LIFETIME CONSIDERATION FOR LOW-COST HOUSING IN THE TROPICS

Abstract

The improvement of social infrastructure in developing countries has become a main topic in this region as almost all the Third World countries are situated in the tropics. As affordable housing is an issue, it is necessary to design with lifetime consideration. Durable structures with long physical and social life‐cycles can contribute to the sustainable development too; as the longer the building lasts, the lower is its impact on the environment; providing it can be kept in good repair. Due to the dominant problem of providing protection from extreme heat and rain in the tropics, selection of building materials is very important. In this paper, environmental impacts assessments of the three building materials used in low‐cost housing‐‐concrete, bricks and timber are evaluated based on simplified life‐cycle approach. The objective of this study is to identify strategies for sustainability in low‐cost housing through selection of building materials without neglecting the environmental key issues. The evaluation discussed the environmental impacts in relation to environmental and human health impacts, embodied energy, durability, transport distance, recyclability and renewability. However, the weakness of the life‐cycle approach assessment is it does not consider the operating energy (in this case the cooling energy required in tropics) which is a dominant in a building’s whole life‐cycle energy.