Analysis of Building Foundation Reconstruction: A Holistic Assessment of Its Economic, Social, and Environmental Impacts

Abstract

The issue regarding rehabilitation versus building demolition remains an open debate. In order to make decisions in a sustainable way, the social, economic, and environmental dimensions all need to be considered. Although rehabilitation is not always the most economical solution, it can, in most cases, offer other benefits beyond solely contributing towards environmental sustainability, including the reduction of project execution times, protection of communities, and the restriction of urban sprawl. A holistic assessment of these factors is therefore essential. In the present work, a multi-family building in Seville, Spain, constructed in 1950 and containing forty social housing dwellings, suffered an accident related to soil subsidence. Consequently, prompt decisions had to be made in order to rehabilitate the property and return the occupants to their dwellings within a year. The building also needed a significant repair to its foundations. In the present work, a methodology is defined to rapidly assess the economic, social, and environmental sustainability of various options of reconstruction work. Four solutions for the reconstruction of the foundations are studied, which give rise to a methodology for the assessment of similar scenarios of repair work. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025.