Circles within Circles? A Build-to-Rent Circular Economy Case Study

UDIA members Ian Munro and Lauren White spent a week in Taiwan as part of a team of staff and students from the University of Auckland, participating in a joint studio project with the University of Taipei. During their visit, they toured the Taisugar Circular Village in Tainan with one of its designers, Dylan Kuo from Bio-Architecture Formosana, to explore one of Asia’s leading examples of circular economy housing.

Taiwan’s Taisugar Circular Village is the country’s first residential development designed around circular economy principles, combining modular construction, renewable energy, water recycling, material recovery and an innovative build-to-rent model where many building components remain owned by manufacturers rather than residents. Developed by Taiwan Sugar Corporation, the project demonstrates how sustainability can be embedded into housing at a neighbourhood scale.

For New Zealand’s emerging build-to-rent sector, the project provides valuable lessons. Designing smaller, more resilient “circles within circles”, locating developments in well-connected urban areas, and balancing environmental ambitions with market realities may improve long-term outcomes. The study concludes that while some circular principles are readily transferable, particularly communal energy, water and waste systems, others, such as large-scale building material reuse, will require broader industry support before becoming mainstream. Click below to read the full article.

Taisugar_Circular_Village_UDIA_Final.pdf

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This article was originally published in the New Zealand Planning Institute (NZPI) online magazine in late 2025 and is republished here with permission.