ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Built Environ.
Sec. Construction Management
This article is part of the Research TopicEmbracing Circularity in Building Retrofitting for Sustainable TransformationView all 6 articles
Redefining façade renovation studies: ten building blocks from ten case studies to reuse façade products
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Architectural Engineering, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
- 2Bureau Bouwtechniek, Antwerp, Belgium
- 3VITO Nexus, Flemish Institute for Technological Research, Mol, Belgium
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Circularity is increasingly recognized as a strategy for sustainable façade renovation. However, actual reuse of façade products remains rare, limited to pioneering projects that overcame recurring challenges. This paper analyzes ten recent façade renovation projects to identify actionable levers (i.e. actions, considerations and process tools to overcome recurring challenges) enabling reuse. Through qualitative coding of actions observed in the case studies, we distilled 30 levers into ten building blocks that should guide practitioners. In addition, the documentation of the case studies in ten project sheets could inspire practitioners and could serve as a starting point for other researchers using different lenses. Together, our findings contribute a practical framework to shift from a tabula rasa approach to façade renovations to one that values existing products.
Keywords: Case studies, circularity, Façade, feasibility, Levers, reuse, study process
Received: 20 Oct 2025; Accepted: 15 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Van Vooren, Geboes and Galle. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ruben Van Vooren
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