Meetings, pilot visits

June 12, 2024

In June 2024, the ReCreate project reached significant milestones with two pivotal meetings held in Zagreb, Croatia. Hosted by GBC Croatia, these gatherings brought together partners, and experts to discuss progress, share insights, and plan future actions in our mission to revolutionize the construction industry through sustainable practices.

Consortium Meeting: 5th June 2024

The consortium meeting on the 5th of June was a vibrant assembly of all project partners. The event provided a platform for members to review the project’s achievements, address challenges, and align on upcoming objectives.

Highlights of the consortium meeting included:

Project Progress Updates: Each partner presented detailed updates on their contributions and advancements, showcasing the collective progress made since the last gathering. The emphasis was on the general status of the project management, communication and dissemination activities, and the status of the each project pilot.
Technical Discussions: In-depth discussions were held on the latest innovations in reusing precast concrete elements, highlighting technical challenges and solutions of each project pilot in Sweden, Finland, The Netherlands, and Germany.
Collaborative Workshop: Interactive workshop fostered collaboration among partners, focusing on differences, as well as advantages and disadvantages in centralized and decentralized pilot approaches.
Future Planning: During the meeting, partners outlined the next phases of the project, setting clear goals and timelines to ensure continued momentum and success.

Review Meeting: 7th June 2024

Following the consortium meeting, the review meeting on the 7th of June brought together WP leaders and external reviewers. This critical session aimed to evaluate the project’s progress against its objectives and deliverables.

Key aspects of the review meeting included:

An assessment of the project’s achievements to date, including a detailed examination of technical milestones and deliverables.
External reviewer Helena Granados Menéndez provided valuable feedback, highlighting strengths and offering recommendations for improvement to ensure the project’s success.
Discussions focused on the broader impact of the project on the construction industry and sustainability practices, emphasizing the importance of innovative solutions in real-world applications.
The meeting concluded with a clear roadmap for the upcoming months, emphasizing continued collaboration, innovation, and dissemination of results.

Both meetings were instrumental in driving the ReCreate project forward, reinforcing the commitment of all partners to transforming the construction industry through sustainable practices. We look forward to the next phases of the project with renewed energy and focus.

Stay tuned for more updates on our journey towards more sustainable future in construction.

by ReCreate project

September 29, 2023

In the heart of Tampere, Finland, the ReCreate project’s core group recently convened for a two-day program that combined insightful discussions, presentations, and an eye-opening site visit. Hosted by the project coordinators at Tampere University, this gathering showcased the collaborative spirit and dedication of the ReCreate consortium.

Day 1: Core Group Meeting

The first day of the event was dedicated to the ReCreate project’s core group meeting. This session served as a platform for project partners to exchange ideas, review ongoing activities, assess the status of deliverables, and chart a course for future actions within the project.

Participants came together to discuss their respective areas of work, share valuable insights, and align their efforts towards the project’s overarching goal of revolutionizing construction and deconstruction practices to achieve sustainability.

Day 2: Site Visit and Presentations

On the second day, just before embarking on a site visit, ReCreate partners held a series of brief presentations. Each presentation provided a perspective on the ongoing work in Tampere:

Mr. Tero Niemelä, Skanska: Skanska, specializing in construction and project development, shared their contributions to the project, shedding light on their areas of expertise and the challenges they are tackling.
Ms. Inari Weijo, Ramboll: Ramboll, engaged in technical research, and delved into their work related to structural condition surveys, deconstruction techniques, quality assurance, structural design, joint techniques, and reinstallation.
Mr. Antti Lanta, Umacon: Umacon, with its role in checking elements for damage and transportation logistics, provided insight into their efforts in ensuring the efficient reuse of construction elements.

Following these presentations, participants eagerly set out on a site visit to witness the ongoing deconstruction work in a donor building. The building’s skeleton frame, consisting of columns and beams, as well as hollow core slabs as intermediate floors, is being carefully disassembled. The reclaimed elements from this building will find new life in future construction projects, aligning with ReCreate’s core mission of promoting circular construction.

The ReCreate core group meeting and site visit in Tampere showcased the power of collaboration, innovation, and sustainability in the construction industry. It’s a testament to the dedication of project partners and their commitment to shaping a more sustainable future for the industry.

Stay tuned for more updates on the ReCreate project’s journey as it continues to make waves in the world of construction and deconstruction.

by ReCreate project

May 22, 2023

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The ReCreate project consortium recently held a highly productive meeting in Eindhoven, organized by the Dutch country cluster leader, Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). The event spanned three days and brought together consortium members from various countries to share insights, discuss joint publications, and provide updates on the project’s progress.

ReCreate

The meeting commenced with a PhD workshop on the first day, where attendees had the opportunity to present their research and engage in fruitful discussions on potential collaborations for future publications. This workshop laid the foundation for knowledge exchange and collaboration among the participants.

