Economic and Environmental Assessment of Deconstruction Strategies Using Building Information Modeling

Deconstruction significantly increases sustainability of the construction industry by shifting the traditional linear material usage model to a cyclical model in which building components are designed to be demountable, reusable and recyclable. A successful deconstruction strategy requires an elaborate planning at the design stage as well as clear strategies during demolition stage, describing the way each section of a building should be treated. However, a typical building comprises thousands of components with different unique properties. This leads to a huge amount of information that needs to be preserved and processed to achieve a successful deconstruction strategy. The development of various building information modeling (BIM) software as well as the international data exchange schemes such as IFC have recently facilitated the storage and processing of such information. The present study looks into the possible applications of BIM in recycling and re-use of construction materials and building components. A framework is developed for choosing the best deconstruction strategy by analyzing the information stored in BIM database. The results of a case study are presented to validate the procedures developed.