CANOPY WOLKE MARIENFELD: Comparing the environmental performance of a short use, a reusable and a permanent membrane structure

The following research has been done in the context of the PhD of Zehra Eryuruk, under the supervision of Marijke Mollaert and Lars De Laet. The PhD research concerns the environmental impact of membrane structures.
Membrane structures are made of tensioned membranes with the major advantages of being lightweight and structurally optimized, but the End of Life (EOL) scenario and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) are currently not fully resolved. There are many tools, studies and reference cases for LCA, but the context for tensile structures is very specific. In particular, the lifespan can vary from a few days to 40 years or more.
In more conventional construction sectors the considered life span for LCA simulations is 50- to 70-years. For short use or reusable membrane structures, the approach should be verified. Generating an LCA for these temporary lightweight structures requires more simulations with different input and EOL options. In this paper, we evaluate the environmental performance of a temporary membrane structure considering different simulations.