FY2004 OSWER Innovation Pilot Results Fact Sheet
v>EPA
Desisn for Disassembly
in the Built Environment
The Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Solid Waste and
Emergency Response initiated a series of innovative pilot projects to test
ideas and strategies for improved environmental and public health results.
This series of fact sheets highlights the innovative approaches, results, and
environmental and economic benefits from the pilot projects that may be
replicated across various sectors, industries, communities, and regions.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION/INNOVATION
EPA awarded an Innovation grant to the Community Housing
Resource Center (CHRC) to extend the design for disassembly
(DfD) concept to the construction of residential housing, if
properly applied, a DfD building vastly reduces waste at the end
of life and even prolongs the life of a building by allowing for
changes, Though the DfD concept had been used in commercial
building applications where adaptable and movable space is
preferred, this concept was completely new to residential homes.
The project sought to: formulate innovative DfD principles,
design and build a case study house, document research and
results, and promote the incorporation of these principles into
future housing design,
BACKGROUND
In 2002, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated that 60 percent
of all materials flow in the U.S. economy (excluding food and
fuel) is consumed by the construction industry. Preliminary
estimates from the EPA in 2003 showed that 91 percent of all
construction-related waste produced annually in the U.S. was a
result of renovations and demolitions, representing as much as
30 percent of all waste produced in the U.S. Of the total building-
related waste generated, EPA estimated that only 40 percent was
reused, recycled, or sent to waste-to-energy facilities, while the
remaining 60 percent was sent to landfills.
In Toward a New Metropolis: The Opportunity to Rebuild
America, a discussion paper prepared for The Brookings
Institution Metropolitan Policy Program in 2004, it was estimated
that the total built space in this country will grow from 296 billion
square feet in 2000 to 427 billion square feet in 2030. Of this
growth, 82 billion square feet of building will come from the
replacement of existing building space and 131 billion will be new
construction, totaling 213 billion square feet of new built space.
This estimate means that 27 percent of existing buildings in
2000 will be replaced by 2030, and that more than 50 percent
of buildings in 2030 will have been built since 2000. Instead of
construction materials ending up as waste once these building
outlive their usefulness, DfD can be incorporated to recover
them from new construction, future renovations and removals.
Building an average single-family home generates
between 10,000-25,000 pounds of construction and
demolition debris. Yet, fewer than eight 30-gallon
garbage bags were filled with debris during the
yearlong construction of the three bedroom, 2.5 bath,
3,000 square foot DfD model house.
This case study led to the development of the best
practices toolkit for DfD in residential construction,
Design for Disassembly in the Built Environment: A
Guide for Closed-Loop Design and Building.
The pilot project served as a learning tool for testing
the viability of DfD in the market, both by working with
a traditional construction company and by selling the
home on the open real estate market.
Based on the pilot's success, EPA granted the
Community Housing Resource Center $100,000 for
an additional DfD home,
If residential housing designed from 2000 to 2050 allows for
recovery of just 25 percent of construction debris, the resulting
materials would be enough for nearly two-thirds of the housing
units built during the following 50 years.
PROJECT SUMMARY
In 2004, the Community Housing Resource Center (CHRC),
working in conjunction with the Hamer Center for Community
Design Assistance at Pennsylvania State University and EPA
Region 4, assembled a group of industry experts for a two-day
design meeting in Atlanta. Georgia to develop a design plan for
the case study home based on DfD principles. The meeting led
to the development of a model for residential DfD construction
projects called the "Anywhere House."
Prior to finalizing the design plan, a project site in Atlanta
was selected for the DfD case study home—an undeveloped
lot located in a dense urban setting within the historic Martin

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Luther King, Jr. District. The nearby King Memorial, shops and
restaurants added to the sustainability of the project as a viable
home site, and created the potential for a pedestrian friendly
urban lifestyle.
Based on the Anywhere House model, construction of the two-story,
3,000 square foot DfD residential home began in spring 2006 and
was completed in June 2006. The pilot documented all research,
design, and case study results. In addition, the project team created
educational materials promoting the green approach for residential
building design and conducted outreach that included discussions
with representatives from the American Institute of Architects'
Committee on the Environment, the Used Building Materials
Association, and the U.S. Green Building Council.
RESULTS
The Pilot formulated design for disassembly (DfD) principles
to design and build the first known residential DfD case study
home, demonstrating that residential homes can be designed
both for increased longevity and for future disassembly and
building material reuse. Though DfD was a new concept in
residential housing, the model DfD home was constructed
with current building materials and using conventional building
methods. Choosing to work within accepted trade practices and
with convenient materials allowed the pilot case study method to
be easily replicated and spread throughout the industry without
calling for large-scale changes in residential construction methods.
The case study home featured DfD elements such as
repositionable interior walls, which can be removed and relocated
without creating any waste or compromising structural integrity;
and a disentangled Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning
(HVAC) system, in which the HVAC system is split into two
smaller pumps for heating and air conditioning, one for each
floor. This HVAC approach reduces the size of the units and the
necessary ductwork, and eliminates the typical entanglement of
ducts in the structural core of the second floor, where it would be
sealed in by drywall finishes or the sub-floor. This design means
that interior wall modifications are less invasive and more easily
completed.
The home also included DfD features that focused on the use
of green building materials, such as structural insulated panel
(SIP) walls made from agricultural fiber that provide a renewable
framing and insulating alternative to foam core and wall-to-wall
bamboo flooring. Bamboo is not only less expensive and more
resilient than typical wood flooring, but it also takes only a few
years to reach maturity and can be harvested again and again
from the same plant. In addition, the bamboo flooring was
installed before the interior walls, which means the floors will not
need to be re-patched when walls are moved.
Lead: Community Housing Resource Center
Sponsor: U.S. EPA Region 4
Other Partners:
•	Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems
•	Design AVEnues
•	EHDD Architects
•	Hamer Center for Community Design at Pennsylvania
State University
•	Georgia Department of Natural Resources
OSWER Innovation Projects:
www.epa.gov/oswer/iwg/pilots/
OSWER Innovation Deconstruction Success Story:
www.epa.gov/oswer/iwg/
EPA Resource Conservation Challenge -
Environmentally Friendly Design:
www.epa.gov/osw/rcc/resources/elements/design.htm
EPA Region 4 Construction and Demolition Debris:
www.epa.gov/region4/waste/rcra/cdhome.htm
City of Mesa, AZ Household Hazardous Waste
Collection Events: www.mesaaz.gov/waste/HHW.aspx
Lifecycle Building Challenge - Resources:
www.lifecyclebuilding.org/resources.php
2010 UPDATE
The Design for Deconstruction principles developed through
the DfD pilot have had far-reaching impacts—becoming widely
recognized templates for architects, engineers, academia, and
other stakeholders. These principles were used to formulate the
design of the Chartwell School in Seaside, California, a project
that incorporated deconstruction methods such as modular
framing and visible utility networks. The momentum for DfD
practices created by this pilot also led to creation of the Life Cycle
Building Challenge, an annual competition for innovative projects
that conserve construction and demolition materials and reduce
greenhouse gas emissions by designing buildings for adaptability
and disassembly. In addition, the Center for High Performance
Schools in California, which oversees the nation's first green
building rating program for K-12 schools, added DfD criteria to
its rating system based on both the DfD pilot and the Chartwell
School project.
A	United States
Environmental Protection
* m Agency
OSWER Innovation Pilot Results Fact Sheet — July 2010
Design for Disassembly in the Built Environment

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