How can resource waste in building industry be minimized, and the reuse and recyclability of building materials be maximized?

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Re-think, re-build, re-purpose

How can resource waste in building industry be minimized,

and the reuse and recyclability of building materials be maximized?

UMA 5 Master Thesis report, spring semester 2020 Student: Jeanette Skinnars Main tutor: Amalia Katopodis, Studio 13 Additional tutor: Andrew Belfield, Sara Thor

Examiners: Robert Mull, Sangram Shirke Word amount: 5139

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Introduction

In my previous semester I investigated how remodeling unused buildings to new needs can be preferable, instead of demolishing them and building completely new ones. To combine new architecture with old can be interesting because of the creation of a dynamic environment. It can be a sustainable option too, in terms of material resource savings. My essay last semester had a focus on the atmospheric aspects when combining old with new architecture. Through case studies I learned different ways of giving a new life to unused buildings and how they were adapted to fit contemporary needs.

How is the environment affected by demolishing a building and building a new one were questions that served as my point of departure for this semester. I examine how the building industry works, in terms of how material resources are handled throughout their lifecycle.

I realize that materials are often treated as endless resources that lands on the landfill and new products are produced in the other end. Current linear production system makes the construction industry both a major user of materials and a primary producer of waste. This insight led me to form my research question, which is: How can resource waste in building industry be minimized, and the reuse and recyclability of building materials be maximized?

The dominant methods I have used to answer my research question have been desk based research by reading relevant academic books, which have involved different theories on the subject. Reading academic writings and analyzes on the topic, articles as well as govern- ment published data have been other inputs. Through developing my own architectural project for this semester, which responds to my research question, I have gained a deeper understanding of the topic.

In the following sections of the thesis, I investigate different aspects that all contribute to an understanding of current situation in the industry. I further investigate some methods of handling material resources which differs from common building processes. These insights leads me to form my proposal where I suggest a sustainable way of handling material resources.

In the proposal, I show through my own architectural project different solutions that minimi- zes waste and maximizes reuse and recyclability potential. My proposed building method will also result in future buildings to become easier to maintain and transform for different needs. My opinion is that a sustainable building is not one that lasts forever but one that can easily adapt to change.

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Is it always beneficial with adaptive reuse instead of building new?

Currently there are several architecture groups and firms that focus on developing existing buildings that are outdated and building new innovative solutions for them, to raise the quality and usability. Their focus is to investigate the possibility of creating new architecture through existing architecture. Accordingly to architect Peter Ireland from the firm AJ+C, he says, ”The most sustainable thing we can do is to not build new stuff.”¹ Another well-known architecture firm, Lacaton & Vassal agrees by stating, “Never demolish, never remove or replace, always add, transform, and reuse!” ²

The positive side with reusing existing architecture is the resource savings by avoiding demolition waste, and all the resources that are required for the new building is saved too.

Other valuable aspects old buildings can have are built-in environmental control that is ’for- gotten’ in today’s constructions when we use air-conditioning and mechanical ventilations and lighting systems. It can be natural cross-ventilation, big openings and high ceilings.

They are also often built with high thermal mass materials for the building to retain warmth in winter and cold in summer. Some old renovated buildings can therefore use less energy than new buildings do, which are often over-glazed or have deep floor plans requiring ventilation fans and lights on all day.³

The problem today with old buildings is usually that they have outdated building systems, problems with fitting in today’s safety features and timeworn materials and structures.

Sometimes they consist of hazardous materials that needs to be removed, too. All these conditions have to be investigated and updated to today’s standards and regulations which can become costly. It is a common understanding that many building companies prefer to demolish the old building and build a new one that is more energy efficient instead. They estimate this method is cheaper than adapting and reusing the existing structure. But is that completely truth? Usually one forgets about the environmental costs to produce material for the new building and also the cost of taking care of all the demolition waste.

