Design for Disassembly

Design for Disassembly (DfD) is the act of planning for the repair, upgrade, adaptation, repurposing and reuse of buildings and their components. Although the life span of a building is generally longer than most products, they will end up being disposable if we don’t plan for their end-of-use. The generation of construction and demolition waste has enormous environmental, social and economic costs, all of which can be avoided by bringing the built environment into the circular economy. This course provides the skills to intervene at one of the most critical stages of a building’s life cycle, the design phase, to enable circularity. Case studies, industry standards and best practices will be drawn on to teach the principles of DfD. This course complements the Deconstruction and Construction Material Flow Analysis courses

Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to: 

• Apply DfD and ‘Cradle to Cradle’ (C2C) principles and strategies to building design
• Identify and incorporate products that follow DfD and C2C principles, especially salvaged materials, into your future building projects 
• Evaluate the degree to which a design meets DfD and C2C principles
• Interpret Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) reports and product disclosure statements to make informed product and material selection 
• Explain the business case for DfD, including advantages of adaptable and durable buildings, to building owners and other stakeholders
• Demonstrate how the standardization that is common in other industries can be applied in building construction to enable DfD
• Utilize CSA and ISO standards, and industry best practices to increase the ‘deconstructability’ of buildings and infrastructure​

Design for Deconstruction prepares design and construction professionals to enter the field of sustainability. This microcredential explores ways the building industry can cut carbon emissions, and contribute to the commitments of Canada’s 2025 net zero carbon targets.