New scenarios of integration between building circular design and heritage materials valorisation

Durability, adaptability, and reduction and valorization of waste are the main goal of the European guidelines on circular design of building. These objectives impose a real paradigm shift in design from the current on-ff logic to a continuum building design that includes preventive and planned maintenance, deconstruction design, selective demolition and up-cycling of materials and building components. In circular design, building is conceived as an organic whole of functional parts, which in turn can be broken down into construction materials. The integrated methodology of BIM and the Material Passport (BIM-MP) is the emerging digital tool both in the perspective of circular design and in the context of the sustainability of heritage conservation interventions. The digitalization of information with the support of BIM-MP tool enables the creation a digital passport for the construction and for single materials. It allows the construction modelling at different scales of detail, from individual components down to materials. The digital passport reports as generalities the initial performance characteristics and updates them during the whole life cycle by making "visas" that indicate transformations and variations of functions and performances. It gives an identity to each component of the construction, which at the end of its life becomes a repository of materials, opening urban mining scenarios that safeguard natural resources and reduce the amount of demolition waste. The provision of a compulsory Digital Product Passport in the European Union for building materials according to the recent Eco-design for Sustainable Products Regulation will foster the development and adoption of the BIM-MP methodology.