Occurrences associated with the phenomena of climate change are increasingly visible. Effects of progressive environmental pollution are monitored with growing concern. Still, in the construction sector, the choice of sustainable materials and the knowledge concerning them is insignificant. Studies have shown that single-family residential buildings form the largest share of new buildings in Central European countries. It should be assumed that it is the improvement of this particular section of the construction sector to be the goal of further development of societies. This paper presents a case study of the construction of a house using straw - a material that, on the one hand, is a product associated with local tradition, while significantly reducing carbon footprint of its production and use, on the other. The construction of a prototypical house with the application of composite technology, i.e. timber framing with straw bale infill, was compared with a conventional method (ceramic masonry units) which is currently the most popular choice for building single-family houses in Poland. The study is based on the building’s life cycle assessment (LCA) over its consecutive phases as a tested and reliable method of the verification of a material’s impact on the environment.

During the second decade of the 21st century, the effects of climate change became particularly noticeable, as population growth and aggressive urbanisation degraded the natural environment. In modern construction industry, the concepts of sustainable development and life cycle assessment (LCA) are important, covering the investment process from design and construction to operation and potential demolition. Wood, a natural raw material present in architecture for centuries, unites the ecological, economic and social principles of sustainable design. Thanks to innovative processing techniques such as cross-laminated timber (CLT) technology, wood can meet the challenges of modernity. Given the growing consumer interest in pro-environmental attitudes and the tightening of regulations within the European Union, the main emphasis will likely be on choosing environmentally friendly materials with a low carbon footprint, favourable energy balance, and ultimately, recovery or reuse potential. Based on this hypothesis, the paper presents a comparative LCA analysis of CLT and concrete technology for the implementation in an educational building at the Forest Botanical Garden Marszewo in Gdynia.

The laser scanning in the digitization process of relictually preserved architectural details

This article examines the integration of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to support sustainable revitalization of post-industrial areas, using the “Pralfa” Factory in Tarnów, Poland, as a case study. Under increasing environmental and investment pressures, demolition decisions require comprehensive assessment of their environmental consequences. BIM enables the generation and comparison of design scenarios at the conceptual stage, supporting informed decision-making. LCA of the “Pralfa” Factory showed that demolition would generate approximately 195,100 kg CO₂e. Two revitalization scenarios were evaluated: (1) construction using reclaimed materials recovered from demolished buildings and (2) construction using only new materials. The results demonstrated that demolition and the production of new materials substantially increase environmental impacts, while material reuse significantly reduces embodied emissions. The study confirms that BIM–LCA integration effectively supports sustainable design decisions and circular economy strategies. Its scientific contribution lies in extending BIM–LCA analysis to the end-of-life stages (C1–C4) of non-listed post-industrial buildings, addressing a gap in previous research focused mainly on new construction and stages A1–B7. The proposed workflow provides a transferable decision-support framework for circular revitalization and selective demolition planning.