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

Paper in proceeding, 2021

The use of timber and the implementation of the concept of circularity in the process of the construction of buildings potentially has a high sustainability impact, both from the perspective of material and construction technique. The three most effective ways to ensure the benefit of the circularity in the building sector in general are (1) maintain the service life of structures and buildings materials as long as possible to avoid unnecessary emissions and costs for demolition and reconstruction (2) conserve the quality of materials as long as possible to avoid unnecessary emissions and costs for the replacement and processing of new materials and (3) recycle and repurpose only the parts and materials which cannot function any more for technical and/or socio-cultural reasons. In this paper an approach is discussed towards a more sustainable built environment by making buildings adaptable to the changes of demands and requirements to building functions and thus leading to an extended use of buildings in a maximum of life cycles. This design for adaption may enhance economic, social and environmental benefits to various stakeholders and key players related to the building process, i.e. developers, building owners, users, municipality and others.