This debate has been investigated by National Trust for Historic Preservation. They have made a comprehensive report ‘The Greenest Building: Quantifying the Environmental Value of Building Reuse’ in 2011 where they state that reusing an existing building and upgrading it to maximum efficiency is almost always the best option regardless of building type and climate. In the study, they carried out a life cycle analysis (LCA) for six different house typo- logies over a period of 75 years. All except for one typology showed environmental benefits when reusing the existing building instead of demolishing it and building a new more energy effective one (30% more energy effective). The type that did not show any savings (+6% more costs) was the typology where one transforms a warehouse to a multi-family conversion. Here there was the need for new materials that reduced the savings. To care about which materials that are chosen can have a high impact of the savings outcome.⁴ This

1 Sebag-Montefiore, Clarissa; The Guardian; Preserving historical buildings: The most sustainable thing is not to build new stuff; 2016; https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/architecture-design-blog/2016/oct/13/preserving-historical-buildings-the-most-sustainable-thing-is-not-to-build-new-stuff (10.02.2020)

2 Wainwright, Oliver; The case for.. never demolishing another building; 2020; ; https://www.theguardian.com/

cities/2020/jan/13/the-case-for-never-demolishing-another-building?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other (10.02.2020)

3 Sebag-Montefiore; Preserving historical buildings: The most sustainable thing is not to build new stuff; https://

www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/architecture-design-blog/2016/oct/13/preserving-historical-buildings-the- most-sustainable-thing-is-not-to-build-new-stuff (10.02.2020)

4 Frey, Patrice; Dunn, Liz; Cochran, Ric; The greenest building: Quantifying the environmental value of building reuse; National trust for preservation; 2011; https://living-future.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/The_Greenest_Buil- ding.pdf (10.02.2020)

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report shows that one cannot estimate that it is always the best option to renovate an existing building instead of building a new one, but in most cases it actually is.

Another LCA study made in Canada where they compared building a new office building or renovating an existing one of similar character also shows significant environmental savings if renovating the existing building. The savings would be 1,67Gj/m2 of embodied energy, 0,45 tons of CO2 /m2, 1,25 tons of resources /m2 and 120kg /m2 of solid waste.⁵ This study does not take into account the energy savings with a more energy efficient new construction compared to an old structure. Regardless, these numbers do highlight the amount of both materials and emissions saved per m2.

How are material resources handled today?

Most materials used for buildings are manufactured from raw resources. The building industry worldwide uses 3 billion tons of raw material every year.⁶ It is estimated that zinc, mercury and lead resources will last only for 20 more years.⁷ This makes it important to start reuse all the material that already are taken out from the nature.

25%-30% of all waste generated in EU is construction and demolition waste (CDW), such as, concrete, bricks, timber, gypsum, plastic, glass, metal and excavated soil, which many could be recycled.⁸ Some material are downcycled and can be used for products with lower quality. Concrete for example is often crushed and used as filling material in road construction and landscaping. Most CDW ends up in the landfill though because recycling and reusing materials are still underexploited, and it is difficult to separate hazardous substances from the them.⁹

The building industry need to develop methods for enabling later reuse of components and materials as well as waste-free construction methods. Buildings needs to have a design that includes flexibility and adaptability, so their lifespan becomes longer. Methods of dismantling buildings without creating waste needs to be developed, too.¹⁰

How much energy does the building industry consume?

Buildings worldwide consume 30% of the planet’s energy produced.¹¹ All phases of a building’s lifecycle require energy, which can be divided into two areas. One is called the embodied energy and the other operational energy.

5 Trusty Waine; Meil Jamie; The environmental implications of building new versus renovating an existing structure; https://www.irbnet.de/daten/iconda/CIB4777.pdf (12.02.2020)

6 Graham; Building ecology; p.12 7 Graham; Building ecology; p.64

8 European commission; Construction and demolition waste; 2019; https://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/

construction_demolition.htm (10.02.2020)

9 Wahlström Margretha; Castell-Rüdenhausen Malin; Hradil Petr; Improving quality of construction & demolition waste- Requirements for pre-demolition audit; Copenhagen; Nordic council of ministers; 2019; p.9

10 Baker-Brown, Duncan; The re-use atlas; London; Riba publishing; 2017; Preface 11 Graham; Building ecology; p.12

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Embodied energy

Is the energy required in the production phase. This includes the extraction of raw materials, the manufacturing of building materials, the transports and the energy for the construction equipment on the site. The embodied energy can be added several times to a building through renovations and maintenance. If one wants to lower the embodied energy costs one should choose building materials that requires less raw materials and less energy to produce than others. To use local materials to shorten the transportation of the material to the building site also lowers these costs.¹²

Operational energy

Operational energy is the energy required for using the building, such as heating it up as well as electricity used. The environmental effect of the operational energy depends on how the energy is generated. If it is from coal or oil it will contribute significantly to CO2 gas emissions, but if the energy is generated from renewable resources, as solar energy or wind power, it will have much less of an impact. Also, to build energy effective buildings adds positively to the operational energy.¹³ This is usually regulated in national building codes, which set up minimum requirements for building energy efficiency.

