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KEY CONCEPTS AROUND THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY AND THE AREAS OF URBANISM, ARCHITECTURE AND CONSTRUCTION
Inmaculada Bote Alonso, Beatriz Montalbán Pozas
Keywords: circular economy, urbanism, architecture, construction, concepts 1. Introduction
The Circular Economy (CE) is in full apogee, due to the international push that is taking as a measure in favor of sustainability. However, the same intensity that the concept is now experiencing makes it diffuse (Kirchherr et al., 2017). It is necessary to understand and delimit this concept to apply it later. In addition, in the areas of urbanism, architecture and construction, where it can be implemented from the point of view of the macro level, meso level and micro level respectively, another series of concepts arise from the concept of CE, such as those linked to cities, buildings or materials. On the one hand, policies -both at the national level (Ministerio de Agricultura y Pesca, Alimentación y Medio Ambiente, Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad. Gobierno de Spain., 2018) and international one (European Commission, 2014) - promote CE in these areas, but another research shows the need to continue developing knowledge in this conceptual space (Pomponi and Moncaster, 2017).
2. Materials and methods
In order to distinguish the key concepts around the CE and the areas of urbanism, architecture and construction, a literature search is carried out, employing both basic and updated in journals indexed through ScienceDirect and Web of Science, and publications of reference entities in CE such as Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
3. Results and conclusions
As a result, a conceptual framework is obtained in which the CE is the central point. Regarding the concept of CE, several authors that provide updated definitions are highlighted such as Kirchherr, Reike and Hekkert (2017) or Prieto Sandoval, Jaca and Ormazabal (2018). However, although the origins of the EC are based on Industrial Ecology (Iung and Levrat, 2014), from this concept other schools of thought related to the fields of study are developed (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2013), such as Cradle to Cradle, Performance Economy and Shearing Layers created by architects (Bote Alonso et al., 2018). In addition, following the line of the implementation of the CE at its various levels, emerge concepts such as the Circular City (CC) and from it emerge a series of principles (Prendeville, Cherim and Bocken, 2018) and objectives (Petit -Boix and Leipold, 2018), in addition to other associated concepts such as urban metabolism or the eco-city (Prendeville, Cherim and Bocken, 2018). In the medium level of architecture, Circular Buildings (CB) are included in few CE studies, but authors such as Pomponi and Moncaster (2017) provide a definition. At this meso level, other linked concepts also appear, such as green buildings. Regarding the micro level of materials, studies are generally carried out from a more technical point of view (Pomponi and Moncaster, 2017), although the term Circular Material (MC) is also mentioned in organizations such as Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2013). It is drawn as a conclusion the breadth of the concept of CE, as well as its application in the areas of urbanism, architecture and construction, besides the need to continue expanding and defining more precisely these concepts and this conceptual framework.
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