The Construction Material Pyramid - Integrating health and toxicity parameters

Abstract This article investigates how hazardous substances and toxicity information can be integrated into the Construction Material Pyramid [Pyramid] in order to showcase the potential health impacts of material choices in architecture. The current Pyramid indicates different materials’ upfront environmental impacts in the initial life phase of a building product, specifically in the Life Cycle Assessment phases A1-A3. The success of the Pyramid hinges on its communicative strength of conveying complex data in a simple format, easily understood by architects and planners. Can other aspects of material impacts be conveyed with a similar graphic ease to provide a more complete material assessment? Material health and toxicity is notoriously difficult to assess, as data is insufficient and hard to acquire due to proprietary concerns from manufacturers and lack of proper legislation to ensure transparency. The Pyramid has not yet dealt with health and toxicity as a parameter and there exists no predefined method as to how these problems can be included in a comparative model such as the Pyramid. This article’s first line of inquiry is to discuss a suitable methodology to disclose the potential health impacts of construction materials and their associated, often invisible, chemical products applied for mounting, finishing, mold or fire resistance. The Swedish Chemicals Agency’s and the European Chemicals Agency’s evaluation of substances will inform the framework for a comparative system. Secondly, the article will address how the model can graphically convey the potential health and environmental impacts from the production and construction phases of prime and associated materials. This augmentation of the Pyramid would enable architects and designers to more easily obtain information regarding potential health impacts resulting from hazardous chemical content and could provide incentives for selecting less-toxic alternatives. By drawing on H-phases and SundaHus’s product assessment, a ‘stop-sign method’ is used to indicate hazard levels of construction materials.