Sustainability evaluation of timber dwellings in the north of Swedenbased on environmental impact and optimization of energy and cost

optimization. From the resulting Pareto-solutions, selecting a single optimal solution remains a challenge. Thus, research is stillneeded to increase the practical use of optimization for architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) practitioners. Thispaper presents the use of an optimization approach where the results and an environmental assessment are discussed with AECpractitioners. The method was tested in two case studies: a prestige tourist cottage and a multifamily residential building.Different superstructures, insulation materials and windows were varied for the cottage’s envelope whilst evaluating life-cycleenergy and cost. In addition, the environmental impact in terms of CO2 emissions was evaluated for the initial and optimal designsuggestions for the two different superstructures. For the residential building, the insulation material thickness and the windowswere varied for its evaluation of life-cycle energy and cost. For the cottage, a report was written and then read by the practitionersand used as a base for future decisions. For the residential building, the results were presented orally for the practitioners. In bothcases, it was possible to communicate the overarching results of the optimizations through visual plots, although future researchshould find ways to also explain the detailed results.