Urban mines and integrated cycles: the circular economy moves into construction

If our goal is to build without waste, the circular economy approach in the construction sector must start from the design phase, imagining how the materials used can be reused in the future. This is a challenge involving everyone, from builders to designers and developers. Techniques such as recycling, upcycling and design for disassembly are emerging as effective solutions for achieving concrete objectives. Recovering materials, renovating existing elements and assigning them new functions, and adopting construction methods that make buildings easy to dismantle, repair, reuse or recycle are fundamental practices. An analysis of concrete experiences and pilot cases will serve as a starting point for exploring and imagining future scenarios.