Rob-LCA An assessment method to support environmental sensitive material selection in robotic fabrication

Facing the current environmental crises, architecture must embrace sustainable modes of design and production. This requires the careful selection of the materials by assessing their lifecycle performance, which is not yet an easy and stable practice. In this context, this paper presents an assessment model called Rob-LCA to evaluate environmental-sensitive material selection for robotic fabrication. The model takes the data related to design and material as an input, it gives the Environmental Impact Indicator based on calculations. Then, designers evaluate and compare the fabrication processes, whether the environmental impact of the materials is satisfactory for the designed object. As a contribution, the proposed model complements information of the environmental impact of the A3, and A5 phases of the typical LCA method, adapting the customization and construction abilities of the robotic fabrication. In this study, the Rob-LCA was tested with the CorkCrete Arch prototype for a compound building system developed by Digital Fabrication Laboratory (DFL). By considering its multi-material panel, the production life cycles of cork and expanded polystyrene were assessed. Initial findings of the test of the model show that the proposed model might open a new path for sustainable manufacturing. This work presents thus a contribution to frame and align the use of digital design and fabrication processes with the current demands for environmental sustainability.