Integrated Regenerative Design
Lesson 8 21/11 (Part Jan Wurm)
A. Introduction: the big picture
1. Sustainable materials?
o Something that is already available
o Aluminium good option? It is really good for constructions > but is the
production also sustainable? Its + 100 billion euros per year for the
environmental costs per year. There is a damage done > the future pays for it
• Production of aluminium is with a red mud > Ajka Red Mud disaster
2. Setting the scene
o Us as architects make the decision what materials we will use. Ask the right
questions. What is the impact on nature?
B. INTRO 1: The reciprocal landscape
1. If you use a material in your building, ask these 3 main questions:
o How much source material do you need?
o How much energy do you need?
o How far does it needs to be transported?
• Every year we use per person 15 tons of materials in Belgium > we have
a huge scattered built area in Belgium, every family has a house, that
takes a lot of material.
• 50% of all produced materials - architecture - 35% of all solid waste (>
we are somewhere in between)
C. INTRO 2: impact
1. GDP > needs to grow ALWAYS! (Otherwise, the economy of your land goes bad)
o Gross Domestic Product
o Why does it elevate? More people produce things and work
o The population will grow every year higher and higher > but we take more
material every year > and where does it all come from?
o The limits to growth (1972) by the club of Rome was capturing that problem
o OUR GLOBAL MATERIAL USE HAS TRIPLED SINCE 1970
2. Our material economy
o Model of a circular economy: we
need a circular economy, we have a
linear economy
o Butterfly diagram: you follow the
use of material with every
production step, and you regrow
every step
o It does have limitations:
1
, • Lack of systems approach
• Lach of drivers and
incentives
• Lack of focus on demand
side (what do we really
need?)
o THE DOUGHNUT ECONOMY
covers all that of Kate Raworth
• It covers the essential
things!
o Economies are made of
businesses, and maybe that is
why we cannot change > what
is the purpose, how are you
networking? How do you
govern? How are you owned?
How are you financed?
3. Embodied impacts
o Everything that has been invested in a material; every step in the lifecycle of
the subject.
• We can look at it per building layer, for example carbon:
❖ Most of the impact from carbon is released off-site, the process
of the construction products.
❖ We release from then on less and less carbon every year, why?
Global warming > we need less heat and energy
• Embodied nature impacts:
❖ Land water sea
❖ Climate change
❖ Pollution (also site based)
❖ Resource water (also site based)
❖ Etc.
• Lifecycle of a material chain (important!!!)
❖ Upstream impacts (off site): transport, raw material extraction,
manufacturing, construction/installation (his one on site)
❖ Direct operations (mixed offsite and onsite): use, repair,
maintenance, replacement, water and anergy
❖ Downstream impacts (off site): disposal, waste procession
- We see a lot of things of impacts are happening off
site!
• LCA -EPD:
❖ EPD: it’s a standardized, verified document that transparently
describes a products impact on the environment
(ENVIRONMENTAL PRODUCT DECLARATION) > if you want to
make a change you need to get into this level of looking at the
2
, EPD’s! Less complicated so you can communicate this with
those involved
❖ LCA: LIFE CYCLE ASSESSEMENT is a more in depth analysis and
for more internal use (for an office), it’s more complicated, and
is used as a base for EPD
4. Regenerative design principles
o Designing for/ with nature, the philosophy of inter-being we want to restore
and regenerate.
o How are things related to each other? Design with the nature that we have
o Look at different scales: the regions, the city, the neighbourhoods, the sites
and the planet.
• What is the economical, ecological and the social gain?
• For example: Mar Menor, ecosystem of Spain what has been suffering a
lot for the past years.
• We are Nature initiative in Brussels: connect nature with the city
buildings again.
o Project royal habitat Amsterdam
o The people who work with living materials
o Case study: Common house Bridport
D. STRATEGIES
1. LEAN DESIGN
o Material pyramid
o Principles light & construction
o Material innovation
• 3D printing earth
o Case study: LCT (cree timber hybrid slab)
• Combine a thin layer of concrete with a layer of wood (LCT)
• You can prefabricate it, only 12 cm of concrete
3
, 2. CIRCULAR
o Enablers and design principles
• Materials that have been used before > history, has taken care of by
someone who has been taken care of it
• What is a circular building? It has been made of materials that are
already been used
• Why do we demolish buildings?
❖ Growing population
❖ It doesn’t specially work
❖ The purpose function doesn’t work
o Urban mining and re-use
• 2% of demolished building materials can be re-used (98% recycled)
• Recycle < reuse < reduce! (These 3 are circular design)
• Can we reuse the facade? In components?
• WE WANT TO MAXIMISE REUSE; WE WANT TO MINIMIZE NEW
MATERIALS AND WASTE!
• Designing it so you can maximise reuse after
o Material passports
• Waste is material without identity
o Secondary markets
• Opalis website > secondary markets in Belgium- the Netherlands (one
of them is ROTOR)
• Reuse toolkit by FCRBE
• C2C products
• Resources in the city?
o Case study: Philips building Brussels and People Pavilion
• ROTOR materials were used for this building to build
3. GEO-BASED (part Marc Swolfs)
o Geobased: resources with mineral origin like raw earth and drystone
• Mud = clay + silt + sand + aggregate
❖ Clay = the binder
❖ The density exists mixing the water + clay + fibers
o Clay Materials construction, Methodologies, Applications
o Case study: BC materials
• Adobe stone: loamstone, brick
o Lime materials
• Hydrated lime = industrial air-hardening lime
o Case study: Arte construct
• Knowledge centre to inform people, to provide as much advice as
possible
o Sizes:
• GRAVEL > SAND > SILT > CLAY
❖ A mix of these = mud/ loam
4
Lesson 8 21/11 (Part Jan Wurm)
A. Introduction: the big picture
1. Sustainable materials?
o Something that is already available
o Aluminium good option? It is really good for constructions > but is the
production also sustainable? Its + 100 billion euros per year for the
environmental costs per year. There is a damage done > the future pays for it
• Production of aluminium is with a red mud > Ajka Red Mud disaster
2. Setting the scene
o Us as architects make the decision what materials we will use. Ask the right
questions. What is the impact on nature?
