Circular economy is no longer a vision of the future but the new normal in construction moving forward. The Construction Goes Circular® seminar brought together the industry pioneers to envision ways to extend the building life cycle, preserve the value of materials, and reduce emissions in practice and through research and technology. The event offered plenty of insights and examples of how circular economy is becoming the everyday reality in construction as well.
A building is a future material bank
Pamela Wackett, architect and director at KPF (Kohn Pedersen Fox) presented impressive project examples showcasing repurposed old buildings. The projects from London and New York demonstrate that with high-quality planning and implementation, the renewal can be worth it. The goal is not only to preserve but to improve existing buildings. By adding space and light and by improving community cohesion, the value of the building can be increased.
Liisa Jäätvuori, executive vice president at Corporate Development and Sustainability, AINS Group, challenged her audience to shift their perspective: at the end, every building is temporary. Why not then design them as material banks? Buildings that can be disassembled without demolition and reused for future projects. This requires adaptive building design and detailed information on the construction of the building, for example, a well-designed data model. 
Concrete is changing, emissions are decreasing
Karen Scrivener, professor and director of the Laboratory of Construction Materials at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, emphasized that while concrete is one of the largest sources of emissions, it is not easy to replace. She, however, presented a significant solution: Limestone Calcined Clay Cement (LC3), which halves the amount of clinker in cement and reduces emissions substantially compared to Portland cement. The solution is based on readily available clay and can be implemented globally. Scrivener was reminded that perfect is the enemy of good. Sometimes, a good scalable solution is the best way forward. 
Digitalization enables smart materials
Huub Keizers, business director of circular construction and international collaboration at TNO, and Jose “Pepe” Tavares, co-founder and CEO of zupply, explored the role of digitalization in enabling circular economy. If we know in detail the materials and construction elements in use, where they are located, and when they will become available for reuse, the circular economy can become a system that functions in practice. 
The digital product passport and digital twin developed by zupply enable building product life cycle tracking. The proof of concept developed in collaboration with Peikko shows that product information can flow seamlessly from one project to another and enable new types of business and circularity in the entire value chain..
Designed to be disassembled and reused
The joint presentation by Ronald Klein-Holte, research and development manager at VBI Ontwikkeling B.V., and Wim Zwaan, the CEO of Peikko Benelux, stressed that the value of building elements can only be maintained if they can be disassembled intact. Bolted connections and modular measurement systems are therefore key. Furthermore, pilot projects nested in the ReCreate EU project indicate that concrete constructs can be reused. The carbon footprint can be up to 90% smaller compared to conventional demolition and rebuilding. . 
The finding was corroborated by a study by Arto Saari, professor of construction management at the University of Tampere, and Tuomo Joensuu, doctoral student and researcher, observing an apartment building from a circular-economy perspective. The results were promising: with minor design changes the reuse percentage of load-bearing structures can be increased to nearly a hundred percent. Through standardized dimensioning and joints, the frame of the building can serve twice and yet have a lighter impact on the environment than two new wood buildings.
Information is the currency of circular economy
Pablo van den Bosch, founder and board member of Madaster, summarized the main argument of his presentation as follows: “Waste is material without identity”. Once the composition, location, and life cycle of a material have been identified, it gains value. Information management solutions, such as registry platforms and information models, drive efficiency and cost savings in addition to environmental benefits. 
Shuaizhong Wang, assistant professor at the School of Architecture of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, brought an Asian viewpoint to the discussion. According to him too, immense amounts of construction waste call for new data-driven solutions. In the future, parametric design and automatic data processing can link disassembled materials to new applications, making buildings material banks.
Peikko is a pioneer in sustainable construction
The message of the Construction Goes Circular® seminar was loud and clear: circular economy is no longer a matter of choice but a necessity. It requires cooperation, data, and a new way of thinking, but above all, the courage to change procedures; courage by the clients to invest in sustainable and adaptive solutions, and courage by the legislators and policy makers to steer actors towards carbon-neutral and adaptive construction through regulation. Furthermore, building material manufacturers are needed to develop solutions that support the aforementioned objectives, as they are actors that enable the establishment of future material banks.
Several of the speakers were firmly of the opinion that buildings of the future should be adaptive, modular, and designed to be disassembled. A high grade of prefabrication of elements and long spans facilitate the repurposing of buildings across their life cycle.
Peikko is a forerunner in enabling sustainable construction. We manufacture products from recycled material as well as solutions designed for disassembly and reuse, among other offerings. By combining digitalization with structural solutions that are designed to be disassembled and reuse-oriented design, we are heading towards a future of circulating materials and retained value.
