Blog posts - Recreate

September 10, 2025

Paul Jonker-Hoffrén, Tampere University

Reuse of prefabricated concrete elements requires technical solutions and specialist knowledge of structural engineers and deconstruction firms, among others. In the ReCreate project, we have shown that on a technical level, reuse is entirely feasible. For this, we have developed knowledge and practices that can be scaled up. However, scaling up reuse requires more than technical solutions. In Deliverable 8.2, we discuss various legal issues to consider, based on the context of the ReCreate countries’ pilots. To scale up reuse, it is important to consider policies and development plans that go beyond single real estate units.

In the article Policy tensions in demolition: Dutch social housing and circularity, I have tried to unearth issues of social acceptability and policy support around demolition and circularity. As a case study, I used the city of Rotterdam and its housing and city reconstruction policies, which intersect with the policies and legal norms for circular construction as described in Deliverable 8.2. These specific norms always exist in a broader context of national and local policies. For the goal of scaling up reuse, it is therefore important to understand how the technological solutions of circular construction fit with policy goals. Furthermore, for the social acceptability of reuse, it is important to assess the socio-economic impact of these policies.

The context of the study is the Rotterdam housing policy, which aims to reduce social housing in the city. The official rationale is a (contested) estimate that there is an oversupply of social housing in many areas. These areas also feature above-average unemployment, crime, substance abuse, etc. An intended effect of this policy is the so-called “social mix” – that social problems would decline when areas have a more diverse socio-economic make-up. This policy idea has nonetheless been thoroughly debunked as ineffective. The reduction of social housing would happen through the demolition of buildings that are, in many cases, from the point of view of the housing corporations, too expensive to renovate. The main reason given is the technical obsoleteness of the housing. This can be an acceptable reason for demolition, but it turns out the estimate of oversupply of affordable housing is dubious. This background reduces this type of housing a bad policy choice with detrimental effects for the weakest in society, because users of social housing are intentionally replaced by more wealthy renters.

The circular economy policy of Rotterdam has been quite ambitious, with attention to various materials and processes in which the city’s citizens have been actively involved. However, these have been mostly consumer-based processes, although housing corporations, which produce and manage social housing, have their own “performance agreements” with the City regarding sustainability and circularity issues. Circular processes around construction products and materials have been the subject of city-sponsored studies, with the primary aim of assessing material flows and sketching feasible use cases. The material flows and prospects for urban mining turn out to be based on the plans of demolition of (mostly social) housing until 2030. The implication is that Rotterdam’s circular economy policy regarding construction & demolition waste is largely predicated on demolition plans that are based on unreliable calculations of housing stock. This doesn’t appear to be planned this way, though. But it raises questions of policy-making quality and stakeholder involvement.

Aside from the technical question of the usability of these construction materials in new buildings, the case of Rotterdam housing policy suggests that the reuse of materials can be potentially politically complicated. A policy issue can be easily envisioned: what should harvested materials be used for, and by whom? It can also be seen that too obvious a connection between demolition of social housing and circular economy projects may not be conducive to increasing social acceptability. Circular economy processes have different significance for different stakeholders. Therefore, local governments should practice due diligence regarding stakeholder involvement and negative externalities in urban renewal policies.

by ReCreate project

September 8, 2025

The international conference Circularity in the Built Environment (CiBEn 2025) will take place in Tampere, Finland, from 16–18 September, bringing together leading voices in research, policy, and practice around circular construction. ReCreate will have a strong presence throughout the programme, with more than 20 presentations spanning across themes such as deconstruction, quality management, design, logistics, and policy.

The sessions highlight the breadth of expertise within the project and demonstrate how the reuse of precast concrete elements can transform the construction sector.

Programme highlights

Tuesday, 16 September

10:00–11:00 – Opening address: ReCreate coordinator Satu Huuhka will set the stage for the conference.
13:00–14:50 (Urban mining 1, Room Duetto 2) – José Hernández Vargas will present an integrated GIS and BIM approach for mapping Sweden’s precast building stock.
15:20–17:15 – Parallel sessions featuring ReCreate research:
- Assessment 1 (Duetto 1): Emmi Salmio on the environmental benefits of reusing hollow-core slabs.
- Quality management 1 (Duetto 2): Inari Weijo and Niko Kotkavuo on condition investigation and the history of hollow-core slabs in Finland.
- Policy & social 1 (Riffi): Paul Jonker-Hoffrén on decision-making moments in circular construction, and Tove Malmqvist on hazardous substances in reused concrete.

