Designing [for] the future: Managing architectural parts through the principles of circular economy

Abstract

The environmental impact of the construction and demolition industry is enormous, therefore the management of architectural “waste” and the existing building volume became of crucial importance for the design of sustainable buildings and cities. Considering the principles of circular economy, two possible approaches emerge. The first concerns the existing architectural stock and its future use, not as a whole but as upcycled separate modules. The second is oriented towards the incorporation of future management of architectural parts in the design of new constructions, also known as design for disassembly (DfD). The research highlights the capabilities of each material and the potential ways of reusing it. In the case of design for disassembly, the connectivity of construction elements is of equal importance to the materiality of the projects. Moreover, the observations include the logistics of reuse in a new construction, the incorporation of a former architectural part, whose function sometimes differs from its role in the original building. In the existing residential fabric, upcycling emerges as a practice of creative reuse of building elements. Nonetheless, each case should be individually evaluated. Though these processes have not been yet used at a great extent, this theoretical framework is a reminder that the creation of a new building is not a permanent condition, but an aggregation of materials that temporarily serve a given purpose.