The Design for Disassembly approach holds promise for enhancing the economic and environmental performance of buildings

Researchers at Tampere University have completed a project titled Design for Disassembly (DfD) Ecosystem, demonstrating that buildings designed for easy disassembly may provide a cost-effective alternative to conventional demolition at the end of their life cycle – provided that the value of the recovered components is sufficiently high. Based on their findings, disassembly is marginally profitable if the value of the recovered components amounts to approximately 57% of the cost of new components. This leaves 43% to cover the costs associated with the sale and storage of these components.

“If the building owner reuses the recovered components in a subsequent construction project, the financial benefits are greater and the overall profitability of reuse improves significantly,” says the Principal Investigator of the project, Professor Arto Saari of Tampere University.

The researchers also assessed the climate impact of the buildings over their entire life cycle. They found that the carbon footprint of a DfD building is slightly smaller than that of a timber-framed block of flats and significantly smaller than that of a conventional concrete-framed block of flats. In both cases, the calculations were based on two new buildings.

Saari emphasises that the results are based on experimental design, computational analyses and assumptions regarding the labour required for disassembly. Broader conclusions are still pending, as the disassembly of building components is currently being tested in the recently launched DfD Mockups project, which is conducted in collaboration between EcoFellows and Tampere University.

Promising results and further research

The DfD Ecosystem project focused on two buildings in Helsinki: a two-storey daycare centre and a six-storey residential block of flats. Both buildings are concrete-framed structures built according to conventional construction practices. 

The project builds on earlier work presented in a research article included in Tuomo Joensuu’s doctoral dissertation. The article, published in Sustainable Cities and Societies in 2022, demonstrates the long-term environmental benefits of DfD-based construction. A further article, titled Design-for-Disassembly Principles for Apartment Blocks – Experimental Design in a Finnish Housing Project, was published in the Journal of Cleaner Production in 2026. It demonstrates, for the first time through computational analysis, that the general design principles set out in the ISO 20887 standard effectively support the serial production, standardisation and reuse rates of concrete elements. As these factors affect the reuse value of components recovered intact, they also influence the economic viability of deconstruction.

“Currently, a range of factors related to the overall design of buildings – such as case-specific dimensions, customised elements, openings for building services, extensive cast-in-place construction and the installation of heavy structures – significantly reduce the reuse potential of components. To date, research on DfD has primarily focused on developing easily reversible connections, resulting in notable progress in this area. However, it is becoming increasingly important to also consider the reuse value of building components as the key factor in determining the economic viability of non-destructive disassembly. This approach also supports more intelligent construction practices,” says Tuomo Joensuu. 

The DfD Ecosystem project has established a strong foundation for the development of a circular economy ecosystem for reusable concrete building elements in Finland. In addition to advancing design principles and conducting computational analyses, the researchers developed data management approaches for DfD elements as well as examined business models and the role of public organisations.

According to Saari, the project provided particularly valuable insights into the direction of future research. “Although the findings support the reuse of concrete elements, further research is still required,” he notes. 

The DfD Ecosystem project received funding from Business Finland for the period 2023–2026 and involved researchers specialising in construction management and economics and structural engineering at Tampere University. External partners included Peikko Group oy, Parma oy, Sweco Finland oy, the City of Helsinki and the City of Tampere (Hiedanranta Development Programme). The researchers also collaborated with the Aarhus School of Architecture, Denmark. 

The final report of the DfD Ecosystem project is available in Finnish in Trepo, the open-access institutional repository of Tampere University. 

Read more about the DfD Ecosystem project.