Waste not: how interior design is unlocking circularity

By Sian Willmott, Sustainable Design Leader

A new approach to interior design is turning the built environment into a vast, reusable materials bank, proving that circularity can meet both sustainability goals and financial targets.

We are living in a rapidly changing world where urgent climate, equity, resource and biodiversity challenges need our focused action and leadership. The built environment contributes approximately 40% of the global carbon emissions, so as an industry, we have a critical role to play to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. At Hassell, it’s our responsibility as designers to embed sustainability and regenerative design in everything we do for the benefit of our communities and the planet. We want to inspire, advocate and demonstrate leadership in tackling these challenges. We want our work to contribute to regenerating our planet and enable people and nature to thrive together 

Circularity is increasingly being realised as a decarbonisation opportunity and strategy. 

With a global circularity rate of just 7.2% (and Australia lagging at 4.6%), the urgency to rethink resource use is clear. 

The EU and Australia have set ambitious targets to double circularity within the next decade, with CSIRO modelling projecting a A$26bn GDP boost and significant emissions reductions by 2035. A truly circular economy is about more than just materials — but minimising waste and reclaiming resources is essential as we tackle climate change, biodiversity loss, and resource scarcity.

Interior Design plays a crucial role. With commercial workplace interiors replaced every 7 – 10 years, a single building can undergo eight or more refits in its lifetime — driving material waste, emissions, and resource depletion.

We know sustainable design should never mean compromise. By refining our thoughtful approach to auditing and repurposing materials in line with Hassell’s materials hierarchy (a structured guide to working with materials that prioritises keeping resources in use), we help tenants save time and money while achieving their vision of beauty and functionality — all while contributing to a more regenerative world.

AUDIT WHAT YOU HAVE

At Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) headquarters in Sydney, material reuse played a major role in reducing embodied carbon, helping achieve a 30% emissions reduction from the company’s baseline workplace. By repurposing key elements like workstations, task chairs, ceiling tiles, and access floors, we extended the lifecycle of high-quality materials, cutting waste and minimising environmental impact. Notably, 96% of task chairs and 55% of workstations were reused, thanks to the durability and thoughtful specification of the original fit-out. The design also maintained 80% of the metal tile ceilings and 90% of the access floors, helping deliver on the client’s sustainability ambitions.

RE-CREATE NEW FROM OLD

Not all furniture can be given an immediate second life. For our Melbourne workplace re-design for a client in the finance sector, we refinished iconic Fritz Hansen chairs in classic hues via the original supplier’s sustainability program (Cultivate), seamlessly integrating them into a forward-thinking interior that is both magnetic and resilient. In the same spirit, 80% of the existing kitchen was preserved and 4,000 linear metres of American Oak, once featured as a ceiling detail, was carefully sanded and repurposed as wall cladding. Additionally, 527m² of terrazzo was created for the arrival level, using 90% recycled glass sourced by our collaborators, Revert, from other tenancies undergoing refurbishment in the building.

LOOK BEYOND THE SITE BOUNDARY

If we want to be truly regenerative, we need to look beyond the boundary of our projects. We’re thinking bigger than just furniture reuse. We’re looking beyond individual sites and clients to tap into the vast materials bank already in circulation, finding new ways to extend the life of valuable resources. In a recent collaboration with Five Mile Radius for Arup’s new Brisbane workplace, the team salvaged green granite stone slabs from a refurbishment project elsewhere in Brisbane’s CBD. Originally used as wall cladding, the slabs were repurposed as flooring for Arup’s new winter gardens, bringing a unique high-quality material back to life in a new, high-impact space.

By prioritising large-scale reuse, we’re demonstrating that circularity in interior design isn’t just possible — it’s also beautiful.

Hassell’s Sustainability Framework forms the basis for our sustainable and regenerative design approaches, our skills development, our insights and innovation focus, and the way we run our practice. You can read more about our impact here. 

Image top of page: Arup Brisbane, Australia. Photography by David Chatfield.