Case Study: Taiwan’s pathway into a circular future for buildings

The aim of this paper is to explore successful paths and potential obstacles for introducing circular buildings to a region new to the strategy of Circular Economy (CE). For this, the process of circular buildings development in Taiwan is analysed. In 2016, the government of Taiwan passed an act that put a focus on CE. Taiwan entered this field with nearly no prior experience. This paper analyses three cases: The Holland Pavilion for the World Flora Expo Taichung; the TaiSugar Circular Village Tainan; and the CE Social Housing Taipei. Interestingly, Taiwan choose the Netherlands as a country for guidance on best practices and the path to implementation. Our analysis focuses on barriers and opportunities found in the initiation, commissioning, and the ongoing development process of these projects. Data is collected through interviews with 30 stakeholders, from government, industries and academia who are involved in the projects. International collaboration is shown to have speeded up the CE building innovation process in Taiwan.