An extensive database of Swiss building structures to predict the availability of materials and components

Predicting the availability and quantities of reusable components and recyclable materials is one of the challenges of a wider implementation of circular economy practices in construction. A detailed knowledge of the composition of past and current building construction typologies could facilitate these predictions. To this end, using Switzerland as the case study territory, a database containing drawings and construction information of existing or demolished buildings is assembled. Still growing, it currently comprises 104 building entries. The set of studied objects is bounded to residential, office, commercial, and regular industrial buildings, for all building years, and the focus is placed on structural components, from underground levels to the roof structure. Each building is digitalized into a custom building-information model (BIM) format, parameterized down to the level of panel composition, using a custom library of 125 parameters. Data is extracted from the models and used to calculate material intensity factors (MIF) and confirm the prevalence of reinforced concrete construction for building structures. The resulting MIF are coherent with values from the literature, thus confirming the accuracy of the database and the data extraction method. This new knowledge on Swiss buildings provides a sound and precise basis for stock prediction, which is expected to contribute to the upscaling of construction components reuse in new projects.