A sustainable multi-criteria decision making framework to select interior walls

With an increasing number of different materials, choosing the best one has become an arduous task. The vast domain of alternatives and decision criteria has led to the complexity of decision making in the conceptual phase for designers. On the other hand, due to the importance of environmental and energy concerns, considering the sustainability principles through the decision process is significantly important. Although sustainable material selection as a strategy leads to some general and main assessment criteria, identification of sub-criteria not only depends on general criteria but also pertains to the specific type of elements in buildings. Interior walls are one of those elements in construction with a complex decision making process due to their great variety of types and features. This paper aims to provide a sustainable multi-criteria decision making framework for choosing the proper interior walls in buildings. A qualitative research method using literature review, unstructured interviews and questionnaires was adopted to achieve the aims of this research. The initial data, including the criteria and sub-criteria, were collected through literature review. A framework consisting of four main components related to environmental, financial, social and technical aspects was finally developed and validated through unstructured interviews held with 23 experts in the construction industry in Iran. By dividing the main criteria into sub-criteria, in total, 23 sub-criteria were identified; to calculate their weight, questionnaires were distributed among 143 experts in the construction industry in Tehran and the analytic hierarchy process method was applied. High-rise residential buildings in Tehran were selected as a case to apply the framework, and finally the results are discussed.