6 juni 2023
CBBW-woning in Testaankoop
Gwen Verlinden, architect (design) of the CBBW house and initiator of the CBBW research project, was interviewed by Testaankoop about the CBBW house. Read the full article here.
August 17, 2022
Podcast Climate Festival 2022
On the occasion of the Climate Festival 2022, Margaux Lespagnard (VUB) and Gwen Verlinden (TEKEN architectuur), together with Julia Alegre Mouslim and Maïté de Haan (Troebel), philosophized about the future of sustainable and affordable living. You can listen to the podcast here. We talked about what we learned from the Circular Building Affordable Housing project. The Climate Festival will take place from 12 to 16 October 2022 in Antwerp and is organized by Troebel, a philosophical platform that creates clarity in a murky world.
March 18 and May 10 and 12, 2022
Seminaries Howest, UHasselt, UGent
The lessons learned from Circular Building Affordable Living were presented to architecture students, interior design and construction during three seminaries. In May we were also able to share the financial conclusions that Margaux Lespagnard calculated based on a comparative LCC study. From this we learned that circular construction can yield significant, financial gains in the long term.
March 23, 2021
Webinar closing event C-bouwers
Bond Beter Leefmilieu, VIBE, VUB Architectural Engineering, BAS Bouwen and Dialoog have been working on a database and online platform to showcase circular building materials and a selection of exemplary projects. All for and by professionals in the building sector. Architectural designer and research leader Gwen Verlinden was invited to explain which circular building materials and design principles were used in the case study house of the CBBW project. (presentation in Dutch)
February 25, 2021
Ready for evaluation
Construction work on the case study house is almost completed. The house is now inhabited by the residents.
During the following fase we will be assessing the degree of circularity as well as the financial cost of the case study house.
January 14, 2021
Making a mini documentary
Due to the corona pandemic we can't invite visitors to the construction site as plannend. That is why we are making a mini documentary to actively share our learning lessons with you in a coronaproof way. The video will include several interviews explaining how the house is built, which circular principles are used and the impact this has on the cost.
December 14, 2020
Circular brickwork
Most Flemish facades today are still characterised by traditional brickwork. Often the existing context does not allow for an integration of more contemporary facade finishes, or urban planning restrictions simply won't allow it. To meet both the circular ambitions and the urban planning regulations, we employ a dry stack wall system in the case study house. The bricks are stacked on top of each other without mortar, making them reusable and composing a completely homogeneous wall: no other materials are mixed, so that the material flow can be more easily reused or, if the former is not possible, recycled.
December 12, 2020
Cork: insulation and cladding in one
Using cork as thermal insulation as well as exterior cladding for the facade, the outer shell of the building is homogeneous, reducing building complexity which reduces costs and simplifies the future deconstruction process. To insure technical performance the facade could not be mechanically mounted completely but had to be partially glued. The team came up with a twofold solution: the adhesive would be based in lime instead of cement and the cork would be mounted in different layers, safeguarding the inner cork layers from the adhesive hence preserving the possibility of 1 on 1 reuse for 45% of the facade and 100% potential for recyclage.
December 5, 2020
Urban mining: reuse of materials
Although not the primary focus of the project, we had the opportunity to reuse some of the building materials from a demolition site five kilometers south of the construction site where a part of the campus of the University of Antwerp had to be rebuilt. Some interior elements, such as doors, sinks, mirrors, faucets and electrical outlets and switches, were salvaged. Exterior elements proved to be more challenging, but the team succeeded in deconstructing the wall base plinth of one of the campus buildings and reusing it in the case study house.
November 25, 2020
Windows and doors
Conceiving a circular and affordable solution for the windows and doors proved to be challenging. Using a system with two independent frames could provide the possibility of replacement and hence adaptability, but this would drive up the cost by 15 to 20%. Eventually powder-coated aluminum joinery with triple glazing was chosen. This system met the future residents's wishes (little to no maintenance) while scoring highest in the Life Cycle Analysis of the NIBE (Netherland Institute for Building Biology and Ecology).
17 - 20 November 2020
Waterproofing and insulating the roof
The goal was to waterproof and insulate the roof in such a way that the used materials could be easily disassembled in case of demolotion. The main concern was that the waterproofing would demand chemical adhesives in order to guarantee technical performance. The adhesives that could inhibit a circular construction proved only necessary on the outer edges of the roof, meaning most of the roof could be quite easily be designed for disassembly. The construction consists of a solid wooden support structure, a vapour barrier, wood fiber insulation, EPDM waterproofing and gravel (ballast). Because the construction is already widely used and does not require expensive adhesives or sealants it is generally considered as the most cost-efficient solution.
