The main difference between artificial and natural impacts is that natural processes are circular while artificial processes are linear. In nature, waste equals food. In built environment, waste equals landfills and pollution. It is very challenging to mimic nature in sustainability but architects can still bring some solutions.
Circular economy is an economy that eliminates waste or reuse it. As opposed to linear economy, circular economy is similar to natural ecosystem’s cycles. As a sustainability concept, circular economy is tied to the other concepts like systems thinking, life cycle assessment, etc. Circular economy mostly refers to materials, but in the context of architecture it can also refer to construction systems and typologies. Architects have a big responsibility as they can resolve a big part of the problem caused by the linear economy. We are still too far from creating buildings that are really circular, sustainable and that even regenerate nature. Today, the only true environmental-friendly building is a building that was not built.
Incorporating circular economy principles into architecture is very uncomfortable for architects. Prefabrication, reclaimed materials, new materials, new ways of building, etc. are some things architects can think about. Also the building industry is a very traditional industry and it’s difficult for architects to get new materials and methods approved. Here are some guidelines that can help architects to get closer to circular economy.
- Terminology. At first you need to get familiar with the key sustainability terms, such as Cradle-to-Cradle, LCA (Life Cycle Assessment), embodied carbon, embodied energy, etc. These terms are mostly coined in the manufacturing industry. Cradle-to-Cradle is a design concept very closely related to circular economy. It was developed by chemist Michael Braungart and architect William McDonough in the 1990s as opposite to the traditional Cradle-to-Grave concept. Cradle-to-Cradle fits well with the BIM that was in rapid development since 2000s. This concept was further developed by Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a charity founded in 2009 with the mission to accelerate the transition from the linear to the circular economy. Their butterfly diagrams show cradle-to-cradle concept separated into biological and technical cycles.
- Important facts. Also you need to know some important facts regarding sustainability. The building industry and infrastructure produce 50-60% of the waste. Each of us produce in average 480 grams of plastic waste every day, which is app. 15m3 of solid plastic waste in a lifetime. We extract between 60 and 100 billion tons of materials from the Earth every year. Even some scientists propose to include a new epoch – called the Anthropocene – in the geologic time scale. Also the buildings have a large impact on the climate change (in the US, buildings are responsible for 39% of CO2 emission and 40% of energy consumption). And the most important to know is that actions have consequences. All we do now have consequences in the future. All people did in the past have consequences now and further in the future.
- Circular design. GXN, the research department of Danish architectural studio 3XN Architects, defined three principles of circular design: design for disassembly (also known as design for deconstruction), material passport, and circular economy. These principles are based on the idea of putting together building elements, then taking it apart and reusing in the circular process. The goal is to prevent building materials from ending up at the landfills.
Although there are some projects that incorporate these principles, it is still more in theory. What architects can specifically do in their practice today?- Integrated approach. Talk to producers and builders and use their knowledge. Walk on a building site and talk to people who actually make buildings. Architects need to be systems-thinkers.
- Try to use reclaimed materials. Normally you first make a design, then you order materials with a contractor. With the new paradigm shift in thinking, first you have to collect materials, then you have to design. Although this is the best way to make circular design, it’s very uncomfortable from the point of view of an architect. Try to exploit raw materials less, and try to avoid materials that are not sourced and produced locally.
- New tools. Try to find new tools that can help you to achieve more circular design, and include them in your workflow. Currently there are a very few of them, such as One Click LCA Building Circularity Tool. It is a cloud-based tool that allows you to calculate the circularity percentage of a building.
- New business models. The circularity in architecture requires new design concepts and changed mindset but it also depends on the new business models which is the outside factor. The traditional design-bid-build model should evolve to more integrated models such as design-build and integrated project delivery (IPD), and further to design-build-operate. We need the new market for the reclaimed materials. The mass-production needs to be considered in a different way. The business models are those that drive changes so it is the most important factor.
- Certificates. There are several globally accepted certificates, such as LEED, BREEAM, Green Globes, TRUE Zero Waste, etc. If a building acquired one of these certificates it doesn’t mean that it is a really environmental-friendly building – it just means that this building makes less environmental damage than the average building. This applies even to a few dozen of buildings that acquired the most demanding certificate, Living Building Challenge. All these certificates encourage reduce-reuse-recycle principle which means that recycling is not an ideal option but actually the last option.
