A historic under-supply of residential accommodation has meant that the UK now finds itself deep within a housing crisis, the results of which include increasing levels of homelessness and soaring house prices.
Building stocks represent an extensive reservoir of secondary resources. However, common stock characterisation methods are still not suitable to adequately inform circular economic strategies.
Reducing the demand for new materials and embodied carbon will be significant challenges that the construction sector faces in the coming decades. This research will build the evidence base to demonstrate the role the circular economy can have in tackling these challenges in construction, and provide the knowledge required to facilitate shifts in policy and practice.
The growth of cities simultaneously increases demand for construction material and results in strong inequalities of development. A systematic understanding of the material requirements to improve human living standards may become crucial in evaluating meaningful pathways towards sustainable development.
A historic under-supply of residential accommodation has meant that the UK now finds itself deep within a housing crisis, the results of which include increasing levels of homelessness and soaring house prices.
Cities have evolved as centres of economic growth but are also responsible for high resource consumption and greenhouse gases emission. In the urban metabolism framework, cities are often described as open systems where the intake of resources is heavily dependent on flows imported from the external environment to sustain economic growth.