Background

The BuildReUse project aims to develop circular-economy concepts for buildings with short use cycles and to promote the change required in the construction industry. At present, the reuse of building components such as beams, windows, and suspended ceilings, although often technically feasible, remains very rare. For some building types, such as supermarkets or office buildings, the effective service life of the entire building or of specific components is relatively short (3–15 years), because frequent adaptation to the respective use and a high level of functionality are required. In these cases, implementing reuse has an especially strong impact on the resource balance due to the short use cycles.

Project Objective

The overarching objective of BuildReUse is to develop the basic principles for the construction and deconstruction of three building types with short use cycles (10–15 years – supermarkets, office buildings, and temporary buildings in the healthcare sector) that use reused components and, at end of life, can be fully disassembled and recovered without significant energy input. In addition to concepts for specific challenges such as the recovery of individual components, the project will develop building development processes, cooperation models, and business models for the construction industry that, compared with existing models, explicitly provide for reuse and actively support it.