The urgency for energy and material efficiency in the building sector increases every day. In the case of Switzerland, a buildings main energy demand occurs during its use/operation phase and is mainly related to heating demands during the winter season. As a means of reducing these demands, current building practice in Switzerland is to insulate with 30cm of foam and to mechanically control indoor environments. Recent research has shown, however, that alternatives to current practice are readily available. With these alternative techniques, natural materials with low embodied energy are used to produce high efficiency building envelopes. The bahareque construction method (bamboo plastered with mortar cement) studied in this paper has been identified as a promising technology both in terms of producing energy efficient building envelopes and also with regards to reducing the environmental impact associated with the construction of buildings in Switzerland. The main objective of the research presented here was to identify the Environmental Savings Potential (ESP) of bahareque in comparison with state of the art technologies in Switzerland. The calculations were geographically limited to Switzerland and the main data sets used for the life cycle assessment models corresponded to this region. Specific datasets were developed for bamboo and bahareque to account for transoceanic transportation. The results showed that bahareque achieves an ESP of 32% compared with clay brick construction and 40% when compared with concrete block construction. It was shown that it is feasible to develop highly efficient building envelopes with low embodied energy that can be used within the Swiss context.

The provision of sustainable housing solutions is one of the main challenges in emerging economy countries. Furthermore, it is clear that a sustainable solution should be based on renewable bio-based materials. Scientific and practical evidence clearly suggests that the use of bamboo in the provision of housing solutions provides communities with both environmental and socio-economic benefits via this strategy. One barrier to the promotion of this type of solution is the lack of knowledge on structural design and environmental performance. Moreover, access to assessment tools and methodologies is limited. The use of simplified Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has exhibited great potential to increase accessibility, but the generation of life cycle inventory data remains a major issue. In this paper, we describe the development of a methodological approach to use parametric design to generate the data required to carry out simplified LCA of social housing solutions. Moreover, we present a case study assessing a housing unit using cement bamboo frame technology developed by the Base Bahay Foundation in the Philippines. The main parameters for the LCA of the buildings were identified through sensitivity analysis. Moreover, they show that parametric design is a valid approach to overcome the challenges of data generation at early stages of design. The proposed approach would enable users without civil and/or engineering background to carry out simplified LCA calculations. Thus, through methodological approaches, it is possible to reduce significantly the complexity associated with LCA and open new avenues for it application.

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