The Adaptive Skin: Circular Design Strategies for the Regeneration of Existing Buildings

The regeneration of the existing built environment requires a reconfiguration of the relationship between building envelopes, material cycles, and architectural form, shifting the façade from a static boundary to an adaptive and circular system, designed to meet not only current needs but also future ones. This paper investigates how material choices and circular design applied to the building envelope can contribute to the sustainable regeneration of existing build-ings, by extending their life cycle, improving environmental performance, and reducing embodied and operational emissions. The research adopts a systemic and multidisciplinary methodology that combines a literature review on circu-larity integration criteria in façades with a comparative analysis of relevant case studies. The paper outlines a methodological framework in which circularity is not treated as a purely technical add-on, but as a generative driver for architectural form, supporting renovation strategies that improve thermal performance, reduce resource consumption, and support low-carbon regeneration processes.