Matching algorithms to assist in designing with reclaimed building elements

Abstract

Reuse of building components is one of the recommended circular strategies to reduce the environmental impact of new buildings. However, reclaimed building components are more difficult to design with than new products. While new products can be made to match exact needs, the salvaged components have predefined dimensions and quality limitations. Following the Design Science Research methodology, we attempt to answer how the reuse design can be aided by a digital design tool. The developed matching algorithms suggest the optimal assignment of available elements for the desired configuration, considering user-defined constraints and optimisation criteria. In the test cases, we seek to optimise the global warming potential of timber framing elements, defined by life cycle assessment, though the tool is not limited to this objective. The implementation includes greedy algorithms, bipartite graphs, and mixed integer linear programming. The usefulness of the proposed solution is evaluated on simulated sets of building elements in terms of embodied emission reduction and speed of the calculation. The paper contributes with methodologies, algorithms, and test cases to assess their performance. Practitioners can apply the proposed solution to reduce the time of designing with salvaged materials, which can lead to the popularisation of the circular design.

Design for and from disassembly with timber elements: strategies based on two case studies from Switzerland

“…Moreover, a method was formulated in the present study to consider 2D slab elements, which is an extension of previous structurally integrated studies where only reticular structures, such as trusses and frames, were optimized. The optimization includes changes in the geometry according to the availability of reusable elements, which is an extension compared to the tool developed by Tomczak et al (2023).…”

“…Some examples of digital tools that enhance designs with reused elements and balance their environmental and economic impacts already exist (Brütting, 2020;Kim and Kim, 2020), but they have mainly been studied in the context of structural steel elements. Tomczak et al (2023) developed a matching algorithm that assigns reusable elements to a given design. However, their tool does not optimize the geometry of that design according to the element availability.…”

Systematic Mapping of Circular Economy in Structural Engineering

“…The remaining eight publications within Computational Design also address optimization [60,87], mixed-integer linear programming [88], and parametric design [89], in addition to techniques for non-standard elements [90][91][92], interlocking design [93], and design for rapid fabrication [94,95].…”

“…SC: [67] Upcycling SC: [55,56] Reuse SC: [85,96], CE: [79] CD: [61][62][63][64][65][87][88][89][90][91][92]97] CT: [20,[30][31][32]34] CD: [62,84], CE: [18,70,[73][74][75][76]78,80] CE: [98] General CE CT: [68] CT: [16] CE: [57], CT: [58,59], CD: [60] DfD and Reuse SC: [35] DfD CT: [94,95,99], CE: [71], SC: [66,[100][101][102] CD: [83,…”