Towards sustainable social housing: An integrative life cycle and multi-criteria approach

• Integrative framework combines LCA, LCC, S-LCA with advanced MCDM. • Applied to five structural systems for social housing in developing contexts. • Life Cycle Steel Frame (LSF) ranked as most sustainable across all dimensions. • Social indicators emerged as key causal drivers in sustainability assessment. • Results provide practical guidance for policy and housing decision-making. Structural systems for social housing must address pressing challenges of affordability, rapid execution, and long-term sustainability. However, choosing the most appropriate alternative requires balancing economic, environmental, social, and technical dimensions under uncertainty. This study applies a hybrid multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) framework that combines the Best–Worst Method (BWM), fuzzy Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL), and the Measurement of Alternatives and Ranking according to COmpromise Solution (MARCOS) to evaluate five construction systems: Light Steel Frame (LSF), bolt-connected sandwich panels (LBSPS), reinforced concrete walls (RCW), monolithic reinforced concrete (RCF-M), and cast-in-place reinforced concrete (RCF-CP). The framework combines life cycle-based assessments—LCA, LCC, and SLCA— with causal analysis to capture interdependencies among criteria and generate transparent sustainability rankings. Results consistently position LSF as the top performing alternative, reflecting its balance between efficiency, durability, and reduced maintenance. Social aspects collectively accounted for nearly 40% of the total weight, surpassing economic and environmental dimensions, highlighting the central role of labor conditions, community impacts, and functionality in sustainable housing. Sensitivity analyses demonstrated stable rankings and validated the hybrid framework under alternative MCDM methods and diverse scenario perturbations. The findings provide actionable insights for housing policy in developing contexts, where industrialized systems and participatory evaluation processes can jointly advance resource efficiency, affordability, and social well-being.