Sustainability and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) are vital research fields dedicated to the holistic design and evaluation of buildings. These fields prioritise minimising adverse environmental impacts and aim to restore ecological balance, while concurrently fostering social inclusion and promoting economically viable solutions. This area of research encompasses the sustainable design and renovation of buildings and neighbourhoods, ensuring the development of more responsible and resilient building design strategies and solutions as well as adherence to rigorous sustainability standards. It assesses the ecological impacts of both new construction and renovation projects, while emphasising biodiversity preservation. Additionally, this topic includes the advancement, integration, and application of innovative (digital) Building Information Modelling (BIM)-based decision support systems (DSSs) that prioritise and incorporate environmental and social sustainability within the early design phases of buildings. The objective is to minimise environmental impact, optimise resource use, reduce waste, and ensure the realisation of social values in the built environment.

Research topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Sustainable design and assessment of buildings as a whole, including sustainability certifications
• Quantification of environmental sustainability (LCA) and biodiversity
• Social sustainability, social values, social design intents, and quantification of their associated  environmental impact (LCA)
• Development and operationalising BIM-based decision support systems for the (early stage) design of buildings
• Information modelling and knowledge engineering on developing novel decision support systems (DSSs) and tools (in particular in terms of environmental and social sustainability aspects)
• Practice-oriented and co-created decisions-support tools for specific early design activities within practice.
• Technological innovations and design processes to promote regenerative buildings, including planetary budgeting, carbon capturing and storage (CCS) and ecosystem relations.