Towards circular design - development of digital workflows for more efficient reuse planning

Purpose and goal:

The purpose of the project has been to investigate methods for increased efficiency and standardization for reuse planning in the building and real estate sector. The interest in circular planning is great and the project has been an important step on the road towards increased circular material flows. Much remains to be done in building and real estate sector, but the project has provided important knowledge and tools for how to start the work already today and for the continued development going forward.

Expected results and effects:

The project has produced a guide for facilitating and supporting the work with circular planning. It includes the prerequisites and needs for circular planning and presents several concrete working methods aimed at both the project manager, the designer and developers of digital tools. The guide was presented at the project´s well-attended final event, a digital networking meeting with around 200 participants through CCBuild (the arena for circular construction and management). The guide is available at www.ccbuild.se.

Approach and implementation:

The project was carried out by mapping existing workflows and processes, developing methodology based on integrated digital workflows, and testing and evaluating the methodology in case studies. Two dedicated workshops, several open network meetings, dialogue with a reference group and the open final event have involved a total of over 500 participants.

With the case studies, we have evaluated in concrete project what needs exist to enable a more time-efficient and quality-assured design process based on reused material.