Circular Building - From vision to reality

A personal look at circular building

During her studies at TU Wien, Maria Hirnsperger first came into contact with the principles of resource-efficient construction. In her thesis on the revitalisation of school buildings, she explored the topic in greater depth and developed an understanding of how preserving existing structures and flexible structures can enable long-term sustainable architecture.

A decisive step in her professional development was her work on the Wilhelmsburg Town Hall district in Hamburg. This was the first time that a research project was entirely dedicated to circular building. The project marked a turning point, as it enabled the consistent application of principles such as material cycles, dismantlability and adaptive floor plans.

Today, she continues to apply these ideas in current projects, such as the demolition of a campus high-rise in Halle, where the aim is to separate materials by type and reuse them. For her, it is clear that circular construction does not begin on the building site, but already in the design phase, through planning that allows for conversion, conserves resources and takes the life cycle of a building into account.

Circular Building, holistically

Maria Hirnsperger highlights that circular building goes far beyond simply reusing materials. It encompasses building preservation, adaptive floor plans, social aspects, urban planning, user comfort and the integration of all planning disciplines, from architecture and structural engineering to building services. It describes how early involvement in the planning process is crucial for efficiently reusing materials, managing demolition processes and sustainably extending the service life of buildings.

Cicular Building: Challenges and solutions

kooperativen Prozessen mit Bauherrinnen, Bauherren und Partnern.
She also discusses practical obstacles, uncertainties regarding used materials, planning costs, lack of documentation in existing buildings and time pressure in construction projects. At the same time, she presents possible solutions, ranging from BIM integration and self-developed tools to cooperative processes with building owners and partners.

Key insight:

Circular building is an ongoing learning process. Goals may be ambitious, but even small steps lead to real progress. Exchange and knowledge transfer within the team and within the network are crucial for successfully implementing sustainable solutions.