City Governments Transform Industrial Buildings into Circular Construction Hubs in New York, London, and Brussels

During the last week of August, the New York City government announced a new project for the MADE Bush Terminal in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. It involves the transformation of the old industrial building into a center for the recovery, storage, sorting, and redistribution of construction materials during a one-year pilot program. The initiative echoes a wave of similar circular construction hubs recently launched or announced across Europe: a converted warehouse in Brussels, an industrial site adaptation in East London's Royal Docks, and a cross-border network supported by CirCoFin spanning Munich, Copenhagen, Lisbon, and Scotland, each repurposing industrial buildings and infrastructure to support the reuse of construction materials. Brooklyn's MADE Bush Terminal (Manufacturers, Artisans, Designers, and Entrepreneurs) is a private urban redevelopment project transforming a historic 20-acre industrial property into a mixed-use hub for local producers, fabricators, and creatives. Century-old warehouses are being adapted to preserve the area's rich industrial heritage and to extend the useful life of existing materials on site. The new circular construction hub pilot program will be operated on site by a Brooklyn-based, certified M/WBE ecological landscaping firm that focuses on habitat restoration, low-waste landscape design and operations, and material reuse initiatives: Our Temenos. The partnership between NYCEDC and Our Temenos arose from an "Ideas for Impact" Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI) submission, an open solicitation inviting nonprofits, startups, academic institutions, community organizations, and other mission-aligned entities to propose partnership opportunities that advance NYCEDC's economic development priorities. The main purpose of the new circular construction hub in New York is to reduce waste, extend material lifecycles, and generate real-world data on the feasibility of reuse-oriented construction supply chains within New York City. According to DSNY Commissioner Gregory Anderson, "construction and demolition accounts for a massive share of New York City's waste stream." Testing new large-scale recycling projects therefore contributes to the institution's sustainability goals, as described in its Green Economy Action Plan and the operational guide Clean and Circular: Design & Construction Guidelines, dating from 2024. During the testing year, Our Temenos will act as hub operator, testing material intake, handling, and resale activities, while NYCEDC will evaluate the long-term operational model and economic viability through data collection. The collaboration aims to understand the infrastructure investments needed to scale interim material storage, handling, and reprocessing within New York City. Related Article A Second Life for Waste: 7 Ways to Recycle Building MaterialsThe initiative adds to other similar announcements in Europe, where past industrial heritage is being repurposed to serve sustainable development goals. In Brussels, city authorities announced plans to transform a disused warehouse in Ganshoren into a regional hub dedicated to the reuse of construction materials, in a project called "ReUse Park." With financial support from the 2021–2027 European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the project will convert an old, empty warehouse on the citydev.brussels Darwin site into a 6,000-square-meter regional logistics hub, where used building and deconstruction materials can be collected, sorted, and prepared, and where educational and training programs can be hosted for workers and companies in the construction sector. The project was launched in February 2026, and the official operator contract is expected to be announced in early 2027, following a public competition. Another similar initiative is taking place on a site in East London's Royal Docks, owned by the Greater London Authority and earmarked for later development as part of Silvertown, an area currently undergoing regeneration led by public authorities. The industrial building's adaptation is being carried out by Tipping Point East, a circular construction hub founded in 2025 and organized into three operational areas run by its founding organizations: Material Cultures architecture and research practice, RESOLVE interdisciplinary design collective, and Yes Make, a design and build collective specializing in circular practice. Within the 8,000+ m² industrial site, they bring together material reuse, low-carbon construction, training, and cultural activities related to circular economies. Over five years, the hub is slated to divert just over 1,000 tons from landfill, a small share of the more than five million tons of construction, demolition, and excavation waste the U.K. sends to landfills each year. In other European cities, such as Munich, Copenhagen, Lisbon, and across Scotland, CirCoFin – Circular Construction Finance is supporting the development of circular construction hubs that combine a physical material bank with a digital marketplace, enabling material traceability and efficient logistics. CirCoFin is a Horizon Europe project designed to accelerate the circular transformation of the region's construction sector by helping European cities create the infrastructure and financial mechanisms needed to support the reuse of building materials. It is a cross-border organization that provides administrative support to local governments and regional initiatives, offering a common, step-by-step approach to developing circular construction hubs that works across different contexts. It understands these hubs as local ecosystems that facilitate the circular reuse of secondary building materials through integrated services such as material logistics, storage facilities, digital marketplaces, and advisory support. The reuse of construction materials is becoming increasingly commonplace in public and private buildings. In Sweden, construction is advancing on Gothenburg Grand Central, a new station building and prominent western entrance designed by Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter that incorporates material reuse as part of its architectural expression. At the 2027 Venice Architecture Biennale, the Türkiye Pavilion will explore this concept in "Spolia Futures," examining the reuse of architectural elements as an evolving architectural method rather than solely a historical practice. Earlier this year, the AJ and The Architectural Review named architect Barbara Buser as the winner of the 2026 Jane Drew Prize, recognized as an innovator in the field of recycling and reuse and an expert in circular construction for pioneering repurposing practices in Switzerland.