Design for dissasembly - a solution to Malta's construction site woes?
Currently most industrial systems are designed around a linear model, one with a definite beginning where materials are received and an end where components leave a production line. The same is true of the construction industry; raw materials are collected, processed into building materials or components which are incorporated into buildings, which inhabited, altered and at the end of their useful lives, demolished. A small percentage of building materials are re-used and recycled but globally most are discarded in landfill. Each stage in this system takes little cognisance of the previous or subsequent stages.
Natural systems on the other hand can be described as ever changing circular systems, where the waste from one process becomes food for another, such that there is no defined beginning or end. This can be described as an adaptive cycle consisting of continuous stages of (re)organisation, growth, conservation and release which relate to construction as (re)design, construction, maintenance and deconstruction (Peterson G. 2002).
Design for disassembly (DfD) is a concept that has been growing in manufacture for the last decade as a result of “extended producer responsibility”legislation and the resulting constraints on the production of waste and pollution. Within the construction industry however DfD is a new idea where it is described as the design of buildings so that their constituent parts can be easily removed for recycling or re-use in order to reduce the production of waste going to landfill and minimise the consumption of raw materials.
According to the definition Guy and Ciarimboli in their Seattle DfD guide, ‘it is the design of buildings to facilitate future change and the eventual dismantlement (in part or whole) for recovery of systems, components and materials. This design process includes developing the assemblies, components, materials, construction techniques, and information and management systems to accomplish this goal’.
The Implications of DfD for the environment include a reduction in the quantity of waste being sent to landfill, the consumption of raw materials, natural resource depletion and habitat loss. Other implications include the increased re-use of materials, which preserves the embodied energy of materials and helps reduce CO2 emissions. Also as a result of the reduced use of glues and sealants in building components, indoor air quality would be improved due to the reduced off-gassing of volatile organic compounds such as formaldehyde.
(This extract is taken from Sinead Cullen’s excellent dissertation, 2008 from CAT/UEL UK. If you would like to know more contact us here)