A framework to assist life-cycle costing analysis (LCCA) of building is increasingly important in today's construction industry, as designers strive for sustainability in the creation and maintenance of built assets. Three fundamental stages in modelling relative to the whole-cost of building are important: (i)the description of the inter- relationship of the factors that make up life-cycle costing; (ii)the conceptual LCCA model framework; and, (iii)the implementation of the LCCA model into a central encyclopaedia of information held within an over-arching design data-base. This work concentrates on the initial two stages, analysing the inter-relationship of life-cycle factors; this is the necessary antecedent to proceed towards the realisation of an LCCA model for inclusion into an overall design tool to facilitate building- information-modelling (BIM). A life-cycle cost analysis framework is presented, as an essential part of a design model to support decision-making and BIM for building design and construction processes.