Motivations and Manifestations of the Circular Economy
October 13, 2026

12 pm – 1 pm

1 HSW Pending

Speaker: Purva Chawla Jain

Description: Participants examine how material extraction, construction, operation, renovation, and disposal contribute to embodied carbon, pollution, resource depletion, and climate change. Understanding these impacts enables architects to make design decisions that reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and support healthier, more resilient communities throughout a building’s life cycle. The session also examines the circularity hierarchy, from adaptive reuse and building-component reuse to recycling and uses built precedents to evaluate the consequences of these strategies. Architects will learn to assess how retaining buildings and materials can reduce construction waste, avoid impacts associated with new material production, and conserve resources while meeting project needs. This knowledge supports architects’ responsibility to protect the public by considering the long-term environmental, social, and economic effects of the buildings they design.