Consider the scenario where you, a structural engineer, want to utilize even just a single reused element in a design. You've bought into the reasons and justifications I discussed in part 1, and you're ready to go. There are still a significant number of issues you need to solve though.
Where do you source the reused element? The answer is simple: you buy it from someone selling it. In the capitalist economic system we live in, this has to be the answer, if we are to achieve any sort of impactful scale for reuse. Today, this is hardly a possibility, as neither the demand nor the supply exist. This has to change, meaning designers must now be demanding to get reused elements for the their projects. To start with this probably means seeking out active and future demolition sites, and developing working relationships with demolition companies, as well as state and private property owners. Making it clear in your communications but especially in your designs that this is priority.
In this scenario, there is no longer any demolition of the built environment; new builds are designed for disassembly (to be discussed later), adaptive reuse and strengthening are commonplace, deconstruction is last resort, and demolition companies have evolved into deconstruction experts. Decon sites are pushing up to 100% reuse, as the materials and techniques for construction become more and more compatible with deconstruction. Deconstruction and waste removal companies merge, and their business model adapts to that of the urban miner, extracting raw materials for further use by others.
Alongside the evolution of the deconstructor, regional storage centers for the re-sale of reused construction components emerge. These are distributed across the country, with enough frequency to ensure that the transport distance to and from any site is no larger than a certain distance. This distance could be derived through a multi-variate analysis for lowest carbon, where the now near-zero A1-A3 LCA stage carbon cost (thanks to reuse) and the A4 transportation and A5 construction costs are combined and optimized for minima.
The storage facilities are communal resellers, meaning any parties can offload construction materials, and any parties can browse the stock and purchase elements. In between the selling and purchasing steps, there is a requirement for cataloguing and the admin work needed to process the elements, including the addition to an online database. The database is country-wide, but allows filter options to enable designers to consider the tradeoff of local elements versus constraints on time, design and geometry. Cross-country partnerships widen supply, but compound the need for such analyses.
The storage facilities themselves will follow the needs of typical warehouse spaces, as the majority of customer interaction will occur online, however it is still important that enough physical spaces are recruited to minimize transport distances. As our world changes, the needs for the physical space also change, and especially the retail and office sectors are already undergoing large shifts that are freeing up square meters (predominantly online selling for retail and the rise of remote work.) These could be converted to storage, preferably without demolition and rebuild!
The regional centers also provide an opportunity for designers, policy makers and clients to open the world of uber-local construction and perhaps a meta-vernacular, where not only is the built environment perceived as a bank of materials for future construction and true circularity, but it also develops an added layer of locale, where individual regions develop material ecosystems. Where recognizable patterns and visual identities are formed through the repeated use and reuse of the existing buildings, rather than the consistent and historical reuse of style and material which characterizes traditional vernacular.
The facilities are run either privately or publicly - but always in partnership with all other centers to be able to provide the widest range of stock for customers, and a form of backing for distributors. Publicly run centers could provide exciting new business models and levers for driving climate action. Decon companies are paid for the service of removing the existing building, allowing a client to proceed with a project, but the value of the materials belong the client, providing incentive to clients for off-selling the materials for reuse. Additionally, giving decon elements a price tag will shift perceptions of value of the materials themselves, encouraging direct reuse where possible. Privately run centers will take a commission for the storage and cataloging services, while publicly run centers (i.e. funded by taxpayers) would have an option to discount future public construction works, essentially refunding the taxpayers their investment (purchasing, storing and cataloguing the materials). The idea could be taken further; when publicly owned structures are up for deconstruction, the materials are passed on without fees on the condition that the materials are tagged with the condition, that they be available free of charge for public works.
Already now, the first steps in this direction are being taken. Forward-thinking companies and organizations are beginning to map out assets for reuse in construction in their area. Consulting services targeting circularity (spearheaded in construction by Lendager TCW and EME but certainly now being adopted by many more 'traditional' management consultants) are becoming more and more common.
Many projects are being built specifically to promote a circular construction industry. Rotor has long been developing an online directory (the Opalis project) of individual players providing reused construction, interior and infrastructure elements in Belgium and environs. Madaster attacks the other side of the coin, providing a package solution for tracking and storing information about the materials in new buildings, enabling reuse and resale at the end of life. In general, material passports are highly discussed right now, and I'll write about these in another post.
In Denmark, various 3rd parties are attempting to position themselves as online vendors of reused elements, see here, here, and here, while some demolition companies provide direct deconstruction services or auctions.
All this shows that the development is underway, but the clock is ticking, and it is imperative that architects and engineers wholeheartedly join the efforts to create a circular construction industry. Designers will have to broaden the scope of their services beyond their traditional realms and put in the work to be able to understand and affect the workings of the industry, supply chain and business cases of the built environment, so they can participate in the discussion here and promote circularity through their designs. We'll discuss design for reuse in a later post, but it is crucial that both architects and engineers have the knowledge and skills to provide alternative low-carbon solutions, which means embracing technology, but also the courage to question briefs and the insight to provide what clients really need, rather than what they say they want.
