Abstract: The evolution and operation of the Chinese housing stock contributes to a considerable part of the national energy, material and monetary flows. China has developed several assessment systems for residential buildings since 2001, which concentrate on ecological and comfort criteria. At present, the international development of sustainable building assessment tools and the new trends (e.g. change of life styles) in the urbanization process of China both lead to new demands and new opportunities. This concerns the enlargement of the concept of sustainability and the me-thodological basis of life cycle oriented quantification tools for environmental impacts (e.g. car-bon emission, impacts to global and local environment) and life cycle costs. Moreover, the new generation of instruments should get in line with international standardization (e.g. ISO TC 59 SC 17), and should be scalable in order to support the study at the different levels of the housing stock (neighborhood, urban and national) by providing detailed analysis of the typical buildings.

A survey was done about different evaluation systems for sustainable housing. The integrated LCA and LCC tool (LEGEP) and the supporting databases of the recent German Sustainable Building Certificate system provide important references for the development of the relevant me-thods and tools. As a first result of a joint study of Chinese and German institutes, the adaptability of integrated LCA-tools (like LEGEP) to the Chinese context are discussed by analyzing a sample building. It is concluded that similar tools should be developed for the sustainability assessment of Chinese residential buildings, based on the national knowledge and experience and the local spe-cificities. This could not only lead to a new generation of certificate system, but also support the study on the level of neighborhoods and of the urban and rural housing stocks.

Key Words: Residential building; Sustainability Assessment; Functionality; Life Cycle; building stock