As dismissal of embodied carbon continues to exacerbate the climate crisis, how can architecture rethink construction sustainably?

A design research program dedicated to advancing the construction industry from linear material consumption to a circular economy, the Circular Construction Lab (CCL) was founded by Felix Heisel in 2020 at Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning. For CCL, circular construction involves activating the built environment as it currently exists for reuse and reconfiguration while designing and constructing buildings that can act as material depots for future assemblies.

At this lecture, Heisel expanded on circular construction and the reuse imperative, from CCL’s policy white paper on deconstruction for New York State to his work on residential prototypes designed for future disassembly across Europe.

A circularity-themed trader fair featuring New York–based organizations and vendors was held before the lecture! Details below.

Felix Heisel is an assistant professor and director of the Circular Construction Lab at Cornell’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning. His research, which has received numerous recognitions, including the German Green Solutions Award in 2020, explores the transformation of the built environment into a material depot for continuous reuse and reconfiguration. A licensed architect in Germany, Heisel is a partner at 2hs Architekten und Ingenieur PartGmbB, a practice focused on developing circular construction prototypes. Heisel studied architecture at the Berlin University of the Arts and has taught at the Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore, ETH Zürich, and Harvard University GSD, among other institutions.

This event was moderated by Gizem Karagoz, assistant vice president of green economy at the New York City Economic Development Corporation.

A circular construction and reuse trade fair preceded the lecture, at 5:30 p.m. in the downstairs lobby outside the auditorium. Participating organizations and vendors included:

• CO Adaptive Disassembly, a division of the design firm that specializes in material salvage and deconstruction

• Materials for the Arts, New York City’s largest reuse center that provides arts nonprofits, public schools, and city agencies with access to free, recycled art materials

• RECLAIM NYC, an interdisciplinary group that develops circular economy policy proposals for New York City’s construction and building removal industry

• Tri-Lox, a Brooklyn-based research, design, and fabrication studio dedicated to creating scalable, sustainable architectural surfaces and objects made from wood

• Vitra Circle, the Swiss furniture maker’s initiative to keep used Vitra furniture in circulation through buy-back and refurbishment