Circular and valuecreating propertydevelopment for a resourceefficient construction industry over time

Purpose and goal

The development work aim to increase focus on circular design and circular construction in the early stages of an urban and project development process to ensure more resource-efficient/climate-smart construction industry over time. By including this aspect in early stages of project development, we can contribute to buildings being located/planned, designed and built more resource-efficiently over several life cycles, have a longer technical and economic life, enable future dismantling to benefit the building´s flexibility and possibility of reuse and material recycling.

Expected effects and result

Even today, we demolish buildings and very little material is reused, recycled and re-introduced into new buildings. That we create buildings that are more adapted to a circular economy is of most importance for the long-term possibility of reducing climate change and resource use. If we do not design for a more circular economy, future generations risk seeing it as far too costly to transform, dismantle and reuse, which in turn will mean continued waste of resources, increased amounts of waste and high climate impact and resource use during construction.

Planned approach and implementation

The work begins with a literature search and collection of research within the project´s various knowledge areas. With this as a basis and a focus on three main parts, resource optimization, long life and demountability, a process is developed with critical methods for circular design and construction. Incentives and values for affected stakeholders of working with circular design are also identified here. Digitalisation and its importance for circular design will also be touched upon at this stage. The process and tools are then tested in a concrete project and the results compiled