In this report I look deeper into how the embodied energy can be lowered through a more sustainable material handling. Aspects that lowers the operational energy lies outside the scope of this study.

How much CO2 emissions is the building industry responsible for?

The building-related CO2 ¹⁴ emissions is rising 1% every year (since 2010) due to the global building industry is growing rapidly. Even if the industry’s energy consumption has impro- ved, the building construction industry released 3.7 Gigaton CO2 emissions in 2016. The energy production is still mostly from fossil fuels. Looking globally at energy-related CO2 emissions the building construction industry and buildings together stands for 39% of the total energy-related CO2 emissions. If we do not start to have more energy-efficient solutions for buildings and constructions the CO2 emissions will increase 30% globally by 2060.

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If the ambition with less than 2 degrees Celsius global rise of temperature will be achieved, the CO2 emission being released into our atmosphere needs to minimize. The building industry needs to be more energy-efficient, and a shift from using fossil fuels for energy is needed. To start use more sustainable materials is also necessary, almost half of the CO2 emissions in the industry is from cement production.¹⁶ A study where they compared greenhouse gas emissions from timber and concrete in a building construction showed that

12 Ibid; p.56-58 13 Ibid; p.59-60

14 CO2 (Carbon dioxide) is a greenhouse gas that exists naturally in our environment but when the burning of fossil fuel increases, it results in more carbon dioxide is being released into our atmosphere. This gas keeps the heat from the sun in our atmosphere which leads to a warming process of the earth, the greenhouse effect.

15 Abergel Thibaut; Dean Drian; Dulac John; Un environment; Global status report; 2017; https://www.worldgbc.

org/sites/default/files/UNEP%20188_GABC_en%20%28web%29.pdf (27.02.2020)

16 Designing buildings wiki; Carbon dioxide in construction; 2020; https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/

Carbon_dioxide_in_construction (29.02.2020)

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timber was responsible of 7% of the material GHG emissions and concrete of 93%.¹⁷ The ability to recycle and reuse existing materials and reduce waste are also important factors that have an impact on GHG emissions.

The recycle potential of materials

To choose materials that are possible to recycle will lower the impact on the environment.

There are four different groups of materials in the building industry. They are biotic materials, fossil-based materials, mineral materials and metallic materials (see figure 1). I examine these groups of materials to see which impact they do have on the environment and what their potential for being recycled or reused are.

Figure 1

Biotic materials

Biotic materials are materials based on plants or animals and will rot in the end of their life.

These materials are theoretically endlessly available and preferable to use before other materials. By using biotic materials in construction, the materials are just ’borrowed’ from the nature. It is important though that the materials are cultivated sustainably so the biodiversi- ty is kept, and the ecosystem is not damaged. A development in recycling these materials is important. Today wood based materials are usually treated as demolition waste and ends up as energy generation, when it would be possible to recycle these materials and reuse them again in constructions. ¹⁸

17 Sandanayake, Malindu; Lokuuge, Veena; Chang, Guoming; Setunge, Sujeeva; Thussar, Quddus; Greenhouse gas emissions during timber and concrete building construction; Sustainable cities and society; 38; 2018; p.91-97 18 Hillebrandt Annette; Riegler-Floors Petra; Rosen Anja; Seggevies Johanna Katharina; Manual of recycling;

Buildings as sourses of materials; Munich; Detail business information; 2019; p.58-59

Biotic materials Fossil-based materials

Mineral materials Metallic materials

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Fossil-based materials

Fossil-based materials have biological processes so long that they need to be counted as finite materials, it takes millions of years for oil to be formed for example. Bitumen and plastics are oil-based materials that are used in construction.

