A Review of the Research on the Life Cycle Energy of Buildings Using Science Mapping

Building energy consumption is the main contributor to the total energy consumption, which has an increasing impact on the environment. A systematic and comprehensive life cycle perspective assessment of building energy is crucial to maintaining project sustainability. Building energy analysis from life cycle perspective has been increasingly favoured by scholars. However, contents and links of many literatures have not been summarized, and there is a lack of systematic literature research. This review-based study adopted a three-step workflow consisting of bibliometric literature search, science mapping (keywords analysis), and systematic discussion to mining the recent decade’s research of life cycle energy of buildings (LCE-B). Keywords analysis revealed the emerging research topics, such as Environmental impact, BIM, nZEBs and passive houses. A follow-up systematic discussion summarised mainstream research topics (e.g. trade-off between operating energy and embodied energy), discusses existing research gaps (e.g. stakeholder factors) and identified future research directions. This study helps scholars obtain an in-depth understanding of state-of-the-art LCE-B research, providing a comprehensive knowledge framework and allowing linkages on the current research field to future research trends.