Wednesday, 17 September

09:00–11:10 (Design 2, Duetto 2) – A strong ReCreate panel on reuse-driven design, including Patrick Teuffel, Simon Wijte, and Marcel Vullings. Topics range from AI-supported design tools to the role of databases in successful reuse.
13:10–15:20 –
- Value chains 1 (Duetto 1): Arlind Dervishaj on smart logistics for reuse.
- Design 3 (Riffi): Christoph Henschel on combining reused precast elements with other materials for flexible design.
15:50–18:00 –
- Assessment 3 (Duetto 1): Ahmad Al-Najjar on the availability and carbon reduction potential of reclaimed elements in Sweden.
- Decommissioning (Duetto 2): Jukka Lahdensivu and Thijs Lambrechts on evaluating and reconnecting deconstructed precast elements.

Thursday, 18 September

09:00–10:50 (Products, Duetto 1) – Agnese Scalbi and Arlind Dervishaj will present innovative mechanical systems and reconditioning techniques for reusable precast elements.
12:50–14:20 –
- Quality management 3 (Duetto 1): Benjamin Matthews and Aapo Räsänen on deriving design values and best practices for reclaimed elements.
- Design 4 (Duetto 2): Helena Westerlind on adaptive architectural transformations.
14:50–16:15 –
- Value chains 2 (Duetto 1): José Hernández Vargas on structured databases of reusable precast elements.

The wide scope of ReCreate’s contributions demonstrates the project’s leadership in advancing research and practice on reuse of precast concrete elements. From technical innovations to policy frameworks, these presentations will provide valuable insights for stakeholders across the built environment.

by ReCreate project

August 29, 2025

Jakob Fischer, Brandenburg University of Technology

The pilot project ‘Youth Centre at Sternentor’ in Hohenmölsen is entering the next important phase of the Recreate project. The construction project with dismantled and reusable concrete elements, initiated by the mayor Andy Haugk (town of Hohenmölsen, state of Saxony-Anhalt), designed by architect Christoph Henschel and scientifically supervised and managed by project leader Prof. Angelika Mettke (Department of Structural Recycling, BTU Cottbus Senftenberg), was put out to tender EU-wide for the project planning.

This article is intended to show that a tender with reusable reinforced concrete elements does not differ significantly from business-as-usual tendering procedures. This is a very important finding for the acceptance and spread of reuse projects in the future.

Introduction

The overarching aim of ReCreate is to realise a pilot project in each of the four partner countries (Finland, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands), i.e. a building made from dismantled and reused concrete elements. Tasks such as acquiring the donor building, analysing the used concrete elements, logistics and transport of the elements, as well as planning the pilot project are implemented in an interdisciplinary manner in the four countries by the respective industrial partners and the scientific teams at the respective universities. This article describes one of the final steps for the German pilot project, which ultimately leads to the realised construction project. This involves the invitation to tender for the realisation of all planning and construction services in accordance with HOAI (Honorarordnung für Architekten und Ingenieure; translation: “Schedule of Services and Fees for Architects and Engineers).

During the course of ReCreate, several pre-drafts and a final design for the Hohenmölsen youth centre have already been created. HOAI-service phases 1-9:

1. basic evaluation

2. preliminary planning

3. design planning

4. approval planning

5. implementation planning

6. preparation of award of contract

7. participation in the award of contract

8. project supervision – construction supervision and documentation

9. project management

Together with the first structural parameters and calculations, both HOAI-service phase 1 (basic evaluation) and HOAI-service phase 2 (preliminary planning), could be completed through the ReCreate project. Accordingly, the tender for construction and planning services only had to be considered from HOAI-service phase 3 (design planning) and upwards.

However, before the tendering and awarding of planning and construction services could take place, the town of Hohenmölsen had to guarantee the financing of the youth centre. Through intensive application processes, the required investment sum of around €2.81 million was reserved via the Just Transition Fund (New European Bauhaus programme) in March 2025. However, before the final funding decision is issued, the complete design planning (service phase 3) must be submitted and it must be ensured that the entire construction project can be completed by mid-2027.

The funds from the ReCreate budget are not released as direct investments for the construction of the pilot projects; only construction and planning services that can be directly and exclusively justified by the additional costs of reuse could be financed via ReCreate.

Tender preparation

Once the funding through the JFT had been reserved, the law firm DAGEFÖRDE was commissioned to draw up the necessary tender documents in consultation with the town of Hohenmölsen and prepare them so that they could be published via an official tender platform (in this case: TED). Publication took place on 19^th June 2025 and was open to the public for 4 weeks until 18^th July 2025. The services were awarded as an EU-wide negotiated procedure with a call for competition in accordance with Section 119 (5) of the Act against Restraints of Competition (GWB – Gesetz gegen Wettbewerbsbeschränkungen) and Section 17 of the Public Procurement Ordinance (VgV – Vergabeverordnung).

