Revitalising Building Archaeology

As the looming climate crisis is becoming
directly apparent to most people, there is an increasing focus on how our buildings
affect nature. This raises the question of whether it is better to demolish
the existing buildings and replace them with new low-energy buildings or gently
insulate the old buildings. Of course, they will have a higher energy consumption
for heating, which is increasingly covered by renewable energy, but
on the other hand they have already strained nature during construction perhaps
many years ago. Lifespan is therefore a very important parameter for assessing
the overall environmental impact. Restoration architects are used to researching
existing buildings to find out when they were built and what alterations they
have undergone in the period up to now. This article attempts to investigate
whether such archaeological investigations can be helpful in assessing the future
lifetime of buildings for use when making overall Life Cycle Assessments.