The Ingenuity of Circularity

A “circular economy” or “circularity” model embodies reducing, reusing, and recycling principles¹. This multifaceted concept encompasses economic, environmental, and technical systems that strive to eradicate or minimize waste while amplifying the reutilization of resources.² The Cambridge University Dictionary defines circularity as “constantly returning to the same point or situation.”³

However, from the architectural design and construction perspective, circularity should direct its gaze toward a comprehensive reevaluation of the built environment, encompassing not only construction systems, policy, and performances, but also material cultures, urban equity, livability, and placemaking.⁴ Circularity is, therefore, an ingenious way of perceiving process and matter, creating a symbiotic relationship between the human experience and the physical spaces we inhabit⁵ and involving a change in the mindset of the building industry enabled by technology.⁶ Circular thinking within these domains requires a profound shift in the mindset of the building industry, which is the focus and aspiration of the journal through this issue.

This TAD issue presents nine peer-reviewed research articles on circularity and closely related themes. This body of work embodies ingenuity toward embracing a circularity paradigm shift. This journal is vital in disseminating knowledge, stimulating critical discourse, and propelling the evolution of sustainable and equitable architectural practices by showcasing such pioneering endeavors.

The articles in this issue represent a diversity of arenas and topics. Jota Samper and Erika Andrade critically examine the innovation, resilience, and resourcefulness displayed by residents of informal settlements as they construct and reshape their built environment, highlighting the value of their practices for pursuing sustainable cities. They emphasize the importance of rethinking conventional notions of building, embracing an unfinished and continuously transforming approach, and fostering meaningful connections between users and their surroundings to avoid waste and promote long-term sustainability.

Yangzhi Li, Boyuan Yu, Adam Fingrut, and Jingwei Li develop flat kits made from reclaimed wood that easily snap together like puzzle pieces to construct building frames that, at the end of service life, can be disassembled, recycled, or reused. Tim Cousin, Latifa Alkhayat, Natalie Pearl, and Caitlin Mueller present an innovative method for constructing structures using wildwood, showcasing its versatility and accessibility. By leveraging mixed reality fabrication and computational matching of non-standard and non-marketable wood elements, they offer new design practices that improve material efficiency and contribute to carbon mitigation in the building industry. Naomi Keena, Avi Friedman, Mojtaba Parsaee, and Ava Klein create data visualization for a circular economy – designing a web application for sustainable housing.

Isak Foged delves into acoustic tectonics through perceived visual and sound experiences driven by articulated material-environmental agencies. The study opens new paths for tectonics as a theoretical and practical direction that engages with sustainable materials and ecological agency.

Investigative methodologies that capture the automatic generation of architectural plans for space creation based on evolutionary algorithms, machine learning, and neural graph networks are presented by Reza Babakhani, followed by an article by Anna Becker, Brandon Ross, and Dustin Albright, who compare design features of campus buildings with adaptation and demolition outcomes. The authors argue that “Design for Adaptability” attributes enhance adaptations, thereby informing campus decision-makers that the interventions work.

Two additional articles align strongly with the conceptual theme of circularity. Joris Burger, Ena Lloret-Fritschi, Marc Akermann, Daniel Schwendemann, Fabio Gramazio, and Matthias Kohler consider circular formwork—through an exploratory study on the recycling of 3D printed thermoplastic concrete frames in architecture. Marta Gil Pérez and Jan Knippers develop integrative methodology and workflow for designing and validating non-standard building systems, demonstrated through a coreless filament-winding technique in additive manufacturing.

The collection of peer-reviewed articles displayed in this issue unveils the profound ingenuity embedded within the concept of circularity, offering diverse perspectives to explore its potential to achieve a sustainable environment. This critical discourse emphasizes the imperative of waste reduction, material reuse, and recycling available resources for optimum efficiency. What sets circularity apart is its transformative power to convert unsustainable environments to sustainable ones, unlocking many opportunities for resource management and mitigating ecological disasters. By shedding light on various aspects such as sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, retrofitting, and recycling, this curated body of work aims to ignite the imagination of future researchers and designers, revealing the boundless possibilities of circularity and its instrumental role in the pursuit of a sustainable future.

Notes

1. M. Farnham. “What on earth does circularity mean?” The Sustainable Agency, December 19 (2021). Available at: https://thesustainableagency.com/blog/what-does-circularity-mean/

2. “What is Circularity?” accessed June 27, 2023, https://www.circularity.com.au/what-is-circularity.html

3. Cambridge Dictionary, s.v. "Circularity," accessed September 15, 2023, https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/circularity

4. M. Dabaieh. Circular Design for Zero Emission Architecture and Building Practice – It is the Green Way or the Highway. First Edition (Sawston, UK: Woodhead Publishing, 2023). ISBN: 978-0-12-820079-7. https://doi.org/10.1016/C2019-0-00828-X

5. D. Pearlmutter, D. Theochari, T. Nehls, P. Pinho, P. Piro, A. Korolova and B. Pucher, “Enhancing the Circular Economy with Nature-based Solutions in the Built Urban Environment: Green Building Materials, Systems and Sites.” Blue-Green Systems 2, 1 (2020): 46-72.

6. R. Habash. Sustainability and Health in Intelligent Buildings. First Edition. (Sawston, UK: Woodhead Publishing, 2022), https://doi.org/10.1016/C2021-0-01054-3