Rethinking the construction industry under the circular economy : principles and case studies

Themes related to the conservation of the existing city recently became arelevant issue in national and international public policies. One of the challengesthat European Union and Italian authorities seek to pursue is sustainable-citiesdevelopment on energetic, social and economic levels, discouraging urban sprawl,and promoting reuse of the existing real-estate stock. City reuse instead of itsexpansion onto greenfields has then become in Italy a priority for the constructionindustry. The aim of the paper is to point out the potential radical change of theconstruction industry in Italy and the new perspectives the industry can pursue inthe future. Existing city reuse can be undertaken in two ways: through demolitionand reconstruction or retrofitting the existing real-estate stock. The preferencebetween the two options depends by real-estate market dynamics and by zoningrules made by local authorities. In the majority of Italian cities, retrofit operationsappear to be the true challenge because real-estate market values are not capable ofsupporting radical city transformations through demolition and reconstruction.Marketfigures make clear that the shift towards reuse is already under way, with asignificant growth of the reuse-segment over the span 2008–2014. Nevertheless, themajor costs for reuse and the limited budget of Italian families represent relevantissues standing in the way. So the construction industry confronts a new challenge:innovating reuse technology—with reduced costs and increased effectiveness—andfinding new sources of value to support the investment choice. The DutchEnergiesprong case study shows that highly-industrialized retrofit processes and theconversion of the energy bill into afinancial source to support stock refurbishmentrepresent the pillars of a disruptive and effective strategy.