In a recent study, we identified seven key circular competencies for design: (1) Design for Multiple Use Cycles, (2) Design for Recovery, (3) Circular Impact Assessment, (4) Circular Business Models, (5) Circular User Engagement, (6) Circular Economy...
In a linear economy, a product is manufactured and sold to a customer. Then, little concern is given to what the user actually does with it when they have it. However, in a circular economy where the aim is to circulate products at their highest leve...
Design has been recognised in the literature as a catalyst to move away from the traditional model of take-make-dispose to achieve a more restorative, regenerative and circular economy. As such, for a circular economy to thrive, products need to be d...
This study addresses what competencies (knowledge, skills, and attitudes) designers need in order to successfully design products and services for a circular economy. Existing literature, though sparse, has identified a number of circular economy com...
Recent research highlights that the important role users play in the transition to a circular economy is often overlooked. While the current narrative emphasises how to design products fit for circular (re-)production flows, or how to design circular...
In the past decades, industrial design practice and research have focused extensively on how to optimize production and consumption, as a way to prevent negative environmental impacts, such as resource depletion, pollution, and excessive waste. Recen...
The furniture industry represents a substantial segment of Europe’s economy, with the European Union producing approximately 25% of the world’s furniture. This sector is currently transitioning towards a circular economy. This study aims...
According to sustainability transitions theory, socio-technical change requires a convergence of politics, social change, technology, and niche innovations. Recently, a circular economy has been proposed as the engine of such change in the EU New Gre...
The design of composite products for a circular economy is challenging. Materials such as glass-fibre-reinforced plastics have long product lifetimes but are hard to recycle. For the effective reuse and recycling of products, parts, and materials, re...
In the context of a circular economy, one can observe that (i) recycling chains are not adapted enough to the end-of-life products they have to process and that (ii) products are not sufficiently well designed either to integrate at best their target...
The conventional linear economic model has intensified global resource depletion and environmental degradation, underscoring the pressing necessity for a transformation toward the Circular Economy (CE). Currently, research generally segregates materi...
Most frameworks for dealing with the complexity of designing for the circular economy have limitations in terms of correlating different domains of knowledge, correlating highly complex design strategies, and facilitating the process of design strate...
Transitioning to a circular built environment can reduce the environmental impacts, resource consumption and waste generation emanating from buildings. However, there are many options to design circular building components, and limited knowledge on w...
Modular construction is emerging into the limelight in the construction industry as one of the front-running modern methods of construction, facilitating multiple benefits, including improved productivity. Meanwhile, Circular Economy (CE) principles...
Given the strategic role of design when addressing societal changes and its prominence in the circular economy (CE) discourse and practice during the past decade, a plethora of tools and methods is nowadays available to support organizations in the t...
To transform the negative impacts of buildings on the environment into a positive footprint, a radical shift from the current, linear ‘make-use-dispose’ practice to a closed-loop ‘make-use-return’ system, associated with a circular economy, is necess...
Designing products that can adapt to changes over time is crucial for managing product-related business risks in circular business models. However, there is limited circular economy research on how product adaptivity can contribute to more circular p...
To support the construction sector in its transition to a circular economy, many design instruments and decision support tools have been and are still being developed. This development is uncoordinated and raises confusion among building designers an...
The vast transformation the circular economy that will occur in the upcoming years inevitably will change the EU panorama, designing new scenarios from an economical-social-environmental perspective. To best build a circular economy, it is necessary...
Product design and development are key to moving towards a circular economy; however, the majority of products and components that are currently recirculated have not been designed for circulation of any sort. Circular economy business models and clo...
Architectural education has increasingly engaged with the Circular Economy (CE); however, integration remains largely material-centric, emphasising life-cycle accounting, efficiency, and design for disassembly, while social, cultural, and governance...
In today’s industrial short-lived products, long-lasting materials are often implemented (e.g., oil-based plastics for throwaway packaging). Circular economy teaches the importance of keeping these materials in use, as well as designing end-of-...
Nowadays, the circular economy represents a promising strategy for achieving sustainable development through optimising resource efficiency, extending product lifespans, and reducing environmental impacts. Despite the growing interest in circular des...
For the transition toward a circular economy, it is essential that products are returned for reuse, refurbishing or recycling. In order to address the lack of literature on the topic from a user perspective, this paper explores how users can be stimu...
Rapid urbanisation and population growth call for more Industrialised Construction (IC) as a swifter, safer, higher-quality and affordable means of delivering housing and infrastructure. Meanwhile, rising global temperatures and extreme weather patte...
