Life Cycle Assessment of Ephemeral Cultural Installations: Implications for Sustainable Urban Tourism and Event Management

This study presents a life cycle assessment (LCA) of an ephemeral architectural installation developed for the Festival of Fruits and Flowers (FFF), a major cultural tourism event held in Ambato, Ecuador. Unlike previous LCA studies of temporary structures that primarily focus on construction performance, reusable buildings, or event infrastructure, this research examines a temporary cultural installation as part of an urban tourism and cultural heritage system. The study assessed the carbon footprint (CFP) across raw material extraction, manufacturing, transportation, construction, use, and end-of-life stages. Total emissions reached 408.46 kg CO2e, with the construction phase contributing the largest share (272.00 kg CO2e), followed by transportation (85.00 kg CO2e) and raw material extraction (43.96 kg CO2e). The use phase showed negligible emissions because the structure’s passive, while the end-of-life stage accounted for 7.50 kg CO2e. The results show that embodied carbon is the dominant environmental burden of the analyzed installation and highlight the value of integrating LCA into early design and planning for temporary cultural infrastructure. By linking quantitative carbon assessment with cultural tourism, place identity, and ephemeral heritage, this study provides a case-specific methodological reference for developing low-carbon strategies for temporary cultural installations and environmentally responsible urban events.