November 13, 2020
Virtual tour for university students
Due to the corona epidemic, the students of the Thomas More University of Applied Sciences could not visit the construction site of the circular case study as initially planned. This is why we decided to organise a virtual tour. We thank professor Davy Stoobants and his students for the interesting questions and inspiring curiosity!
November 11, 2020
Timber construction: day 7
Today the support structure for the case study house was completed. The construction took seven days to complete and was assembled with a team of two professionals and four unexperienced helpers, among them one of the future residents. Because the system is so easy to assemble it allows for partial DIY. Being able to save on the cost of labour, the total cost of the timber structure could be reduced with 10 to 15%.
November 09, 2020
Mockup testing
Preconstruction mockup testing of the external wall was a way for the team to learn how the different building parts, such as thermal insulation, load-bearing structure and facade cladding, would come together. But also to test the waste-removal efficiency and potential for reuse after disassembly. Experimenting with different compositions and formations, we learned a lot about the material and how it behaves, not only in theory but in the actual field. This hands-on approach helped us gain confidence in the materials and construction methodes and abetted in making better circular design and construction choices.
November 05, 2020
Timber construction: day 3
After a couple of days, the building is already taking form. Because only dry-jointing techniques are used, there is no drying time that can slow down construction. External walls, floors and roof are all constructed in the same way, using the same equipement and techniques. The assembly is quick and easy.
November 03, 2020
Timber construction: day 1
The assembly of the pre-fabricated construction kit is going very fast. Due to the simple connection details and easy-to-handle construction parts the construction allows for expensive labour to be partially outsourced to non-professional workers. In this case, one of the future residents and three friends of theirs helped put together the construction under supervision of two experienced contractors.
October 30, 2020
Arrival construction kit
The chosen construction methode for the case study house is a pre-fabricated solid wood structure. The timber beams are placed vertically next to each other and are joined together as a whole by steel spaces. This reversible construction allows the different parts and materials to remain available for future reuse. The steel spacers are modular and can be reused to make new buildings. The timber beams are free from adhesives or glue and can be reused or, if reuse is not possible because of degradation or dimension, decomposed and returned to the biological sphere. The construction methode cleverly integrates airtightness through the use of a double tongue-and-groove connection in which a rubber band seals the crevice.
October 29, 2020
Foundation: prioritising (2)
Underneath the exterior wall concrete beams where inevitable for multiple reasons. The concrete for the beams was poured on a geotextile, separating it from the soil. They were calculated in such a way they could be repurposed as beams as wel as structural columns.
October 28, 2020
Foundation: prioritising (1)
Exploring the construction possibilities for the foundation of the case study house posed the question if the possibility of reuse was relevant. Especially when it looked like it would be very challenging to conceive a construction that would allow for disassembly in the future and at the same time answer to all the other requirements. Eventually the foundation was constructed around two key principles: reduce the use of virgin material and increase the potential for reuse of the deployed materials. This philosophy translated into a foundation floor conceived of granulate made of recycled glas. No other additives were required. The granulate can easily be ‘scooped’ out if it would ever be necessary to remove the foundation. The glass chunks have a load-bearing function but also have a high thermal insulation capacity.
October 15, 2020
Take off: constructing the case study
Today the excavation works started. The site is located close to public transport, schools, shops and health-care, scoring high on the Flemish ‘mobiscore’ with an 9,5/10. Here we will be building a circular single-family home for the next six months.
11 August 2020
Reclaiming used materials
Five kilometers from the construction site, the University of Antwerp started demolishing a part of their campus. Through the Green Deal Circular Building network, we ware able to contact the bureau who was coördinating the selective demolition, which focusses on separating demolition waste into high-value material fractions. Although not the primary focus of our project, we were still interested in reusing some of these material fractions in the new dwelling. One of the most important things we reclaimed was about 20 meter of wall base plinth.
July 28, 2020
Building permit: approved
The building permit or construction permit for the case study house has been obtained. The city of Antwerp has given the green light to build a single-family home on the site in Berchem, near Antwerp. Preliminary discussions with the city counsel were not possible due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused the city to go in lockdown for the first time, paralysing big parts of daily operations and functionalities. Because of the tight schedule the team decided to go ahead and submit the request for a permit without the hoped dialogue in which some deviations of urban regulations could have been motivated. An application was drawn up that respected the traditional urban planning regulations as much as possible (the use of materials in the facade that matches the existing context), but taking a calculated risk when was needed (the use of materials in the side and rear facade) because of innovative and circular characteristics.
December 23, 2019
Open Call 2019: selected!
Our project 'Circular Building Affordable Housing’, that was submitted for the Open Call 2019 organised by Circular Flanders has been selected for funding! 266 projects were submitted, of which 53 were approved. The team is very happy to receive this acknowledgement an financial injection. We look forward working on this project and sharing our insights with you. Read more about Circular Flanders and the selected projects.