Urban Strategy Lab

Cities, decision-making and strategy

Ten best examples of circular economy in the built environment

Circular Economy - Upcycle House - Lendager Group
Detail from Upcycle House by Lendager Group (Underlying image credit: Lendager Group)

UKGBC’s Circular economy guidance for construction clients is an excellent guide to achieving circular economy principles in construction. Key principles include designing for disassembly and recovery, designing with minimum impact materials, and designing for recovery and reuse.

Making buildings that are truly circular is fiendishly difficult (more in another post). The following pioneering circular economy projects therefore remain largely unparalleled.

Did I miss any important ones out? Please let me know.

Designing for disassembly and recovery

  1. Brummen Town Hall, Netherlands (RAU Architects): a modular design that enables easy disassembly.
  2. Green Solution House, Denmark (GXN architects): all materials are either fully reusable, recyclable or biodegradable.
  3. Temporary District Court, Amsterdam (Du Prie + cepezedprojects architects): at the end of its life cycle the building can be fully disassembled and reused elsewhere.
  4. Venlo City Hall, Netherlands (Kraaijvanger architects): incorporates material passports and Cradle to Cradle principles.

Designing with minimum impact materials

  1. Biological House, Denmark (een til een / GXN architects): incorporates modular structure from upcycled materials, including ‘hardwood’ made from gras, straw, tomato stems and seaweed.
  2. The Enterprise Centre, University of East Anglia, Norwich (Architype architects): constructed largely from natural and bio-renewable materials sourced through local supply chains.

Designing for recovery and reuse

  1. Upcycle House, Denmark (Lendager Group architects): constructed entirely from recycled and upcycled materials.
  2. The Resource Rows, Orestad Denmark (Lendager Group architects): using materials from abandoned homes, which according to the architects resulted in a 70% carbon saving.
  3. Liander Head Office, Netherlands (RAU Architects): reuse of more than 80% of the materials from the original structures.

Circular urban systems

10. I have included Buiksloterham in Amsterdam in this list. Although work in progress, its aims to be a fully circular neighbourhood makes it an important project to watch.