The CBA-AR framework is a knowledge-based tool that brings together three components, namely determinants the circular building adaptability (CBA), CBA strategies, and the factors that enable or impede those strategies. We defined CBA as “the capacity to contextually and physically alter the built environment and sustain its usefulness, while keeping the building asset in a closed-reversible value chain”.  The CBA-determinants are briefly described in the CBA Concept page.

The CBA-AR framework was developed in response of the need to promote circularity in adaptive reuse while coping with the inevitability of this type of building projects by the means of adaptable design. Thus, CBA constitutes the underlying concept of this framework, while adaptive reuse is perceived as an inevitable means to and a practice of interests.

Possible benefits of promoting CBA in adaptive reuse could enable the built environment to withstand future changes, respond to contextual dynamics, eliminate waste generation, embody the regenerative capacity, and create value out of the assets. In an explanatory video, titled “Exploring the Relation Between Circularity and Adaptability in Adaptive Reuse”, Mohammad Hamida explains the interconnection between CBA and adaptive reuse.