Holistic sustainability assessment of textile-reinforced concrete compared to structural concrete using the example of a roof construction

Abstract

Concrete construction faces growing sustainability challenges due to increasing climate requirements and changing labor conditions. Textile-reinforced concrete offers substantial potential by enabling lighter and more resource-efficient components. However, assessing such systems requires holistic methods that go beyond material-based environmental indicators. Existing frameworks often neglect the interactions between manufacturing, structural design, and broader economic and social aspects. This study presents a holistic evaluation model that integrates 36 criteria across ecological, economic, and social dimensions within a transparent multi-criteria decision-making framework. A dominance matrix enables flexible weighting based on stakeholder-specific priorities. The model is applied to five roof component variants: cast-in-place and precast flat roofs with steel reinforcement, a precast shell with steel reinforcement, and two textile-reinforced concrete shells—one manually sprayed on-site, the other produced robotically manufactured using adaptive formwork. The results show that textile-reinforced concrete shells offer major ecological benefits, with up to 90 % material savings compared to conventional flat roofs and the lowest global warming potential among all variants. The precast textile-reinforced shell achieves the highest overall sustainability score due to automated precision production. The precast steel-reinforced shell ranks second under equal weighting of sustainability dimensions and requires 60 % less material than conventional flat slabs, emphasizing the sustainability potential of efficient structural geometry. While cast-in-place flat roofs remain economically advantageous, precast methods—both steel- and textile-reinforced—offer notabel social benefits by improving working conditions and minimizing site disruptions. The developed model demonstrates robustness and transferability, supporting early design decisions and detailed sustainability assessments for diverse components and construction strategies.