Abstract
The building industry is a big consumer of raw materials and energy. Therefore, industrial activities have a huge environmental impact. Growing and developing societies and economies, however, do need buildings and infrastructure. The question is how the needs of these societies and economies can be accomplished without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs [1]. In this paper the urgency of the situation is explained. Comprehensive models, with which the entire building cycle can be simulated, would enable engineers to analyze the building and construction process with respect to the demand for raw materials and energy, maintenance and repair, renovation and retrofitting and, finally, recycling and reuse of materials and/or structural components. Multiscale modeling of the entire building process has the potential to contribute substantially to sustainable solutions of this societal problem.
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Acknowledgments
The author wishes to thank Dr. E. Schlangen, Dr. E.A.B. Koenders, Dr. Ye Guang and ir. Z. Qian for providing data and illustrations.
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Breugel, K.V. (2012). Sustainable Construction: A Challenge for Multiscale Models and Modelling. In: Nothnagel, R., Twelmeier, H. (eds) Baustoff und Konstruktion. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-29573-7_37
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-29573-7_37
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