A Digital Structure for Circular Reuse in the AEC industry

Abstract

The current built environment is facing a transition from a linear economy towards a circular economy. In this new system, the building parts of today are used to construct the buildings of tomorrow. Reusing building parts requires knowing the qualities of those materials. However, the current AEC (Architecture, Engineering, and Construction) industry does not know what data is required to reuse building components and how this influences processes of modelling and decommissioning parties. Therefore, this research aims to answer the following question: “Which data is needed for circular component reuse and how does this data requirement influence the management of a BIM in new construction projects?” The goal of this report is to construct an ILS (Information Delivery System. Original Dutch name: Informatie Leverings Specificatie) that provides data requirements for reuse of building components.
To answer this question two organisation types are interviewed: linear building organisations and modular building organisations. The linear companies construct projects with a permeant aim whereby building parts are not redeployed in subsequent lifecycles. Modular organisations, on the other hand, construct high-quality modular assets whereby building components and elements are reused a lifecycle. By interviewing both typologies the data requirements and process could be described and compared to construct a new ILS and process.
The interviews expressed the data requirements and structures of both organisations. These inputs are processed and the “Circular Reuse ILS+” and “Circular Reuse ILS+” are constructed. These documents describe data requirements of digital models to ensure that building components could be reused. Implementation of these documents increases the length, complexity, and costs of the design phases since more properties and digital models should be created and stored during these phases. The disassembly phase, contrastingly, benefits from the data and documents prescribed by the ILS+ given that more information is available for the construction of redeployment plans and analysis of the qualities of the released components. During the use phase of an asset, data should be maintained to ensure that it could be reused in future lifecycles. However, the qualities, requirements, definition, and responsibilities of this data maintenance are still unknow. Future research could focus on data maintenance to ensure that all data could be used in a perfect circular world.