Design
Scenario planning
Develop plausible future user scenarios for the building project and apply it to the design to make a building adaptable to future changes.
What are scenarios?
Scenarios are stories, exploring imaginable but divergent futures. Scenarios relate easily to architecture as they help to show how a building might change over time.
Why creating scenarios?
When designing for circularity, there is a lot of uncertainty linked to defining the lifecycle of buildings, the degree of adaptability, and the end of life. Anticipating different possible scenarios for a building helps to look forward in time to evaluate the long-term advantages of the building design and to make better-informed decisions.
When to take action?
Who can take action?
Design team & client
Beginner expertise needed
Take action/ How can I build scenarios?
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What triggers change? Define the known and unknown drivers for change.
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Select the most important drivers.
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Develop plausible future user scenarios based on the drivers.
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Decide for which scenarios you will design.
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Design for each selected scenario. Compare the different designs to each other.
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Decide which adaptable, generic, or durable elements will be integrated in the design.
Input
Information on the project and its context.
Outcome
Plausible future user scenarios and a
conceptual design that can adapt to future changes.
More information and sources
Workshop format and worksheets for scenario planning
Scenario developing for life cycle design and analyses - Galle W. and De Temmerman N. Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Circular Retrofit Lab: Full renovation of prefabricated student housing modules for multiple uses - Buildings as material banks (BAMB)
Expandable Houses: An Explorative Life Cycle Cost Analysis - Cambier C., Galle W., and De Temmerman N. Vrije Universiteit Brussel
