Kallidromiou 57-59

A necessary condition for our society to continue to develop and ensure the adequacy of natural resources, stability and durability, is to follow a new economic development model that will limit waste, but also reduce the need for new resources that must be extracted at great economic and environmental cost. Sustainable development means that we upgrade people’s living standards, through smarter use of resources and a modern economy that contributes to the well-being of citizens.

It is now clear that the linear production model of “supply, manufacture, disposal” on which our economy has been based until now, and in which every product inevitably reaches its “end of useful life”, is no longer sustainable.

The circular economy comes as a response to the ambition for sustainable development, taking into account the growing concern about the depletion of natural resources and environmental degradation.

By applying a model based on a biomimetic approach, that is, that our systems should function like organisms, processing components that can be returned to the cycle, we can move from the existing linear model of economic development to a circular one, where the value of products, materials and resources remains in the economy as long as possible and the production of waste is limited to a minimum. What was previously considered “waste” can now be transformed into raw materials.

The circular economy model requires new ways of conceiving and designing products and buildings.

The transformation of an office building into a new residential building in the heart of Athens, is an example of the transition to a sustainable future and the application of circular economy principles into the architectural design.