Circular Building Design: An Analysis of Barriers and Drivers for a Circular Building Sector

Jouri Kanters

doi:10.3390/buildings10040077

Abstract

Circular building design could significantly reduce the environmental impact of buildings and the pressure on natural resources. However, most buildings today are not designed according to the principles of the circular economy. Most literature has focused on either methods for quantifying the lifecycle analysis of buildings and materials, or on innovative circular building materials, but not much is known about the design process of circular buildings and how architects are dealing with translating the principles of the circular economy to the building sector. A series of semi-structured interviews with architects and consultants that have engaged in circular building design has been conducted to identify the barriers and drivers of the transformation towards a circular building sector. Interviews were analysed using qualitative coding analysis. The conservativeness of the building industry, the lack of political priority and the dependency throughout the building industry were found to be the main barriers, while a supportive client with a well-defined assignment and idea was considered to be the main driver. The contribution of this paper to key actors in the building sector is to identify the main barriers and drivers for a circular building sector.

Highlights

The building sector accounts for a significant amount of the total energy use in European countries (42%) [1] and for a significant amount of the waste production (e.g., 30% of the waste produced in Sweden [2] and 40% in the Netherlands [3])
In order to reduce the impact of buildings on the environment, building regulations have become stricter, especially regarding the maximum allowed energy use during the operational phase
Much of theand research focus on aspects the circular economy has been level orofoncircularity, building component level most the most that are researched uponon arethe thecity definition component level and most the most aspects that are researched upon are the definition of circularity, life cycle analysis (LCA) and technical inventions for recycling

Summary

Introduction

The building sector accounts for a significant amount of the total energy use in European countries (42%) [1] and for a significant amount of the waste production (e.g., 30% of the waste produced in Sweden [2] and 40% in the Netherlands [3]). Different concepts for low-energy houses have been developed in the last decades such as passive houses, zero-energy buildings and plus-energy buildings. In all these concepts, the focus is on energy use in the operational phase. The focus is on energy use in the operational phase As a result, it has become even more important to look at the embodied energy; the energy used to produce a building. Many building materials used today are still based on fossil fuels and their derivatives, which means a high level of embodied energy, and results in a strong dependence on a limited resource [5,6]

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