Bitumen is a material used for example roofing. It is easy to recycle but it is often used as energy generation in the end of its life because of its good heating capacity, which is similar to oil.¹⁹ There are many types of plastics and it is only the thermoplastics that are recyclable because of the ability to be melted down without destroying its structural capacity. Plastic have a long-life expectancy even if the material breaks down slowly by heat, sunlight and oxygen. There are other aspects one should question too, as its poisonous emissions. A study showed that PVC, a common plastic material used in construction, is both cancer-cau- sing and toxic, so-called CMR-material,²⁰ that also causes serious dioxin contamination if burned.²¹²²

There are several interesting case studies in all these categories. I have chosen to look into one of them, which is called Smile plastics. They are a design company that is working with recycled plastics. Their company’s idea is to create handmade plastic panels out of recycled plastic waste as yogurt pots, plastic bottles, plant pots among others. These panels can be heat-formed into different shapes and be used in interior designs for stores, offices, bars and cafés but also in residential homes. Examples of their products can be seen in pictures below (Figure 2-4). Their mission is to change people’s perception around waste and show its potential to become something beautiful and useful again. ²³

Figure 2-4, products of Smile plastics²⁴

Mineral materials

Mineral materials are products where the components are mined from the nature, therefore they count as finite materials. Natural stone, for example, does not require much energy to extract but most mineral materials do. Cement, concrete and bricks belongs to this category, and are building materials that requires a large amount of energy to be produced. The cement production requires a heating up to 1500 degrees Celsius and these ovens obtain

19 Hillebrandt; Riegler-Floors; Rosen; Seggevies; Manual of recycling; Buildings as sourses of materials; p.62 20 Oshwiki; Carcinogenic, mutagenic, reprotoxic (CMR) substances; https://oshwiki.eu/wiki/Carcinogenic,_muta- genic,_reprotoxic_(CMR)_substances (01.03.2020)

21 Hillebrandt; Riegler-Floors; Rosen; Seggevies; Manual of recycling; Buildings as sourses of materials; p.62 22 Wikipedia; thermoplast; https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Termoplast (01.03.2020)

23 Smile plastics; https://smile-plastics.com/about (01.03.2020)

24 Smile Plastics; Inspiration; http://smile-plastics.com/inspiration/ (10.03.2020)

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their energy from fossil fuels which results in high CO2 emissions.²⁵ 1 ton of cement causes equally 1 ton of CO2 emissions.²⁶

Mineral materials are hard to recycle and are usually downcycled or lands on the landfill.

There are ongoing researches about how to make concrete recyclable, one way would be to start using crushed concrete as a ballast when making new concrete.²⁷ Other researches on the ability to separate all the components again in concrete with electrodynamic frag- mentation, but how one would turn hardened cement to reactive again is still unresolved.²⁸ Another raw mineral material worth mentioning is sand, which is used in the making of concrete and glass. More than 30 billion tons of sand is used every year, which is the only material that is consumed such amount of except from water. ²⁹ Sand is therefore becoming a scarce material that has no substitute if it is diminished.

Bricks are a product under this category that actually has the potential to be reused again after cleaning. A system with mortar-less bricklaying is developed where one uses stainless steel clips to interlink the bricks with each other, which makes the dismantling process quick and easy.³⁰ A project where they have reused bricks from abandoned buildings is in Resour- ce rows in Denmark where they did not dismantle brick by brick but cut out the facade in modules and put them together again in steel frames in a new facade³¹ (See figure 5-7).

Figure 5-7, examples of Resource rows facade by Lendager group³²

Metallic materials

To extract metals from earth requires much energy and creates byproducts, waste and pollution and therefor recycling these materials from urban mining is worthwhile. When recycling aluminum for example the energy consumption is 95% lower than a primary aluminum production.³³ Metals are expensive, and easy to recycle without losing any quality, which makes the effort with recycling worthwhile. Considering metals are finite materials, it is very important that the resources already mined is recycled, so we are not running out of them.

25 P3 Dystopia podcast; Det stora oljemissbruket 26 Graham; Building ecology; p.91

27 Wahlström; Castell-Rüdenhausen; Hradil; Improving quality of construction & demolition waste- Requirements for pre-demolition audit; p.59

28 Hillebrandt; Riegler-Floors; Rosen; Seggevies; Manual of recycling; Buildings as sourses of materials; p.22 29 Hillebrandt; Riegler-Floors; Rosen; Seggevies; Manual of recycling; Buildings as sourses of materials; p.62 30 Hillebrandt; Riegler-Floors; Rosen; Seggevies; Manual of recycling; Buildings as sourses of materials; p.50 31 Lendager group; The resource rows; https://lendager.com/en/architecture/resource-rows/#materials (01.03.2020)

32 Legendar group; The Resource rows; https://lendager.com/en/architecture/resource-rows/ (08.04.2020) 33 Hillebrandt; Riegler-Floors; Rosen; Seggevies; Manual of recycling; Buildings as sourses of materials; p.61

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When comparing these four material categories, recycling metal is mostly developed, much thanks to the economic benefits of recycling metal.

