Structural steel reuse is on the rise, as this month’s Structural Engineer articles show.
But what might be seen as a material innovation is actually a shift in something more fundamental.
I see this work as our industry writing a new “blue book” on the operations shelf of the systems bookcase.
In other words, we are building the system that makes it possible for a designer to specify reused steel.
Because to make reuse work, the industry is having to create:
- toolkits for recovery
- processes for pre-demolition audits
- new ways of coordinating demolition and new construction
- infrastructure for holding and processing stock
None of this is visible in the final building.
But without it, reuse doesn’t happen.
In the systems bookcase, the operations shelf contains the factors that constrain or enable design decisions.
Everything listed above sits there.
In terms of transition, this is Horizon 2 (which we colour blue) — the in-between space where new practices can emerge that are both viable in the existing system but are a significant step towards the system we want to create.
Let’s be clear: steel reuse is still a long way from being a process that is life-giving.
But it can significantly reduce the embodied impact of construction —
which is, at least, ecological-adjacent.