Scalable AI-driven automation for visual lumber grading
Reusing reclaimed lumber supports sustainable construction by reducing waste, conserving resources, and lowering carbon emissions, but requires reliable processing and quality assessment to meet structural standards. This study proposes an AI-assisted visual grading system that uses image analysis to provide a scalable, cost-effective alternative to traditional mechanical evaluation. The system integrates dimensional calibration, multi-surface defect detection, full-surface visualization, and automated grading, achieving high precision and reduced measurement errors. Tested across laboratory and industrial datasets, the pipeline demonstrates strong accuracy and scalability, advancing the broader adoption of circular construction practices.
Incremental Urbanism and the Circular City: Analyzing Spatial Patterns in Permits, Land Use, and Heritage Regulations
The construction industry consumes vast resources and generates significant waste, driving interest in circular approaches that prioritize preservation, adaptive reuse, and material salvage. This study examines how existing planning tools in a New York college town, such as zoning and historic preservation policies, may indirectly support circularity through redevelopment patterns. Using spatial analysis methods (exploratory analysis, GWR, and GRF modeling), the research finds that historic districts encourage reinvestment, mixed-use zoning aligns with new construction, and low-density or overlay districts often limit adaptation. The paper proposes a replicable protocol for analyzing urban building stock and offers data management strategies to help small cities advance circular development policies.
Engineered wood products for circular construction: a multi-factor evaluation of lamination methods
Engineered wood products (EWP) offer strong structural potential but rely on adhesive resins that limit circularity and introduce environmental concerns. This study evaluates alternative non-adhesive lamination strategies using interlocking surface patterns and mechanical fasteners to improve shear transfer and structural performance. Through testing of interlocking geometries and bending performance across multiple fastening methods, grooved interfaces with wood nail fasteners showed promising results with only modest reductions in strength and stiffness compared to glued laminations. The proposed “GrooveLam” system demonstrates improved environmental and circular performance while remaining suitable for future development of larger structural beam elements.
A Circular Built Environment in the Digital Age
Architecture Assistant Professor Felix Heisel and former Circular Construction Lab researcher Joseph McGranahan co-authored an included chapter covering digital tools for circularity evaluation in this open-access publication.
Constructing a Circular Economy in New York State: Deconstruction and Building Material Reuse
This new White Paper "Constructing a Circular Economy in NYS: Deconstruction and Building Material Reuse" provides an in-depth perspective on the State's current linear construction economy and an assessment of the economic, environmental, and social potential of deconstruction and reuse. The paper concludes with a set of state level policy and practice recommendations to aid policymakers, and local and state government agencies, in the development of a circular economy in New York State.
Industry and Literature Review of Urban Mining Applications in the United States: Gaps and Drivers for Implementation Towards a Circular Industrialized Construction Economy
Growing awareness of the construction industry’s environmental impacts has accelerated demand for circular and sustainable practices. This literature and industry scoping review examines emerging trends in U.S. construction, focusing on Urban Mining, the reclamation of materials and components from decommissioned buildings not originally designed for deconstruction, with the goal of reuse or recycling. Due to limited scholarly research, the study draws on market reports, case studies, and governmental and industry sources to map legislation, stakeholders, and shifting practices. By synthesizing deconstruction potentials across material groups and building elements, the paper identifies key gaps, including documentation standards, processing tools for reclaimed materials, and the technological, logistical, and legal infrastructures needed to support reuse.
Prototypologies of Circularity
The concept of a circular economy represents a way to overcome the current linear financial system’s social, economic, and environmental challenges. It can be defined as one that is “restorative and regenerative by design and aims to keep assets, components, and materials at their highest utility and value at all times”. The consequent closing of production and consumption loops offers not only the possibility to end the loss of valuable finite resources but also to reduce dependencies on global, volatile resource markets, prevent greenhouse gas emissions, mitigate the effects of the climate crisis, and support new business models and green workforce development.