Since the advent of a circular economy, typical strategies for change have focused on circularising existing business models or developing new closed-loop ones, where design is understood as a service provider, adapting its processes accordingly. Thi...
Improving resource efficiency by reducing waste and process inefficiencies across the building life cycle is essential for advancing sustainability in the built environment. Circular and industrialized construction offer complementary strategies to m...
The construction sector is responsible for nearly 40% of annual global carbon emissions. This includes approximately 28% from operational carbon, 23% from transportation, and 11% from building and infrastructure materials. Following a review of the l...
As Hong Kong faces increasing pressure on resources and environmental sustainability, there is a growing need to shift towards circular building practices. The ever-increasing demand for sustainable urban development necessitates innovative approache...
Nowadays, smart and environmentally friendly products are gaining traction in consumers’ purchase intentions. Not only will it reduce the adverse impact on the environment, but it also provides convenience and efficiency due to the improved fun...
The digital transformation of manufacturing firms, in addition to making operations more efficient, offers important opportunities both to promote the transition to a circular economy and to experiment with new techniques for designing smarter and gr...
As urban areas exert profound pressures on the natural environment, driving significant resource consumption and waste production, designers need to rethink the way urban projects are being developed. Therefore, this article advances the operationali...
Plastic packaging, in the form of films, brought several advantages to the commercialization of products given its lightness and durability. It provided better ergonomics, ease of transport, increased shelf life, and easy handling and use. Despite th...
Composite materials are an attractive material choice as they enable lightweight, low-maintenance products with a long lifespan. Recycling these materials, however, remains a challenge. Homogeneous material composition and the use of thermoset matric...
Circular economy has gained momentum since the 1970s as a regenerative alternative to the traditional linear economy. However, as the circular economy has gone mainstream, circularity claims have become fragmented and remote, consisting of indirect c...
The Circular Economy has been posited as a solution to the rise of environmental decimation with growing global economic prosperity, by introducing new systems of production, consumption, and disposal. Current literature has explored circular economy...
Considering the construction sector’s impact on the environment, it is necessary amongst other measures to change the way in which new construction or renovation projects of buildings are designed and how solutions are proposed and integrated....
The construction and demolition (C&D) waste stream is the main source of solid waste in Australia. While there is a strong circularity drive in Australia’s and state/territory governments’ waste regulatory framework, clear guidelines...
When designing a product, many decisions are made that determine the environmental impacts that the product will eventually exert on our planet. Therefore, it is paramount to have considered the environmental performance already in the design phase....
Different studies in the scientific literature have shown how the transition towards a circular economy (CE) can benefit from product design, although maintaining a rather broad and qualitative perspective of analysis. This study investigates and com...
The circular economy (CE), as an antidote to the ubiquitous and dominant global economic concept characterized by the uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources and the flow of materials from producers to users to landfills, has become inevitable...
The purpose of this paper is to explore the possibilities of bringing house development to a more sustainable and ecological level using the idea of the circular economy (CE) in the construction industry. Housing is an essential aspect of the economy...
In the transition to a circular economy companies are exploring new business models, implying a shift from selling products to offering products in circular business models, such as leasing. Product design is thought to play a crucial role in enablin...
The reinforced concrete (RC) circular element is usually simplified as slab one on the issue of chloride diffusion simulation, without considering the effect of the geometrical shape. In the paper, a modified slab diffusion model is proposed for circ...
Despite European and international regulatory frameworks promoting circular economy principles, sustainability in the furniture sector is still challenged by the limited access to reliable information about circular materials for designers, manufactu...
The transition toward circular economy models has been progressively promoted in the last few years. Different disciplines and strategies may significantly support this change. Although the specific contribution derived from design, material science,...
Within the circular economy, repair is increasingly recognised as a crucial yet underexplored strategy that extends product lifespans and reduces waste. Service design offers approaches to support this transition by addressing technical, social, and...
Based on a systematic literature review, no design guidelines addressing practical issues related to steel circular hollow section (CHS) members under hydrostatic pressure have been documented thus far, except for the design recommendations proposed...
This article shows a model for the design of circular isolated footings and the column placed anywhere in the footing under minimum cost criteria. Some designs for obtaining the diameter, effective depth, and steel areas of the footing under biaxial...
Sustainability and a circular economy (CE) are crucial for the development of society. The CE approach should start by designing new products or processes or retrofitting existing ones to achieve the best efficiency and extend their life cycle. Desig...
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