“The House for the City” is a building for everyone, giving the traditional town hall a new meaning.
Combining the municipal components of four locations into one created a compact volume with room for other buildings in the area. Sustainability is self-evident in this building: 99.2% of the harvested materials from the municipal office are reused.
The materials were offered to the market via a digital platform or found their destination in the new city hall. A ‘track and trace’ applied to the harvested materials shows where the materials are (pre)used.
Image credits: Van Geffen Fotografie
Heezen
Ryse (previously ABC Nova)
Completed, 2024
Kraaijvanger Architects approached us in 2020, asking if we could create a product with reused waste from the existing building. They looked for a unique flooring material for the new House of the City entrance in Helmond, the Netherlands.
After our experience with the Edge West project in Amsterdam, where we ran a pilot to upcycle demolition waste from the site into brand new WasteBasedSlips for the building’s interior, we started 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. The waste materials we include in our recipe will largely determine the appearance of the final product. The true ‘flavour‘ of the brick will only reveal itself after going through our extensive production process.
Luckily, Kraaijvanger understands this challenge better than anyone and was open to experimentation. At FRONT®, we love going through this process together with all involved parties, so we worked in three rounds of collaborative development towards this one-of-a-kind product with waste from the donor building.
By working together with demolition, civil engineering and landscaping companies on switching 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.
Delivering high-standard circular products starts with the dismantling and “harvesting” of materials during the demolition phase. That is why we also worked closely together with M. Heezen, a Dutch family business that not only specialises in demolition, remediation and infrastructure technology but also in recycling.
Together, we looked at turning linear material flows into circular ones and offering them a second life.
M. Heezen noticed 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.
Development started with a grey brick slip with the highest possible amount of demolition waste from the demolished town hall. Based on our results, we continued to fine-tune the product to the final product.
Because our custom product will be used as flooring, we developed two formats of brick slips that can be laid in a pattern.
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.
This project is in the top 10 for circular demolition. The municipality of Helmond has chosen to aim high.
A world that is constantly in motion requires a continuous cycle of remediation, demolition, recycling, construction and maintenance.
This was a one-off product made specifically for this project. With our Custom Made Service, it's possible to develop your own bespoke brick or brick slip.
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