TY - GEN
T1 - Design for Disassembly
T2 - Construction Research Congress 2020: Project Management Controls, Materials, Contracts
AU - Cruz-Rios, Fernanda
AU - Grau, David
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Construction consumes more resources and generates more solid waste than most industries. Recycling building components and their materials is not enough to eliminate solid waste and promote resource efficiency. The circular economy (CE) prioritizes reuse over recycling and proposes systemic changes in the way we build. Designing out waste is the core principle of the CE. Design for disassembly or design for deconstruction (DfD) is the practice of planning the future deconstruction of a building and the reuse of its materials and components. However, there are very few buildings in the world that have been designed to be disassembled. The study presented in this paper aims at identifying the barriers and opportunities for DfD and building components' reuse in the current design practice in the United States. The authors recorded, transcribed, and coded open-ended interviews with 13 architects from large design firms in the United States to answer the question of why architects do not currently design for disassembly. Data were analyzed with a grounded theory approach. The authors identified several barriers, among them: building owners' values, the challenges of a DfD-centered life cycle cost analysis, the lack of understanding about the environmental benefits of reuse (e.g., over recycling), and the architects' conflicting views about resiliency and disassembly. Prefabrication and product-service systems have emerged as opportunities for DfD and CE in the built environment.
AB - Construction consumes more resources and generates more solid waste than most industries. Recycling building components and their materials is not enough to eliminate solid waste and promote resource efficiency. The circular economy (CE) prioritizes reuse over recycling and proposes systemic changes in the way we build. Designing out waste is the core principle of the CE. Design for disassembly or design for deconstruction (DfD) is the practice of planning the future deconstruction of a building and the reuse of its materials and components. However, there are very few buildings in the world that have been designed to be disassembled. The study presented in this paper aims at identifying the barriers and opportunities for DfD and building components' reuse in the current design practice in the United States. The authors recorded, transcribed, and coded open-ended interviews with 13 architects from large design firms in the United States to answer the question of why architects do not currently design for disassembly. Data were analyzed with a grounded theory approach. The authors identified several barriers, among them: building owners' values, the challenges of a DfD-centered life cycle cost analysis, the lack of understanding about the environmental benefits of reuse (e.g., over recycling), and the architects' conflicting views about resiliency and disassembly. Prefabrication and product-service systems have emerged as opportunities for DfD and CE in the built environment.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85096777300&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85096777300&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85096777300
T3 - Construction Research Congress 2020: Project Management and Controls, Materials, and Contracts - Selected Papers from the Construction Research Congress 2020
SP - 992
EP - 1000
BT - Construction Research Congress 2020
A2 - Grau, David
A2 - Tang, Pingbo
A2 - El Asmar, Mounir
PB - American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
Y2 - 8 March 2020 through 10 March 2020
ER -