CircularB-DfC: A decision-support tool for prioritizing building design factors to enhance circular material flows
Buzatu R. Askar R. Bompa D. Rajic M. Bas B. Paoletti G. Güngör B. Sertyeşilışık P. Pineda-Martos R. Malešev M. Radonjanin V. Abu-Ghaida H. Kildsgaard I. Cvetkovska M. Karaca F.
March 2026Elsevier B.V.
Results in Engineering
2026#29
Circularity is increasingly recognised as a critical paradigm for sustainability in the built environment, yet existing efforts to assess it—whether focused on material flow analysis, design-for-disassembly strategies, durability metrics, or carbon accounting—remain fragmented and operate at different scales. Despite numerous indicator sets, the literature lacks an integrated framework that combines both technical design factors and the enabling organisational conditions required to support circular outcomes at the building level. This paper introduces CircularB-DfC (CircularB COST Action – Design for Circularity), a decision-Support Tool with a structured matrix for prioritising building design factors to enhance circular material flows. The framework consolidates insights from a systematic literature review and a multi-stage expert engagement process, resulting in 35 technical indicators and 20 enabling factors . These are organised into four technical categories: Material Selection; Design for Disassembly; Embodied Energy and Carbon Footprint; Waste Minimisation, and one enabling category, Circular Construction Management, including Governance, Certification, Stakeholder Engagement, Digitalisation, and Socio-economic aspects. Indicators and enablers are aggregated into a Design Score and an Enabler Score to support early decision-making. The tool was applied to three illustrative scenarios: a reinforced-concrete industrial hall in the Western Balkans, a steel office building in Central Europe, and a timber residential project in East London. The steel scenario achieved the highest Design and Enabler Scores, the concrete scenario performed strongest in Waste Minimisation through prefabrication and site-based strategies, and the timber scenario scored lowest overall due to limited reuse and disassembly provisions in the original design. While CircularB-DfC offers a simple and transparent basis for integrating circularity in design, it is limited by the subjectivity of expert-based weighting and its static structure. Future research will focus on dynamic modelling, integration with digital tools, and broader validation to enhance applicability.
Circular building design , Circular economy benchmarking , Circularity Indicators , Decision-support tools , Design for circularity , Material flow
Text of the article Перейти на текст статьи
Faculty of Civil Engineering, Department of Steel Structures and Structural Mechanics, Politehnica University Timisoara, Timisoara, Romania
ISISE, ARISE, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal
School of Engineering, University of Surrey, Guildford, United Kingdom
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Management in Mechanical Engineering, University of Nis, Nis, Serbia
Department of Civil Engineering, Istanbul Bilgi University, Istanbul, Turkey
Eurac Research, Accademia Europea di Bolzano, Italy
Engineering Faculty, Department of Industrial Engineering, Izmir Demokrasi University, Izmir, Turkey
Construction Department, Afyon Kocatepe University, Afyon Vocational School, Afyonkarahisar, Turkey
Departamento de Ingeniería Aeroespacial y Mecánica de Fluidos, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Agronómica, Universidad de Sevilla, Seville, Spain
Society of Civil Engineers of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia
UHasselt, Centre for Environmental Sciences (CMK), Diepenbeek, Agoralaan, 3590, Belgium
Tengbom, Sweden
Faculty of Civil Engineering, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, Skopje, North Macedonia
School of Engineering and Digital Sciences, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nazarbayev University, Astana, Kazakhstan
Faculty of Civil Engineering
ISISE
School of Engineering
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
Department of Civil Engineering
Eurac Research
Engineering Faculty
Construction Department
Departamento de Ingeniería Aeroespacial y Mecánica de Fluidos
Society of Civil Engineers of Novi Sad
UHasselt
Tengbom
Faculty of Civil Engineering
School of Engineering and Digital Sciences
10 лет помогаем публиковать статьи Международный издатель
Книга Публикация научной статьи Волощук 2026 Book Publication of a scientific article 2026