Non-fungible building components: using smart contracts for a circular economy in the built environment.

Dounas, Theodoros; Jabi, Wassim; Lombardi, Davide

Abstract

The presented research study tackles the topic of economic and material sustainable development in the built environment and construction industry, by introducing and applying the concept and the potential of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) on blockchain within the early stages of the design process via the interface of common design software. We present a digital infrastructure layer for architectural assets and building components that can integrate with AEC supply chains, enabling a more effective and articulated development of circular economies. The infrastructure layer consists of a combination of topology graphs secured with a blockchain. The paper concludes with a discussion about the possibilities of material passports as well as circular economy and smart contracts as an infrastructure for whole lifecycle BIM and digital encapsulation of value in architectural design.

Citation

DOUNAS, T., JABI, W. and LOMBARDI, D. 2021. Non-fungible building components: using smart contracts for a circular economy in the built environment. Blucher design proceedings [online], 9(6): proceedings of the 25th International conference of the Ibero-American Society of Digital Graphics (SIGraDi 20201): designing possibilities, 8-12 November 2021, [virtual conference], pages 1189-1198. Available from: https://doi.org/10.5151/sigradi2021-20

• Journal Article Type: Conference Paper
• Conference Name: 25th International conference of the Ibero-American Society of Digital Graphics (SIGraDi 2021): designing possibilities
• Conference Location: [virtual conference]
• Acceptance Date: Sep 8, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Nov 12, 2021
• Publication Date: Dec 31, 2021
• Deposit Date: Dec 14, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 14, 2021
• Journal: Blucher design proceedings
• Print ISSN: 2318-6968
• Publisher: Blucher
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 9
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 1189-1198
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.5151/sigradi2021-20
• Keywords: Non-fungible tokens (NFTs); Blockchain; Supply chain management; Circular economies; Construction industry
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/1550487
• Additional Information: This paper is also included in the full proceedings available from the conference website: https://www.sigradi.org/sigradi2021