Design with Reuse in the Architectural Design Process: Practice-based Review of Changes, Challenges, and Work Routines

Kristina Viktoria Kröll^1*Torsten Schröder²Juliette Bekkering²Corentin Fivet³

• ¹Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, Netherlands
• ²Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, Eindhoven, Netherlands
• ³Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

The reuse of building components, despite its ecological importance, remains uncommon. A key reason is the misalignment between reuse requirements and conventional design processes, which rely on standardised materials. Architectural design engages with complex "wicked" problems, and reuse introduces uncertainties in availability, quality, and dimensions, complicating established workflows. Addressing the current research gap in systematic comparisons between reuse-oriented and standard processes, this paper identifies how reusing components affects material constraints, design modifications, and collaboration across design phases, highlighting design workflow changes and challenges encountered by architects in real-world projects. Employing a six-stage qualitative mixed-methods approach, the study combines semi-structured interviews with pioneering architects, graphic process mapping, and thematic analysis. (1) A review of standard processes and reuse challenges (2) refines research gaps. (3) Twelve interviews with architecture reuse practitioners guided by structured protocols and mental maps capture and (4) analyse workflow logics thematically. (5) Their comparison with standard processes leads to (6) the formalisation of three types of reuse integration: early, midway, and late integration, each with distinct work routines (proactive, iterative, and reactive) necessitating shifts in task sequencing, collaboration, and design logic. Integrating reuse necessitates rescheduling planning tasks, adapting design approaches to material availability, establishing roles such as demolition coordinators, and coordinating building and component-level processes. These changes are synthesised into comparative diagrams and a reuse-practice matrix, revealing how reuse workflows vary by phase and building layer, e.g., structure (early), façade (midway), interior (late). The study ultimately proposes a conceptual framework to differentiate various approaches to component reuse integration.