
Ankita Singhvi
EPFL ENAC IIE HERUS
GR C1 482 (Bâtiment GR)
Station 2
1015 Lausanne
+41 21 693 47 64
Office: GR A1 465
EPFL › ENAC › IIE › HERUS
Site web: https://herus.epfl.ch/
Ankita received her BSc degree in Architecture from the Technical University Delft in 2017. She graduated with a design proposal for the Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam that examined the ageing of materials in the built environment. Her interest in climate adaptation led her to pursue a MSc in Industrial Ecology from Leiden University and TU Delft. She graduated in 2020 with honours, with a thesis on resilience in grey and nature-based infrastructures.
She has worked with the the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Circle Economy and LDE Centre for Sustainability: bridging science with practise. She coordinated the Circular Industries Hub, where she supported companies in their transition towards the principles of a circular economy. She collaborated on two research projects: «Securing Critical Materials for Critical Sectors: Policy options for the Netherlands and the European Union» (2021) and «Building resilience in high-tech supply chains: Lessons from the Dutch High Tech sector» (2021).
Ankita continues her work in circular resource management at HERUS, EPFL. Her research focuses on the role of circular economy in urban and territorial transitions towards sustainability. She is supervised by Prof. Claudia. R. Binder and Dr. Aristide Athanassiadis.
Formation
Master of Science
| Industrial Ecology2018 – 2020 Leiden University / TU Delft
Exchange semester
| Ecosystem and Forest Sciences2016 – 2016 Burnley, University of Melbourne
Bachelor of Science
| Architecture2013 – 2017 Technical University Delft
Publications représentatives
Mapping Operational and Embodied Emissions in Relation to Household and Ownership Profiles with Bottom-up Building Stock Analysis: The Case of Vaud, Switzerland
A Singhvi, M Sirenko, A Athanassiadis, CR Binder
Published in Resources, Conservation and Recycling in
Configurations for circularity? A scoping review of urban planning approaches in the circular economy literature
A Singhvi, A Athanassiadis, CR Binder
Published in Urban Research & Practice in
Building resilience in high-tech supply chains
GA Aguilar-Hernandez, A Singhvi, C Böcher, X Zhong
Published in Nature Electronics in
The grey–green spectrum: A review of coastal protection interventions
A Singhvi, AP Luijendijk, APE van Oudenhoven
Published in Journal of Environmental Management in
Recherche
Towards circular systems
In order to enable the reuse and recycling of construction materials it is necessary to better quantify and qualify the materials entering, accumulating within, and exiting the built environment. This is typically achieved through material stock and flow studies, which can be static or dynamic, and conducted according to top-down or bottom-up methodologies (Augiseau & Barles, 2017). However, most current studies are unable to capture contextual drivers, impacts, and potentials within a territory, which makes it challenging to inform resource and environmental policy. The lifecycle of buildings is determined by more than its physical factors; it is influenced by exogenous factors such as urbanisation patterns, and endogenous factors such as inhabitants' behavior (Thomsen & van der Flier, 2011). There is a need to examine the social structures within which material stocks and flows are embedded to provide insights into who governs and influences their management, as well as the geographic distribution of stocks in a territory to critically assess who shoulders the burden of stocks at the end of their lifecycle. A lack of attention to socio-spatial context has been identified as a key challenge for informing local decision-makers on how to facilitate the circular management of resources in the urban metabolism.
I investigate technical levers for renovation and sufficiency, and the socio-spatial determinants and barriers for households to engage in sustainability practices.