The contents and special features of the tender documents – consisting of parts A to D – are described below with regard to reuse aspects. Episode 1 of this blog series explains the procedural conditions (Part A). The specifications (Part B) and the catalogue of questions for bidders in the tender documents will follow in Part 2.

Part A – Procedural Conditions

Part B – Project Specifications

Part C – Architects and engineer contract – Object planning services

Part D – Application for participation

Procedural Conditions (Part A)

Part A of the tender documents contains, among other things, information about the parties involved in the award process, general framework conditions, the procedure, as well as requirements and eligibility criteria for the participants in the competition. In the case of more than four participants, eligibility and Selection criteria were formulated, which will be explained in more detail later. If the participants fulfil the eligibility criteria, they are invited to submit offers and become bidders.

As mentioned at the beginning, the tender documents were available for public inspection and download for four weeks. In the first 21 days after publication, participants were able to submit objections, questions or even complaints regarding the content or form of the tender documents in the event of ambiguities or contradictions. This option was used several times and is included in the second part of this blog under ‘Bidder question catalogue’.

The award procedure described here is a so-called 2-stage award procedure. This means that there is first a phase with a public competition (the 4 weeks mentioned above) and then a bidding phase.

In the first phase, no tenders are submitted, only the Proof of Suitability (see next section). In the second phase, suitable participants and a maximum of four participants are invited by the procurer (City of Hohenmölsen) to submit an initial bid. If more than four participants have expressed an interest in the competition and fulfil the eligibility criteria, only the four participants with the highest scores will be invited to submit an initial bid in accordance with the selection criteria (see below). After submission of the initial bid, the city will invite the bidders to so-called bidder meetings (scheduled for week 36 this year).

Suitability Criteria

The seven suitability criteria to be established and fulfilled by the company or the bidding consortium comprise so-called self-declarations, two of which have been assigned with minimum requirements (*):

At this point, it is important to mention that only the planning with precast reinforced concrete elements had to be carried out for the suitability for the object planning, but not the reuse of these. However, reuse becomes relevant in the next step if more than four participants are selected.

Selection Criteria

If participants can fulfil the seven self-declarations including the two minimum requirements, they move on to the next round, the bidding phase. However, if more than four bidders have taken part and fulfil the suitability criteria, a selection procedure follows in which a maximum of 1000 points can be achieved. These are calculated by adding up the following four selection criteria:

The term ‘reuse’ mentioned under the selection criterion is defined in the tender documents as follows:

“ ’Reuse’ means the utilisation of dismantled precast reinforced concrete elements from a donor building for the construction of another/new building.”

This definition and mentioning of the term ‘reuse’ in the tender documents is of great importance, as it avoids ambiguities and subsequent misunderstandings even before participation or submission of a tender.

The scores resulting from the eligibility and selection criteria determine whether the four participants with the highest total score are invited to submit an initial bid. The participants now become bidders.

As soon as the four bidders have submitted their initial offer, the so-called bidder interviews take place. Bidders can still be excluded at this stage. Once the bidder interviews have been completed, the bidders still in the competition are asked to submit a final offer. These offers undergo a final evaluation in accordance with the published award criteria. In the end, one bidder becomes the contractor and is awarded the contract to provide the building services for the ‘New construction of the Sternentor youth and leisure centre’ project. The Architect and engineer contract for object planning services (Part C) can therefore be signed.

As soon as this decision has been made (probably at the beginning/mid-October 2025), this blog series will be continued here on our homepage. Episode 2 will be published in the early Autumn with the specifications and the catalogue of bidder questions.

by ReCreate project

July 9, 2025

Eetu Lehmusvaara,
Project researcher, Multimedia Creative Specialist
Tampere University

I worked as a videographer for the Finnish deconstruction pilot during autumn 2023 and spring 2024. I filmed the pilot project—a seven-storey office building located in Tampere—on multiple occasions during the autumn, which helped me realize the importance of documenting the stories of construction sites.

Consumers and users play an important role in the transition from a linear economy to a circular one. It challenges us to rethink what we value and what we don’t. And to value something, we need to understand it. Understanding requires experiences, and this is where videography can come into play.

The role of a documentary videographer is not only to show how things are but also to help people experience them. This is why seeing is not enough, emotions play a critical role in how we understand the world.

The Craft of Deconstruction

The craftsmanship behind deconstruction is something easily overlooked. To a passerby, a deconstruction site might look like any other building project. Cranes lift slabs, pillars, and beams, and workers move among various tasks.

