Urban Mining Screener (UMS)

A Tool for Circular Economy in the Construction Sector

The construction industry face s the challenge of establishing a sustainable circular economy. This requires a fundamental understanding of the material potentials embedded in the existing building stock. However, the composition, quantities, and locations of the materials used in buildings are often not sufficiently known or accessible. The one-year exploratory project "Urban Mining Screener" is being developed through a collaboration between the start-up Revitalyze and the IAT (Matthias Lang-Raudaschl and Saša Ritonja) and offers a promising approach: the development of a tool that enables the systematic recording and analysis of material resources in the existing building stock.

For this purpose, building materials such as concrete, brick, and wood are digitally recorded. This is based on publicly available databases as well as data provided by companies. These datasets are translated into rules or equations, allowing for efficient estimation of building composition based on parameters such as building typology, year of construction, number of floors, and other criteria. This method aims at providing a quick estimation and serves as a preliminary stage or alternative to more complex, detailed procedures.

The UMS is particularly relevant for demolition companies, building material manufacturers, and urban planners who are focused on the use of secondary raw materials. The potential future integration into existing digital tools like Building Information Modeling (BIM) offers the opportunity to efficiently plan construction projects in line with circular economy principles by identifying potentially available resources at an early stage, thereby contributing to optimized and more sustainable designs.

The UMS lays the foundation for viewing the building stock as a resource depot, enabling systematic estimation of these resources and making their reuse potential visible. This represents a crucial step toward reducing dependence on primary raw materials and thus supports achieving climate goals and advancing the circular economy in the construction sector.