Reusing precast concrete for a circular economy
Activities
Ensuring the service life of reused concrete components is a critical requirement for safe reuse, but it is also the key to accurately evaluating the true reuse potential of existing elements. Currently, the construction industry faces a major regulatory roadblock: standards typically limit service life strictly to carbonation (corrosion initiation phase: when carbonation reaches the […]
Author: Satu Huuhka, Tampere University ReCreate’s Finnish cluster shares news about its new mini-pilots. This is the second of them. You can read about the first one here. Stay tuned for more info on the third mini-pilot, which will follow shortly! The second Finnish mini-pilot was implemented in summer 2025 in conjunction with the construction of the industrial production complex ‘Lokomotion Technology Centre’, which Skanska is building for the client Metso in the Lahdesjärvi district of Tampere. It involved reusing 27 hollow-core slabs in […]
Authors: Jyrki Tarpio & Tapio Kaasalainen, Tampere University A Circular Economy Course is held for fourth– and fifth–year architecture students at Tampere University each year. In 2025, the students’ assignment was to study how to reuse load-bearing structural precast concrete elements deconstructed from an office building in new-build multifamily housing. The Finnish deconstruction pilot building of the ReCreate project, the load-bearing structural elements of which were dismantled in 2023, acted as a reference donor building in the course. Figure 1. Load-bearing elements of the Finnish donor building. Axonometric images and floor plan […]
Events
16-18 September 2025 Tampere Hall congress centre Tampere, Finland (street address Yliopistonkatu 55) About the conference The 2nd International Conference on Circularity in the Built Environment (CiBEn) brings together pioneering researchers from all over Europe and beyond to share knowledge on the state-of-the-art on circular construction. Organised in collaboration between Tampere University (Finland), TU Delft […]
ReCreate
Most used construction material
Bridge the knowledge gaps
Importance of ReCreate
Project goals
ReCreate aims to bridge the knowledge gaps hindering the approach from reaching maturity as a socio-technical process by using the innovative pilots to explore, develop and demonstrate various national value chains, business models, legislation obstacles (e.g. building vs. waste legislation), as well as diverse building stocks with different kind of representative construction technologies, building types and sizes, and ownership structures.
