A BIM-based Building Circularity Assessment tool for the early design stage

Since Circular Economy (CE) has proved its contribution to improving environmental impacts in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry, assessment approaches of building circularity are required for designers to control the circularity of their projects in the early design phase. However, problems exist in current assessment tools applying CE for buildings. There should be different calculation methods for different design steps during the
whole process and the output of the tools needs to be simplified to meet the needs of users since the users of these tools may come from different majors and have little professional knowledge in CE. To solve these problems, this research develops a BIM-based Building Circularity Assessment (BCA) framework that uses an accurate calculation method and facilitates easy understanding. This framework can bring benefits to the design of the circular building by providing decision-making support.