Digital Deconstruction - Advanced Digital Solutions Supporting Reuse and High-Quality Recycling of Building Materials

In this video project partners and a demolition company owner show how the demolition of the station in Ettenbrück was carefully done with the knowledge of digital modules, so a large number of building materials can be reused for the rebuilding of the station. Video made by Luxembourg project partners LIST, Schroëder&Associes and BIM-Y.

Video Ettelbrück, Luxembourg.

On Thursday 29th of April 2021 the scanning of the castle, horse stables and barns of Hof Ter Laken, situated in Booischot (Heist-op-den-Berg) in Belgium. Project Partner BIM-Y made the scans. The architectural office received the data in June and is currently reviewing and evaluating it. At the end of 2020, project partner Kempens Landschap already had 3D scans of the buildings performed by another company, so it will be very interesting to compare their data to the data from BIM-Y in terms of quality and detail. In this way a useful evaluation can be made.

On Thursday 29th of April 2021 the scanning of the castle, horse stables and barns of Hof Ter Laken, situated in Booischot (Heist-op-den-Berg) in Belgium. Project Partner BIM-Y made the scans. The architectural office received the data in June and is currently reviewing and evaluating it. At the end of 2020, project partner Kempens Landschap already had 3D scans of the buildings performed by another company, so it will be very interesting to compare their data to the data from BIM-Y in terms of quality and detail. In this way a useful evaluation can be made. 

The next step is to see whether the 3D scans can be used for drawing up floor plans, cuts, etc. so that the demolition file can be drawn up more easily. It will also be examined whether it is possible to establish a digital link to certain elements that will be sold online, for example, on the basis of the digital copy that is now available of the buildings. 

Two barns behind the stables/depot will be deconstructed in the winter of 2021-2022. Or at least that's what they are planning for now. If the administrative procedures run out, it will be the spring of 2022. 

The interior of 1 part of the depot will also be deconstructed in that period. The other buildings on the domain will be preserved and will be restored in the coming years, preserving their heritage value. 

See the video of the scanning of this beautiful monumental castle and barns. Dutch spoken.

Digital Deconstruction is an innovated Interreg North West Europe project in which smart services are developed to make circular construction possible and the environment green. The project aims to develop a digital decision support system, integrating various digital tools. One of these tools is the 3D scanning of the buildings; it was tested on pilot sites in France, Luxembourg, The Netherlands and Belgium.

On June 15th in Norther France, in Lomme, city located in Lille Metropolitan Area, the 3D scanning was performed by project partner BIM-Y on Vilogia’s pilot site. The scan will illustrate the various states of the dwellings, depending on each dwelling particular story. 

Vilogia: “We scanned a residential building where 7 dwellings over 16 are still occupied. The scan was done in the unoccupied dwellings (9 over 16) and the external parts of the building. The outcome of the 3D scanning is quite impressive! We can virtually visit the dwellings and see their current state. The next step is to test the other modules for the digital software platform.” 

  
When is/will this building be demolished, or will not be demolished?  
“It should be deconstructed in 2022, depending on the administrative procedures that have to take place"  

On monday 5th of July 2021 the Roman Museum in Heerlen was mapped with a 3D scanner by project partners GTB Lab (NL) and BIM-Y (LU).

On Monday 5 July 2021, the building of the Thermenmuseum (Roman Museum) Heerlen in the Netherlands was mapped with a 3D scanner. The building, which will be completely demolished, is one of five pilot projects within the Interreg North-West Europe subsidy project Digital Deconstuction (DDC). Under the leadership of the Province of Limburg, 14 European project partners from France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands are developing a digital software platform that can define materials in buildings for reuse and enable circular construction.

Press release on this 3D scanning 

Counsel members municipality Heerlen, Charles Claessens and Jordy Clemens were present.

In Villeneuve (FR) project partners Greenflex, Vilogia and AREP started the 3D scanning of the buildings and the area around the buildings. They scanned Gare Villeneuve Saint Georges as this building needs to be deconstruct in 2022.

More information: of the 3D scanning of Gare Villeneuve

Our French partners Greenflex, AREP and Vilogia made a video on how to reuse building materials. The video can be shown on our YouTube channel. Check out the link below.

View here the interviews with the pilot project partners. 

Here you will find the last newsletter of Digital Deconstruction. The project has ended on 30th of september 2023 and information about the development of the digital decision software system can be found on several other platforms of our project partners. See the information in this newsletter. Thank you for following and supporting us. Level up circular building!

