Durability and longevity: a sustainable perspective. The case of two neighbourhoods in the city of Mendoza.

GANEM, CAROLINA; ESTEVES, ALFREDO

Estambul, Turquía

Conferencia; 11th International Conference on Durability of Building Materials and Components - DBMC 2008.; 2008

Istanbul Technical University

From a sustainable perspective, durability is referred to the length of time a dwelling continues to fully meet its intended end use. Therefore durability and longevity are related parameters for sustainable design and construction. The useful life period of a building responds mainly to its construction praxis and its maintenance, thus it can be very variable depending, among others, on owner’s income, own or shared (communal) maintenance responsibility. This study was conducted in the city of Mendoza, Argentina. Two rational housing typology neighbourhoods were chosen for comparison: 1.    “Cano” Neighbourhood: built in 1938 (69 years old), housing blocks. 2.    “Romairone” Neighbourhood: built in 1935 (72 years old), single-family detached houses. Both cases were built with the same type of construction and materials and are almost the same age. Housing blocks of Case study 1 has not received a proper maintenance, either in individual apartments nor in communal spaces, and these facts compromise their durability and consequently the prevision of longevity is poor. Most of Case study 2 houses have received a better maintenance. This is explained partly because the relative position of this neighbourhood respect to the city centre changed, becoming an strategical place to live and work. This new situation has improved considerably their durability and their foreseen longevity. Every building part represents an environmental impact in its production and transportation phases and  each material has a recommended maintenance as well as a period after which it should be replaced. If these two actions do not happen, other building parts can have their own life cycle compromised and the whole building could suffer from a premature ageing. When replaced, materials must attend to newest concepts in sustainability tending to improve comfort and energy efficiency. The two cases were analysed by the exposed principles attending durability and longevity in a sustainable perspective.