Circular economy in the construction industry © IAT, TU Graz

The aim of the project is to identify, reuse and recycle potentials of the building stock in  Graz, in order to initiate the transformation of the citys construction sector towards a circular economy. To this end, the city of Graz is viewed as a closed resource system and the existing building stock is prepared in the form of a digital 3D model. Based on metadata (type of component, building material, installation time, ...) the reuse and recycling potentials of components and materials will be investigated and companies, manufacturers or laboratories and testing institutes necessary for these processes will be identified. Based on the building stock, potential renewal scenarios result from the possible component and material flows.
The findings and effects on the building industry resulting from this process are prepared as fields of action, decision-making bases and recommendations with regard to a "Green Transformation" for the actors of sustainable building (the city of Graz, investors, planners and residents).
In the context of the resource consumption of the building industry (worldwide about 40 %), this project leads to a reduction of resource consumption and a reduction of negative environmental impacts as a result of an opening of the extension of the life cycle of building components and materials.

Project duration: November 2021 - October 2022

Funding: The State of Styria (Das Land Steiermark)

Project management: Institute for Architectural Technology (IAT), TU Graz
Roger Riewe, Matthias Raudaschl, Georgios Triantafyllidis
Project contributors: Toni Levak, Bernd Hausegger, Carina Kurz, Selina Haingartner

Project partners: Institut für Materialprüfung und Baustofftechnologie IMTB (TU Graz) - Joachim Juhart, Johanna Regl