Assessment of Reusability Potential of Reinforced Concrete as Waste Material via BIM: A Case Study of Office Building EMU Faculty of Architecture

Construction sector can be counted as the main problem of consuming resources and waste generation throughout the world (Zhang, C., et al., 2021). It has a negative impact on land deterioration, solid waste production, energy consumption, emission of gas, natural resource consumption (Lu, W., Yuan, H., 2011). As stated by the report by Environmental Protection Agency in 2017, 569 million tons of Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste was generated in the United States, however only 40% of C&D waste that comes from buildings is reused or recycled, while 35% of worldwide C&D waste sent to be landfilled. It is vital to understand that C&D waste has a great potential of reuse and recycling (Guerra, B. C., et al., 2020). C&D waste generation can be originated with man-made sources and nature-made sources. It can be accepted as public works construction and maintenance, building construction works, and building renovation and demolition works. Nature-made sources of C&D waste on the other hand, can be accepted as natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, and tsunamis (Menegaki, M. & Damigos, D., 2018). Research on C&D waste management has been conducted globally in an attempt to mitigate the harm that the construction sector causes. Building Information Modelling (BIM) has been increasingly effective and accepted construction methodology in recent years (Nikmehr, B., et al., 2021). BIM can be defined as a digital depiction of a facility’s functional and physical attributes (Kylili, A. & Fokaides, P. A., et al., 2015). According to the National Institute of Buildings Sciences (2014), a BIM model is shared knowledge resource that contains information about a structure that can be trusted as a reliable base for choices made through its lifecycle. BIM enables the integration of energy-efficient design into the evaluation of energy use over the building life cycle. Incorporating BIM technologies with Life Cycle Assessment methodology is one of the proposed strategies according to many academics, to analyze environmental consequences in the building sector (Najjar, M., et al., 2017). This thesis provides a literature review through the current situation of concrete as C&D waste material. It aims to understand the reusability and recyclability potential of reinforced concrete material that being used as structural elements by using visualizing it BIM program Autodesk Revit in corporation with One Click LCA program to achieve building circularity assessment. It concludes the study with interpretations for reusability and recyclability state of reinforced concrete material out of the results that obtained from One Click LCA building circularity report. The main aim is to compare the reuse, recycle, landfill options for reinforced concrete material of the selected case and give a sustainable solution for the projects to be demolished and reconstructed. Keywords: Building Circularity, Reinforced Concrete, Waste Concrete, Material Reuse, Building Information Modelling (BIM).