Deconstruction Request for Proposals
The Circular Construction Lab at Cornell University recommends the adoption of a Deconstruction Request for Proposals (D-RFP) to facilitate, organize and make comparable bids for proposed deconstruction projects. The attached document can be understood as a template summarizing important aspects of deconstruction projects (especially in comparison to demolition projects), as well as necessary accounting requirements as part of the Materials Management Plan. Working within the regulations set forth by the Deconstruction Ordinance, the D-RFP requires the issuer (owner or owner-representative) to provide certified deconstruction contractors (bidders) with a scope of work (see “I. Scope of Work”) and related work requirements (see “II. RFP Submittal Requirements”). After a set submittal deadline, the issuer then has a period of time to select the preferred contractor to perform the deconstruction.
High-resolution combined building stock and building energy modeling to evaluate whole-life carbon emissions and saving potentials at the building and urban scale
This article describes the development of a high-resolution combined building stock model (BSM) and building energy model (BEM) on both building and urban scale using all residential buildings of Ithaca, NY, USA as a case study. The model offers a holistic, detailed and local perspective on operational and embodied carbon emissions, associated saving potentials at both the building and urban scale, and the linkages, trade-offs and synergies between buildings and energy use as a basis for decision-making.
Calculation and evaluation of circularity indicators for the built environment using the case studies of UMAR and Madaster
This paper describes the process of documenting materials and products utilized in the construction of the Urban Mining and Recycling (UMAR) unit within the Madaster platform. UMAR is a fully circular residential unit of Empa NEST created from secondary resources and designed as a material depot for future constructions. Madaster is an online platform, which generates and registers materials passports and calculates a Circularity Indicator for their construction, use, and end-of-life phases.
ScanR: A composite building scanning and survey method for the evaluation of materials and reuse potentials prior to demolition and deconstruction
This paper introduces ScanR (Scan for Reuse), a composite method pairing quantitative and qualitative salvage and deconstruction surveying (S&D survey) with LiDAR and photogrammetry scanning in an effort to empower local municipalities and stakeholders in cataloging building materials prior to removal from site (in the case of either demolition or deconstruction), and enabling data collection and the generation of material databases to link local supply with demand – all in support of a shift from linear to circular economic models in construction.
RhinoCircular: Development and Testing of a Circularity Indicator Tool for Application in Early Design Phases and Architectural Education
RhinoCircular is a CAD plugin developed within the Circular Construction Lab (CCL) at Cornell University that assesses a building design’s environmental impact in respect to its embodied carbon values and circularity: the degree to which design solutions minimize extraction and waste in favor of reusable, recyclable and renewable material resources. Buildings and regions need to anticipate stocks and flows of materials, documenting and communicating which materials in what quantities and qualities become available for reuse or recycling where and when. RhinoCircular allows direct and immediate feedback on design decisions in respect to formal deliberations, structural considerations, material selection and detailing based on material passports and circularity indicators. It can be integrated in existing and complex workflows and is compatible with industry standard databases while providing its own essential dataset complementing missing information.
CR0WD Deconstruction Local Government Guide
Faced with housing crises, aging building stock, landfill concerns, and climate impacts to the built environment, municipalities and states are increasingly turning their attention to deconstruction and building material reuse as an alternative to demolition.
Providing examples along the way,this guide outlines what deconstruction means, why moving away from demolition is beneficial, and how local governments can successfully kick-start deconstruction in their communities.
CR0WD Deconstruction Resource Guide
The CR0WDsource New York State Deconstruction Resource Guide is a short guidebook created to provide a brief overview of the importance of deconstruction, the monetary and sequestered carbon value of salvaged materials, and an extensive directory of existing resources in New York State already engaging in salvage, reuse, and deconstruction.
Circular fit-out in retail stores
The circular transition is an urgent matter for the retail sector and a necessary step for companies to align with the European Green Deal. Moving towards a truly circular economy will not be achieved in one step.
This report is intended to raise awareness on circular design approaches for the fit-out of stores, as part of a more comprehensive strategy for the transition toward a circular built retail environment.