Design for deconstruction in old reinforced concrete structures in Turkey

Abstract

Paper presented at the XXXIII IAHS World Congress on Housing, 27-30 September 2005,"Transforming Housing Environments through Design", University of Pretoria.

The aim of this study is to give an overview of the reinforced concrete structures increasing rapidly in Turkey and to expose the lack of the demolition practices by pointing out economic, management and organisational aspects relating to deconstruction. For the future economic and ecological conditions in Turkey, today’s buildings should be preserved, refurbished, reused or broken down into salvageable and reusable components rather than demolished at the end of their useful life. It is possible that buildings design for deconstruction will have the greatest value. In this study, a deconstruction planning model is developed according to the existing deconstruction system in Turkey and the design processes which constitute this deconstruction planning model are identified and described. Furthermore, to encourage legislatives to design for deconstruction, its supporting goals are such as the rapid removal of the building from the site, reduction in environmental, health and safety stress for workers, easy access to components and materials, material recovery with high efficiency of reuse and recycling and eliminating toxicity in buildings materials are mentioned. As a result, deconstruction, the systematic taking apart of a building for the purpose of materials reuse as opposed to destructive demolition, is not a new concept, but it has not previously been the topic of research in Turkey. This study presents the current state of building deconstruction in Turkey and a deconstruction planning model is developed for the purpose of the future deconstruction activities.