City of Guelph, Ouroboros Deconstruction, Haley Anderson Consulting
Pre-Deconstruction Material Audit, Life Cycle Assessment
Wellington House is a project in partnership with Ouroboros Deconstruction and Haley Anderson Consulting. Commissioned by the City of Guelph through their Circular Opportunity Innovation Launchpad (COIL), the project served as a pre-deconstruction audit, material reuse audit, and life cycle assessment (LCA) aimed at proving the feasibility and environmental necessity of circular construction practices in Southern Ontario.
The project centred on the methodical dismantling of a 9,850 square foot wood frame house, with a focus on maximizing material recovery, reducing carbon emissions, and demonstrating viable pathways for resale and reuse. A pivotal success was the decision-- driven by the project team and accepted by the owner-- to preserve the existing concrete foundations for future redevelopment, avoiding 110 tonnes of CO2e emissions by retaining 308 metric tonnes of slab and footings on site.
In total, the team salvaged 41 metric tonnes of material, including 40,000 linear board feet of lumber and 44 large Douglas fir beams, translating to roughly 31 tonnes of avoided carbon emissions and an additional 54 tonnes of stored biogenic carbon. More than 90% of materials were diverted from landfill, which much of the reclaimed material reintroduced into the local economy through direct resale or creative reuse by Southern Ontario makers.
The project enabled new partnerships between the project team and a network of designers and fabricators across Ontario, laying the groundwork for sustained material flows and circular supply chains. It also served as a hands-on learning opportunity for emerging professionals—most notably through a denailing workshop led by Ha/f for University of Waterloo architecture students.
The initiative culminated in a DesignTO 2024 exhibition, where data visualizations, photographs, and finished products showcased the economic, carbon, and cultural value of the building’s recovered materials. The exhibition received the DesignTO Founders’ Award. More broadly, the project highlighted significant gaps in deconstruction infrastructure, storage, and supportive policy across Southern Ontario—sparking further conversations with municipalities interested in scaling circular approaches to the built environment.
Key Success Factors
- Diverted 90%+ of materials from landfill
- 41 metric tonnes of materials for reuse or resale, including 54 t of stored biogenic carbon
- Publicly recognized through the DesignTO Founders’ Award
- Contributed to circularity policy conversations across municipalities
Key Lessons
- Present gaps and challenges in the market, including:
- Lack of education around circular construction practices like adaptive reuse and deconstruction and material reuse
- Issue of storage/warehousing of reclaimed materials
- Understanding pricing mechanisms to make deconstruction and use of reclaimed material competitive with the conventional alternatives
- Clear opportunity for massive carbon savings when scaling impacts across city or region.