But with a closer look, something different becomes apparent: Rather than building something new, the structure is being taken apart. The slabs, pillars, and columns are carefully removed and stacked like valuable resources, to be reused rather than discarded like waste.

When I first walked past the site, the loud but shallow clinks of hammers mixed with the high-pitched screeching of saws echoed through the building. These sounds were familiar from my previous visits to construction sites— but something about them felt different this time. I wasn’t sure what to expect. How would the workers perceive me? Would they be willing to be filmed? Were they proud of their work, or indifferent to it?

A moment of realization came a few weeks later. The workers were detaching an element from the building, as they had many times before. After about 30 minutes of effort, it became obvious that something wasn’t going smoothly. Seven men were gathered at one point on the building, all secured to the floor for safety, as they worked on the fourth story. One worker used a machine for extra leverage, others used circular saws and iron bars to free the element. The element was already attached to the crane, and the team was in constant communication with the crane operator. You could read the frustration on their faces, but their work remained precise and cooperative, as always.

Then it started to rain. I had to step away for cover, as did the managers who were observing the process. I waited under the stairwell for another 20 minutes, hoping to film the moment the element was finally lifted into the sky.

Sadly I missed the lift. My need to stay dry meant I missed the key moment of the lift. The construction workers, who didn’t have the luxury of stepping away, pushed through the difficulties and successfully removed the element—again.

Later, I realized the highlight wasn’t the lift itself. It was the story of skill and craftsmanship the workers demonstrated in making it happen.

Understanding Through Stories

To drive the shift toward circular construction, people need to see the work behind in it. We value historic buildings because they were hand-crafted, with all the imperfections that came with that. These structures tell stories, and their age gives them meaning.

The same goes for deconstruction. The knowledge and craftsmanship required to take buildings apart—carefully, responsibly, and with reuse in mind—is something people can value, once they understand it. This slow, demanding, yet environmentally positive work deserves recognition.

And for that, we need stories—compelling visuals and narratives that help us make sense of the world.

Hopefully, this short documentary can be one small contribution to a much larger shift.

by ReCreate project

June 12, 2025

Paul-Jonker-Hoffren-Tampere-University-–-kopija.png

Olli Vigren

KTH Royal Institute of Technology: Civil and Architectural Engineering

Stanford University: Center for Integrated Facility Engineering & Scandinavian Consortium for Organizational Research

Industry, scholarly, and policy interest in reusing concrete elements in construction has been on the rise. Reuse of concrete elements involves salvaging these elements from buildings condemned for demolition and reassembling them in new construction projects. This interest is largely driven by concrete’s significant contribution to global CO2 emissions, with reuse serving as an alternative strategy for reducing these emissions. There are ambitions to develop solutions that scale from pilot projects to industrial applications. Would you invest your own money in it?

Given these ambitions, there have been relatively few studies focused directly on economic feasibility. Previous research has mainly explored technical feasibility and value creation within supply chains and ecosystems. However, economic feasibility remains a significant barrier to widespread implementation. Economic feasibility generally means that a proposed solution is financially viable and cost-effective, ensuring that the benefits outweigh the costs.

Therefore, we at KTH developed a framework for analyzing the economic feasibility of concrete element reuse, presented in our research article titled “Assessing the Economic Boundary Conditions for Reusing Precast Concrete Elements in Construction.” The article is currently available by request: vigren@stanford.edu

The framework essentially considers three different value chains: standard demolition of an existing building, constructing a new building from reused concrete elements, and constructing a new building from virgin materials (Figure 1). Specifically, we ask:

Which economic factors influence building owners’ decisions to donate or sell concrete elements for reuse?
Which economic factors influence building buyers’ decisions to choose reuse over virgin materials?
Which economic factors influence the profitability of individual actors within the reuse supply chain and the supply chain as a whole?

These questions represent the key considerations within the industry regarding engagement in reuse activities. Building owners play a central role because they own the buildings and can therefore decide how they are demolished and what materials are used in new buildings.

Figure 1: Supply chain of reusing concrete elements.

We identify cost and profitability drivers and analyze key decisions through the lens of economic theory and cost management perspectives. Evidence suggests that owners of old buildings are likely to already have net positive incentives to pursue reuse activities over demolition. This is good news for reuse! However, these incentives are highly dependent on the country, specific context, and how costs are allocated within the value chain.

Buyers’ decisions regarding new buildings are highly context-dependent, as costs can vary significantly depending on the type of project and its organization. Key costs in concrete element reuse include deconstruction, refurbishment, storage, and transportation, while cost reduction drivers stem from savings on landfill fees, material costs, and production costs. Long-term profitability depends on economies of scale, new markets, and innovation.

