Building Better - Less - Different: Circular Construction and Circular Economy

Sustainability has advanced to become an overarching concern of daily life. At the same time, its ways and means are far from clear. As a holistic praxis, sustainability must combine technical and material as well as social, economic and ecological strategies that all too often have competing aims and priorities and complex interactions. In no other field can these factors and interactions be better observed, addressed and influenced than in architecture and building. Organising, planning and designing the built environment uniquely reflects the spectrum of sustainable action as a synthesis of gained experience, problem-solving and forward-looking strategies.

Each volume of "Building Better – Less – Different" examines two fundamental areas of sustainability and explores their specific dynamics and interactions. After an introductory overview, innovative methods and current developments are described and analysed in in-depth essays, international case studies and pointed commentaries. The sustainability criteria of efficiency ("better"), sufficiency ("less") and consistency ("different") form the framework for each book. Together, the five planned volumes provide a systematic and up-to-date compendium of sustainable building.

The first volume presents concepts, methods and examples of circularity in construction and the economy. Urban mining and circular construction are two approaches to the challenges facing architecture and urban design, using techniques such as reversible details and design for disassembly and tools such as material passports and databases. The circular economy is not solely about recycling but encompasses a wide range of strategies from local community projects to new ownership and service models and steering mechanisms such as carbon pricing schemes with climate premiums.

Forthcoming volumes will cover the topics "Energy and Digitization", "Housing and Participation", "Land and Production" and "Health and Materiality".

Dirk E. Hebel ist Professor für Nachhaltiges Bauen und Dekan der Fakultät für Architektur am Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT). Er ist Autor zahlreicher Buchpublikationen, zuletzt Urban Mining und kreislaufgerechtes Bauen (Fraunhofer IRB, 2021, mit Felix Heisel). Er ist Mitbegründer und Partner von 2hs Architekten und Ingenieur Part GmbB Hebel Heisel Schlesier und praktiziert Architektur mit einem Fokus auf ressourcengerechtes Bauen und kreislaufgerechten Materialeinsatz. Seine Arbeiten wurden weltweit ausgestellt, jüngst in Plastic: Remaking our world, Vitra Design Museum Weil am Rhein (2022), und Environmental Hangover von Pedro Wirz (beide mit Nazanin Saeidi, Alireza Javadian, Sandra Böhm und Elena Boerman), Kunsthalle Basel (2022), sowie Sorge um den Bestand, BDA, Berlin und andere Orte (2020–). Als Fakultätsverantwortlicher gemeinsam mit Prof. Andreas Wagner gewann er den ersten in Deutschland ausgetragenen Solar Decathlon Wettbewerb 2022 in Wuppertal als Teil des Teams RoofKIT (Regina Gebauer und Nicolas Carbonare).

Felix Heisel ist Architekt und forscht an einer systematischen Neugestaltung unserer gebauten Umwelt als Rohstofflager in einem endlosen Kreislauf von Nutzung und Rekonfiguration. Er ist Assistenzprofessor an der Fakultät für Architektur und Direktor des Circular Construction Lab am College of Architecture, Art, and Planning der Cornell University. Heisel ist Gründungspartner des Netzwerks Circularity, Reuse, and Zero Waste Development (CR0WD) im US-Bundesstaat New York sowie von 2hs Architekten und Ingenieur PartGmbB Hebel Heisel Schlesier in Deutschland, einem Büro, das sich auf die Entwicklung kreislaufgerechter Prototypologien spezialisiert hat. Für seine Arbeit wurde er mehrfach ausgezeichnet, und er veröffentlichte zahlreiche Bücher und Fachartikel zum Thema, darunter Urban Mining und kreislaufgerechtes Bauen (Fraunhofer IRB, 2021, mit Dirk E. Hebel), Cultivated Building Materials (Birkhäuser, 2017, mit Dirk E. Hebel) und Building from Waste (Birkhäuser, 2014, mit Dirk E. Hebel und Marta H. Wisniewska). Felix Heisel ist Absolvent der Universität der Künste Berlin und lehrte und forschte international an Hochschulen wie dem Berlage-Institut, dem Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction, and City Development, dem Future Cities Laboratory in Singapur, der ETH Zürich und der Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Ken Webster ist Visiting Fellow an der Cranfield University und war zuvor als Head of Innovation bei der Ellen MacArthur Foundation tätig. Sein Buch The Circular Economy: A Wealth of Flows (Ellen MacArthur, 2. Aufl. 2017) zeigt die Zusammenhänge zwischen dem Denken in Systemen, Chancen auf makro- und mikroökonomischer Ebene und dem Übergang zu einer Kreislaufwirtschaft auf. Er ist Mitglied der Transformational Economics Commission des Club of Rome und Mitautor von Earth For All (2022). Er trägt regelmäßig zu Konferenzen, Workshops und Seminaren auf der ganzen Welt bei.

Felix Heisel is an architect working towards the systematic redesign of the built environment as a material depot in a continuous cycle of use and reconfiguration. He is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Architecture at Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, where he directs the Circular Construction Lab. Heisel is one of the founding partners of the Circularity, Reuse, and Zero Waste Development (CR0WD) network in New York State, as well as a founding partner of 2hs Architekten und Ingenieur PartGmbB Hebel Heisel Schlesier, Germany, an office specializing in the development of circular prototypologies. He has received various awards for his work and published numerous books and articles on the topic, including Urban Mining und kreislaufgerechtes Bauen ("Urban Mining and Circular Construction") (Fraunhofer IRB, 2021, with Dirk E. Hebel), Cultivated Building Materials (Birkhäuser, 2017, with Dirk E. Hebel) and Building from Waste (Birkhäuser, 2014, with Dirk E. Hebel and Marta H. Wisniewska). Felix Heisel graduated from Berlin University of the Arts and has taught and researched at universities around the world, including the Berlage Institute, the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction, and City Development, the Future Cities Laboratory, Singapore, ETH Zurich, and Harvard GSD.

Dirk E. Hebel is Professor of Sustainable Construction and the Dean of the Department of Architecture at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany. He is the author of numerous book publications, including most recently Urban Mining und kreislaufgerechtes Bauen ("Urban Mining and Circular Construction") (Fraunhofer IRB, 2021, with Felix Heisel). He is co-founder and partner of 2hs Architekten und Ingenieur Part-GmbB Hebel Heisel Schlesier, practicing architecture with a focus on resource-respectful construction methods and materials. His work has been shown in numerous exhibitions worldwide, most recently in Plastic: Remaking our world, Vitra Design Museum Weil am Rhein (2022) and Environmental Hangover by Pedro Wirz (both with Nazanin Saeidi, Alireza Javadian, Sandra Böhm and Elena Boerman), Kunsthalle Basel (2022), as well as Sorge um den Bestand, BDA, Berlin and other venues (2020–). As Faculty Advisor together with Prof. Andreas Wagner, he won the first Solar Decathlon Competition 2022 held in Germany (Wuppertal) as part of the RoofKIT team (Regina Gebauer and Nicolas Carbonare).

Ken Webster is a Visiting Fellow at Cranfield University and was formerly Head of Innovation at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. His book The Circular Economy: A Wealth of Flows (Ellen MacArthur, 2nd edition 2017) relates the connections between systems thinking, economic and business opportunity and the transition to a circular economy. He is on the Club of Rome‘s Transformational Economics Commission and a contributing author to Earth For All (2022). He makes regular inputs to conferences, workshops and seminars around the world.