Floor of Waste from Donor Building in Helmond, The Netherlands | FRONT®

Floor of Waste from Donor Building in Helmond, The Netherlands

Reinventing the Town Hall

“The House for the City” will be a building for everyone. A building that will give a new meaning to the traditional town hall. 

Combining the municipal components of four locations into one, a compact volume is created, leaving room for other buildings in the area. No less than 99.2% of the harvested materials from the Municipal Office will be reused. Sustainability is self-evident in this building.

The materials will be made immediately available to the city, offered to the market via a digital platform, or will find a destination in the new city hall. The aim is to ensure that a kind of ‘track and trace’ is applied to the harvested materials, which shows where the material is (pre) reused.

Location
Helmond, The Netherlands
Construction
Mertens Bouw
Application
Interior Flooring
Demolition & Urban Mining

Heezen

Project Manager

ABC Nova

Impact

Waste upcycled with this project 30.380 kg
Floor of Waste from Donor Building in Helmond, The Netherlands | FRONT®
Credit: Van Geffen Fotografie

Reusing Materials from Donor Building

Kraaijvanger Architects approached us in 2020 with the question if we can create a product that reuses waste from the existing building. They were looking to use it as flooring at the entrance floor of the new House of the City in the city of Helmond, The Netherlands.

After our experience from the Edge West project in Amsterdam, where we ran a pilot to upcycle demolition waste from the site into brand new WasteBasedSlips® for the new interior of the building, we are proud to announce a second pilot on Dutch soil.

Producing a new product from an unfamiliar type of waste creates a lot of uncertainty, especially about the aesthetics of the product. The materials that we include in our recipe will largely determine the appearance of the final product, so the true ‘flavour‘ of the brick will only reveal itself after going through our extensive production process.

Luckily, Kraaijvanger understands this better than anyone and is open to experimentation. At FRONT®, we love going through this process together with all involved parties, so we will work in three rounds of collaborative development towards this one-of-a-kind product with waste from the donor building.

Floor of Waste from Donor Building in Helmond, The Netherlands | FRONT®
Credit: Van Geffen Fotografie
Floor of Waste from Donor Building in Helmond, The Netherlands | FRONT®

Linear to Circular Material Flow

Delivering high-standard circular products starts with the dismantling and “harvesting” of materials during the demolition phase. That is why we also work closely together with M. Heezen, a Dutch family business that not only specializes in demolition, remediation and infrastructure technology but also in recycling.

Together we look at how we can turn linear material flows into circular ones and offer them a second life.

M. Heezen has noticed in practice that they can often reuse much more demolition waste than clients expect in advance. For example, rubble and soil can often be reused on site.

By working together with demolition, civil engineering and landscaping companies on making the switch to circular construction, products can be designed more efficiently and materials can be reused as much as possible. In this way, raw materials and energy can be used more efficiently.

Because our custom product will be used as flooring, we develop two formats of brick slips that can be laid in a pattern.

Development starts with a grey brick slip with the highest possible amount of demolition waste from the demolished town hall. Based on our results, we will continue to fine-tune the product to the final end product. Make sure to keep an eye on this page for updates on this process.

Demolition has started in 2021 and construction is scheduled to be finished in 2023.

Media Mentions

  • Het oude Stadskantoor Helmond wordt niet gesloopt maar geoogst [kraaijvanger.nl]
  • Zo gaat het Huis van de Stad in Helmond er – ongeveer – uitzien [ed.nl]
  • Sneak peek: zo gaat het Huis van de Stad er definitief uitzien [indebuurt.nl]
  • 99,2% van het Stadskantoor wordt ‘geoogst’ voor hergebruik [helmond.nl]
  • Eerst extreem recyclen, daarna kan Helmond in de toekomst alle kanten op met het nieuwe stadhuis [ad.nl]
  • Gemeenteraad Helmond akkoord met basisontwerp Huis voor de Stad [architectenweb.nl]

The word demolition suggests that the materials are reaching the end of their useful life. When harvesting, however, the materials are the source for new materials or a new product. And that’s exactly what we’re going to do with the materials from the old City Office.

Municipality Of Helmond

This project is in the top 10 for circular demolition. The municipality of Helmond has chosen to aim high.

Bart van der Werf-Logtenberg, Kraaijvanger Architecten

A world that is constantly in motion requires a continuous cycle of remediation, demolition, recycling, construction and maintenance.

M. Heezen