Investments can already focus on the most promising opportunities, but systematic data and research on actors, costs, prices, markets, and regulatory impacts are prerequisites for informed investment decision-making. Lack of data and understanding causes uncertainty, which hampers long-term investments in reuse technologies and capacity, such as production facilities and warehouses. Can an investor expect the market for reused concrete elements to grow, and if so, when?

Finally, there is a broader need for economic feasibility studies related to circularity. Research has focused on concepts, organizational models, and technologies, but scaling these in the industry—and thereby achieving real impact—requires investors and concrete facts about money. Therefore, I will continue doing business studies on circularity and sustainability.

by ReCreate project

June 6, 2025

ReCreate blog post series on mapping in WP1

Post 4

Author: Niko Kotkavuo, researcher, Tampere University

To gain a broader perspective on the possibilities of reuse and ease knowledge and technology transfer across borders, one of the goals in the ReCreate project is to gather data on precast systems from various European countries. The work is not limited to the four pilot countries of the project (Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany), but also includes a selection of eastern EU member states known to have large stocks of precast concrete buildings. Besides residential building systems, the ones used in non-residential construction are of interest as well. This blog post series describes that experience. Please find here Part 1 of the series, which explains the nature of this work and describes the Polish experience, here Part 2, which discusses the Estonian experience, and here Part 3, which depicts the Romanian experience. The current post by researcher Niko Kotkavuo from Tampere University describes the Finnish experience and concludes the series, at least for now.

The Finnish experience

In Finland, post-war structural change, rural flight and resulting urban housing shortage led to high-volume industrialised housing construction beginning in the 1950s and culminating in the so-called ‘crazy years’ of the early 1970s. By the mid-1960s, most large construction companies had developed their own closed (company-specific) large-panel construction systems based on examples from abroad. In the late 1960s, to further cut construction time and costs, the concrete industry joined forces to develop an open system that any factory could produce.

The developed system, BES (short for betonielementtisysteemi, or concrete element system in English), was free to use by all operators in Finland. It soon became the new, widely adopted industry standard. In the early 1980s, it was followed by another open system Runko-BES (Frame-BES) for non-residential construction. While the systems have been updated throughout the years and their use has certainly became more versatile, they are still the basis for precast concrete construction in Finland today.

The wide adoption of BES and Runko-BES present a problem for reviewing the systems used in post-war Finland. Material on the BES systems is widely available and easy to access, and it covers a large portion of the precast concrete building stock in Finland. It is notable, however, that based on Mäkiö et al. (1994) and house construction statistics of central statistical office of Finland, the adoption of BES just missed the so-called ‘crazy years’ of housing construction. From the beginning of 1960s to the peak construction year of 1974, a large stock of buildings was constructed using the previous, closed large-panel systems, that are far less well understood.

Material on the previously used systems is significantly harder to come by, and details on the systems are seemingly forgotten in the existing literature. Thus, a more time-consuming approach of identification of specific housing projects, via literature review and by locating relevant construction drawings in municipal archives, has been used in studying the early systems.

Conclusions

Based on the very different experiences in the countries examined here, it is clear that there is no single approach for the review, which would work regardless of country. The work is, as is typical for archival work, quite reactive. In Poland, a large existing body of literature on the building stock made with large-panel systems could be capitalised on. In Estonia and to a lesser extent in Finland, there is a research gap regarding the composition of the housing stock in terms of precast concrete and system usage. In Romania, a lot of archival material has gone missing in the aftermath of the 1989 revolution which presented challenges, but university libraries provided useful catalogues and design manuals, which offer valuable insight into the country’s prefabricated building systems. A common factor for all four countries is that compared to housing, non-residential precast concrete systems and building stocks are a neglected area of study.

With the mapping of Finnish, Polish, Estonian and Romanian systems now complete we have a better picture of the systems used in each country as well as loads of archival material for later analysis, classification and digitisations of the building systems. This kind of work acts as a basis of future knowledge and technology transfer of the ReCreate learnings to new countries and regions.

References:

Mäkiö, E., Malinen, M., Neuvonen, P., Vikström, K., Mäenpää, R., Saarenpää, J. and Tähti, E. (1994). Kerrostalot 1960-1975 [Blocks of Flats 1960–1975]. Helsinki: Rakennustieto.

