A Territorial Construction System for a Circular Low-Carbon Built Environment

Globally, the Construction industry is responsible for over 30% of the extraction of natural resources, 25% of solid waste generated and 40% of Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emissions. Around a third of these emissions come from embodied carbon in construction. Cement and Steel are responsible for most of the embodied GHGs, representing >80% of the total. With recycling of cement and steel having a limited potential for further improving material efficiency, the focus is on replacing them with low-carbon alternatives and/or embedding them in reusable construction components. RECONSTRUCT will (i) develop low-carbon alternatives to Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), to be used in both renovations and new buildings, and incorporate Construction & Demolition Waste (CDW) and other waste as much as possible, (ii) manufacture construction components that use such materials and are designed for modularity and dismantling so they can either be reused or easily disassembled and recycled, (iii) embed deconstruction in building design and construct circular low-carbon buildings that produce near-zero CDW across their lifecycle. These objectives will become possible through (i) the digitization of construction materials, products and buildings, (ii) the extensive use of digital tools to support the design, construction and deconstruction phases of the circular building and (iii) the regionalization of the construction value chain through the creation of regional ecosystems of stakeholders covering all the aspects of circular construction. The RECONSTRUCT concept will be demonstrated by setting up to Territorial Circular Clusters, in Brussels and Barcelona, and using RECONSTRUCT's materials, components and innovative tools to design and construct two real-scale demonstrator buildings. By doing so, RECONSTRUCT aims to demonstrate its high impact potential (including a GHG reduction potential of 137,12 Mt CO2 per year, avoidance of 85 million tonnes of CDW per year and substitution of 197 Mt of OPC concrete per year) and its economic feasibility.