Circular Construction Ecosystems: Designing a Circularity Information Platform for the Built Environment

Research output: ThesisPhD Thesis - Research UT, graduation UT

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Abstract

The construction industry stands at the forefront of the Circular Economy (CE) transition, drawing considerable attention due to its high resource intensity. Despite its vital role in economic development, this industry consumes nearly half of the world's annually extracted primary materials and significantly contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. This reality forces our younger generations to a hopeless lifestyle where skyrocketing housing costs come with a deteriorating environment. The current paradigm of designing, constructing, and demolishing buildings aligns with a linear economic model of take-make-waste. This can no longer be sustained.

The paradigm shift towards a CE attracted increasing interest from academics, industrial actors, and governmental bodies over the last decades. A CE entails an integrated approach to the design of processes, products, services, and business models, harmonising economic growth, environmental protection, and societal well-being. It is not only about reducing the negative environmental impact, but rather envisages a systematic shift towards a restorative and regenerative production system. Such a system should foster circular flows of materials, energy and water, which helps to reduce resource consumption and ultimately eliminate waste.

At the core of a CE lies the concept of system where material flows of multiple products interact over space and time, across the boundaries of industries. These interactions make circular construction more complex, chaotic, yet stronger and more resilient. We can no longer ignore these interactions and blindly aim for another new construction. As raised by David Chipperfield, the 2023 Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, our approach should involve “embracing the pre-existing structures, and designing in a dialogue with space and time”, while creating “structures able to last, physically and culturally”.

Beneath physical material flows, information flows link everything together. They are intertwined and fragmented, handled by various actors in different formats. I argue that it is not possible to close a material loop if the associated information loop remains open. Therefore, I seek opportunities to collect, connect, and enhance these broken pieces of information, to create a coherent narrative of CE transition among existing and future structures. To manage a circular built environment at scale, beyond the scope of an individual project, this work provides some theoretical guidance and empirical insights through a Design Science perspective.

I aim to design a Circularity Information Platform (CIP) for the built environment. The CIP is envisaged as a digital collaboration platform facilitating the identification, coordination, and evaluation of circular material flows among multiple projects. It serves as a comprehensive information basis where material flows are characterised based on temporal, spatial, and supply-demand features. Managing multiple building projects as one integrated community, CIP matches waste generation and resource consumption across projects in a closed-loop structure at multiple levels.

Working in the built environment gives us the privilege to have a more prominent and engaged role in shaping our society not only towards a higher, faster, and stronger direction but a more sustainable one too. It is essential to address common environmental challenges, inspire the next generation to embrace this responsibility with vision and courage, and explore innovative ways to improve livelihoods on our fragile planet. This thesis is my modest contribution to that end.
Original languageEnglish
QualificationDoctor of Philosophy
Awarding Institution
  • University of Twente
Supervisors/Advisors
  • Iacob, Maria Eugenia, Supervisor
  • Mes, Martijn R.K., Supervisor
  • Yazan, Devrim Murat, Co-Supervisor
  • van den Berg, Marc, Co-Supervisor
  • Junjan, Veronica, Advisor
Award date13 Dec 2024
Place of PublicationEnschede
Publisher
Print ISBNs978-90-365-6396-3
Electronic ISBNs978-90-365-6397-0
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 13 Dec 2024

Keywords

  • Circular economy
  • Built environment
  • Information system
  • Design science
  • Industrial symbiosis
  • Agent-based model

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