Reuse potentials of building elements: learning from practices and synthesis of assessment methods

The urgent need for sustainable construction practices has brought renewed attention to the reuse of building elements, a practice that significantly reduces waste and conserves resources. Despite its potential, building element reuse faces challenges due to a lack of standardized methodologies, inconsistent assessment procedures, and inadequate documentation, hindering its widespread adoption. This PhD thesis aims to comprehensively address these challenges by (a) providing a nuanced understanding of barriers and opportunities experienced by stakeholders involved in the obsolescence phase of buildings and (b) creating and assessing a standardized semi-automated procedure for evaluating the deconstruction and reuse of building elements. The research is organized into six consecutive chapters, each with its specific scope, methods, and challenges. It integrates stakeholder interviews, comparative analyses, and empirical testing. Concretely, the research develops: • An archival survey of Francophone newspaper advertisements in Switzerland from 1851 to 1968 (NEWS), highlighting the persistent practice of reuse through the modern era; • A diachronic analysis of semi-structured interviews with 35 stakeholders to explore North American CHAllenges (NACHA), detailing how gained experience influences the evolution of perceived levers and barriers; • An overview of current attitudes followed by governments worldwide to accompany more sustainable and circular handling of resources in the built environment (RULES), underscoring the need for robust assessment procedures, particularly in countries advancing deconstruction and reuse strategies. • An analysis and synthesis of 21 American and European obsolescence procedures (â diagnosticsâ ) used to determine the potentials of building parts (DIAGS), identifying the critical limitations in current methodologies, including their non-evolutive narrowed scope and inadequate consideration of building elementsâ deconstruction and transformation phases; • A standardized, semi-automated, and incremental Deconstruction And Reuse Evaluation (DARE) framework to assess the reuse potential of building components, building on quantitative data and qualitative insights obtained from the previous chapters. A real-life case study shows that the framework ensures a comprehensive evaluation of reuse potential, accounting for economic and environmental considerations and developing various adaptable scenarios concerning deconstruction, transformation, sales processes. Additionally, the framework enables the prioritization of the most promising elements for reuse or the exclusion of components deemed detrimental to the project, ensuring alignment with budget constraints and project timelines ; • A new ontology and modelling method for a Digital Inventory of Swiss Construction Systems (DISCS), aimed at supporting the context-specific prediction of component availability. By advancing sustainable construction practices and promot