A Sustainable Structural Design method to analyse structural and environmental performances of a building

Current environmental assessment methods evaluate buildings for their life-cycle at a later design stage, providing an indication of their environmental performance. At that stage the environmental information cannot be effectively used in the general design process, whereas the sole aspect of the environmental performance cannot provide comparable building solutions. TheSustainable Structural Design(SSD) method, here introduced, considers environmental and structural parameters with a life-cycle approach. The integration of environmental data in the structural performance is the focus of this method, structural performances are considered as a probabilistic variable, through the introduction of a simplified Performance-Based Assessment method. The SSD method is implemented in a case study of a commercial building both for cast-in-situ and precast structure solutions.