Design Approaches Definitions

Teaching the Principles of Circular Building Design: Join the discussion

In a circular built environment, buildings and building materials are used and reused in continuous loops. The materials we use today are also the materials we will use tomorrow. Buildings are part of continuous processes of change. How can we design to anticipate such future changes? And how do we incorporate lifecycle design thinking in a design studio or course? There are lots of design principles. Designing future scenarios can help test their effectiveness. But there is not one method. Designers should become familiar with the principles and integrate them in their design vocabulary and attitude. A design studio could be the ideal setting for students to start exploring this.

What do you think? Should circularity become part of the design brief in studio projects? Or do you have a good idea for a workshop on design principles or scenario planning?

Join Stijn’s discussion

Author

Stijn Brancart
Stijn Brancart
Assistant Professor

Dr. Ing. Stijn Brancart is Assistant Professor of structural design in the Department of Architectural Engineering & Technology at the TU Delft Faculty of Architecture. His research is focused on sustainable structural design and more specifically circular structural design, adaptive and responsive structures. Stijn teaches different courses on load-bearing structures in the BSc of Architecture. His research interests are centred around sustainable and circular structural design, more specifically including design for change, modular structures, design for disassembly and bio-based structures. Trained as an architectural engineer, Stijn’s research and teaching activities are situated at the intersection of design and engineering. 

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Circularity for Educators

The platform is intended to provide with content on either circularity or pedagogy for and about circularity. It is one of the outcomes of the Circular Impulse Initiative (CII), a project intending to enhance the integration of circularity in the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment education. The platform mainly aims to help tutors get better acquainted with circularity in the built environment by providing a series of resources on this subject that they can either view to get better informed or directly share with their students in class or online. A large number of the Faculty's professors and researchers have contributed substantially both in creating a coherent narrative for circularity in the built environment as well as further elaborating on different aspects of it. Besides this one, a new platform for interaction and direct exchange was also established in parallel that we call ‘Educators for Circularity‘. This one offers the opportunity for all of us to meet and share our experiences and learn from one another.

Visit Educators for Circularity