Building services component reuse: a response to the need for adaptability

As businesses become more dynamic, their need for supporting buildings providing flexibly usable space is growing. While such space can readily be constructed, its servicing remains problematic. Continued use of existing practice to alter services installations with increasing frequency is predicted to have detrimental whole-life cost and environmental consequences. The reuse of functionally obsolete services components has been proposed as a new, more adaptable, method of servicing buildings. Such component reuse will implement the proposal of the UK government, proposed in one of its 'Technology Foresight' reports, that standardised components be reused to increase the competitiveness of the UK construction industry. This paper summarises models developed by a recently completed pilot study to assess the technical and economic feasibility of component reuse. These models identify the potential viability of component reuse but also identified a number of issues requiring further, more detailed, investigation.