Circular economy in architectural design as a contribution to reach the SDGs goals : processes, opportunities and strategies of C&D urban processes

The purpose of this paper is to throw light on the ways in which circular economy principles applied to the European architectural field can significantly enrich urban area sustainability, contributing to several of the goals identified by the United Nations, and to identifying the emerging obstacles needing to be addressed.The firstsection explores the strategies designed to enhance resource efficiency in the building sector and analyses how reuse processes foster positive outcomes in several fields concerning SDGs, according to various sustainability perspectives and application scales. The second section of the paper describes reuse process outcomes in architecture, highlighting the related opportunities and the barriers preventing these strategies from succeeding. It will illustrate reuse design project phases and stakeholders andtheir workflowsin detail, applied both at the single building scale and at the urban level, leading to the identification of priority areas to improve in order to increase the effectiveness of these practices.By discussing the legal, market and governance improvements required, this analysis will suggest actions to be undertaken in order to enhance building element reuse as a sustainable architectural strategy.