is semantic incompleteness. For example, existing life cycle inventory databases do not consider the time dimension. Developing a model that can accurately predict the lifetime of a product can help improve the accuracy of LCA.
Several open source and proprietary LCA tools have been developed to assist the application of LCA in the building sector. These tools use various databases and workflows.
Recent research has focused on the integration of BIM with LCA. A number of open source software tools are available, however, they are not able to account for all aspects of LCA. Therefore, a holistic retrofitting strategy needs to be based on decision support systems, which are integrated with LCA tools.
LCA results
Life cycle assessment (LCA) is used to assess the environmental impacts of products and services. It is a four-step process that consists of defining a goal, creating a life cycle inventory, assessing impact, and interpreting results. This process is used for many industries, including the building industry.
A number of proprietary and open source LCA tools are available to support the application of LCA in the building sector. These tools can be used for the entire lifecycle of a building or for a selected part of it. However, while the applications for these tools are many, there are also limitations to these tools.
For example, in order to calculate the most accurate LCA results, real-time data is needed. Several examples of this type of data include smart utility meters, IoT for occupancy detection, and more.
Data interoperability is a significant issue. In general, there is a trade-off between cost and reliability. Although this is not a new problem, there are still a number of challenges.
During the early design phase, lack of information can be a major constraint. In addition, the accuracy of LCA results may vary due to the lack of knowledge about the studied system and its components.
An effective recycling strategy should be integrated during the early concept design stage of a building. This can be done by leveraging machine learning and optimization algorithms.
While the goal of a study is clearly defined, its scope can vary. The reasons behind this may be the availability or insignificance of relevant data. There are also a number of other considerations.
LCA is used to calculate the environmental impact of buildings, and is increasingly being used at the design phase. However, a large amount of data is required to generate accurate results. To reduce the burden of data collection, a number of specialized LCA tools have been developed.
As more and more research is being carried out on the application of LCA in the building sector, there are a number of new trends and innovations. Using these new approaches can produce more accurate LCA results, as well as improve operation strategies.
