Facades-as-a-Service: Systemic managerial, financial, and governance innovation to enable a circular economy for buildings. Lessons learnt from a full-scale pilot project in the Netherlands

Introduction: The challenge of the energy transition in the built environment has, in recent years, been exacerbated by rising awareness of the material resource limitations we face on the path towards sustainable development. In this context the concepts of Circular Economy (CE) and Product-Service Systems (PSS) have emerged as potentially...

Comparing Circular Kitchens: A Study of the Dutch Housing Sector

The built environment can become more sustainable by gradually replacing building components with circular ones. Kitchens are a logical component to be made circular, given their relatively short lifespan, product-based nature, and affordable prototypes. Since various designs for circular kitchens can be developed, understanding the feasibility...

Toward a low-carbon and circular building sector: Building strategies and urbanization pathways for the Netherlands

Buildings are an important part of society's environmental impacts, both in the construction and in the use phase. As the energy performance of buildings improve, construction materials become more important as a cause of environmental impact. Less attention has been given to those materials. We explore, as an alternative for conventional...

Digitalization for a circular economy in the building industry: Multiple-case study of Dutch social housing organizations

Digital technologies are considered enablers of circular economy implementation in the built environment. Literature mainly focuses on conceptual or review studies examining the role of digital tools (e.g., material passport and building information modelling) to close the material loops. There is a lack of understanding of how digital...

Cooking Up a Circular Kitchen: A Longitudinal Study of Stakeholder Choices in the Development of a Circular Building Component

The built environment can be made more circular by gradually replacing building components with more circular components during construction, renovation, or maintenance. However, many different design options can be seen as circular. Although there is a growing number of studies about circular design options, research on what makes these options...

Circular composites: A design guide for products containing composite materials in a circular economy

The circular composites design guide presents circular economy strategies, product design aspects and tools to (re-)design products containing composite materials for a circular economy.<br/>A circular economy closes the loop for products, parts and materials, through reuse and recycling. In this guide you will find 5 circular economy strategies...

Archetypical CBMs in Construction and a Translation to Industrialized Manufacture

The circular economy is a widely accepted concept that various governments have started to adopt. Still, a major consumer of resources, the construction industry, struggles to implement business models that answer to the opportunity and generate value beyond economical. At the same time, the industry is at a threshold of intensifying their...

Circular and Flexible Infill Concepts: Integration of the Residential User Perspective

Circular building has gained considerable attention in the Netherlands during the past decade. It is rooted in concepts such as circular economy (CE) and Cradle-to-Cradle (C2C®), accentuating the closing and coupling of material loops to establish effective and efficient resource flows. Moreover, those concepts adhere to a systemic, holistic...

Circular and Flexible Indoor Partitioning: A Design Conceptualization of Innovative Materials and Value Chains

This article sheds light on the materialization and operation of residential partitioning wall components in relation to circular and flexible performance. The hypothesis is twofold: (1) A stronger integration of materialization and operation aspects is indispensable in establishing sustainable value-models, and (2) recent innovations,...

Business models for building material circularity: Learnings from frontrunner

One of the expected key outcomes of the Horizon 2020 BAMB (Buildings As Material Banks) project is new business models for material circularity. The team has interviewed four “frontrunner” cases which have pioneered in incorporating elements of building circularity. The study included well-known cases such as the new Venlo city hall (the...

The role of the client to enable circular economy in the building sector

Whilst there is an increasing recognition of the circular economy concept within the building sector, opportunities for its implementation at project level remain largely underexploited. Research has shown that challenges to its uptake include limited knowledge and awareness among stakeholders; a fragmented supply chain; an unclear business...

The CE Meter: An instrument to assess the circular economy capacity of buildings

A direct connection can be made between adaptive building and sustainability (Wilkinson 2011). Market developments show increased demands by for flexibility and sustainability by users and owners as well as a growing understanding of the importance of a circular economy (Eichholtz 2009). Circular Economy (CE) is a rather recent way of looking at...

New business model of flexible housing

The Open Building (OB) and the concept of flexible housing has alwaysassociated with user’s ability to respond to changing demand. It is necessary that housing can adap to changing market conditions and different users’ requirements. Flexibility makes a crucial concept that one cannot ignore. However, extra investments for future flexibility are...