Five of our project members submitted a paper to the Journal “Applied Science” that got published in the special issue “Sustainable and Durable Building Materials”. In this article, Gaetano Bertino, Johannes Kisser, Julia Zeilinger, Tatjana Fischer, Guenter Langergraber and Doris Österreicher analyzed building deconstructability, intended as the selective dismantlement of building components, in prevision of a future reuse, repurposing, or recycling, in alternative to common demolition. The purpose of this research work is to analyze the deconstruction potential of buildings and the strategies to apply in order to keep the impacts on the urban environment low. The article aims to facilitate the implementation of circular economy strategies for buildings by proposing common principles for deconstruction as a sustainable alternative to demolition and defining the key points to be applied during the design and planning process regardless of the type of construction system or material used.
Follow this link to read the publication.
Follow this link to download the pdf.
Keywords: building deconstruction; building deconstructability; design for deconstruction; end-of-life material recovery; material reuse; sustainable construction; building circularity; building lifecycle
This is an open-access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Citation: Bertino, G.; Kisser, J.; Zeilinger, J.; Langergraber, G.; Fischer, T.; Österreicher, D. Fundamentals of Building Deconstruction as a Circular Economy Strategy for the Reuse of Construction Materials. Applied Sciences 2021, 11, 939, doi:10.3390/app11030939 