Developing a cost-control and project-planning based implementation of circular construction in temporary works: A framework of core supportive technologies

Abstract

Construction is often solely associated with the Permanent Works (PW) that need to be constructed, leaving behind all those activities that are necessary to support the construction of PW. These activities fall into the definition of Temporary Works (TW), representing a significant part of any construction project, sometimes 50% or more of the construction’s cost. Because of its significant impact on the construction process, we think that TW could be a particularly valuable use case to study the implementation of Circular Construction (CC) approaches related to designing and reusing materials and components in the TW process. Reuse practices may already take place on many construction sites, but currently, there are no standard or Circular-Economy-centric approaches. As a first exploration of the suitability of TW as a starting point to implement CC approaches, this paper introduces a high-level framework defining a system of three core tasks and technologies central to enabling Temporary Works’ Circularity: data collection standards, data capturing methods, and a digital TW trading platform.