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S. Giorgi et al.
circular practices on an urban level and with regards to materials’ composition. To
do this, it is important to understand how the entire current building process (the
design process, the construction process, the management process and the
demolition process) has to change, within practices and relationships, towards a
circular building process. It is necessary to involve all stakeholders in the research,
in order to understand their relationships, their needs, their requirements and the
decision-making steps. It is necessity to rethink the building according to a life
cycle approach, considering the environmental impact at every stage of the life
cycle: extraction of raw materials, manufacturing, transportation, construction, use,
maintenance, recycling and disposal at the end of life.
The prospect requires an improvement in knowledge, skills and relationships
between the member of the supply chain, and the inclusion, from the early design
stage, of new operators (Campioli et al. 2018).
3 Opportunities and Challenges in Building Stock
Regeneration
The European Commission proposed, in 2012, an action plan called ‘Construction
2020’, in order to assign a number of challenges to the construction sector to be
completed by 2020. This action plan (European Commission 2012) highlights the
great potential of the renovation of existing buildings and infrastructure maintenance
to achieve the later objectives for 2050, with regards to decarbonization and resource
conservation. In fact, the European building stock is in particular need of renovation:
50% of residential building stock (which represents 76% of the entire building stock)
was built before the 1970 when the energy efficiency regulation did not exist. Only
19% of residential buildings were built after 1990, hence, after the EPBD 2002/91
and the following EPBD 2010/31 (Lavagna et al. 2018).
European policies have introduced more attention on land use, identifying soil
sealing as one of the main causes of soil degradation (European Commission
2006). Over the last decade, attention on soil conservation led to the avoidance of
the urban sprawl phenomenon, and to the possibility of building on green-field
decreased. Consequently, the regeneration intervention of brown-field increased, in
order to preserve the soil. In Italy, in 2015, CRESME shows the increase of
renovation of existing buildings (+3.5%) in comparison with the new construction
buildings (+1.6%).
This context proposes an interesting trial field for the application of circular
economy principles. The circular economy approach can limit waste landfills and
avoid extraction of raw materials, giving more value to the existing building and
avoiding demolition waste increasing the longevity of buildings’ subsystems and
elements. It is possible to open a new cycle for the unavoidable waste generated by
demolition parts of buildings as secondary resources within the construction sector
to produce new materials aiming at upcycling. During the renovation process, the
S. Giorgi et al.
circular practices on an urban level and with regards to materials’ composition. To
do this, it is important to understand how the entire current building process (the
design process, the construction process, the management process and the
demolition process) has to change, within practices and relationships, towards a
circular building process. It is necessary to involve all stakeholders in the research,
in order to understand their relationships, their needs, their requirements and the
decision-making steps. It is necessity to rethink the building according to a life
cycle approach, considering the environmental impact at every stage of the life
cycle: extraction of raw materials, manufacturing, transportation, construction, use,
maintenance, recycling and disposal at the end of life.
The prospect requires an improvement in knowledge, skills and relationships
between the member of the supply chain, and the inclusion, from the early design
stage, of new operators (Campioli et al. 2018).
3 Opportunities and Challenges in Building Stock
Regeneration
The European Commission proposed, in 2012, an action plan called ‘Construction
2020’, in order to assign a number of challenges to the construction sector to be
completed by 2020. This action plan (European Commission 2012) highlights the
great potential of the renovation of existing buildings and infrastructure maintenance
to achieve the later objectives for 2050, with regards to decarbonization and resource
conservation. In fact, the European building stock is in particular need of renovation:
50% of residential building stock (which represents 76% of the entire building stock)
was built before the 1970 when the energy efficiency regulation did not exist. Only
19% of residential buildings were built after 1990, hence, after the EPBD 2002/91
and the following EPBD 2010/31 (Lavagna et al. 2018).
European policies have introduced more attention on land use, identifying soil
sealing as one of the main causes of soil degradation (European Commission
2006). Over the last decade, attention on soil conservation led to the avoidance of
the urban sprawl phenomenon, and to the possibility of building on green-field
decreased. Consequently, the regeneration intervention of brown-field increased, in
order to preserve the soil. In Italy, in 2015, CRESME shows the increase of
renovation of existing buildings (+3.5%) in comparison with the new construction
buildings (+1.6%).
This context proposes an interesting trial field for the application of circular
economy principles. The circular economy approach can limit waste landfills and
avoid extraction of raw materials, giving more value to the existing building and
avoiding demolition waste increasing the longevity of buildings’ subsystems and
elements. It is possible to open a new cycle for the unavoidable waste generated by
demolition parts of buildings as secondary resources within the construction sector
to produce new materials aiming at upcycling. During the renovation process, the