On the second day, the main event took place. After a brief introduction by TU/e, a ReCreate consortium general meeting was held. During this session, each country cluster provided updates on their respective progress, fostering a comprehensive understanding of the project’s advancement. A project steering committee meeting followed, where strategic decisions and action plans were discussed to ensure smooth project management.

ReCreate

In a generous gesture, ReCreate country cluster leader TU/e organized a tour of their Structures laboratory, offering valuable insights into the scientific principles behind the ReCreate project. Attendees had the opportunity to witness firsthand the processes underpinning the project’s innovative approach. Additionally, TU/e showcased other intriguing projects being undertaken by their students, further enriching the participants’ knowledge.

Furthermore, the meeting included presentations by the ReCreate Work Package leaders, who shared updates on the progress within their specific areas. This allowed for cross-pollination of ideas and ensured that everyone was well-informed about the advancements across the project as a whole.

ReCreate

The third day of the meeting was dedicated to a visit to the Lagemaat storage yard. Here, consortium members had the unique opportunity to examine the elements extracted from the Prinsenhof donor building in Arnhem. Lagemaat and IMd, leading companies in the field, provided valuable insights into the business case of deconstructing buildings and delved deep into the structural engineering aspects of deconstruction. This visit offered a practical perspective on the project’s goals and highlighted the importance of sustainable building practices.

In conclusion, the ReCreate project consortium meeting in Eindhoven was a resounding success. It facilitated collaboration, knowledge sharing, and practical exploration of the project’s objectives. The event not only strengthened the bonds among consortium members but also contributed to the advancement of sustainable building practices through innovative research and engineering approaches.

ReCreate

by ReCreate project

December 8, 2022

At the site of the imposing Belem Cultural Center in Lisboa, we had our first review meeting with the ReCreate project advisor from the European Commission.

At the meeting, each work package leader had the opportunity to present their project achievements made in the past year and a half and to receive feedback from our project advisor Susaná Xara and Elena Granados Menéndez – the external expert architect assigned to the meeting.

Also, the ReCreate review meeting participants had the privilege to see the Terra exhibition at the Lisbon Architectural Triennale 2022, which, in their own words, looks into communities throughout the world that embrace our common home, planet Earth and how do resource depletion, socio-economic inequalities, and climate alter-actions intertwine at different scales. The exhibition is a call to action inspired by shared local insights from around the globe with the potential to transform the current fragmented linear system of cities-as-machines into a circular holistic model of cities-as-organisms.

We were proud to see that the ReCreate project was also part of the exhibition, which was presented to the consortium, as well as the wider architectural community by our own Erik Stenberg.

At the end, we managed to meet each other in person, which also granted us a greater opportunity to increase coordination and create stronger connections.

by ReCreate project

September 21, 2022

At the end of the summer, members of the German ReCreate cluster met with members of the Dutch cluster for a transnational technical exchange at a deconstruction site in the small town of Weißenfels near Leipzig in Germany. In consultation with the BTU project manager Angelika Mettke and the German industry project partner Dietmar Gottschling of ECOSOIL, the meeting was prepared on-site to show how partial dismantling is carried out under practical conditions.

The dismantling process was observed by Viktoria Arnold (BTU), Thijs Lambrects, Hamidullah Attaullah (both TU/e) as well as an employee of the office of Patrick Teuffel (head of WP5) at the location site, Hardenbergstr. 39-42. The demonstration allowed them the ability to gain an insight into the dismantling process directly on site.

Considering the process, the partial deconstruction comprised the top two floors of the 5-story prefabricated building of the “P-Halle” type, which was constructed from the same range of prefab elements as the donor building for the ReCreate German pilot project at Otto-Nuschke-Str. 9-14 in Hohenmölsen. Accordingly, the same range of slabs and panels had to be dismantled and the same connections opened. That resulted in 30 dismantled floor slabs which required transport from Weißenfels to Hohenmölsen, where the temporary storage site is located.

The dismantled floor slabs are planned to be (re)used later on the same site in the planned pilot project, the construction of a youth center. Concerning the remaining dismantled concrete elements, they had to be handled with more caution because of potential causes of material composition. By that means, they first had to undergo the process of pre-shredding at the dismantling construction site and then sent to a recycling plant for material processing.

Check out the pictures of the site below of the dismantling process at the deconstruction site:

ReCreate

by ReCreate project

July 1, 2022

The project consortium at the first ReCreate pilot

From the 20^th to the 22^nd of June 2022, the ReCreate project partners joined forces during the 1^st project in-person meeting. The meeting was organised by the Swedish country cluster and was held in Helsingborg, Sweden. During the meeting, the participants had the chance, for the first time after 1 full year of project progress, to meet each other in person while a fruitful and successful meeting was held. All partners have made tremendous progress in developing their country cluster projects where they have described future planned activities on dismantling, storing, and reusing building materials in the construction of foreseen projects.