Tilastokeskus [Central Statistical Office of Finland]. (1974). Talonrakennustilasto 1971 [House Construction Statistics 1971]. Retrieved from https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:951-46-0905-0

Tilastokeskus [Central Statistical Office of Finland]. (1975). Talonrakennustilasto 1972 [House Construction Statistics 1972]. Retrieved from http://www.urn.fi/URN:ISBN:951-46-1563-8

Tilastokeskus [Central Statistical Office of Finland]. (1975). Talonrakennustilasto 1973 [House Construction Statistics 1973]. Retrieved from http://www.urn.fi/URN:ISBN:951-46-1811-4

Tilastokeskus [Central Statistical Office of Finland]. (1976). Talonrakennustilasto 1974 [House Construction Statistics 1974]. Retrieved from www.urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2023013118667

by ReCreate project

May 6, 2025

The division ‘Selective Deconstruction – Building in Existing Contexts’ of ECOSOIL Ost GmbH was founded in 2001 and started with a team of five employees. The focus was on the selective (crane-guided) deconstruction of prefabricated buildings. At that time, demand from housing companies was driven by overcapacity, vacancies and a backlog of renovation work. After 20 years, the business segment has established itself and the customer base has grown to around 60 property developers.

Our customer base is characterised by small and medium-sized towns in central and eastern Germany with job losses or poor infrastructure. Initially, the focus of the projects was on the deconstruction of upper floors and entrance areas. Over the years, the portfolio has been expanded to include deconstruction in an ‘inhabited state’, i.e. with temporary roofs.

In addition to our range of services, we require specialised machinery with specific features, such as special cranes, mini excavators and concrete cutting equipment.

Our team carries out the work while the buildings are still inhabited and works routinely with planners and various trades, in particular roofers, plumbers, carpenters and scaffolders.

Further structural challenges include the confined space and the sometimes very different construction methods with load levels ranging from 0.8 t to 6.3 t per element. The structural challenges are always accompanied by occupational safety for all employees.

We are an important point of contact for housing associations, as we have a pool of experience in deconstruction in conjunction with deconstruction planning and in hazardous substance and waste management. At the same time, the requirements of waste and recycling legislation have changed. For construction site logistics and cooperation with waste disposal companies, this means additional work, in particular due to extensive analyses and pre-sorting of waste in order to keep costs as low as possible and remain competitive.

Our largest and longest construction project was the Kugelbergring in Weißenfels (Saxony-Anhalt, Germany), which took over a year to complete and had a contract volume of €1.6 million.

The ‘Selective Deconstruction – Building in Existing Contexts’ division has initiated a construction conference as an industry meeting place, which has been taking place for over twenty years and is unique in this form. As a result, we came into contact with Prof. Mettke, BTU, and joined the EU project ReCreate as an industrial partner in 2008 with our first project. We have been supporting the EU project ReCreate since 2021. It is being implemented at the Hohenmölsen and Kolkwitz sites.

Our business has always stood for sustainable resource conservation through the long-term preservation of living space – always with the aim of improving the quality of life and the environment of former GDR prefabricated buildings. The EU-wide ReCreate project impressively demonstrates the potential of reusing entire ‘prefabricated panels’ in new functional buildings.

We are currently working with 15 employees on several construction projects in Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. In addition to the high-profile issues of housing shortages in metropolitan areas, the central issues of urban development in small and medium-sized towns in eastern Germany remain.

When renovating residential space, the requirements for energy-efficient renovation and barrier-free living are increasing. Today, the focus is on neighbourhoods with short distances, good transport links and sufficient green and recreational areas. The former prefabricated housing estates offer good structural conditions for these requirements.

Over the past 20 years, we have helped to create a liveable residential environment in over 200 projects.

by ReCreate project

April 2, 2025

The Czech experience by Marko Čambor from KTH School of Architecture

The experience of research in the Czech Republic is very rewarding and difficult at the same time. Most of the complications arise from the fact that between 1989 and today, two major events happened. The first was the Velvet Revolution in November 1989 and the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in January 1993. With these great shifts come complications, especially with connecting original publishers and producers to certain documents which were not always well kept.

Constructions in the country were overseen by the Ministry of Construction, which, with Czechoslovakia, was dissolved on 1st January 1993. Competencies of the ministry were divided between the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and the Ministry of Regional Development. This further complicates the issues since there is no clear line to divide the legacy neatly, and so the archival work was not well kept. All this results in an unclear answer when you try to find one place that is keeping these invaluable documents. Most of my research comes from personal collections of people who were working on this development with whom I spoke personally, and from collections of trade chambers which were also given these collections from individuals. Nonetheless, the reward of finding these connections is great in and of itself.

The Czech Republic is a country which is no stranger to topics of prefabrication and large-scale housing development. Over a quarter of all residents in the Czech Republic live in panel housing (27%). In Prague that jumps to 44%.

Ratio of people living in panel housing estates in the Czech Republic by region

Citation: ‘Panelové sídliště: dobré místo k životu? Napoví 6. ročník CHPS’. Sociologický ústav AV ČR, 6 2024; Source.

