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The course starts with an introduction of Circular Ecology as planetary resource management, and the problematic amounts to which we have failed so far to manage Earth properly. Then we move on to Circular Economy to see how outdated notions of “costs”, “growth” and “progress” conflict with circularity and need updating. The Building Economy is next: we look at key stats, goals and ambitions of this sector as well as stakeholders in the transition towards Circular Building. Then we take a look at various design and technology assessments to see how they approach the ideal of Life Cycle Thinking. We investigate what they do and do not measure, so that you can use them appropriately to make informed circular decisions. Finally we zoom in to Circular Design and Technology in the Built Environment at ever smaller scales: from spatial planning, to buildings; to products; to material resources. The course is designed as a weekly modular cycle of a lecture followed by a (group) assignment and a feedback & debate session about your intermediate results. It is rounded up with personal reflections and conclusions and from there the development of a personal follow-up research plan.

Course aim

Introducing and exercising the background knowledge, context, concepts and methods of Circular Design in the Built Environment and preparing the Circularity Research a/o Design Project (7xc2m0).

7XC2M0 Circularity research a/o design project

• literature review
• Life Cycle Assessment, other ways to measure sustainability and circularity

• the concepts which circularity principles can be applied to follow up themes
• Solar panels, shadow costs and history of human behaviour
• The use of BIM, GIS and AI technologies in urban mining. The possibility of developing a European rail network. The effect of rising sea levels in future migration in Europe.