Blue Ocean Strategy for Business Case of Building Components Designed for Disassembly

SustainabilitySustainability requires us to show careful consideration for nature and future generations. When designing new structures, along with optimisation and cautious material selection, we should also ensure their long-term usefulness. One way to do this is to reuse whole building components, which is known from history to be practical. Life-cycle assessments prove this circular practice to be more environmentally friendly than recycling. Designing adaptable building components for disassembly and reassembly is feasible but not popular. This paper looks at the viability of such a product offering and conceptualises a business caseBusiness case using the Blue Ocean StrategyBlue Ocean Strategy framework. The analysis is based on data coming from literature, case studies and interviews with practitioners. The business caseBusiness case of adaptable building components not only is built on the premise of subsequent uses of the products but also shows immediate benefits such as a fast assembly process. From a solely economic perspective, such products bring primary value in attracting more clients willing to pay an additional price for more sustainable buildings. Such an offering also helps to form a circular economyCircular economy market of reusable products, which is desired by European incentives. The results compare and distinguish the circular business caseBusiness case with contemporary alternatives – monolithic and prefabricated structures. The paper provides guidelines for harnessing the value of prefabricated building elements designed with the intention of multiple applications and developing a circular economyCircular economy business strategy in the built environment. Necessary preconditions, limitations and barriers are also discussed.