Mission

Passionate about the circular economy ideas and reuse in the construction sector, combined with entrepreneurship and innovations. 
Fellow of the EPFLinnovators Programme. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 754354.

Current work

"Methods for the sustainable classification of reusable building components in demolition buildings and their incorporation into the construction material cycle"

The construction industry is one of the major sources of total greenhouse gas emissions that lead to climate change and environmental issues. It generated enormous quantities of waste every year through conversions and dismantling, amounting to 16.8 million tonnes throughout Switzerland in 2018, with an expected annual increase. Beyond that, the international construction sector is responsible for a significant part of raw materials’ consumption.

Such issues render the building sector increasingly dependent on resource-efficient reuse of building products. Every building is a reservoir of so-called “grey energy”, which could be used sustainably by being reused in new projects. Due to advances in the circular economy, recycling of building materials is constantly evolving, whereas reuse of building components is still challenging, as such elements are not available in large-scale retail sale and barely implemented into the built environment.

The doctoral thesis intends to verify the key obstacles for incorporation of reusable building components into the construction material cycle, point out methodical assessment and develop suitable instruments to significantly improve reuse of construction components. The research aims include the definition of key stakeholders and selection of building components (depending on the period of use, dismantling capacity and time value), according to their categorisation (material accessibility, type, quantity, size and mass) and options for further reuse.

Key words: Reusable building components, construction elements, reuse, dismantling