Catherine De Wolf’s talk, “Digital Management of the Circular Building Economy,” is now available
Prof. Catherine De Wolf speaks about the mission of the CEA lab and recent PhD projects in CEA at this talk presented at the Yale Architecture symposium “Building a Planetary Solution: Regenerative Architectural Strategies for a Planet in Crisis.”
On 21. February 2025, Catherine De Wolf participated in the panel “End of Waste? Circular Economic Substitutions / New Raw Material” at the Yale Architecture symposium “Building a Planetary Solution: Regenerative Architectural Strategies for a Planet in Crisis.” The symposium brought together leading thinkers from architecture, engineering, climate science, and industrial ecology to explore regenerative strategies for the construction sector.
De Wolf’s talk, “Digital Management of the Circular Building Economy,” introduced the driving question of the CEA lab: How can digital management upscale circular construction? Using examples of research in the CEA lab, De Wolf presented technology for all stages of the circular economy: audit, disassembly, design with reuse, and reassembly. Highlighted projects include predicting patterns of reuse using GIS and image-based data (Deepika Raghu); using point clouds, machine learning, and computer vision to design robots that make disassembly safer and more automated (Zain Karsan); tracking and tracing materials using digital passports (Brandon Byers); and training generative AI to aid the creative process (Vanessa Schwarzkopf).
The full panel can be viewed at external page https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4zam6So1Dw.
The Chair of Circular Engineering for Architecture (CEA) develops research on matching reused architectural materials with people and projects through digitalization for a circular built environment. For more information visit our webpage.