Advancing Circular Economy in the existing building stock: A methodology to support building characterisation for sustainable refurbishment design

Abstract

The lack of standard practices and platforms for assessing refurbishment strategies towards Circular Economy (CE) and their impact in global warming constitutes a challenge for the decarbonization of existing building stock. Incorporating data and feedback from designers and practitioners since early design stages is important to feed a multi-criteria dynamic process with multiple dimensions, which must be assessed under a life cycle perspective. To tackle this issue, this paper introduces a new methodology to support the implementation of tailored refurbishment strategies for increased recovery, reuse and recycling of construction materials. The final objective is to build a methodological framework for sustainable refurbishment design in a BIM environment, which aims to facilitate standardized practices in the construction sector, regarding CE, with a positive impact in the mitigation of global warming and the decarbonization of the building stock. To test the development of this methodology, a case study building in Lisbon, corresponding to a 1919 - 1945 archetype is analysed, making use of its BIM model, where BIM standardization criteria and circularity indicators are discussed, in order to be implemented as a Plugin for Circularity.