During the ReCreate meeting, all participants visited the first ReCreate pilot, which is an exhibition building built of 99% reused material in the residential area Drottninghög. The Swedish contributors, KTH, Helsingborgshem and Strängbetong have presented their first results and practical examples of how building materials can be reused.

The pilot is made of 99% reused material (by weight) and the carbon footprint is 92% lower when compared with the same building built with new material after today’s standards. In addition, the building is designed for disassembly, i.e., built in such a way that it can be dismantled and the elements reused in another context. For example, all-metal couplings between the elements are made to be easily disassembled.

The consortium meeting was executed with success and a plethora of viable comments and experiences stemming from each respective day of work. Moreover, as ReCreate keeps developing and the pilot projects are being executed, with the Swedish pilot as the best example, ReCreate project is being successful in exploring and harnessing the untapped potential of the existing markets for deconstruction and reuse of concrete elements without damaging them. The novel knowledge stemming from ReCreate will be disseminated by publishing joint public-private open access publications in high-impact international journals; by presenting the work in industry congresses and scientific conferences; and by turning it into open access e-learning content usable for educating and training a new generation of experts and employees with improved competencies in reuse.

by ReCreate project

April 14, 2022

On the 7th of April, the ReCreate team of the AG Constructional Recycling of the BTU Cottbus met with the project partners at the location of the potential donor building Otto-Nuschke-Str. 9-14 (see photo 1) in Hohenmölsen for the 3rd German country cluster meeting, where Mr. Gottschling (Ecosoil GmbH) and the architect Mr. Dreetz were present as project partners.

ReCreate 1 — Photo 1 – the potential donor building Otto-Nuschke-Str. 9-14

Additionally, the mayor of the small-town Mr. Haugk and the chairman of WoBau Hohenmölsen GmbH (owner of the potential donor building) Mr. Luckanus also attended the meeting. After a discussion in the town hall on the possible realization of a (re)construction project with the used concrete elements and on the organization of the deconstruction itself, a possible building site (see photo 2) and the deconstruction object (donor building) in Otto-Nuschke-Str. were visited. On April 19, the gutting of the upper two floors of the residential building will begin and the scaffolding will be erected. From May 2 onwards, the partial deconstruction will be carried out by the company Ecosoil GmbH.

ReCreate 2 — Photo 2 – possible building site

The BTU research team has begun to examine the condition of selected concrete elements intended for reuse in the installed position. In addition to geometric construction surveys, concrete compressive strength measurements were carried out using rebound hammers (see photo 3). The purpose of this is to evaluate the structural condition of the concrete elements, which are about 40 years old, so they’ll be able to make a statement on their reuse within the scope of the suitability test. The technical measurement investigations will be continued in April along with the involvement of students and finally, the concrete elements suitable for reuse will be marked.

ReCreate 3 — Photo 3 – using rebound hammers for compressive strength measurements of concrete

by ReCreate project

March 2, 2022

Tampere University researchers from WP 7 in Finland visited KTH and the Swedish country cluster in Stockholm in October 2021

Two researchers, Linnea Harala and Lauri Alkki, from Tampere University Work Package 7 in Finland visited KTH and the Swedish country cluster in Stockholm in October 2021. The research of Work Package 7 focuses on the business aspects within ReCreate and the first research deliverable focuses on mapping the local ecosystems of concrete element reuse. The examination of these ecosystems was initiated in summer 2021 within the Finnish Country Cluster by research interviews and ethnographic follow-up. After we had gained a basic overview of the actors, their linkages and ecosystem structures within the Finnish country cluster, we expanded our ecosystem research activities to the Swedish country cluster.

During the research visit to Stockholm, Linnea and Lauri were warmly welcomed to KTH by the Swedish country cluster. This first research visit included formal and informal activities facilitating to get to know each other during meetings, campus tours and delicious lunches. The main research activities included research interviews with the key ecosystem actors and ethnographic follow-up on a reference project site visit and during the Swedish country cluster meeting. However, in addition to these research activities, networking and exchanging knowledge between the country clusters was also of great importance for the collaboration between the Finnish and Swedish country clusters.

ReCreate’s first cross-country cluster research visit exceeded our expectations and laid the groundwork for international future research collaboration within ReCreate. International collaboration was soon initiated as at the beginning of 2022 researchers from the Finnish country cluster started a joint research publication project together with researchers from the Swedish country cluster. This article aims to create an understanding of the concrete element reuse ecosystems in Finland and Sweden. All in all, this research visit was a great way to initiate cross-country cluster collaboration within ReCreate, exchange ideas and knowledge and ultimately improve ReCreate’s influence to maximize impact.