CLiAR A digital tool for the conscious use of resources

Abstract

We need a paradigm shift that radically questions the dominant culture of waste and lack of responsibility. We need to transform our handling of resources and respect the human values of dignity and health. And last but not least: The buildings we design today should be recyclable for the future and they should have the ability to leave the planet respectably. For this reason waste production and recycling have to be considered in the design process as early as possible.Strategies for buildings with these principles of design and construction, can only be successfully developed in the early phases of a project. In these early project phases, however, currently exists an enormous lack of information about the sustainable and digital performance.The use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) together with Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) is helpful in the early phases of a project. These LCA are cost-intense, complex, time-consuming and therefore rarely used. As a result, decision-makers and executives in the building industry currently have no holistic information and no basis of decisions in the early phases of a project.In order to close this gap, we started a research project at ETH Zurich, for a digital tool named CLiAR (Closed Loop in ARchitecture). The idea of the web-based tool, was to combine and overlap the sustainable and the digital project views. It offers a circular and digital index, to achieve a holistic project evaluation, by reviewing the 40 most relevant topics for the sustainable and digital transformation in 12 sectors and generates in addition an overall project rating.CLiAR shows decision-makers in the building industry, the sustainable and digital project potentials in early phases of a project and provides executives a basis for further decisions.CLiAR is advantageous, because it works without BIM and LCA.