Newsletter 5 - English

Nieuwsbrief 5 - Dutch

Bulletin 5 - French 

Project partner LIST has made several videos on the development of the DDC platform and the several modules. All videos are now available on their youtube channel.

Click here for the video channel of LIST.

This manifesto was produced by researchers at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), as part of the INTERREG NWE Digital Deconstruction project (Advanced Digital Solutions Supporting Reuse and High-Quality Recycling of Building Materials), a project funded by the European Regional Development Fund and co-financed by the Ministry for the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development.

This manifesto aims to present initiatives in the field of deconstruction and construction in order to encourage a range of good practices and develop activities relating to the circular economy in Luxembourg. It envisages a more rational management of resources, giving priority to the prevention and reduction of waste through the reuse and optimal recovery of building components resulting from deconstruction.

You can find the Manifesto here

Click the video in which our French project partners Greenflex, Vilogia and AREP explain how the pilots were a perfect test site for the modules of the digital deconstruction system. The modules integrated in the digital decision software help building, design and demolition companies to scan, trace and store materials which can be reused in new building projects. The video was made after the final event where all partners gathered for presenting the last results on the development of the DDC digital decision software system for a more circular building industry.

The Usquare.brussels project aims to transform the Fritz Toussaint barracks in Ixelles into a dynamic site. This renovation project set very high standards in terms of sustainability, while also adopting a circular demolition strategy using BIM.

Below you will find the publication of Buildwise "Circularity, a priority in the renovation of Usquare.brussels, in English, Dutch and French. 

English version

Dutch version

French version

Significant advancements are underway in the field of circularity. In late May, approximately 100 participants gathered at the headquarters of Buildwise, formerly CSTC-WTCB, to witness firsthand how they could more effectively commit to a circular demolition strategy. Undoubtedly, digital tools already exist, as evidenced by the Interreg Digital Deconstruction pilot projects. It’s now imperative to gradually integrate these tools into our own way of working.

Below you will find the publication of Buildwise "Enhancing circular demolition through digitalization" in English, Dutch and French.

English version 

Dutch version 

French version

The newsletter of Digital Deconstruction contains again lots of articles about circular economy, circularity in the building environment and the works on the digital software platform. Also in this newsletter the lessons learned by Province of Limburg (NL) in circular economy, the kick start on urban mining in Parkstad Limburg (NL) and the explanation on the module: digital decision software platform.

The newsletter is in English, Dutch and French.

Reuse of building materials is one of the key points of circular economy in the construction sector. However, offer and demand of reused materials do not always meet. To facilitate the circulation of these materials, several digital trading platforms have been developed across North-Western Europe.

To get a better view of this burgeoning market, a study was pursued within the framework of the Digital Deconstruction Interreg project. A total of 41 platforms were analysed and several interviews were conducted.

Read the report of this study, as well as a short summary containing the list of platforms analyzed.

Sustainability and digitization go hand in hand and are gaining popularity. Digital tools are proving their usefulness in achieving high circularity in both the construction and demolition industries. Lionel Bousquet of BXLMRS Architects applied a BIM model to create a digital inventory of all materials in the CCN (Communication Center North), which enables circular demolition.

BIM based inventory to prepare a circular demolition (ENG)

BIM inventarisatie ter voorbereiding van de circulaire sloop (NL)

Faire l'inventaire à l'aide du BIM pour mieux préparer la démolition circulaire (FR)

Quote “To make the process affordable you need to know what to model and what not to model. You need a high dose of pragmatism” Lionel Bousquet.

Construction et circularité : un point avec Yannick Pau, chargé de projets au sein du ministère de l’Environnement, du Climat et du Développement durable.

Digital Deconstruction newsletter gives you an update on the project goals, the modules and the pilots. In this edition a article on the pilot Hof ter Laken in Belgium, an interview with Patricia Savin, of Oree (FR) and Yannick Pau, project manager at Luxembourg Ministery of Environment, Climate and sustainability.

Read all about it in one of the 3 languages you prefer. 

A good inventory is the starting point for high quality recycling and reuse for a demolition project. Learn all about inventories in this illustrated booklet.

Buildwise gives insights on
1. How are inventories made?
2. What is the difference between the demolition and the reuse inventory?
3. Why are they useful for circularity?
4. What do they look like? A
5. Are there digital tools which can help make inventories?   

