Construction and built environment in circular economy: A comprehensive literature review

Abstract

Circular Economy (CE) considers resources in a continuously cyclical way. Yet literature lacks a review of Construction and Built Environment (CBE) under CE. By presenting the first integrated review of Construction and Built environment in Circular Economy (CBECE), this study aims to (i) demonstrate development trends and diversity of CBECE literature, (ii) investigate the literature maturity, gaps, and understudied fields (iii) highlight key findings, critical reviews, and proposals. The study found that CBECE literature remains at an early stage despite recent growth in academic interest. 90% of CBECE literature was published between 2017–2020 with subject diversity increasing over the years. A substantial portion of the literature was conducted in China and published by the Journal of Cleaner Production. Based on a unique three-tier framework with Scale, Stage, and Subject dimensions, it is found that “Waste Valorization” and “CE Promotion and Transition” are the two most studied CBECE subjects while “Earth Construction” and “Decoupling” are the two least studied. “Material” and “Area” are the most and least studied built environment scales, respectively. “Operation” and “Design” are the most and least studied construction stages, respectively. “Waste Valorization” is the most studied CE subject in the “Material” scale at the “Construction” stage. No study was found for the “Area” scale at the stages of “Design”, “Manufacturing” and “End of Life”. Few studies were found for “Building” and “City” scales at the “Manufacturing” stage and “Area” scale at the “Planning” stage. The literature synthesis showed that the construction industry has been struggling to embrace CE principles. CBECE literature needs to consider the diversity of stakeholder type, motivation, and their influence on lifecycle stages. Flexible buildings with adaptive reuse and modularity help provide efficiency and health benefits when combined with CE principles. Cities in CE call for a system dynamics approach to understand urban transition under different policies and regulations. Finally, a new “R” principle (Replace) is proposed as a result of reviewing the literature under the existing 10 “R” CE principles.