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Curricular information is subject to change
On completion of the module, students should be able to
1. Identify specific consequences of material choices and potentials within design
2. Understand meaning and value of construction materials within the framework of the sustainability mandate
3. Understand relevance of construction materials to the design process
4. Demonstrate knowledge of practical and innovative construction techniques
Designing for Disassembly & Reuse (DfDR)
The World Bank has projected that global timber demand may quadruple by 2050, representing a growing threat to the sustainable management of the world’s forest resources if virgin resources alone are to fulfill this demand. This makes the reuse of timber products increasingly important. The recent EU Circular Economy Action Plan proposed revising material recovery targets set in EU legislation for construction and demolition waste, the introduction of recycled content requirements for certain construction products, and promoting measures to improve the durability and adaptability of buildings and developing digital logbooks for buildings to track material use and reuse.
Timber recovered from the demolition of buildings in Ireland is currently chipped and used either for energy generation in Northern Ireland, reconstituted into pallets, or land-filled. A number of issues hinder the recapture of timber for reuse as a building product, including the absence of grading guidelines and lack of a market for salvaged timber. There are also difficulties in dismantling buildings to salvage timber and the difficulty of embedded nails, screws or indeed glues or other chemicals which can restrict its reuse. Architects have a role to play in addressing these last issues, as how we design a building to be assembled will impact how easy it is to disassemble.
This semester we will review the theories and practice on Designing for Disassembly & Reuse (DfDR), and make small design studies on how to a building could be designed to optimize recovery of its timber components for reuse.
Student Effort Type | Hours |
---|---|
Lectures | 16 |
Practical | 10 |
Field Trip/External Visits | 8 |
Specified Learning Activities | 60 |
Autonomous Student Learning | 30 |
Total | 124 |
Not applicable to this module.
Description | Timing | Component Scale | % of Final Grade | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Group Project: Working in teams of 2-3 students, a design project will be undertaken to investigate Designing for Disassembly & Reuse (DfDR) including a disassembly plan | Throughout the Trimester | n/a | Graded | No | 40 |
Essay: Each student will select one of the research papers listed on Brightspace to summarize for the class.. | Week 4 | n/a | Graded | No | 10 |
Assignment: Participation in peer-reviewing 2 of your colleagues work on the Essay project. This will be graded as either Complete (A+) or Incomplete (NM). | Week 4 | n/a | Graded | No | 5 |
Presentation: Presentation of DfDR Design Project | Week 6 | n/a | Graded | No | 10 |
Group Project: Final Research Report: Summarizing design study outcomes and reflection on discourse on DfDR | Week 12 | n/a | Graded | No | 25 |
Presentation: Each student will present their case study findings to the class. | Week 4 | n/a | Graded | No | 10 |
Resit In | Terminal Exam |
---|---|
Summer | No |
• Feedback individually to students, on an activity or draft prior to summative assessment
• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Peer review activities
• Self-assessment activities
Students will participate in a Peer-Review Pilot (5% of grade) on the Essay project involving both peer-review and self-assessment, though this will not influence the grade of the essay assigned by the Module Coordinator. Written feedback on the essay after submission will be provided by the Module Coordinator. Continuous feedback will be provided on the design project prior to assessment. Following assessment written feedback will be provided by the Module Coordinator.