Critical Approaches

Translating Circularity

As the concept of CE becomes widely disseminated, Torsten informs us of the risk of using it carelessly. He rather invites us to engage in a process of translation as a means of becoming more attentive to how we put circularity into practice.

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Main Takeaways

  • As circularity evolves, it becomes increasingly more difficult to identify what the challenges it tackles are.
  • The framework of translation allows us to monitor the continuous transformations of circularity and to see how the concept is understood and enacted.
  • The process of translation can take the form of questions, it is iterative and it can ultimately help us support the concept.

Author

Torsten Schroeder
Torsten Schroeder
Assistant Professor

Dr. Torsten Schröder is Assistant Professor of Sustainability in Architectural Design at the Department of the Built Environment at TU Eindhoven. He is a founder of Radical Architecture Practice for Sustainability, and a fellow of Circular and Inclusive Cities, Alliance TU/e, WUR, UU and UMC Utrecht. As well as a member of the Architectural Research European Network Association (ARENA). His key research interests are sustainability and circular economy within architecture and cities. Schröder’s interdisciplinary ‘theory in practice’ approach helps identify new opportunities and analyses how architects, engineers, clients and others apply the concept of sustainability to their design projects, in their studios and on-site. 

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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.

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