News in Domicology
Urban Wood Utilization & Carbon | Dr. George Berghorn PhD, LEED AP BD+C, CGP | TEDxUrbanWoodNetwork
Risks in Michigan’s urban environment - Great Lakes Echo Podcast w/ Dr. Rex LaMore
Listen to Dr. Rex LaMore discuss the degredation of urban structures and their affect on the public's health.
Congratulations to 18 Newly Certified Domicologists!
About Domicology
Domicology is the study of the economic, social, and environmental characteristics relating to the life cycle of the built environment.
Domicologists
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Recognize that manmade structures have a life cycle
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Examine the life cycle continuum of the built environment and plan, design, construct, and deconstruct in order to maximize the reuse of materials and minimize the negative impacts of a structure's end of useful life
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Identify innovative tools, models, policies, practices, and programs that can sustainably address a structural life cycle
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Conduct research on the technical, economic, and policy challenges present in a structure's life cycle and seek to reduce the negative social, economic, and environmental impacts associated with structural abandonment
Emerging Research
Transforming the 21st Century Built Environment: Selected Student Papers in Domicology, Volume IV
2 Case Studies in Material Salvage and Reuse
Pathways in Domicology: Deconstruction Workforce Development
Deconstruction Insurance Policy: An Innovative Proposal to End Property Abandonment
Major Grant Awarded to Advance Reuse Sector
September 2019
The Domicology team at the CCED has been awarded a $600,000 state grant by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes & Energy (EGLE).
The project has two primary objectives:
- Conduct pioneering research on value added reuses of salvaged wood (organic) products present in abandoned structures to bring that material back into the marketplace, and to,
- Create a statewide salvage/reuse business accelerator that will provide strategic training, technical assistance and networking to improve the viability of this nascent industry sector and expand businesses’ recycling markets for salvaged materials.
This generous state funding will enable the Domicology team to lead the effort to divert organic material (wood) from the landfill stream and create a viable circular economic sector that can salvage and effectively reuse materials generated from the estimated 226,000 blighted and abandoned residential structures in Michigan.
Apply for a Student-Led, Faculty guided project related to this project! Academic applicants apply here. Industry applicants apply here.
Domicological White Papers
The Domicology team has started a series of white papers to help expand the written work on Domicology. The four completed papers are attached below.
- Reused Lumber: Building Michigan's Future From Trash
- Material Reuse Focus Group Summary
- Planks & Pandemics: The Effects of the COVID-19 Global Pandemic on the Price of Lumber
- Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act: A Review from a Domicological Perspective
- Michigan’s Scrap Tires: A Circular Economy Approach
- Designing and Implementing a Deconstruction Ordinance
- East Germany Abandonment and Reuse
- What Comes Next for Detroit. The End of Hardest Hit Funds
In addition, we would like to encourage our fellow Domicologists to write their own 1-2 page white paper on a topic related to Domicology!
If you have questions regarding our Domicology White Paper Series or would like to write one of your own, please contact Dr. LaMore at lamore@msu.edu