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How does service life influence decision-making about existing buildings and built infrastructure?
School research theme: Sustainability of the built environment
Research supervisors: Professor Tim Broyd and Dr Simon Addyman
Start date: 01 September 2020
Service life rarely appears overtly as the focus of decisions about existing buildings or infrastructure – more often decisions are about cost, or environmental performance, or improving energy, or refurbishment, maintenance, or disposal – but they rest in part on assumptions about how long the assets will perform adequately. It will not be feasible to replace all these older assets in total. Substantial numbers of buildings across Europe will need to be significantly refurbished if we are to achieve net zero carbon by 2050. Similarly older civil engineering assets require investment to improve climate change resilience. Competing but broadly complementary professional approaches exist in asset management and service life planning – with a focus on life cycle analysis (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC). With the move from a linear to a circular economy the topic of service life is linked to both policy and professional practice, as well as relating to major public and private sector investment.
The next part of the research will comprise semi-structured interviews with experts in the field to identify the contexts, constraints and tools that influence decision-makers, and what the process of decision-making looks like. This will be examined through sensemaking, using as a lens the Cynefin framework which provides a structure to examine the issue of uncertainty about future performance.
- Publications
Peer Reviewed Academic Papers
Bourke, Kathryn, and Georg Soronis (1996). A Proposed Standard for Service Life of Buildings: Part 3 Auditing Systems: In 7 DBMC International Conference on Durability of Building Materials and Components, edited by Christer Cjostrom. Routledge.
Bourke, K, and H. Davies. (1999). Estimating Service Lives Using the Factor Method for Use in Whole Life Costing: In 8th Conference of Durability of Building Metrials and Components, 1518–26. Ottawa.
Bartlett, E D, Anthony Waterman, and Kathryn Bourke (2001). Providing Whole Life Cost Data - Meeting Client’s Demands for Long-Term Value for Money: In Proceedings of CIB World Building Congress.
Bennett, A F, I C Page, Bourke K, Tucker S N, and Nireki T (2002). Life Cycle Costing for a Design Life Standard - LCC in ISO TC59 SC14: in 9th International Conference on durability of building materials and components.
Hooper, R, K Bourke, W A Ferguson, and M Clift (2002). An Integrated Approach To Durability Assessment Throughout The Construction Procurement: In 9th DBMC International Conference on Durability of Building Materials and Components.
Hooper, Rebecca, Kathryn Bourke, Josephine Prior, and David Richardson (2002). Service Life Planning: In Advances in Building Technology, 1467–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-008044100-9/50182-0.
Mayer, PD, and KP Bourke (2005). Durability Rankings for Building Component Service Life Prediction. In 10th DBMC International Conference on Building Materials and Components, 17–20. London.
Bourke, Kathryn, and Brian Kyle. (2019). Service Life Planning and Durability in the Context of Circular Economy Assessments — Initial Aspects for Review: In Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering 46 (11): 1074–79. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjce-2018-0596.
Bourke, Kathryn P., and Katherine T. Adams. (2020). The Business Case for Re-Usable Buildings - Business Models, Systems Diagnosis and Case for Action: In Current Topics and Trends on Durability of Building Materials and Components - Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Durability of Building Materials and Components, DBMC 2020, 1853–60. https://doi.org/10.23967/dbmc.2020.228.
Other Peer Reviewed Books and Articles
BRE (1997). Factors Affecting Service Life Predictions of Buildings – a discussion paper. Watford. Co-author.
BRE (1999). BRE Report 367 – Study on Whole Life Costing. Watford. Co-author.
BRE (2004). BRE Information Paper 10/2004 – Whole Life Value – sustainable design in the built environment. Watford. Co-author.
BRE (2005). BRE Report 476 – Achieving Whole Life Value in Infrastructure and Buildings. Watford. Co-author.
BRE (2007) BRE Report 487 - Designing Quality Buildings – A BRE Guide. Watford. Co-author.
British Standards Institution, (2008).BSI PD 156865 – UK Standardised Method of Life Cycle Costing – a supplement to ISO 15686-5. London. Co- author.
Anderson, Jane, Mike Clift, Kathryn Bourke, and Sean Lockie. (2009). Performance and Service Life in the Environmental Profiles Methodology and Green Guide to Specification. Watford: BRE Press. https://www.brebookshop.com/details.jsp?id=325138.
British Standards Institution, (2013). BS 8544 - Guide for Life Cycle Costing of Maintenance During In-use Phase of Buildings. London. Main author.
British Standards Institution, (2015). BS 7543 - Guide to Durability of Building Components, Materials and Assemblies. London. Main author.
British Standards Institution, (2015). BS EN 16627 – Sustainability of Construction Works. Assessment of Economic Performance of Buildings. Calculation Methods. London. Co-author.
RICS (2016) Black Book Guidance Note on Life Cycle Costing. London. Main Author.
Bourke, Kathryn (2017). Whole Life Value and Service Life Design: Economic Opportunities and Analysis: In Strong, D., & Burrows, V. (2016). A Whole-System Approach to High Performance Green Buildings – Chapter Author.
International Standards Organisation (2017). BS/ISO 15686-5 Buildings and Constructed Assets – Service Life Planning – Life cycle costing. Committee chair and author.
BRE publications can be found on www.brebookshop.com where they are still in print. ISO/BSI /CEN publications can be found on www.knowledge.bsigroup.com while RICS publications can be found on www.rics.org/profession-standards/rics-standards-and-guidance.
