The Built Environment Life Cycle

From quarry to rubble and back

A building has a whole life, long before anyone moves in and long after anyone moves out, and the built environment industry plans for all of it. That life runs in six stages. First raw materials are taken from the earth. Then they are manufactured into building products. Those products are assembled on site during construction. Once finished, the building enters operation and maintenance, the long stretch when it is used and looked after. At the end of its life it is demolished, and finally its materials are disposed of, reused or recycled. Thinking in this life cycle matters because a choice at one stage affects all the others: a material that is cheap to make may be hard to recycle. This module teaches the six stages, where materials come from, the main construction activities, and how a building is maintained.

Words for the life cycle

Learn what each of these means before you use it.

Planned against corrective maintenance

Looking after a building can be done before or after something goes wrong, and the two approaches are examined separately.

How to trace a material

The clearest way to understand the life cycle is to follow one material through it. Pick a material, then walk it stage by stage. Where was it taken from the earth. What was it turned into. How was it put into the building. How is it looked after while the building is used. And what happens to it when the building comes down. A weak answer lists the stages with nothing joining them. A strong answer follows a real material along the chain and shows how each stage leads to the next. Name the stage, say what happens to the material, and point to what comes next.

Match the stage to what happens

Which stage?

A quarry digs limestone and clay out of the ground so they can later be turned into cement and bricks. Which stage of the life cycle is the quarry work?

• raw material extraction
• manufacturing
• construction
• demolition

Order the life cycle

Put the six stages of the built environment life cycle in the order they happen.

• Raw material extraction
• Manufacturing the materials
• Construction on site
• Operation and maintenance
• Demolition
• Disposal, reuse or recycling

Spot the true life-cycle facts

Tap the TWO statements that are true.

• Quarrying and mining are raw material extraction industries
• Planned maintenance is carried out before a fault develops
• Demolition is the very first stage of the life cycle
• Materials from a demolished building can never be recycled

How many stages left?

The built environment life cycle has 6 stages, from raw material extraction to disposal, reuse or recycling. So far you have looked closely at 1 of them. Subtract to find how many of the 6 are left to look at.

Complete the life-cycle facts

Taking natural materials from the earth, such as by mining, is the _____ stage. Turning those materials into finished building products is _____. Assembling those products on site into a structure is _____. Maintenance that is carried out on a schedule, before anything breaks, is called _____ maintenance.

Tracing a steel beam

Follow one steel beam through the whole life cycle and the stages stop being a list. It begins as iron ore dug out of a mine, which is the extraction stage. At a works the ore is turned into steel and rolled into a beam, which is manufacturing. The beam is delivered to a site and bolted into the frame of a new building, which is construction. For decades the building is used, and the frame is inspected and looked after on a regular schedule so it stays safe, which is operation and maintenance. When the building reaches the end of its life it is taken down, which is demolition. Finally the steel is not simply dumped: because steel can be melted down again, the beam is sent to be recycled into new steel, which is the last stage. One beam, six stages, and a clear reason the industry cares about what a material can become at the end.

Build the life-cycle rule

Choose the words that complete this rule about the life cycle.

Place the activity

Read each case and choose the best answer, then think about why.

• A team makes wall panels in a factory and delivers them ready to be lifted into place on site. Which construction activity is this?
• A building manager services the boilers every year on a set date so they do not break down in winter. Which kind of maintenance is this?
• A designer wants to reduce the waste a building leaves at the end of its life. Which stage should they think about early?

Stages and materials

Select the TWO statements that are true.

• Forestry is a raw material extraction industry that provides timber
• Construction comes after manufacturing and before operation and maintenance
• Corrective maintenance is always carried out before any fault appears
• A building never reaches a demolition stage

Explain the life cycle

A friend is revising Built Environment and thinks a building only matters while it is being built. Explain the whole life cycle, using the ideas from this module.

• Name the six stages of the life cycle in order
• Explain what happens at the raw material extraction and manufacturing stages
• Explain the difference between planned and corrective maintenance
• Explain what can happen to materials at the end of a building life
• Finish by explaining why a decision at one stage can affect the others