Column: 2030 circular design and construction is the norm

Getting up to speed on circular construction. Necessary, even for architects. Architects have great influence on the choices of building methods, use of materials and products. And thus on the environmental impact. Of those of today. And of those of later.

For now, the amount of embedded carbon is important. In a design for energy-efficient housing, we had formulated an Rc value of 8 for the facade. In traditional construction, with a stone-like facade with cavity insulation, this yielded an average thickness of 55 cm. With a load-bearing inner cavity wall of wood frame construction, filled with insulation and covered with stone strips, we arrived at a thickness of 33 cm. That saved 8% in wall area. With this construction method, we also needed fewer supports in the parking garage. And we could prefabricate the interior cavity walls. Less embedded carbon, less waste, less failure costs, shorter construction time.

For later, adaptive capacity is important. What if the building undergoes a function adjustment or change in the future? Are the walls and facade then easily adaptable, not to mention the installations? Pouring in the concrete floor is still a daily activity in construction in the Netherlands. Adapt that later. In a recent design of ours, for a healthcare building, the 1 and 2 person rooms are changeable into each other. By a partially hollow floor with a soft spot for the future shaft. And by preparing the facade layout for both layouts.
Some of today's questions seemed irrelevant yesterday. A church as an office or a home. Consider the building's future scenario. Choose the most likely based on reasoned expectations. Of the composition of households, for example. According to the CBS[1] forecast, there will be 9.8 million households in 2070, of which 4.2 million will be one-person households. Tune adaptive measures to that!  

In Circular Inspirations, a rotating guest columnist describes his or her views on Circularity.

Read all columns at www.vmrg.nl/circulair