doi:10.3850/978-981-08-7920-4_S1-C08-cd

ABSTRACT

Waste disposal is a particularly critical problem in Japan, which has much of the population located in limited geographical areas and where convenient landfill access is long gone. The construction process creates debriswhen buildings are initially erected, such as scrap gypsum board and other materials. Building demolition also creates debris. Industries such as automotive and household appliance manufacturing have begun to successfully recycle materials, however this has not yet been accomplished in construction. Building materials and components that would ordinarily be disposed of during building demolition could be salvaged for use in future renovation or new building projects. To address this issue the authors carried out experiments related to the reuse of materials in residential interior construction. In 2004 the authors built a residential plumbing area mockup with reused components including a prefabricated bath and kitchen unit. Related experiments followed: in 2005 a renovation work experiment using the residential plumbing area from 2004, in 2006 an experiment to obtain productivity data for gypboard partition walls built from reused materials, and in 2007 a room-sized mock up including walls, ceiling, and floor. The paper summarizes this residential interior construction research and we conclude by discussing our future research themes.

Keywords: Material reuse, Renovation work, Housing, Interior construction, Man-ours.

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