To optimise the use of renewable materials in construction, it is essential to understand the factors influencing decisions throughout their design and service life. Life Cycle Costing (LCC) supports sustainable development by aiming to minimise long-term costs through informed planning of service life, maintenance, and replacement. Central to this is the engineering concept of limit states - Ultimate Limit States (ULS) for structural safety and Serviceability Limit States (SLS) for functionality. However, in non-loadbearing applications such as cladding, maintenance is often driven by aesthetic deterioration rather than structural concerns. These aesthetic limit states are subjective and influenced by user preferences, personality traits, and cultural background (Viholainen et al. 2021). In practice, undesired aesthetic changes are among the main reasons for cladding replacement in Europe, alongside fungal decay and modernisation (Englund 2013). Premature replacement due to insufficient communication about weathering effects and maintenance needs remains under-addressed. By accounting for variation in user preferences, material selection can be tailored to support a longer service life. This study presents multi-country variation in climate related perceptions of wood and user preferences for wooden cladding.
Publication Date: 2025-10-09