The development of prefabricated housing comes originally from the small town of Gottwaldov (today’s Zlín). Gottwaldov used to be a very important manufacturing hub for the footwear company Baťa. The company and the city of Gottwaldov were focused on the issue of housing the employees of the company. So then they experimented with different approaches to standardized housing. These experiments were mainly focused on brick constructions since Gottwaldov was already producing large quantities of ceramic bricks to be used in the expansion of factories in the city. The first larger-scale prefabricated construction was developed in Gottwaldov as the G 40 type. This was the first standardized construction system to use reinforced concrete construction panels. From this follows a great legacy of development and innovation. Most of the further development comes from the need of architects to be able to use the system and design buildings more freely and from the requirement of the state apparatus for the nationally organized construction to be as effective as possible. One of the first requirements which was given by the XI. Congress of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia demanded the construction of 1,200,000 flats by the year 1970. This goal was in the end never fulfilled – all flats built between 1948 and 1989 combined make up 1,2 mil. Units. The development of new and more free and efficient systems was constant. Great emphasis was also put on regional efficiencies. Since most of the development of estates was happening close to either the largest cities or centres of heavy industry, the most abundant materials were usually determined by the type of industry. For example, the north-east of the country was focused on the production of steel, so the most common ingredient for facade panels was slag.

From the previous systems came new families of systems. T 0XB systems, BX0 systems and so on. The biggest shift in further development was the year 1970, which brought new political requirements for any future systems. These new norms were called NKS (Nové konstruční soustavy)/ NCS (New construction systems). These new systems were tasked to accommodate all new requirements of style, modular freedom and efficiency. From these came systems OP.XX, PS XX and VVÚ ETA. Simultaneously with these, the country tried to find new options elsewhere. As a result, we got the systems Larsen-Nielsen, which was the only system brought from a Western country, more accurately Denmark.

Construction of a building, VVÚ-ETA system

Citation: M. Janečková, ‘Konstukční soustavy panelových domů, vývoj, typy, půdorysy’, estav.cz. [Online]; Source.

All this production then culminated in the year 1975, which was the year with the most completed units, 71 350. This is the number we haven’t seen since. Production and construction then slowed somewhat averaging around 55 000 completed units. All changed after November 1989, with the Velvet Revolution. The fall of the government meant that there was no large enough authority to organise and also fund large-scale projects. Housing estates which were started before this time and were still under construction were finished, some as late as 1993.

Construction of Bohnice Estate, Prague circa 1976; Source.

The legacy of these large-scale projects is still very present, and with today’s social understanding of the era in which these projects were created, it remains complicated. A large portion of criticism of the estates was directed at their visual quality. Since the prefabricated panels were prefabricated, they mostly look the same giving the finished state of the estates a large scale of sameness. This gave rise to the movement of beautifying the estates with brightly coloured plasters. Often not improving it very much. This practice has been thankfully abandoned since.

The general focus of contemporary topics of study works more in the realm of the socio-economic sustainability of large-scale housing estates. Nowadays is much more common to talk about urbanism and the public spaces within the estates. One of the topics of today is urban density which is significantly lower than the historical centers of Czech cities. So the question arrises if it is good to promote more density in the estates. The plans that work with densifying the estates usually run into great local opposition. So as of now, the question remains unanswered. Nevertheless, it is good that it is clear the future of the legacy of the previous regime (as many call it) inspires people to engage with questions of future development of their area. These tensions also promote interest in the professional areas of study, which try to present the development in a larger social, political and historical context, with more and more amateurs and professional projects being produced. There are a few large-scale projects which present the construction types in context. As mentioned, most research is interested in studies of larger-scale urbanism. However more detailed research might improve the understanding of the legacy of past industry, which still plays a big role in contemporary cities of the Czech Republic.

by ReCreate project

March 5, 2025

ReCreate blog post series on mapping in WP1

Post 3

Author: Filip-Lucian Neagu, researcher, Tampere University

To gain a broader perspective on the possibilities of reuse and ease knowledge and technology transfer across borders, one of the goals in the ReCreate project is to gather data on precast systems from various European countries. The work is not limited to the four pilot countries of the project (Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany), but also includes a selection of eastern EU member states known to have large stocks of precast concrete buildings. Beside residential building systems, the ones used in non-residential construction are of interest as well. This blog post series describes that experience. Please find here Part 1 of the series, which explains the nature of this work and describes the Polish experience, and here Part 2, which discusses the Estonian experience. The current blog will depict the Romanian experience, and the series will continue one more post on Finland.

