GreenTech Innovation Competition · BMFTR Funding Project

Circular economy
in construction
— Rethought.

ZIRKULAR-X is developing an AI-powered platform that automatically analyses existing buildings, assesses materials, and visualises reuse potential.

Find out more
The project

Understanding buildings as material storage

Millions of existing buildings contain valuable materials that are lost during demolition — because nobody knows exactly what has been used in their construction. Plans are in paper form, data is fragmented, and documentation is incomplete.

ZIRKULAR-X closes this gap: Artificial intelligence unlocks analogue inventory records, semantic knowledge graphs link all data, and an automated circularity index shows which materials can be reused or recycled.

The result is a scientifically sound, economically viable basis for resource-saving decommissioning and refurbishment strategies.

Technological pillars
01
Digital Product Passports (DPP)
Standardised material data for each component — composition, hazardous substances, life cycle.
02
AI-powered inventory capture
Computer vision and NLP automatically read plans, photos and documents.
03
Semantic Data Platform
A knowledge graph links BIM, facility management, and secondary material marketplaces.
04
Circularity index
Automated assessment of circularity potential — ecological, economic, normative.
Partner

Collaborative research

Seven partners from industry, applied research, and science are pooling complementary competencies over the entire project duration.

Consortium leader
elevait GmbH & Co. KG
AI development, multimodal image analysis, SaaS operations
elevait
Science
Ruhr University Bochum
Graph data model, ontologies, patents & publications
Applied Research
Fraunhofer IIS/EAS
Rating algorithms, model optimisation, SDK licences
Data infrastructure
5D Institut GmbH
Gaia-X Data-Space, GDPR-compliant data exchange
Science
TMB Kit
Business models, dissemination
Certification
DGNB
Sustainability standards
Practice
Hitzler Engineers
Demonstrators in pilot buildings, feasibility studies
Associated Partners
Geberit Lindner Group Schüco International Conclude Madaster TH Mittelhessen RIB Software BVBS
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