Circular housing envelope elements from residual materials

Abstract

As of 2020, the Netherlands experiences a
housing shortage of around 300,000. To respond to the projected demand, around
80,000 houses should be built every year towards 2030. At the same time, the
Dutch government has had ambitions and plans towards a circular economy by
2050. Their plans were released in 2016, after which concise reports were made
on how to transition certain sectors of the economy towards circularity. These
reports are called ‘Transition Agendas’, of which five have been written:
Biomass & food, Plastics, Manufacturing industry, Built environment and
Consumer goods. This project attempts to merge the housing challenge with the
circular ambitions of the Dutch government for the Built Environment, with
input from all five Transition Agendas to start.  The Built Environment is one of the largest
consumers of resources and energy of any industry. As it stands, this industry
relies heavily on primary materials, as conventional materials and ways of
construction and demolition are not tailored to reuse or recycling of
resources. The other sectors covered by the Transition Agendas also highlight a
general reliance on primary materials and a lack of application of reused- or
recycled materials by product manufacturers. This may be because the product is
not designed to facilitate these processes or since some manufacturers are
reluctant to use non-primary resources due to pricing or quality concerns.
Pollution and contamination of used products is also a common issue for
recycling. Finally, interests and ambitions may vary between parties when it
comes to circularity.  This project has
three main goals. The first is to connect ambitions and material streams from
different resource sectors, the second is to increase the circularity of
conventional housing elements and the third is to apply resources from linear
material streams in a circular way. The focus of the goals is on the housing
envelope. This leads to the main research question: How can the circularity of
conventional Dutch housing envelope elements be increased, through the
application of residual resources from linear material streams?   First, it is researched how circularity can
be defined and measured towards the project goals. Then, contemporary Dutch
houses are analysed to distinguish all common envelope elements and their
conventional materials. It is then speculated what circular improvements can be
made on these elements, either by using the original material in a different
way or by using alternative (linear) materials. From these ideas, a handful of
promising examples is picked as the basis for creating three product case
studies, to compare to conventional products. Based on the entire research
process, an advisory framework is created, intended for use by those seeking to
apply residual materials into new building elements or to simply develop
building elements based on circular principles.