Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
facilitate an increased reuse of the building components. The difference between
deconstruction and disassembly was debated at the “Deconstruction—closing the
loop” Conference held in 1999 at the Building Research Establishment (BRE): dis-
assembly is a process of taking apart components without damaging them, but not
necessarily to reuse them, while deconstruction is a process similar to disassem-
bly but with thought towards reusing the components (Hurley et al.
2001
). One of
the main barriers to deconstruction is that buildings are not designed to enable it.
Making construction easier—by means of a proper design and selection of build-
ing materials and technologies—can contribute to make deconstruction easier.
Guidelines for deconstruction (Table
2.1
) are already available and primarily con-
cerns with issues of handling, access, and prefabrication (Crowther
2000
).
Table 2.1
Principles of design for disassembly (DfD) as applied to buildings (Crowther
2000
)
1
Use recycled and recyclable materials
2
Minimize the number of types of materials
Avoid toxic and hazardous materials
3
4
Avoid composite materials and make inseparable products from the same material
5
Avoid secondary finishes to materials
Provide standard and permanent identification of material types
6
7
Minimize the number of different types of components
8
Use a minimum number of wearing parts
Use mechanical rather than chemical connections
9
10
Use an open building system with more freely interchangeable parts
11
Use modular design
Use assembly technologies compatible with standard building practice
12
13
Separate the structure from the cladding, the internal walls and the services
Provide access to all parts of the building and all components
14
Use components sized to suit the intended means of handling at all stages
15
16
Provide a means of handling components during disassembly
Provide adequate tolerance to allow for movement during disassembly
17
Minimize types of connectors
18
19
Design joints and connectors to withstand repeated assembly and disassembly
Use a hierarchy of disassembly related to expected life span of the components
20
Provide permanent identification for each component
21
22
Standardise the parts while allowing for an infinite variety of the building as a
whole
Use a standard structural grid
23
24
Use a minimum number of different types of components
Use prefabricated sub-assemblies
25
Use lightweight materials and components
26
27
Identify point of disassembly permanently
Provide spare parts and storage for them
28
Retain information on the building manufacture and its assembly process
29
