Material Passport Creation for Existing Buildings through Digital Data Capture
Year: 2026
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The construction sector consumes substantial material resources and generates large quantities of waste. Although material reuse is prioritized in circular economy strategies, its implementation in existing buildings remains difficult because information about component identity, condition, technical performance, disassembly feasibility, and reuse potential is often incomplete or fragmented. Material Passports (MPs) can support reuse by organizing such information, but their creation for existing buildings requires a workflow for capturing, linking, validating, and progressively enriching data from multiple sources. This thesis develops and applies a structured workflow for creating object-level material passport information for existing buildings, using the U-building at KTH as a case study. The workflow combines literature-based information requirements with available digital building data and supplementary data capture methods, including an existing Revit model, ReCap point cloud data, Excel-based comparison of exported schedules with required material passport fields, StreamBIM checklist input, QR-code-based access, GUID-based object linking, on-site inspection, and external product documentation. Doors and windows are used as the primary demonstration components, while interior partition walls and steel beams are included as secondary framework extension examples. The study shows that, in the U-building case, existing digital data can support object identification, geometry, quantity-related information, and data organization, but it is unlikely to be sufficient on its own for creating complete reuse-oriented material passports. Product identity, environmental data, technical performance, physical condition, disassembly method, Remaining Service Life (RSL), and reuse potential generally require supplementary inspection, documentation, external databases, or expert assessment. The main contribution of the proposed workflow is therefore not automatic passport completion, but a component-level, incremental, and identity-based method for structuring available information, identifying missing fields, linking records to specific objects, and supporting future data enrichment for circular construction and material reuse.
Author: Xiong, Sizhe
Language: English
Subfield: Building and Construction
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7213843582