Read all about this in the documents, written in Dutch, French and English

The Forum for reuse and demolition inventories took place on 24th November at Greenbizz in Brussels. An event organised by Buildwise (the new name for BBRI) as part of the Digital Deconstruction project.

The Forum for reuse and demolition inventories took place on 24th November at Greenbizz in Brussels. An event organised by Buildwise (the new name for BBRI) as part of the Digital Deconstruction project. On the agenda, no long presentations, but instead, there were a great many opportunities to network and discover digital tools. This is the driver for the world of circular demolition: partners finding each other in their shared aims of giving mate­rials a second life.

9 service providers were pres­ent: B²ASC, BatiRIM, Circonflexe, Cirdax, Diag it, Inspectr, LIST (DDC plat­form), ROTOR and Skop.

The documents give a good review on the Forum and the presentation from Buildwise. Available in Dutch, French and English.

Heritage buildings and sustainability go hand in hand. Yet it is not an easy task to draw up an inventory of the materials in a historic building and then deconstruct them effectively. In order to achieve this ambition in the restoration of the outbuildings at Hof Ter Laken, Kempens Landschap could count on the support of a whole range of digital tools from the Digital Deconstruction project.

In 2020, an online survey was conducted to obtain a view on the end-user needs in terms of digitalisation, demolition, reuse and recycling. More than 200 answers were received, coming from Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Luxemburg. In this report (ENG), project partner Buildwise (formerly BBRI) presents an overview of the results of this survey. This was the first deliverable of the DDC project.

Results first online survey on the end-user needs 

The newsletter of the Digital Deconstruction project gives you updates on the several items within the project. Such as the testing of all modules, the status on the pilot sites in each participating country, the Regional Innovation Hubs and the events on the subject. Like to be informed in French, Dutch or English language, please follow the link to the subscription form. The next edition will appear in January, March and May/June 2023.

You can find the 3 versions of the newsletter here.

LIST, our partner in Luxembourg, published articles on circular economy activities in Luxembourg.

Read the article here. 

Is Building Information Modeling the digital tool for Urban Mining? Project partner BBRI (B) has made an article on this, now also available in Dutch and French. Find the NL en FR articles below.

FRENCH

This year, the 10th Green Design Biennale organised by Sarajevo Green Design Foundation and City of Mostar brings together international networks and knowledge in the field of green and circular design, into a unique multidisciplinary, multi-layered and creative platform. Green Design Biennale involves all scales of design from product scale to urban scale. Number of exhibitions, lectures, town hall discussions and workshops were organised addressing the state of the art in sustainable design and dilemmas that product-design, architecture, urban design and construction industry are facing in the 21st century.

Objectives of this initiative are to:

- highlight the role of a good quality design in circular economy;

- promote the role of digitalisation in circular buildings;

- bring focus to sustainability and green design;

- bring together designers, academic institutions and manufacturers;

- inspire new types of collaboration that will provide more intelligent and green design solutions.

This year’s themes are dealing with digitalization and implementation of circular economy in architecture and design of healthy and inclusive green buildings and cities.

Read more about the Biennale in Mostar in this article (from GTB-Lab). 

Reversible BIM module developed by E. Durmisevic 2018 is one of the four modules that are integrated on the Digital Deconstruction platform to support decision making regarding reuse and deconstruction strategies.

Reversible BIM© module enables a digital assessment of the technical reversibility of buildings and recovery options of building components and materials by assessment of technical and physical dependences between building parts based on the model (Durmisevic, 2006).  

See the article on Reversible BIM here. 

This French article is written after the 2nd Regional Innovation Hub in Paris, at Greenflex office.

Acces to the article directly (when you are subscriber).

Read the full French content hereby:

Copyright:
Réemploi des matériaux : ces projets qui émergent en Ile-de-France

Bruno Mouly |  le 16/09/2022  |  Réemploi des matériaux,  Economie circulaire,  Ile-de-France

Ma newsletter personnalisée

La deuxième édition du Hub d’Innovation du Réemploi organisé le 15 septembre par Greenflex à Paris, a mis en évidence divers projets et opérations d’économie circulaire dans le bâtiment.

