Economic circularity in the built environment: An assessment and decision-making supporting model for the real estate sector & construction industry

Economic circularity in the built environment: An assessment and decision-making supporting model for the real estate sector & construction industry

Van Hemmen, B.

Prins, M. (mentor)
De Jong, P. (mentor)

Architecture and The Built Environment

Management in the built environment

2016-04-15

The discourse on circular economy is characterized by perpetual disintegration whilst there is a need for assessment and decision-making supporting models. This normative study proposes a model that assesses the extent to which interventions in the built environment are in accordance with a circular economy (CE) and discloses the financials behind reuse. A CE being a state of the global economy that is capable of continuous recursion. This implies infinite material productivity regarding non-regenerative materials, which intends recursive recovery of wastes and an absence of resource extraction. Regenerative material resources and energy are cumulatively confined in their extraction and use by stochastic but stationary consumption limited by the regenerative potential of the earth. Pollution is avoided and additively a multitude of means is employed in an implicit pursuit for market saturation. The model assesses the quantity of flows of materials (kg/year) that are necessary for the delivery of the performance usable floor area (1m2 UFA). The model places a binary verdict on material flows (kg/year). Flows of materials capable or incapable of continuous recursion. Besides an assessment of the required material flows, material flows are considered to be an indicator for environmental impact. Due to the multidimensionality of a CE, the assessment results in a two dimensional figure and is occluded with a target figure. The assessment is supplemented by a financial overview of material and component reuse values, that supports the decision-making processes that can enable a CE from a business perspective.

Circular economy
assessment model
built environment
decision-making model
reuse
components

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:dda510cd-1766-4dde-b0e6-b89dedd2b197

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2016 Van Hemmen, B.