Evaluating the disassembly potential of timber buildings: development of calculation tool and proof of concept

The construction sector has traditionally followed a linear model, leading to significant construction and demolition waste, which accounts for over a third of all waste in the EU. To promote sustainability, Design for Disassembly is being explored by researchers and practitioners to facilitate the reuse of building components thereby supporting a circular construction model. This research evaluated frameworks to assess the ease of disassembly of buildings and developed a new framework and a corresponding tool to compute the disassembly potential of timber buildings with focus on connections. Stakeholders from industry were surveyed to determine the importance and weighting of different criteria that affect the ability to disassemble timber connections (e.g. number of fasteners, type of connection, etc.). User feedback on a previous version of the tool, collected during the disassembly of a 10-storey mass-timber building, was also implemented. The study found factors such as “Access”, “Hazard”, and “Damage” being critical, while further research is needed to calibrate “Disassembly time”. Subsequently, the disassembly potential of several exemplar connections from literature and a case study timber building was computed to demonstrate the application of the developed tool. Finally, the tool was benchmarked against a framework from literature.