The Ellen MacArthur Foundation defines the circular economy as restorative and regenerative by design — keeping materials at their highest value for as long as possible. The European Commission frames it as eliminating waste by keeping products and materials in use. Both are right. Neither tells you exactly what that means on a construction site.
Source: Circular Economy Butterfly Diagram, The Ellen Mac Arthur Foundation
That’s where it gets interesting. Design for disassembly, material passports, urban mining, bio-based materials, R-strategies, whole-life carbon assessement — the field has no shortage of frameworks. What it lacks is consensus on where to start, and what actually works in practice.
So: what does circular construction mean to you? Where does it begin on a project — at the brief, at the material selection, at demolition? And which framework, if any, actually shapes how you work?