Circularity potential in building adaptation projects and building demolition projects

Abstract

On the real estate market, there will always be a demand for newly constructed real estate. Demand and supply are never quite in balance, meaning that the construction of new real estate will always exist. However, looking for opportunities to satisfy the demand with the existing building stock is often forgotten or neglected. 87% of the needed buildings in 2050 have already been built (Wilkinson & Remoy, 2017). This is why building adaptation is so important. Concepts such as circularity, renovation and adaptive reuse are very important in the real estate market. When real estate is constructed circularly, it is ‘modular and flexible by design where resource loops are closed and human well-being is promoted’ (Leising et al., 2018). Therefore, building adaptation is a circular measure, and building demolition can and should be done circularly as well. Building adaptation and circular demolition are central in this research. Adaptive reuse is part of building adaptation, and means a major change to an existing building with alterations of both the building itself and the function it accommodates, so across-use adaptation (Wilkinson, 2014). Renovation is similar to adaptive reuse, only the function stays the same, so within-use adaptation (Wilkinson, 2014). These concepts all focus on using the existing building stock to satisfy demands, rather than to construct new buildings. Functional, technical, cultural, legal and location factors have been thoroughly mapped out in previous literature to establish what makes a building suitable for transformation or renovation (Ginelli, 2016). However, circularity potential and ways on how to determine circularity potential in building adaptation projects and demolition projects have not been clearly mapped out yet. With circularity becoming increasingly popular because of future goals that need to be met, it becomes important that clear ways to map out circularity potential in such projects are developed. This research fills in this research gap by creating a tool which gives a circularity potential score to existing buildings which will either be adapted or demolished, and shows which circularity measures can be taken. Furthermore, the tool will give indications on potential CO2 emission savings by applying circular strategies. Because there is no one way to approach this, instead of a main research question, a main research aim has been set up: To develop a tool which measures and identifies what the circularity potential of building adaptation projects and building demolition projects is. This tool is originally inspired by the conversion potential meter, developed by (Geraedts et al., 2018). Further on in the research, many extra tools and frameworks inspired the final result of the tool; the Circularity Potential Meter.