Circular Contemporary Heritage. Design experimentations on conservation and reuse aiming at material resource efficiency and decarbonization

Starting from concepts such as refurbishment, reuse, recycling and superuse, and implementing the life cycle approach to the built heritage, the paper illustrates the results of a research activity that has collected, analyzed, classified and interpreted a wide framework of case studies, with the aim of systematically defining the concept of Circular Contemporary Heritage. The case studies have been assessed by mapping the flows of resources (water, energy, materials) which have been treated with circularity strategies in the renovation/adaptive reuse projects, and analyzing in particular the secondary materials and components adopted, with the relative material efficiency strategies and the identification of their final use. The research methodology is structured into seven steps, which led not only to the definition of mappings useful to understand contemporary design trends, but also to define 5 Circular Strategic Approaches. For each approach, some international case studies have been selected as significant design experiments, more or less established. The work has led to an initial definition of Contemporary Circular Heritage, based on the results of the case study framework thus defined, starting from the consideration that recovery and adaptive reuse of the existing heritage is a sustainable, life cycle-oriented design approach. This made it possible to understand the conservation project as a complex, creative and contemporary action, consistent with the principles of circularity, preservation and valorization.