The Romanian experience

Graduate of master’s in architecture Filip Neagu joined the ReCreate research team at Tampere University as a research assistant for a ten-week sprint in the autumn of 2024, with guidance provided by project researcher Niko Kotkavuo, to collect material on the precast building systems of Romania. This blog gives the personal account of his involvement and the challenges he encountered while studying the systems:

Similarly to other former Soviet dominated nations in Eastern Europe, the ‘large panels’ (ro. ‘panouri mari’) apartment buildings in Romania have been wearing a heavy cloak sown with the dark thread of a traumatic past communist regime.

However, several contextual differences ensured an especially unique path for the prefabricated panels’ development within the Romanian bubble. On one hand, their sudden appearance was backed by an unforgiving totalitarian urbanism that had previously wiped up entire settlements to force new space for the ‘large panels’ residential neighborhoods, as well as other representative megalomaniac structures. On the other hand, the high seismic activity in the south-eastern area of the country has imposed, at a structural level, certain reinforcement and binding particularities exclusive to the Romanian ‘large panels’ model. The latter aspect would turn up being shook by the devastating 1977 earthquake that measured 7.4 on the Richter scale, an event that hurried the introduction of even stricter building limitations and regulations.

The national revolution in 1989 against the communist party and the execution of its leader Nicolae Ceaușescu marked a clear ending to the dictatorial chapter and everything it entailed. Eventually, this liberation would also induce a massive drop of any interest in communist-related matters. Unfortunately, this phenomenon highly affected any regard in the handling and caring for the archives of the former institutions, including design institutions like e.g. The Design Institute for Standardized Buildings (IPCT) or The Project-Bucharest Institute (IPB). As a result, tracking the traces left by the archives proved as difficult as expected.

For example, for the last few years, a private operator for archival services in the city of Braila has been meaning to sell the former archives of IPB to Bucharest’s City Hall (PMB), a resource of valuable knowledge that should have normally been sought and reprised long ago by the municipal institution. An equally good source of materials from the IPCT era proved to be the university libraries at UAUIM in Bucharest, as well as UTCN in Cluj-Napoca. Dr. arch. Maria Alexandra Sas, a fellow Romanian researcher, has kindly offered to help with consulting some materials found at the library in Cluj-Napoca.

Some catalogs and dossiers, as well as instructive guides for assembling ‘large panel’ buildings published under the tutelage of the standardized buildings design institutions, have been successfully preserved in the university libraries. Even though the materials found at the libraries were in generally good condition, the IPB archives did not experience the same fate. Before recently settling in Braila, they have been dragged around during the last 34 years, some even developing mold overtime or disintegrating into solitary pages.

‘Large panels’ buildings might presently be one of the most valuable and widespread construction resources in Romania. While researching, I found mine and many of my close friend’s childhood homes’ floor plans, listed as sections or series of IPCT type projects. Since such a large portion of the built environment was constructed in a vigorously short period, more than half a century ago, a new era for intervention is right around the corner. Without a plan B of renovating or reusing this resource, or several back-up plans, millions of people could face a sudden housing crisis. The ‘large panels’ construction had almost unintentionally foretold a future in which reuse can be a sustainable option for architectural longevity.

by ReCreate project

February 17, 2025

The Refurbishing Plan developed by Lagemaat outlines a comprehensive renovation strategy for the Prinsenhof A-building that is being used as a donor building to transform it into the Circular Centre Netherlands (CCN) as the Dutch pilot project.

The plan addresses spatial integration, new site layout, and construction processes in Heerde. Temporary facilities, such as a mock-up and the Inspiration Pavilion, will be built to provide a realistic representation of the final design, to test the construction process and design details, and to allow visitors and stakeholders to explore the site. Additionally, a processing and sawing shed will be established to optimise space and facilitate refurbishment operations. The CCN design incorporates hollow-core slabs and façade elements. The façade elements are categorised into corner and middle elements based on structural application. The refurbishment involves uncovering external finishes and insulation to maintain structural integrity. A repurposed in-site tool will facilitate the processing and sawing of elements. Façade elements were cut, and the front parapets were removed from the structural elements with the saw wire. The parapets are then stored separately and stacked for clear and efficient organisation. Hollow-core slabs will be shortened using specialised equipment. This includes, among other things, cutting the elements using a specially designed setup tailored for shortening the slabs simultaneously. This phase ensures the elements are prepared for reuse without damage and in the same place where the CCN will be assembled.

Materials are managed with appropriate storage space to ensure easy identification and accessibility. This arrangement allows efficient use of logistics and space at the main site. The strategic approach aims to reduce risks, minimise costs, and enhance the overall quality of the project. This plan aims to ensure good practices for sustainable construction and future projects, aligning with the objectives of the ReCreate project.

Older Posts