Stocks and flows of buildings: Analysis of existing, demolished, and constructed buildings in Tampere, Finland, 2000–2018

Abstract

Research has identified cities as potential urban mines for recovering secondary construction materials. Studies typically focus on stocks or flows of bulk materials on high abstraction levels. To enable a shift of focus toward higher levels of circular economy, such as waste minimization, there is a need for a more detailed understanding of the dynamics that contribute to the waste flows, building replacement in particular. This paper examines the characteristics and location of the stocks and flows of buildings, both residential and non-residential, in the city of Tampere, Finland, over the last 20 years. Statistical and geographical analyses are performed on the building stock, new construction, and demolition in Tampere to unveil patterns pertaining to stock change and building replacement. The study shows that these patterns vary significantly between buildings of different function. Spatially confined redevelopment areas within the city structure, that is, brownfields and grayfields, whose industrial and commercial functions yield to housing and mixed residential-commercial use, make up major arenas for replacement. Policy-making should acknowledge that urban planning stirs these waste flows and incorporate their conscious prevention and management on its agenda. K E Y W O R D Sbuildings, cities, industrial ecology, material flow analysis (MFA), urban metabolism, urban planning INTRODUCTIONSocieties are growing more interested in the circularity of production and consumption for sustainability reasons. Construction is one of the sectors to consume the most virgin raw materials (Bourguignon & Orenius, 2018) and to produce the most waste (European Commission, 2019). Consequently, building stocks are attracting attention as potential deposits for secondary resources, typically understood as secondary raw materials.Extraction from these "urban mines" is considered to be more environmentally friendly than the extraction of virgin resources.Most of the urban mining research focuses on bulk materials (Lanau et al., 2019), but the secondary resources embedded in building stocks can in fact take up many forms and scales. Huuhka and Vestergaard (2019) have conceptualized them against the hierarchy of circular economy (CE), echoing the EU waste hierarchy (European Union, 2008). As these hierarchies prioritize life-cycle extension and waste prevention, the first andThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

How Can Material Stock Studies Assist the Implementation of the Circular Economy in Cities?

“…For example, several studies indicate the proximity to treatment plants and markets as a key factor for implementing circular practices . Other studies challenge the customary focus on the city administrative boundaries for analysis and data collection (e.g., refs and ). The third type refers to studies examining policies’ effects on material stock accumulation (e.g., ref ).…”

“…Material stock studies should cover various scales to be genuinely effective, and research should investigate how the different scales interlink. Huuhka and Kolkwitz 51 proposed nested hierarchies of different scales using a bottom-up analysis for existing buildings in Tampere. Busch et al 63 built a hierarchical nested representation of material stocks on both materials and commodities to assess material criticality.…”

Spatiotemporally Explicit Mapping of Built Environment Stocks Reveals Two Centuries of Urban Development in a Fairytale City, Odense, Denmark

“…This indicates the significance of coordinated development between building and infrastructure stocks in a sustainable urban transition. It also suggests that exogenous (context-related) factors seem to be more decisive for demolition than endogenous (building-related) factors, such as age or physical condition. , …”

“…It also suggests that exogenous (context-related) factors seem to be more decisive for demolition than endogenous (building-related) factors, such as age or physical condition. 53,54 The built environment material stocks in 2018 distribute unevenly across the Odense municipality (see Figure 3). Stock levels in the city center (districts in Odense C and M) increased substantially since the early 20th century, reaching a density of 593 kt/km 2 in 2018, a level far higher than in the outskirt.…”

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“…Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2015) as it can require high energy and virgin material inputs despite utilising secondary raw material. Addressing higher hierarchy levels, such as waste avoidance through continued use and reuse of buildings, would require focussing on the product level, which is presently rarely done (Huuhka and Kolkwitz, 2021).…”