The open access book “A Circular Built Environment in the Digital Age” published on 4 January 2024, includes a chapter with co-funding from the ICEBERG Project
The book chapter was published earlier this year with co-funding from the ICEBERG Project. The authors are Joana Dos Santos Gonçalves, Wai Chung Lam and Michiel Ritzen form VITO (partner of the ICEBERG Project).
Digital Building Logbooks (DBLs) are digital repositories of building-related data gathered throughout the full life cycle of a building. DBLs help increase transparency and access to information during the design, construction, operation, and end-of-life phase of a building. They thereby facilitate an efficient and cost-effective transition to a zero energy and circular built environment.
DBLs could slow down resource loops by extending the service life of buildings through better coordination of maintenance and repair and close resource loops by promoting adaptability and reuse of the whole building and/or its components with multi-cycle approaches.
This chapter analyses examples of DBLs developed in five countries to show that they are useful tools at different life stages of the building and for different stakeholders (homeowners, property managers, or building professionals). Challenges for establishing DBLs as a central tool for a circular built environment lie in improving the user experience and ease of implementation; enhancing interoperability; and effectively collecting, managing, and transforming data into actionable information for the management, maintenance, and reuse at building and district levels.