Why it is important to go from a linear production process to a circular

Today 50% of people on the planet live in cities, this will rise continuously and in 2050 it is estimated that 80% will live in cities. By then the planets population will have risen to 9-10 billion people.³⁴ All these people need a built environment to live in. For the next forty years it is estimated that 230 billion square meters in new construction will be built, which is one Paris every week until 2060. ³⁵

The environment cannot be disregarded anymore, cities must learn to renew themselves when it comes to how they are handling their material resources to build and develop the cities. Today most raw materials are not completely returned to the production process and we have a largely linear (make-use-dispose) rather than a circular (make-use-remake-reuse) economy, which is ecologically disastrous, economically irresponsible and socially unintel- ligent.

The goal is to avoid waste completely. To start reuse, recycle, repair and ensure durability over time. Raw materials can be resources from under earth (natural resources) and from above the earth (urban environments). In this way the cities can be seen as a mine for raw materials that can be used and reused again and again. This system requires a way in how products are designed, a change to circular economic processes and a change to a responsible ownership.³⁶

Urban mining design

One approach to achieve a more circular production process is urban mining. The word urban mining was invented in the 1960’s when people started to realize that cities consisted of valuable industrial products that could be recycled when they were outworn. It can be much more efficient go gain material through urban mining than through natural mining too. An example, from one ton of mobile phones one can obtain 280g of gold (and 1890g of silver) extracted, while only 3,5g of gold could be extracted from 1 ton of natural mining.³⁷

Urban mining design is based on circular economy planning and costs that are analyzed over the whole lifecycle of a building including its environmental impact. Think of a building as a storage of raw materials and as a resource. The structures are built to be easy separable and easy to reuse and recycle without losing quality. Hazardous materials and products that can’t be recycled needs to go away. A responsibility of everything that is being produced is required and the norm to first produce products of secondary raw materials before consu- ming primary resources.

34 Hillebrandt; Riegler-Floors; Rosen; Seggevies; Manual of recycling; Buildings as sourses of materials; p.6 35 Abergel; Dean; Dulac; Global status report; https://www.worldgbc.org/sites/default/files/UNEP%20188_

GABC_en%20%28web%29.pdf (27.02.2020)

36 Hillebrandt; Riegler-Floors; Rosen; Seggevies; Manual of recycling; Buildings as sourses of materials; p.6-7 37 Weng, Chia-Liang; Yashiro, Tomonari; Urban mining: The city as a source for re-usable building materials;

https://www.irbnet.de/daten/iconda/CIB12279.pdf (14.02.2020)

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A project that has had circularity in mind throughout the whole construction is Triodos office building in Netherlands, designed by Rau Architects (see figure 8-10). It is a building that is completely dismountable. By building the structure in timber and putting it together using screws it will be possible to reuse all the materials again in another building. The windows are also possible to remove and can be used again and the floors can be demounted. All interior walls are possible to dismantle so the building is flexible and can be used for different programs.³⁸

If the idea with reusing materials and components actually should work, they have do- cumented all the materials used in a material passport called Madaster. There one can see all the data of resources used and emission rates, but also the sizes and amounts of the materials. No materials contain toxic substances so it will be safely to dismantle and reuse them again. By having a timber structure, the materials used are infinite. It takes 11 minutes and 36 seconds for the German forest to regrow the amount of timber used in the building.³⁹

Figure 8-10, Triodos bank⁴⁰

To enhance the reuse of construction products it would be important to develop a national data base where one can easily find collected, used materials and see the quality as the quantity of the products. In Netherlands an Architect firm, Rotor Deconstruction, has developed a website called Opalis, that facilitates the reuse of materials of construction and renovations. They provide services as dismantling the materials, stores them and resells them with instructions of how to reassemble them again. They also have other suppliers of reused materials in their database, so the site covers the whole country’s reusing market. The products are collected into different categories so it is easy to find what one is after.⁴¹ (See figure 11-14). The suppliers can also advertise components in advance from a soon-to-be-demolished building so the products can go straight from the demolition site to the new client. Rotor deconstructions vision is that all large demolition or renovation projects should have a salvage phase planned for.⁴²

38 Peters Adele; Fast company; This office was built with 165,312 screws so it can be disassembled and reused;

2019; https://www.fastcompany.com/90434358/this-office-was-built-with-165312-screws-so-it-can-be-disassembled- and-reused (29.02.2020)

