Digital and responsive systems for construction supply chain integration and construction circular economy

• Construction Productivity Framework (CPF)
• Digital supply chain and circular economy in construction
• ‘Kit-of-Parts’ Platform for Affordable Housing.
• MICRO-BODD for Building Operations and Defect Detection
• Digital circular economy models in the construction industry
• 3D printed parametric design for Indigenous housing.
• Lifecycle performance of steel and timber for residential projects
• Digital passports interface in BIM for reuse of construction materials
• Mass customization configurator
• Digital rehearsal framework for construction project planning

Research:

Due to its size and scale, the construction sector has been a major polluter contributing to 12% of energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in Canada. To decarbonize the industry, circular economy strategies have received increasing attention to reduce, recycle, and reuse materials, however, to effectively balance construction site needs with circular material flows, new knowledge is required in

1. Construction material information integration,
2. Circular supply chain network modeling
3. Data-driven decision-making methods for sustainable construction production.

This research program will advance our basic understanding of construction with a long-term vision of developing fundamental knowledge in digital and sustainable construction to improve the quality of the built environment and achieve decarbonization via innovating construction supply chain processes. The proposed program will pursue digital and responsive systems for advancing supply chain integration and circular economy in the construction industry. This will be achieved through three short-term research objectives:

1. building fully integrated parametric information models that for the first time incorporate material circularity information and real-time construction site installation progress;
2. designing new supply chain network models that solve the challenges in linked data integration to enable realistic supply chain mapping and accurate quantification of circular suppliers’ capabilities; and
3. advancing supply chain scheduling models by creating intelligence in synchronizing decisions on circular material production and installation to reduce material waste.