Maria Sivers
EPFL ENAC IA SXL
BP 4225 (Bâtiment BP)
Station 16
1015 Lausanne
+41 21 693 44 48
EPFL › ENAC › IA › SXL
Website: https://sxl.epfl.ch
Expertise
The intersection of circular construction, data-driven sustainability assessment, and innovation transfer, with a focus on translating architectural and urban research into decision-support tools and market-ready solutions.
Key areas:
Key areas:
- Circular construction and building-component reuse
- Sustainability assessment and life-cycle assessment (LCA)
- Data-driven and computational design methods
- Decision-support systems for real-estate and urban contexts
- Adaptive reuse and architectural heritage
- Architectural and urban design
- Innovation management and science-based entrepreneurship
Mission
Advancing circular construction by developing data-driven methods that make building-component reuse economically viable, scalable, and decision-ready across the building lifecycle. The work bridges architectural research, sustainability assessment, and innovation transfer to translate circular economy principles into actionable tools for real-estate and urban systems.
This mission builds on research conducted within the EPFLinnovators Programme, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 754354), and is currently pursued through a BRIDGE Proof of Concept (SNSF–Innosuisse) grant supporting the translation of research outcomes into high-impact innovation in the built environment.
This mission builds on research conducted within the EPFLinnovators Programme, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 754354), and is currently pursued through a BRIDGE Proof of Concept (SNSF–Innosuisse) grant supporting the translation of research outcomes into high-impact innovation in the built environment.
Current work
Current work focuses on the extension, validation, and application of the Reuse Viability Index (RVI) developed and defended in the PhD thesis “The Reuse Viability Index (RVI): Classification, Assessment and Prediction of the Sustainability and Cost-effectiveness of Building Component Reuse for Real-Estate Due Diligence.”
The work advances RVI from a validated research framework toward operational decision intelligence for circular construction and real-estate portfolios. It addresses the growing need for quantitative circularity, ESG, and sustainability metrics by enabling early-stage, scalable assessment of reuse value, CO₂ savings, and economic feasibility across buildings and portfolios.
Current activities include:
- translating the RVI framework into data-driven decision-support tools,
- integrating sustainability, market, and cost parameters under real-world constraints,
- validating reuse predictions across heterogeneous building components and reuse markets,
- supporting implementation through innovation and transfer projects in the built environment.
This work bridges established research outcomes with practical adoption, enabling evidence-based circular decisions beyond expert-driven, case-by-case assessments.
2025
Conference Papers
* Reuse of Doors in Switzerland and Germany: Market, Economic Challenges and Environmental Opportunities
2025. Sustainable Built Environment Conference 2025 , Zurich, Switzerland , 2025-06-25 - 2025-06-27.DOI : 10.3929/ETHZ-C-000785693.
* Reuse Market Dynamics: Unlocking Building-Component Reuse in European Construction
2025. Sustainable Built Environment Conference 2025 , Zurich, Switzerland , 2025-06-25 - 2025-06-27. p. 012019.DOI : 10.1088/1755-1315/1554/1/012019.
* Unlocking the Circular Economy: The Reuse Viability Index for predicting building component reusability
2025. International Scientific Conference on the Built Environment in Transition (CISBAT 2025) , EPFL, Lausanne, Suisse , 2025-09-03 - 2025-09-05. p. 162015.DOI : 10.1088/1742-6596/3140/16/162015.
Theses
* The Reuse Viability Index (RVI): Classification, Assessment and Prediction of the Sustainability and Cost-effectiveness of Building Component Reuse for Real Estate Due Diligence
Lausanne, EPFL, 2025.DOI : 10.5075/epfl-thesis-10564.
2024
Books
* Studies on Assemblies. Mass Made Units.
Zürich: Triest Verlag, 2024.Media
* Un indice pour mieux valoriser la seconde main dans le secteur de la construction
2024.
2023
Student Projects
* SMALL - Un nouveau dispositif d'accueil d'urgence pour le Service social de Genève
2023Advisor(s) : J. Chenal; F. Graezer Bideau; M. Sivers
* Regenerative Architecture for the Barracks of Poya
2023Advisor(s) : C. Fivet; S. Nichols; M. Sivers
* L'univers de l'economie circulaire (CE) et AI (l'intelligence architecturale)
2023.
2022
Conference Papers
* Circular economy digital market solutions for reuse in the European construction sector
2022. Sustainable Built Environment (SBE) D-A-C-H Conference "Built Environment within Planetary Boundaries" (2022) , Berlin, Germany , 2022-09-20 - 2022-09-23. p. 012121.DOI : 10.1088/1755-1315/1078/1/012121.
2020
Posters
* Methods for reusing dismantled construction components in demolition buildings
74th RILEM Annual Week and 40th Cement and Concrete Science Conference, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The University of Sheffield, 31 August - 4 September 2020.Research
Current Research Fields
- Circular construction and building-component reuse
- Data-driven sustainability and circularity assessment
- Reuse value, CO₂ savings, and economic feasibility metrics
- Decision-support systems for real-estate and portfolio-scale analysis
- Predictive modelling and multi-criteria assessment in the built environment
- Translation of research frameworks into innovation and implementation tools