Current Work: Toward Circular Construction, with Felix Heisel

The founder of Cornell’s Circular Construction Lab will discuss the built environment as a material depot for reuse and reconfiguration.

Current Work is a lecture series featuring leading figures in the worlds of architecture, urbanism, design, and art.

Event details

As dismissal of embodied carbon—emissions generated during the manufacturing, transportation, and installation of building materials—continues to exacerbate the climate crisis, how can architecture rethink construction sustainably?

A design research program dedicated to advancing the construction industry from linear material consumption to a circular economy, the Circular Construction Lab (CCL) was founded by Felix Heisel in 2020 at Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning. For CCL, circular construction involves activating the built environment as it currently exists for reuse and reconfiguration while designing and constructing buildings that can act as material depots for future assemblies. At this lecture, Heisel will expand on circular construction and the reuse imperative, from CCL’s policy white paper on deconstruction for New York State to his work on residential prototypes designed for future disassembly across Europe.

A circular construction and reuse trade fair featuring New York–based organizations and vendors will precede the lecture. More information about the trade fair participants will be released closer to the event.

Learn more here.

Banner image: Circular Construction Lab | Catherine Commons Deconstruction Project, Ithaca, New York, 2021. Image credit: Jason Koski, UREL

Ticket information and policies

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All confirmed attendees may claim Continuing Education Units for this event.

This event will not be livestreamed.