Elementi del riuso : il valore di prodotti e componenti edilizi nella progettazione sostenibile e circolare

This book illustrates a research addressing the reuse of building products and components as a circular and sustainable strategy for the management of the existing building stock. It builds upon the twofold potential these processes disclose, since, by fostering the material resources conservation, they both limit the impacts of construction and demolition waste and preserve, along with the formal and functional integrity of an element, the material culture that shaped it. Starting from the theoretical framework and the state of the art, the research is structured in three complementary trajectories, aiming to depict this complex theme through a cross-cutting perspective and to define the contribution of reuse processes to sustainability – meant not only in environmental terms, but in social, cultural, and economic sense as well. The first trajectory examines the significance that contemporary practitioners identify in reuse practices, highlighting how they acknowledge, along with meanings of environmental, ethic, social and creative nature, also a cultural value. The second one addresses the inconsistencies and legal vacuums that the European legal framework concerning the topic shows, recognising the drawbacks they induce on the supply chain. The third trajectory examines the possible application of this strategy at the urban scale, defining the Reuse Design Project as the “design process which, from the concept of a new building until its construction, considers, studies and accomplishes the integration of reclaimed building products and components that the designer identifies and considers as fit for the project”. Ther findings allow to determine the suitability of the reuse of building products and components as a sustainable instrument for the building stock management, promoting the adoption of this approach. They identify the underlying cross-cutting motivations proving how reuse practices contribute to enriching the built environment, the possible actions to undertake in the normative and policy fields, and the operating instruments supporting the Reuse Design Project effectiveness. The analysis and discussion highlight the innovative nature of this design approach, of the involved professional figures and the deconstruction process management, also outlining the cultural transition necessary to promote this strategy in architectural practice.