Rethinking of the Built Environment Adaptability within the Context of Circularity: A Conceptual Incorporation

Purpose – Building adaptation has been viewed as a strategy towards the sustainable development and circular economy, as it contributes to the reuse of the built assets and reduce their environmental impacts in the long term. Relevant research focused on defining the determinants of the sustainable building adaptation, while the comprehension of that from the perspective of the circularity is still needed. Thus, this paper intends to present a reconceptualisation of the built environment adaptability through incorporating determinants of circularity. Design/methodology/approach – An integrative literature review, using systematic search, was conducted on relevant sources to the adaptability and circularity domains, to identify potential determinants of circular building adaptation and incorporate them in a novel conceptualisation. Integrative literature, as a research approach, was followed to critically analyse the components of both concepts, and thus, conceptually synthesis their determinants in an integrated formulation. Two matrices were developed to depict the determinants of both concepts with their brief description, and thus, the conceptual incorporation was accordingly conducted. Findings – Based on the initial literature review, it was concluded that circular adaptability of buildings comprise a series of technical, physical, legal, legislative functional and spatial determinants that should be incorporated with a set of the R-strategies to efficiently closing the loop of the resource consumption. The R-strategies could encompass the reuse, refurbish, recycle and remanufacture of the building components. Research limitations/implications – The paper provides a basic comprehension of the building adaptation within the context of the call for circular built environment, which can be a foundation for the development of pragmatic strategies towards achieving the circular economy prospects.