An update on Circular Economy

DEFINITION

As theory, the circular economy is compatible with the theories of the frugality economy or the decrease. The circular economy aims at changing our mode of production and consumption based on a so-called linear economy (extract, make, to consume, to throw). By limiting the wasting, by producing the properties and the services in a sustainable way, and by optimizing all the stages of production and lives of products, the circular economy targets a sober and effective management of the resources.

According to the French Ministry of environment and energy :

“The circular economy is an economic system of exchange and production which, in all the stages of the life cycle of products (goods and services), aims at increasing the efficiency of the use of the resources and at decreasing the impact on the environment while allowing the well-being of the individuals.” 

Source: ADEME, on 2014. Economie circulaire : Notions

ARCHITECTURE

The circular economy has the ambition to become widespread in all the sectors of the economy. It’s the same for the architectural practice. We could right now start in this sense. This economic system risk to modify, in depth, rules and habits regarding design and regarding materials economy. Imagining the end of the building’s life will have a definite impact on the responsibility of actors involved in construction. It becomes strategic, from the point of view of the resource management and the waste, to facilitate and improve the adaptability, the reversibility and the recycling process of these buildings. According to this prospect, the dis-constructability and the separability of elements should be thought from the design, so that materials can be recycled or reused.

PLANNING

Planning means anticipating, it is thinking about the desired state and acting methodically to achieve these goals. If we plan the entire life cycle of buildings, we could open a door to meet the environmental challenge facing our generation. Planning implies creating spatial structures open to a variety of development, transforming them into spaces of potential. Nowadays, the indeterminate specific creates urban quality.

However, experimenting with this type of economy means inscribing circularity in a long-term approach, according to which the city could renew itself, more or less quickly depending on the situation.