39 Pintos Paula; Arch daily; Triodos bank/ Rau architects; 2019; https://www.archdaily.com/926357/triodos-bank-rau-architects (29.02.2020)

40 Rietberg, Bert; Duivebode, Ossip; Arch Daily; triodos Bank/ Rau Architects; https://www.archdaily.

com/926357/triodos-bank-rau-architects (08.04.2020)

41 Opalis; About Opalis; https://opalis.eu/en/about (08.04.2020) 42 Baker-Brown; The re-use atlas; p.104-107

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Figure 11-14, different material categories at Opalis webpage⁴³

Designing detachable connections and materials

One part of urban mining is the part when the building is disassembled for reuse. With detachable connections can all the components be taken apart and reused or recycled.

This building method is common in historical buildings as old houses of timber-logs, for example. But todays buildings are usually not planned with a construction that is demountable. Therefore, the common method is to do a selective demolition, where one demolis- hes different materials separately. The waste can then be is sorted into hazardous materials, recycling, burning waste or ends up in landfill.⁴⁴ With this method one miss the possibility to reuse any material.

A strategy is needed where the dismantle of the building is planned for already in the planning phase of the construction. The disposal will become more expensive and the regulations of how construction products are handled will become stricter, too. EU already has a regulation called the EU construction products regulation from March 2011 which sets the minimum requirements for the construction products. They state that a building must “be designed, built and demolished so that natural resources are used sustainably” and “the building, its materials and components must be able to be reused or recycled after demolition”⁴⁵ If this will be possible, easy detachable components needs to be designed so they can be separated and reused again, or recycled.

In the book ’Manual of recycling’ is an overview of different detachable joining techniques which are regulated in DIN 8580 and DIN 8593.⁴⁶ I have drawn some examples of these in the diagram below (see figure 16).

Figure 16, some examples of detachable joining techniques

43 Opalis; Materials; https://opalis.eu/en/materials (08.04.2020)

44 Sandström, Henrik; Naturvårdsverket; Materialinventering och sortering av bygg- och rivningsavfall; 2019;

https://www.naturvardsverket.se/Stod-i-miljoarbetet/Vagledningar/Avfall/Bygg--och-rivningsavfall/Materialinvente- ring-och-sortering-av-bygg--och-rivningsavfall/ (07.04.2020)

45 Hillebrandt; Riegler-Floors; Rosen; Seggevies; Manual of recycling; Buildings as sourses of materials; p.16-20 46 Hillebrandt; Riegler-Floors; Rosen; Seggevies; Manual of recycling; Buildings as sourses of materials; p.44

JOINING (DIN8593-1)

Laying/ Inserting/ Hanging

The joining of form-fitted parts by making use of gravity, often in conjunction with interlocking

Filling/ Infilling

The term for installation of gaseous, liquid, pulpy substan- ses as well as granular materials in hollow or porous solids.

Screwing/ Clamping/

Wedging

Joining through pressing on by means of self-locking threads.

Joining through deformation of sheet metal or profiles

Joining through wrapping, folding, overlapping.

FILLING (DIN8593-2) PRESSING ON OR

MOULDING (DIN8593-3) DEFORMING (DIN8593-5)

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My proposal

In my architectural project for this semester I have developed a centrally located site in Umeå. The site has belonged to the railway, but it is not used anymore by them. There is a roundhouse for trains on the site that is marked to be culturally and historically valuable.

The site is around 8500m² and has high potential to increase the city with a new, developed area. My proposal is to re-program the existing building, densify the site with several new buildings and plan the whole outdoor area so it is transformed from a sketchy area to a lively and public place, that can be used both by the neighborhood, the city center and by travelers.

The existing building is representing the local history and culture. By keeping the building and giving it a new program, it will become alive again and people can enjoy it. By not demolishing it resources are saved from becoming waste, and all the resources that a new building would require is saved too.

All new buildings added on the site will be demountable, to have a flexibility for future needs. All components will be recorded so the buildings can work as urban mining resources. The structural system is built with timber (biotic material) and put together using screws, so it can be taken apart again and reused. All windows can be taken down and reused, too. The metal facade is made of panels that are held in place by a framework of profiles. This system makes it possible to put up and take down the panels and reuse them several times. No hazardous materials are used so it will be safe to dismount whole buildings. (See diagram in figure 17 and 18).

