According to the Circularity Gap Report 2020, a mere 8.6% of the global economy wascircular in 2019. The Global Status Report 2018 declares that building construction and operationsaccounted for 36% of global final energy use and 39% of energy–related carbon dioxide (CO2)emissions. The Paris Agreement demands that the building and construction sector decarbonizesglobally by 2050. This requires strategies that minimize the environmental impact of buildingsand practices extending the lifecycle of their constituents within a circular resource flow. To ensurethat eective measures are applied, a suitable method is needed to assess compliance in materials,processes, and design strategies within circular economy principles. The study’s assumption is thatsynthetic and reliable indicators for that purpose could be based on reversibility and durabilityfeatures. The paper provides an overview of building design issues within the circular economyperspective, highlighting the diculty in finding circular technologies which are suitable to enhancebuildings’ service life while closing material loops. The results identify reversibility and durability aspotential indicators for assessing circular building technologies. The next research stage aims to furtherdevelop the rating of circularity requirements for both building technologies and entire buildings.

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The VAMP project (VAlorization of building demolition Materials and Products, LIFE 98/ENV/IT/33) aims to build an effective and innovative information system to support decision making in selective demolition activity and to manage the valorization (recovery-reuse-recycling) of waste flows produced by the construction and demolition (C&D) sector. The VAMP information system will be tested it in Italy in some case studies of selective demolition. In this paper the proposed demolition-valorization system will be compared to the traditional one in a life cycle perspective, applying LCA methodology to highlight the advantages of VAMP system from an eco-sustainability point of view. Within the system boundaries demolition processes, transport of demolition wastes and its recovery/treatment or disposal in landfill were included. Processes avoided due to reuse-recycling activities, such as extraction of natural resources and manufacture of building materials and components, were considered too. In this paper data collection procedure applied in inventory and impact assessment phases and a general overview about data availability for LCA studies in this sector are presented. Results of application of VAMP methodology to a case study are discussed and compared with a simulated traditional demolition of the same building. Environmental advantages of VAMP demolition-valorization system are demonstrated quantitatively emphasizing the special importance of reuse of building components with high demand of energy for manufacture.

The paper reports a methodology developed to map energy consumption of the building stock at the urban scale on a GIS environment. Energy consumption has been investigated, focusing on the shift from the individual building scale to the district one with the purpose of identifying larger homogenous energy use areas for addressing policies and plans to improve the quality and the performance levels at the city scale. The urban planning zoning concept was extended to the energy issue to include the energy behavior of each zone that depends on the performance of its individual buildings. The methodology generates GIS maps providing a district scale visualization of energy consumption according to shared criteria. A case study in Bologna city (Italy) is provided. In the specific case, the last update of Emilia-Romagna regional urban planning regulation required a mapping action regarding energy efficiency of homogeneous urban portions defined by the General Urban Plan. The main achieved results are (a) a methodology to identify homogeneous areas for analyzing energy consumption; (b) an updated energy map of Bologna Municipality.

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