Al-Qazzaz, Ihab
(2025)
BIM-based building circularity assessment for sustainable construction.
PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.
Abstract
The construction industry consumes 50% of raw materials and is responsible for 35% of the waste generated in the European Union. Traditional building design strategies are based on an unsustainable linear model. Therefore, to tackle these issues, there is an urgent need in the construction industry to transition from a linear to a circular economy.
The emergence of building information modelling (BIM) has supported decision-making processes and can be used to overcome barriers to a circular economy, such as building circularity assessment (BCA), material passport (MP), and material bank. BIM can manage the information embedded in a building, from its early design stage to end-of-life. However, current approaches either focus on geometric data extraction or address only circularity without sustainability considerations. To the author's knowledge, current BIM tools do not provide a comprehensive assessment for effectively supporting decision-making, and no approach simultaneously considers circularity and sustainability trade-offs in early-stage decision-making, informing design decisions at various levels. This thesis investigates how BIM can be leveraged to simultaneously assess building circularity and sustainability at the early design stage for informed decision-making.
This thesis proposes a novel framework that integrates technical circularity (CE indicators) and sustainability by life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA), combining Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC), Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), and Building Information Modelling (BIM) for a comprehensive assessment of design choices to select the ideal solution. The originality of the framework lies in its calculation of circularity and sustainability simultaneously from a lifecycle perspective at various levels of building composition. The thesis contributes to research and knowledge by advancing circularity assessment through the proposal of a novel circularity assessment model, the Predictive Whole Building Circularity Indicator (PWBCI). This model incorporates reusability assessment of building components and combines mathematical modelling, rule-based, and probabilistic approaches to predict end-of-life scenarios. The thesis identifies the required information for the assessment to be included in the BIM model, and it also extends BIM semantics by developing a “Circularity” data dictionary published within the buildingSMART Data Dictionary (bSDD) service.
The implementation of the proposed framework is presented in a prototype tool (BIMCircular) in the form of a plugin that was developed within Autodesk Revit using C#, API, and databases. The presented tool functions as a decision support system (DSS) for comparing and making trade-offs between different aspects (technical circularity, environmental, and economic sustainability indicators) of different design options during the early design stages of buildings. The tool aims to support the selection of the ideal solution among design options for a more circular and sustainable alternative. The developed prototype enriches the BIM model with circularity information, automates the assessment, visualises results through 3D colour-coded models and dashboards, and provides decision-making support via multi-criteria decision analysis -Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). It also supports traceability through digital circular material passports (CPM) aligned with the EU Level(s) framework and QR codes. Additionally, it is connected to a material bank, serving not only for documentation to facilitate the reuse of components but also for the design with reusable materials.
Evaluation is conducted using a simulated case study, demonstrating the framework’s ability to inform early-stage design decisions, provide trade-off analysis, and visualise results within the BIM environment. The evaluation confirmed the tool’s functionality and applicability.
The research concludes that BIM can be leveraged as a data repository by incorporating circularity and sustainability information, facilitating the automation of assessments and generating a material passport and data traceability. The study emphasises the significance of comprehensive assessment and MCDA in informing design decision-making and identifying ideal design options at the early design stage.
The results of implementing the framework demonstrate that BIM-based circularity and sustainability assessments facilitate informed decision-making by identifying the most circular and sustainable materials for buildings. It is hoped that this will be useful for designers to gain more informed insights into the circularity and sustainability performance of their alternative design solutions, thereby raising awareness about circularity and sustainability among designers. Moreover, it will contribute positively to optimising material use and resources efficiently, building stock decarbonisation, and a step toward a twin transition of a sustainable circular economy and digitalisation.
| Item Type: |
Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
(PhD)
|
| Supervisors: |
Osorio-Sandoval, Carlos Arturo
Tokbolat, Serik
Thermou, Georgia |
| Keywords: |
Building Information Modelling, Building Circularity Assessment, Circular Economy, Material Passport, Sustainability, Multi-Criteria Decision-Making |
| Subjects: |
T Technology > TH Building construction |
| Faculties/Schools: |
UK Campuses > Faculty of Engineering > Department of Civil Engineering |
| Item ID: |
82772 |
| Depositing User: |
Al-Qazzaz, Ihab
|
| Date Deposited: |
09 Dec 2025 04:40 |
| Last Modified: |
09 Dec 2025 04:40 |
| URI: |
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/82772 |
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