Long-term design, management and finance for the built environment

摘要

Modern interest in life cycle costs of buildings dates back to the 1950s. However, the idea of the long-term behaviour of buildings goes back to Vitruvius' requirement of 'firmitas' and has been an essential part of Western building culture up to the pre-modern tradition of solidity, based on the rules of the art of craftsmanship. A significant part of the European building stock still illustrates daily how qualities of use, form, construction, durability, and solidity can very successfully coexist. In the last decade a considerable amount of research and development has again been dedicated to predict and improve the long-term behaviour of buildings and infrastructures, but there are still difficulties to realize constructions that are comparable in durability to standard buildings of the 19th century.