Informing early stage design through LCC data

Life cycle costing (LCC) has been proved to be a valuable decision-making tool for strategic facility management considering life cycle perspective of buildings. However, its application by the Architecture, Engineering and Construction industry is limited due to lack of available and reliable information. In order to overcome this challenge, researchers have proposed transferring information from operation of existing buildings to the design of new buildings. By using structured analysis methods and specifically, data flow diagram techniques, this study aims to explore how can data from existing social housing building projects with regard to cost drivers of LCC inform the design of new projects. To support the analysis, a social housing project in a Danish architecture firm is used as the case study, and data are gathered through physical artefacts and five semi-structured interviews in both the architect and building client organisation. The results indicate the availability of operational data in several of the processes in the data flow diagram of the case project. The discussion focusses on different ways that O&M data from existing buildings that are provided to the design team through a requirements' report when a new project is published, can be effectively used to identify cost drivers of LCC and inform the design of new projects. The consideration of cost drivers of LCC in early design stages will contribute to designing more economically sustainable constructions that are easy and affordable to operate and maintain.