Design for adaption - Making timber buildings ready for circular use and extended service life

Paper in proceeding, 2020

The construction sector has a significant share of Green House Gas emission and raw material consumption globally. Among common construction materials, timber has a long tradition of numerous applications as a renewable material. The implementation of the concept of circularity in the process of the construction of timber buildings has a high potential sustainability impact. The concept of design for adaption is to extend the service life of timber building to the maximum in several life cycles. In this paper the demand regarding circularity is analysed from interviews with different stakeholders and their economic, social and environmental incentive. The possibility to assess the sustainability impact of design for adaption are evaluated. Different examples of existing practices and potential solutions for design for deconstruction and adaption are summarized.