In my architectural project I also have some aspects that lowers the operational energy. Ex- amples of those ones are a well isolated façade. Solar panels that gives electricity as well as heating up the water. A system where grey water from sinks and showers are used for flushing toilets. The incoming air is also heated up by solar energy as well as with geothermal heating. The heat is recovered from the air before it goes out again, too.

Figure 17, a diagram showing the dismantable contruction of the new buildings A DISMANTABLE CONSTRUCTION

WINDOWS PILLARS AND INNER WALLS FACADE AND FLOOR SLABS FACADE PANEL SYSTEM

The frames are screwed to be held in place They are sealed with wool isolation strips for easy

dismounting and reuse

The clt-elements are screwed together The wool-isolation comes in a roll and is cut in

matching pieces

All boards are put in place using screws The makadam in floorslabs is loose and can be

removed again

The profiles that holds the panels are screwed onto the facade and creates an airgap of 100mm The bronze panels are formed so they are held in place

of the profiles

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Figure 18, a diagram that summarises the environmental aspects of my architectural project

Conclusion

Best buildings are the ones with durable structures and flexible interiors which allows chang- es of uses over time. An abandoned and useless refurbished building can be more harmful for the climate than demolishing a badly maintained building before the renovation, so a good analyze is always needed. If a building needs to be demolished it is important that the building components are taken care of and can be reused in new structures. Rest of the material that can’t be reused should be recycled so that no waste from the demolition lands on the landfill.

If we start thinking of buildings as material resources and constructing them so they are dismountable we can start reusing all the materials instead of taking the resources from the nature. The building industry needs to develop systems for this to become a method of how buildings can be built in the future. It is still too difficult to find materials to reuse or that are recycled.

A possible way to push the industry to minimize the waste and maximize the reuse and recyclability of building materials, is through regulations and costs. If it becomes more expensive to discard waste, people will stop buying products that are not possible to recycle or reuse again. Alternatively, if new products become more expensive than reused or recycled products, a market for the later ones will occur. This could be regulated through taxes for example.

COMBINING OLD & NEW

FLEXIBLE

TRANSPORT REMOUNTABLE

MATERIALS

MATERIAL PASSPORT

ENERGY SAVINGS The old building is kept and reprogrammed

New buildings are added to densify the area The whole area is reprogrammed to activate it again

Interior spaces can be shaped differently and reprogrammed

Short distance to public transport as train station & bus station The whole buildings can be taken down and put up again in a new place

Bicycles can be borrowed Parts can be opened up / closed down depending on season

E-car pool for tenants The timber structure is put together using screws

Facade panels can be taken apart again Windows can be demounted and used again

A timber structure - minimizing GHG emissions

All materials & components are recorded

Makes it easy to find new customers for the materials when demounted

Solar panels for electricity

Flushing toilets with grey water from showers and sinks Heating and cooling system using geothermal energy Thich wool insulation and triple glassed windows Metal facade panels - material that can be reused No hazardous materials - everything can be recycled/ reused

SUSTAINABILITY

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An approach I have not investigated in this report is a change in the ownership, which could be a further research on this topic. In this approach, the costumer is just paying for the service of using a product and the producer would stay as the product owner. That would create an interest for the producer to build products that are easy to maintain, repair, take apart and reuse.

By choosing to combine both a reuse of an existing building and add some new buildings in my proposal, I show how a sustainable way of handling buildings can look like. By combining new and old buildings I have widened my investigation field, too. In terms of an understanding that existing buildings and new buildings have different possibilities and should be treated differently. Today it is difficult to reuse materials when demolishing an existing building due to the construction methods, and the environmental aspect needs to be considered. With my suggestion to start building dismountable buildings, it will result in a flexibility where the decision of keeping an existing building will be based on other aspects than the environmental ones.

A final reflection of what I have learned during this research is that the building industry is responsible for using a large amount of resources, energy and emissions that all have an impact on the climate. It is important that a transformation from linear production processes to more circular processes will happen, so all produced materials can be recycled. Materi- als differs in how they are possible to recycle without losing quality, and that factor should be considered when choosing a material. It is necessary to think of a material through its whole lifecycle and plan for the demolishing phase already in the planning phase. Today it is difficult to find recycled or reused materials, and systems to make this easier needs to be developed. To re-think how products are produced, to re-build and re-purpose what already exists can be a positive way forward.

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How can resource waste in building industry be minimized, and the reuse and recyclability of building materials be maximized?

Re-think, re-build, re-purpose