Unbuilding the city
Deconstruction and the circular economy in Vancouver
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4139780 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nicolás Lynch (0000-0002-2367-1742, Memorial University of Newfoundland, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 54 |
| Issue | 8 |
| Pages | 1586-1603 |
| Publication date | 2022-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environment and Planning A Economy and Space (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0308-518X • E-ISSN: 1472-3409 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0308518x221116891 |
| PMID | 36176592 |
| OpenAlex | W4288074801 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 14 |
| References cited | 40 |
Globally, the construction, renovation, and demolition sectors are increasingly responsible for growing resource demand and structural waste, even given progress in energy efficient technologies, 'green' building design, and local planning regulations. In response, the Circular Economy has become a popular agenda in the construction, renovation, and demolition sector as it offers a new model that not only maximizes materials reuse and recovery but also reframes urban systems and the built environment in a closed-loop (cradle-to-cradle) paradigm. In particular, popular visions of the Circular Economy promote, among other actions, 'optimizing' the end-of-the-life of buildings and their materials. Deconstruction (i.e. piece-by-piece demolition) is one key optimization strategy that has received increasing, yet limited, attention by researchers. This paper traces the development of an incipient deconstruction sector in Vancouver, focusing on the possibilities and challenges of deconstruction and material recovery practices as viable strategies for a transformative Circular Economy. I investigate two related aspects: first, the emerging policy landscape surrounding green demolition, and second, the development of 'unbuilding' practices and more formal 'Deconstruction Hubs'. Overall, the paper finds that while these developments represent fundamental steps towards a more sustainable built environment, there remain a number of significant social, political and economic limitations that must be confronted if we are to meet the growing demands for more radical sustainability and 'circularity' not only in Canadian construction, renovation, and demolition sectors, but across Canadian cities and beyond
Architectural engineering · Business · Circular economy · Civil engineering · Demolition · Economics · Economy · Reuse · Sociology · Sustainability · Transformative learning · Engineering · Recycled Aggregate Concrete Performance · Sustainable Building Design and Assessment · Sustainable Supply Chain Management
More-than-transactional circular economies
Heterogeneity of urban manufacturing – a statistical analysis of manufacturing companies in three German cities
Envisioning circular futures in shrinking cities and regions
Decision-support for selecting demolition waste management strategies
Urban circularity as a planning challenge
Circular Economy as a Catalyst for Sustainability
Making embodied carbon mainstream
Urban circularity in practice
Material communities
Recycling or reusing? An ethnographic study of the demolition industry in Northern Italy
Configurations for circularity? A scoping review of urban planning approaches in the circular economy literature
Collaborative governance in urban regeneration
Closing the loop, opening up the labour market? Training, reskilling, and inclusion in Brussels circular construction sector
Circularity on what grounds? Advancing learning for circular area development at the interface of proximity and precarity
Conceptualizing the circular economy
Title unavailable
Re-Evaluating Heritage Waste
Fast Policy
Deconstructing heritage
Vancouver pre-1940 houses
Circular economy and the city
Closing the loop or squaring the circle? Locating generative spaces for the circular economy
Placing cities in the circular economy
From circular consumers to carriers of (unsustainable) practices
Situating the New Economy
Diversifying and de-growing the circular economy
Government by experiment? Global cities and the governing of climate change
Interrogating the circular economy
Circular Cities
Remaking the obsolete
Redefining the city and demolishing the rest
The environment and the entrepreneurial city
From the Sanitary City to the Circular City? Technopolitics of Wastewater Restructuring in Los Angeles, California
Greenest cities? The (post-)politics of new urban environmental regimes
Waste Matter - The Debris of Industrial Ruins and the Disordering of the Material World
| Unique citing works | 14 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4,67 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2026 (4) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 14 |