CIRCULAR1st: Smart Automation for Prioritizing Sustainable and CIRCULAR Building Solutions in EARLY Design Stages

Expected Impacts

IMPACT

The CIRCULAR1st project is expected to deliver impacts across scientific and technical, social, and economic dimensions:

Scientific and technical

  • Advance circular construction by defining standardised metrics for circularity assessment across environmental, social, and economic dimensions;
  • Leverage real-world data and machine learning to develop a predictive framework for prioritising building products;
  • Demonstrate the value of data-driven decision-making for improving sustainability in construction practices;
  • Integrate immersive technologies (e.g., virtual reality) and digital building logbooks to enhance stakeholder collaboration and transparency;
  • Validate the prioritisation model in real-world scenarios to ensure robustness and practical applicability;
  • Support decarbonisation strategies by linking predictive models to holistic sustainability objectives;
  • Drive interdisciplinary innovation at the intersection of circularity, data science, and advanced visualisation;
  • Provide replicable frameworks to inform policy, industry practice, and future research in sustainable construction.

Social

  • Promote inclusive decision-making through collaborative tools (e.g., VR interfaces) that improve transparency and engagement;
  • Strengthen social equity by embedding social criteria within circularity metrics, ensuring product prioritisation reflects community well-being;
  • Contribute to healthier living environments by supporting the selection of materials that reduce environmental and health risks;
  • Empower professionals and communities with standardised, data-driven methods that enable informed choices aligned with sustainability goals;
  • Support skills development and employment in emerging areas such as circular construction, data science, and immersive technologies;
  • Build public trust by evidencing measurable improvements in environmental, social, and economic outcomes.

Economic

  • Cost optimisation: enable more efficient resource allocation by prioritising products with higher circularity potential, reducing waste, and life-cycle costs;
  • Market competitiveness: increase the value, and uptake of sustainable construction materials and innovative circular solutions;
  • Risk reduction: mitigate costs linked to non-compliance, and help future-proof projects against evolving sustainability requirements;
  • Productivity gains: streamline workflows and decision processes via data-driven frameworks and machine-learning models;
  • Economic growth: stimulate investment and job creation in the circular economy and advanced construction technologies.