Integrating Circular Economy and Constructability Research: An Initial Development of a Lifecycle "Circularity" Assessment Framework and Indicators

Hitherto, the Circular Economy (CE) in construction literature has lacked a holistic framework for assessing the "circularity" of construction activities. This has delayed full transition of the construction industry to CE. The 'Lifecycle "Circularity" Assessment Framework (LCAF)' proposed in this paper presents a significant contribution as it facilitates measuring the industry's transition to CE through twelve “circularity” indicators (CIs) that signify high-level requirements of a construction CE. Grouped in five themes relevant to different stages of a project lifecycle, these indicators assess the "circularity" of construction activities, rather than of tracking their casual links with individual CE concepts. A systematic review assessed “circularity” within the ‘constructability’ literature, as both ‘constructability’ and CE share a philosophical focus on resource value, using the proposed framework. Results revealed a weak, but increasing, association between CE and ‘constructability’, and a variable engagement with different CE themes and indicators. The literature has engaged with indicators that fall inside its comfort zone, i.e., those related to design and construction. This misses the opportunities offered through engaging with other, more challenging, CE themes and indicators providing directions for future research. Moreover, the proposed framework reshapes the relationship between CE and sustainability, 'flipping' the traditional view of CE being subordinate to sustainability. It also has a potential to extend into rating "circularity" by construction firms/projects to identify areas of good practice and those for “circularity” improvements.