Assessing the Circular Potential: Design, Build, Living Reversible

This chapter provides a documented critical collection of case studies and design experiments of buildings which have technological characteristics and design qualities which allow, regardless of their different uses or intervention contexts, consideration as buildings with a circular potential and are therefore prepared for the transition to the circular economy. The cases have been selected according to three basic issues which characterise each of them: temporariness, Low Tech and circularity. The collection is organized by grouping the cases into three areas which refer to the main scopes affected by the solutions adopted in each case: design, building and living. The use of new materials emerges as the main driver which generates effects within the area of building design (Sect. 4.1). Unconventional resources, often low cost and locally retrieved, lead to a change in architectural languages and push the architects to explore new relationships between building and site. Therefore, reversibility (Sect. 4.2) appears to be the most effective leverage in stimulating innovation within the area of building. The dry connections of the building elements and their consequent easy disassembly at the end of their service life not only change the building process but also affect its environmental profile, by allowing material recovery and recycling, thus increasing resource circularity. Finally, the size and shape of building spaces are the features which most influence the area of living (Sect. 4.3). Some shifts in functional housing design appear to be an actual way towards providing users with acceptable living conditions within the strict social constraints of an emergency. The overall objective of this survey is to highlight the development of new technical and living models in building design and production, triggered by the need to save resources and reduce waste. Since this entails integrating areas of technological innovation within the construction processes, the paths towards circular design emerging from this evolution are also considered this mapping.