Circular Economy Evaluation of Urban Railway Infrastructure

The European construction sector is responsible for the consumption of almost 32% of total raw material for realizing its projects (Benachio, Freitas, & Tavares , 2020). On a national level, this amount results to almost 50% for the Dutch construction industry (Nellssen, et al., 2018). The ever-growing population stresses the need for...

Urban Transplant: Concrete Transformation Methods with Reuse

Urban Transplant is a tool for post-capitalist architecture. The circular approach, supported by in-depth research into reuse of in-situ structural concrete as components, offers transformation methods in the built environment. A dual site in Brussels, the World Trade Center and a post-industrial terrain, provides a proof of concept for the idea...

Make Food Great Again: An Architectural Spatial Strategy to implement the Technological Advantages of the 4th Agricultural Revolution in the Built Environment for Reciprocal Benefit

Make Food Great Again is a prototype for the future of Urban Agriculture. Thereby its a spatial strategy to address the urgencies connected to the biochemical pollution of agricultural enterprises on the example of the Netherlands. It aims to find a solution for the burden of ultra effective state of the art agriculture on the environment, while...

Circular area development: Recommendations for creating a circularly functioning area

Problem statement – As a result of the increasing world population, use of raw materials and energy, scarcity of the raw materials and the pressure on the environment, a transition to the concept of a circular economy has become more urgent. Since the Dutch government has the ambition to be fully circular in 2050, the concept of a circular...

Material stocks and flows in the circular economy: a prospective material flow analysis for vehicles in the Netherlands for 2000-2050

To allow society to operate within planetary boundaries, it is essential to reduce primary material consumption. The Dutch government has set goals to limit the primary extraction by half in 2030 and to be a fully circular economy by 2050. To be able to achieve this without reducing our standards of living, the only way is to extract the...

Urban mining in design and construction processes: A study on implementing urban mining of existing building elements in the local housing for improving the construction industry towards a circular economy

In most of the current starting construction projects, most stakeholders use virgin materials for building elements. Considering climate change, building materials are getting scarce, it is necessary to reduce the number of virgin building materials and improve circularity in the construction industry. The problem is the absence of a middle man...

Circular Urban Agriculture in The Hague: Where We Are and Where We Could Go

Cities account for approximately 75% of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. This, along with the fact that cities also account for 75% of natural resource consumption and 50% of global waste production, makes urbanization a world-wide issue (Sukhdev, Vol, Brandt, & Yeoman, 2017). Additionally, the widely-practiced urban linear economic structure...

Circular Demolition and Component Reuse in Construction: The Current Building Stock as a Source of Components for New Buildings

Circular building has been increasing in popularity over several years. The idea being that we should not use resources only once and then discard them, but continue using them in new products. The construction industry has responded to this by designing 'circular' buildings that can be disassembled at the end of their functional life. This...

Experimental Modelling for Allocating Recovery Facilities in the Metropolis: Integrated research between Circular Economy and Urban Spatial Structure

The primary aim of this project is to investigate an approach to integrate the study of CE with urban spatial structure, then form a tool to assist the procedure of decision-making by analyzing empirical data.

The circular potential of the urban mine: A spatial-temporal dynamic stock model for urban systems with a case study of copper in Amsterdam

Large material flows are extracted from natural mines in the earth’s crust and moved and stored in anthropogenic environments. Extraction processes from natural mines are often harmful for the environment and can cause material scarcity. At the same time governments are formulating ambitions to increase circularity in cities. For these reasons...

An advanced prospecting method for assessing the quantity of underground metal cables urban mines

One way to stimulate a more circular economy, is to explore opportunities for urban mining. This thesis explores a new method to assess the quantity of underground electricity cables which could one day become available for urban mining. This research answers the question: ”To what extent can topological networks be used to localize and quantify...

Designing Circular Cities: Exploring the development of circular economy in cities

Urban policymakers face more complex issues than ever before in developing a socially-, economically- and environmentally sustainable cities. Some cities have already started transitioning towards a circular economy in this endeavor. This research explores the ways in which four pioneering cities have started navigating this transition, and uses...

Circular Buildings the Urban Living Lab Way: A Practical Facilitation Tool as Guidance for a Circular Building Process as Collaborative Ecosystem

The Master’s programme Industrial Ecology is jointly organised by Leiden University and Delft University of Technology. The coming decades, the building sector is facing challenges to reduce its impact as one of the major contributors on global problems, like resource depletion, pollution and climate change. The concept of Circular Economy,...