This document includes the summary and lecture notes for Lessons 8-11 of Integrated Regenerative Design, taught by J.W., K.V., J.C. and B.D. for the 1st-year Master's program in Architecture in Brussels and Ghent. At the end of each class, you will find a small schematic summary of the lecture to h...
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 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
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: 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 EPD’s!
2
, 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 the materials
D. STRATEGIES
1. LEAN DESIGN
o Material pyramid
oPrinciples light & construction
oMaterial 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
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
3
, • 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
• 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 Clay Materials construction, Methodologies, Applications
o Case study: BC materials
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
4
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller studeermaatje. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $11.90. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
