The Re-Use Atlas

Preface

Professor Walter R Stahel, Architect and Founder-Director of the Product-Life Institute, Geneva

Reuse and the Circular Economy

I AM FORTUNATE TO LIVE in a house that was built in 1756 – at least that is the age of the purlins, small trees that were cut and immediately put on the roof in those days. So the reuse and repair of building stock, with periodic remanufacturing and technological upgrading of key components, is something I have been familiar with for 40 years. As with any old building, the house has a ‘soul’, a unique character, which first had to be discovered and then protected in any refurbishment – a continued challenge as the legal environment changes.

The term ‘use’, and the optimisation of the use or utilisation of manufactured ...