Bauwende Atlas

The transition to circular construction adds a central perspective to architectural design: the end of the life cycle. Buildings should not be viewed as finished end products, but rather as temporary repositories of materials, whose components and materials can be recovered and reused after their useful life. Sustainable architecture therefore takes into account aspects such as material selection, service life, separability, and demolition right from the design phase. Circular construction combines design and structural decisions with strategies for reuse, the use of biogenic materials, and the long-term adaptability of buildings.

The seminar “Bauwende Atlas—Documentation, Analysis, and Evaluation of Circular Architecture” will examine selected projects by the architectural firm in situ during the 2026–27 winter semester. Students will analyze three buildings in terms of their construction, choice of materials, and circular strategies, and examine their life cycles, R-strategies, and shearing layers. A selected building component joint will be analyzed in depth from a structural perspective, its separability will be evaluated according to DIN 8593, and a corresponding demolition strategy will be developed. In addition, the projects will be assessed using a simplified life cycle assessment with regard to resource consumption and ecological quality. The results are systematically documented and compiled into a project brochure to make the findings available for future circular planning and design processes.