Circular Facade Refurbishment

Abstract

In de Paris Climate Agreement the goal is set to reach an energy neutral built environment by 2050. As a result, there is a high demand for energy neutral refurbishment of the existing housing stock. With the currently low refurbishment rate is it expected to take around 250 years to reach this goal. Due to the high initial investment costs of refurbishment, spread out over a short period of time, replacement and rebuilding is often the preferred option, while refurbishment is significantly less material consuming. Still the environmental impact of a refurbished building appears to be similar to the environmental impact of a new building, when looking at the material use spread out over the lifetime.

The Circular Economy is a solution to the problem of the current linear lifecycle of refurbishment, because it strives for an increased lifetime of the refurbishment by enabling reuse of components at the end of their functional service life and recycling of materials at the end of their technical service life. The Circular Economy aims to close and extend the loops of material cycles, in order to preserve value of materials, resulting in decreased raw material consumption and waste generation.

In this research the level of circularity of the 2nd Skin Façade Refurbishment system, which is a refurbishment strategy that wraps the building into a second layer of insulation, is examined. The level of circularity of the materials as well as the disassembly potential of the connections between the components and materials, have been analysed. Based on the assessment results, a Roadmap for circular façade refurbishment is developed. As validation of the approach, a design proposal is made for the Circular 2nd Skin Façade Refurbishment system, which is a universal refurbishment system that can be applied to different residential building typologies. The system is designed for future changes, as it enables reconfiguration of the façade arrangement and disassembly at the end of its functional lifetime. Instead of ending up as unrecoverable waste, the circular façade refurbishment system can be reused multiple times for the refurbishment of other residential buildings, exploiting the technical lifetime of the materials to the fullest.