Recovery and reuse of structural products from end-of-life buildings

YesBuildings and construction have been identified as having the greatest potential for circular economy value creation. One source of value creation is to recover and reuse building products from end-of-service-life buildings, rather than destructive demolition and downcycling. While there is a trade in non-structural and heritage product recovery and reuse, the largest volume, mass and value of most buildings comprise structural elements – concrete, brick and masonry, and steel – which present many challenges. A comprehensive literature review confirms limited attention to innovation and advanced techniques to address these challenges and therefore the potential reuse of the stocks of accumulated building products globally and associated environmental benefits. Potential techniques being tested in an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council circular economy research programme are referenced as a key building block towards circular economy building system redesign.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council - research project Rebuild (EPSRC EP/P008917/1

Transformable building structures: Design for dissassembly as a way to introduce sustainable engineering to building design & construction

Architectur

Development of a decision support model for determining building life-cycle strategies in the Netherlands

Over recent years, it has become increasingly apparent that there is a growing need for so-called green buildings with a lower environmental impact over the whole building life-cycle. The construction industry demands strategies that support a drastic change of the way we develop, construct and maintain buildings. However, new building concepts represent too much of an evolution of traditional building systems, which does not necessarily lead to the intended shift towards green transformable buildings. The research aims to acquire knowledge about the impact of specific design characteristics on the complete building lifecycle, develop possible scenarios to create green transformable buildings, determine how the various strategies relate to the building lifecycle and to create knowledge about how to measure the effectiveness of the chosen strategies. The expected result of this research is a decision support model for building concepts. The model should lead towards a better understanding of innovative green solutions for buildings and therefore provide a better opportunity to create innovative new building concepts. This paper describes the research design, which will address the goals

International Collaborative Design Studio: Green Transformable Buildings

Current trends in architectural practice such as an increased focus on sustainable design, integrated design, and the globalization of architecture are increasing the need for practitioners that are skilled in collaboration. Collaboration fosters innovation and creativity. It is a key operating principle for the 21st century and an important skill that an architecture student must be exposed to. The change in knowledge generation and creative problem solving is transforming education towards collaborative learning forcing architecture and engineering schools to address new course structures with ìcollaborativeî aspect. The work presented in this paper draws its base from collaborative design learning. It describes an international collaborative design studio titled ìInternational Design Studio: Green Transformable Buildingsî conducted between three institutions, Y_ld_z Technical University (YTU)ñIstanbul, University of Twente (TU)-Enschede Engineering Sciences and Industrial Design School, and Architecture Faculty of Sarajevo (AFS)

Translate the Cradle to Cradle Principles for a Building

Abstract Various guidelines for Cradle to Cradle in the built environment were established since 1992. However, it's not clear how the Cradle to Cradle principles can be translated to the realization of a building. This paper contains information from literature with a focus on applying the Cradle to Cradle principles in building design and -construction. Also results of interviews with experts and directly involved stakeholders, about applying the Cradle to Cradle principles in the built environment will be provided. Specifically a number of aspects and desired results will be addressed, which seem to be essential in the realization of a building

Eco concrete stones with TiO2 for atmospheric decontamination

In the present work the degradation of nitrogen oxides (NOr) by concrete paving stones containing Ti02 is studied. A kinetic model is proposed to describe the photocatalytic reaction of nitric oxide (NO) in a standard flow laminar photoreactor irradiated with UV lamps. In addition the influence of several parameters that can affect the performance of these stones under outdoor conditions are investigated, such as irradiance, relative humidity and wind speed. The kinetic parameters present in the NO reaction rate are estimated employing experimental data obtained in the photoreactor. The model predictions employing the determined kinetic constants are in good agreement with the experimental results of NO concentration at the reactor outlet