Principles for building design

“Circular Economy: Principles for Building Designs” is a document elaborated and published by the European Commission in order to give a tool to authorities, companies, and any actor involved in this sector, to apply circular economy and resource efficiency principles to buildings to reduce resource use in the future.

Within the context of the Construction 2020 initiative, the Thematic Group on “Sustainable use of natural resources” has taken several steps towards a circular economy approach and increased resource efficiency in the building sector, being one of them the elaboration of the document “Circular Economy: Principles for Building Designs”

The focus of this initiative was to present a set of principles for the sustainable design of buildings to generate less construction and demolition waste; facilitate the reuse and recycling of construction materials, products, and building elements; and help reduce the environmental impacts and life cycle costs of the building.

For this purpose, the Thematic Group held several meetings and exchanges in 2017, 2018 and 2019 to deepen the insights into this complex matter and to provide room for a balanced representation of views.

The final document, which was the result of the actions above aims to inform and support actors along the construction value chain, providing principles for circular design of buildings and defining key actions to implement each principle, always intending to achieve the following general objectives:

1. Durability
2. Adaptability
3. Reduce waste and facilitate high-quality waste management

Being the general principles the ones defined below:

1. Design principles of circular economy and sustainable buildings apply to all actors along the value chain, including building users, investors, and regulators.
2. Sustainable choices must consider total life cycle costs, financial and non-financial return on investments.
3. Viable business models must exist or be developed for each economic operator in the supply or value chain. A reliable marketplace for used products and materials must exist or be created.
4. Principles need to be applied taking into account proportionality (benefits should outweigh the costs).
5. Better knowledge is needed about construction techniques to facilitate deconstruction and to enhance the durability and adaptability of a building. In all parts of the value chain, workers need to have the right skills and incentives to apply this knowledge and use the appropriate tools.
6. The durability of buildings depends on better design, improved performance of construction products, and information sharing. Structural elements should last as long as the building does, whenever possible. If it is not possible because of intrinsic obsolescence or anticipated change in requirements (e.g., IT infrastructure), they should be reusable, recyclable, or dismountable.
7. Prevent premature building demolishment by developing a new design culture.
8. Design products and systems so that they can be easily reused, repaired, recycled, or recovered. When recycling, it is preferable that products and systems should be upcycled, too.

With all this, the target audience for this document is englobed in the following groups:

1. Building users, facility managers, and owners
2. Design teams (engineering & architecture of buildings)
3. Contractors and builders
4. Manufacturers of construction products
5. Deconstruction and demolition teams
6. Investors, developers, and insurance providers
7. Government/ Regulators/ Local authorities

Nearly all target groups can contribute to meeting the specific objectives of durability, adaptability, and reduction of waste. Therefore, an integrated approach along the value chain is vital.

Furthermore, it is worth mentioning that the document “Circular Economy: Principles for Building Designs”, is aligned with the launch of Level(s), a voluntary reporting framework to improve the sustainability of buildings.

In particular, this document contributes to Level(s) Macro-objective 2: Resource efficient and circular material life cycles. This macro-objective is about the reduction of waste, the optimization of material use, and the reduction of environmental impacts of designs and material choices throughout the life cycle.

Links:

• Table of contents of Guide about Construction and circular economy

Access the full guide here:

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