**Author details**

brominated flame-retardants will not break down in nature and causes instead damage to

**5.** Health effects on humans. It is necessary to analyze the impact of building materials on the people's (physical, psychological, chemically and biologically), where it affects instantly on human life. Can the materials be repaired and what maintenance frequency do they

The selection of building materials and methods also affects greatly the ability to reuse building materials during the recycling process. It is important to stop the loop in order to achieve a whole when a broken cycle inevitably leads to imbalances in nature. Everything taken from the earth must be reversed to a cycle to be late. When there is talk about healthy and ecofriendly building, it is often unclear as to exactly what it is that makes a building to be referred to as healthy and environmentally friendly. The reason is that there are many different areas that must be taken into account as a whole and so far there are a few who look at it from a holistic perspective. Life cycle analysis is a method to determine the environmental impact of a product or service from cradle to grave. Life cycle analyses are resource and time consuming to produce and should be made by those who produce or import products. A life cycle analysis can many times give increased knowledge about the product and pave the way for new developments when the analysis provides a wealth of knowledge about production. The selection procedure is intimately linked with the choice of design and building method. The building control of both quantity and type of material, and it is the finished construction in its entirety that is decisive for the indoor climate and building sustainability. It is already in the planning and design stage as the future sustainability of buildings is determined. When comparing materials, the fairest comparison ways will be to take into account the entire life span of the materials. Concrete, for example, is a durable material with long life and low maintenance requirements. In addition, a building in concrete is more energy efficient than a building in wood or steel because of its tight construction and good heat storage capacity. This may result in lower energy consumption in the use phase, which in some cases is consid-

Recycling of sustainable building materials is the area that first received attention in the field of the environment in the construction industry. Recycling and reusable building material can be done in four steps. The first step is that the buildings be designed and maintained in such a way that they can be used flexibly for a long time. The second step is to be designed so that they can be "picked apart" and the parts used again. Some important strategies for tackling

• Minimize the amount of waste by having a careful planning and design, use as few materi-

humans, animals, and nature.

**6.** Can the materials be reused or otherwise recycled?

14 Sustainable Buildings - Interaction Between a Holistic Conceptual Act and Materials Properties

ered as the most significant phase of a building's life cycle [20].

**3.2. Recycling model of building materials**

the rock of construction waste are:

als as possible;

have?

Amjad Almusaed<sup>1</sup> \* and Asaad Almssad<sup>2</sup>

\*Address all correspondence to: a.amjad@archcrea-institute.org

1 Department of Architectural Engineering, Iraq and Archcrea Institute, Basra University, Denmark

2 Department of Engineering and Chemical Sciences, Construction Engineering Karlstad University, Sweden