B. INTRO 1: The reciprocal landscape
1. If you use a material in your building, ask these 3 main questions:
o How much source material do you need?
o How much energy do you need?
o How far does it needs to be transported?
• Every year we use per person 15 tons of materials in Belgium > we have
a huge scattered built area in Belgium, every family has a house, that
takes a lot of material.
• 50% of all produced materials - architecture - 35% of all solid waste (>
we are somewhere in between)
C. INTRO 2: impact
1. GDP > needs to grow ALWAYS! (Otherwise, the economy of your land goes bad)
o Gross Domestic Product
o Why does it elevate? More people produce things and work
o The population will grow every year higher and higher > but we take more
material every year > and where does it all come from?
o The limits to growth (1972) by the club of Rome was capturing that problem
o OUR GLOBAL MATERIAL USE HAS TRIPLED SINCE 1970
2. Our material economy
o Model of a circular economy: we
need a circular economy, we have a
linear economy
o Butterfly diagram: you follow the
use of material with every
production step, and you regrow
every step
o It does have limitations:
1
, • Lack of systems approach
• Lach of drivers and
incentives
• Lack of focus on demand
side (what do we really
need?)
o THE DOUGHNUT ECONOMY
covers all that of Kate Raworth
• It covers the essential
things!
o Economies are made of
businesses, and maybe that is
why we cannot change > what
is the purpose, how are you
networking? How do you
govern? How are you owned?
How are you financed?
3. Embodied impacts
o Everything that has been invested in a material; every step in the lifecycle of
the subject.
• We can look at it per building layer, for example carbon:
❖ Most of the impact from carbon is released off-site, the process
of the construction products.
❖ We release from then on less and less carbon every year, why?
Global warming > we need less heat and energy
• Embodied nature impacts:
❖ Land water sea
❖ Climate change
❖ Pollution (also site based)
❖ Resource water (also site based)
❖ Etc.
• Lifecycle of a material chain (important!!!)
❖ Upstream impacts (off site): transport, raw material extraction,
manufacturing, construction/installation (his one on site)
❖ Direct operations (mixed offsite and onsite): use, repair,
maintenance, replacement, water and anergy
❖ Downstream impacts (off site): disposal, waste procession
- We see a lot of things of impacts are happening off
site!
• LCA -EPD:
❖ EPD: it’s a standardized, verified document that transparently
describes a products impact on the environment
(ENVIRONMENTAL PRODUCT DECLARATION) > if you want to
make a change you need to get into this level of looking at the
2
, EPD’s! Less complicated so you can communicate this with
those involved
❖ LCA: LIFE CYCLE ASSESSEMENT is a more in depth analysis and
for more internal use (for an office), it’s more complicated, and
is used as a base for EPD
4. Regenerative design principles
o Designing for/ with nature, the philosophy of inter-being we want to restore
and regenerate.
o How are things related to each other? Design with the nature that we have
o Look at different scales: the regions, the city, the neighbourhoods, the sites
and the planet.
• What is the economical, ecological and the social gain?
• For example: Mar Menor, ecosystem of Spain what has been suffering a
lot for the past years.
• We are Nature initiative in Brussels: connect nature with the city
buildings again.
o Project royal habitat Amsterdam
o The people who work with living materials
o Case study: Common house Bridport
D. STRATEGIES
1. LEAN DESIGN
o Material pyramid
o Principles light & construction
o Material innovation
• 3D printing earth
o Case study: LCT (cree timber hybrid slab)
• Combine a thin layer of concrete with a layer of wood (LCT)
• You can prefabricate it, only 12 cm of concrete
3
, 2. CIRCULAR
o Enablers and design principles
• Materials that have been used before > history, has taken care of by
someone who has been taken care of it
• What is a circular building? It has been made of materials that are
already been used
• Why do we demolish buildings?
❖ Growing population
❖ It doesn’t specially work
❖ The purpose function doesn’t work
o Urban mining and re-use
• 2% of demolished building materials can be re-used (98% recycled)
• Recycle < reuse < reduce! (These 3 are circular design)
• Can we reuse the facade? In components?
• WE WANT TO MAXIMISE REUSE; WE WANT TO MINIMIZE NEW
MATERIALS AND WASTE!
• Designing it so you can maximise reuse after
o Material passports
• Waste is material without identity
o Secondary markets
• Opalis website > secondary markets in Belgium- the Netherlands (one
of them is ROTOR)
• Reuse toolkit by FCRBE
• C2C products
• Resources in the city?
o Case study: Philips building Brussels and People Pavilion
• ROTOR materials were used for this building to build
3. GEO-BASED (part Marc Swolfs)
o Geobased: resources with mineral origin like raw earth and drystone
• Mud = clay + silt + sand + aggregate
❖ Clay = the binder
❖ The density exists mixing the water + clay + fibers
o Clay Materials construction, Methodologies, Applications
o Case study: BC materials
• Adobe stone: loamstone, brick
o Lime materials
• Hydrated lime = industrial air-hardening lime
o Case study: Arte construct
• Knowledge centre to inform people, to provide as much advice as
possible
o Sizes:
• GRAVEL > SAND > SILT > CLAY
❖ A mix of these = mud/ loam
4
