Recycled Concrete as Circular Material for Sustainable Construction: Applications in Housing Rehabilitation in Guadalajara

Mauricio Díaz Valdés

The construction sector is one of the largest consumers of natural materials and one of the largest contributors to environmental degradation, particularly in the generation of rubble and waste. Currently, the housing crisis is a global problem, as UN data confirms that nearly 1.8 billion people lack housing, indicating that a solution to this problem must be found; moreover, approximately 80% of Mexican homes require improvement or expansion. This research examines this housing crisis to propose the rehabilitation of housing as a sustainable and strategic alternative to address the shortage and offer solutions to the country's housing problem. Vacant housing in Guadalajara has become an environmental, social, and urban problem in the metropolitan area and affects most Mexican cities, where thousands of homes built in the last 50 years exhibit construction problems related to building materials, poor structural design, and uninhabitability.  This research explores how recycled concrete can be a circular and sustainable material and evaluates its potential in housing rehabilitation applications, promoting sustainable construction and urban regeneration; the rehabilitation methodology focuses on and adopts, through a multidisciplinary vision. Additionally, it examines how housing rehabilitation can be a solution to the country's high demand for housing. Far more than the technical contributions of this material, this research positions recycled concrete as a mediator between sustainability and habitability, linking the effects of climate change and housing resilience. Therefore, considering the problem of vacant housing, this research focuses in Tlajomulco de Zúñiga which is the municipality with the most uninhabited housing in all of Mexico; with the aim of rehabilitating it is using recycled concrete, giving it a second life and addressing the housing problem in Mexico.  The rehabilitation of vacant housing using recycled materials is a response to the demand for urban regeneration, contributing to the discourse of sustainable construction by proposing and seeking to replicate the model for innovative and sustainable building.