Authors: Yijiang Huang, Latifa Alkhayat, Catherine De Wolf, Caitlin Mueller

Year: 2021

Citation: Huang, Y., Alkhayat, L., De Wolf, C. and Mueller, C., 2021. Algorithmic circular design with reused structural elements: method and tool. In Proceedings of the International fib Symposium on the Conceptual Design of Structures (Vol. 55, pp. 457-468). Fédération Internationale du Béton (fib).

‍DOI: https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000515183

‍Abstract

Structural systems are responsible for a significant portion of embodied carbon emissions in buildings. A potential path to increase sustainability is to integrate circular economy principles in structural design, which advocate for prioritizing the reuse of structural materials to extend their service life, limiting their physical transformation to locational and functional changes. In this way, structural projects of the past can not only serve as an inspiration for the future, but the material itself can also be reappropriated. Recently, computational approaches for material reuse have gained traction. This paper extends previous work by comparing several algorithmic formulations for reuse-driven design, introducing a new Grasshopper-based tool that implements them, and demonstrating their application on a case study.

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