Evaluation of the potential for building recovery at the end of its useful life: case of a federal institution of higher education

Abstract:

This work aims to present a methodology to evaluate the potential for the recovery of buildings that, due to the end of their useful life, are subject to adjustments. To this end, the scope of the study included the on-site monitoring of the rehabilitation process of a medium-sized building, built in the 1950s, belonging to a Federal Institution of Higher Education (IFES) located in the city of Curitiba, PR. The strategy outlined was participatory research (PP), combined with the technique of participant observation (OP). The results obtained demonstrated a recovery potential of 90.04%. In addition, 35.7 m³ of waste was not disposed of in landfills, equivalent to 7% of the building’s volume. This amount was partly due to the successful unbundling operations, mainly deconstruction and dismantling. In addition, the procedures defined in this research seek to increase the useful life of existing buildings and mitigate the problem of landfill overload. Finally, the proposed methodology can be applied to small to medium-sized buildings in interventions that aim at adjustments, such as rehabilitation works, retrofit, or reforms

Keywords:
reuse; deconstruction; lifespan; end-of-life scenarios; construction waste