van Stijn, A (2023) Developing circular building components: Between ideal and feasible. PhD thesis, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands.
Abstract
Creating a circular economy within the built environment plays a crucial role in society's pursuit to become more sustainable. A building consists of building components, such as a kitchen, façade and roof. By replacing building components with more circular ones during new construction, maintenance and renovation, we can gradually make buildings circular. There are many design variants for circular building components. Knowledge on which variants are the most circular, and which are feasible to implement is lacking. In this dissertation, we develop and test 8 circular building components for housing renovation together with Dutch social housing associations and industry partners. Combining Action Research and Research through Design approaches, we generate knowledge on 4 research goals. We present a design tool for circular building components. We develop a Life Cycle Assessment model to assess the environmental impacts of circular building components. We compare the environmental performance of multiple circular design options for multiple building components and derive environmental design guidelines. Finally, we identify which stakeholder choices throughout the development of 8 circular building components led to feasible, circular building components. We conclude that not all circular design options lead to desirable circular building components; not all desirable circular design options are yet feasible. This research makes scientific contributions to circular design theories, management models for the built environment, and research methodology. We recommend 4 changes in practice to implement more circular building components.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | circular economy; building components; renovation; life cycle assessment; design tools; social housing; sustainability |
| Index terms: | environmental impact, housing, building component, action research, society, life cycle assessment, research methodology, built environment, renovation, option, roof, dissertation, social housing, environmental performance, circular economy, environmental design |
| Subjects: | data collection methods, research design and methodology, sustainability and energy, renovation and retrofit, design practice, infrastructure and transport systems, decision analysis, environmental impact, research dissemination and communication, construction type, sustainable design, sustainability assessment, architectural elements, communities and social development, housing and residential development |
| Topics: | Engineering Principles, Sustainability, Risk Management, Research Practice, Construction Technology, Stakeholder Management, Urban Studies, Design Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here