The Life Cycle of Building

Abstract

Knowledge on Sustainable Building was an item of highest importance already in the begin of human culture and civilisation. Looking back, in history, we find that Sustainable Building was a question of survival. Protection against weather circumstances, dangerous animals and hostile fellow men belong(ed) to the main functions of a building. In order to fulfil these demands it was necessary to find an equilibrium between the environmentally or ecologically based possibilities of resources and their limits and the needs and wishes for a durable home. Beside this it was determining for a built result, which and how much capacities for the realisation were available. Energy for building purposes was mainly given by human power, and for a part by the use of animals and more indirectly sometimes by fire or wind. But fire was dependent from fuel. Similarly there was only building material at hand, which could be found near to the site, because it was generally too costly, nearly impossible, to transport main materials from a source far away.