Proto-Digital Twins as Coordination Infrastructure in Circular Construction : An Exploratory Case Study of the Öresund Region

Sammanfattning

This study examines how proto-Digital Twins shape stakeholder coordination and lifecycle data governance in cross-border circular construction, with the Öresund region as the empirical context. Although digital tools are increasingly promoted as solutions for improving circular construction, their implementation remains fragmented, uneven, and strongly dependent on organisational and institutional conditions. The study uses a qualitative case study approach based on interviews with municipalities, infrastructure actors, intermediary organisations, reuse practitioners, and knowledge institutions, supported by document analysis. Rather than treating proto-Digital Twins as fully developed technical systems, the thesis understands them as emerging coordination arrangements that help actors organise lifecycle information, material reuse, and collaboration across fragmented construction environments. The findings show that proto-Digital Twins can support circular construction, but only when shared data practices are embedded in procurement routines, organisational workflows, and governance structures. Coordination problems are not mainly caused by a lack of digital tools, but by uneven responsibilities, fragmented information flows, misaligned incentives, and limited organisational capacity. Intermediary organisations and joint learning environments therefore play an important role in helping actors translate circular ambitions into practice. The thesis contributes by reframing proto-Digital Twins as coordination infrastructure rather than as purely technological systems. It shows that scaling circular construction depends not only on digitalisation, but on stakeholder alignment, lifecycle data governance, and institutional support.