A literature review of measurement methods for building designs that enable higher-value resource recovery: the circular economy potential framework

The construction sector is a major contributor to global raw material and land use, wasteproduction, and water and energy consumption. Despite overall high consumption,some built structures are more sustainable than others; particularly, some contributeto the circular economy, supporting repeated use of construction resources. It isa reasonable assumption that the way in which built structures have been configuredinfluences the potential to circulate integrated construction resources. However, whichconfigurations influence this potential, and which methods exist to measure this influ-ence, remains unclear. This paper presents a review of 32 quantitative methods tomeasure configurations that influence circular economy potential, identified from 73 research works collected through PRISMA and snowballing approaches. To address thefragmentation identified in this niche area of study, our paper provides a structured viewof the literature by proposing a Circular Economy Potential framework that aligns designstrategies, tiers of built assets, and circular economy resource flows. We then identifygaps in the literature and discuss opportunities and limitations towards a more holisticapproach to quantifying a built asset’s circular economy potential. This will serve asa foundation for our development of a measurement method and tool for circulareconomy potential going forward.