Avec la production de 41 millions de tonnes (Mt) par an de déchets de matériaux de construction, dont 51% sont issus de la démolition des bâtiments (21 Mt), 36% de leur rénovation (15,1 Mt) et 13% de la construction neuve (5,6 Mt), l’économie circulaire dans le bâtiment a une importante marge de progression lorsqu’on sait que moins de 1% de ces déchets sont réemployés.

De multiples projets de réemploi commencent de fait à se développer en France et en Europe. « Le projet européen Interreg Nord West Europe Digital Deconstruction, qui regroupe 14 partenaires européens dont les français Vilogia bailleur social, l’Arep l’agence d’architecture pluridisciplinaire, SNCF Gares & Connexions et Greenflex, a l’ambition d’aider au développement d’une filière de réemploi en agrégeant la demande et en améliorant la qualité de l’offre » a indiqué Sébastien Delpont, directeur conseil chez Greenflex.

Les partenaires de ce projet (dont les Français qui hébergent les sites pilotes dans l’hexagone) ont l’objectif de systématiser le réemploi des matériaux lors de la déconstruction des bâtiments. Le programme s’articule autour d’échanges sur les pratiques et sur la mise en commun des connaissances des acteurs du secteur. Il soutient le développement d’outils digitaux facilitant le réemploi et la déconstruction sélective et s’attache à tester ces outils sur 5 chantiers pilotes de déconstruction de bâtiment pour évaluer leur pertinence et améliorer leur développement en fonction des besoins. « Le numérique doit servir d’outil d’aide à la décision aux stratégies de déconstruction » a-t-il souligné.

L'Ile-de-France en pointe

En France, les projets se multiplient tous azimuts. Plaine Commune, communauté de 8 communes de Seine-Saint-Denis, s’engage dans l’économie circulaire du BTP à l’échelle de son territoire. « Notre projet vise à généraliser le réemploi des matériaux sur l’ensemble des programmes de démolition, de réhabilitation et de construction de bâtiments sur la base des exigences d’une charte d’économie circulaire et d’une boîte à outils qui permet de sourcer les matériaux de réemploi » a précisé Justine Emringer, cheffe de projet Métabolisme urbain de Plaine Commune. Ainsi, la réhabilitation de la friche Badcock à la Courneuve a permis de récupérer des briques pour la maçonnerie paysagère d’une ferme agricole urbaine à Stains. Et sur le chantier d’Icade Pulse à Aubervilliers, on a réemployé les dalles de faux planchers.

De son côté, Est Métropole Habitat « a récupéré et valorisé 2 600 m2 de parquet en chêne massif dans la réhabilitation de la friche urbaine l’Autre Soie à Villeurbanne (Rhône) » selon Paul Sachot, son chargé de mission Expérimentation.

Enfin, dans la transformation de l’ancien siège d’Airbus à Suresnes (Hauts-de-Seine) en résidence étudiante, commerces et bureaux dont une partie sera livrée en février 2023, Vilogia va réemployer in-situ et hors-situ, 1 000 m2 de pierres de façade, 150 m de cloisons vitrées, 1000 m2 de faux plafonds, 110 stores et 1300 m2 de faux plancher. 

Project partner Kempens Landschap has one pilot project in Belgium, Hof ter Laken in Heist-op-den-Berg, where various materials out of the old castle, horse stables and barns are scans and tested for recycling. The two barns behind the stables/depot will be deconstructed. The interior of 1 part of the depot will also be deconstructed in that period. The other buildings on the domain will be preserved and will be restored in the coming years, preserving their heritage value. More information on this pilot project, read enclosed press release (in Dutch).

Press release on the pilot project in Belgium: Hof ter Laken. 

In the Dutch newspaper De Limburger an interview with Elma Durmisevic and Thomas Bergstra was placed on circular building.

Everybody talks about circular building, but it doesn't exist yet. Now is the moment to start with circular building in Parkstad Limburg as the task on construction and deconstruction is now economically interesting, says Elma Durmisevic from Green Transformable Building Lab in Heerlen. 

Read here the article (in Dutch) on this subject.

The newsletter of the Digital Deconstruction project gives you updates on the several items within the project. Such as the testing of all modules, the status on the pilot sites in each participating country, the Regional Innovation Hubs and the events on the subject.

The newsletter launched on May 31, 2022 you will find here. 

Like to be informed in French, Dutch or English, sign in on the subscription form on the same page. 

For Luxemburger Wort, a newspaper in Luxembourg, Guillaume Dubois gave an interview on the pilot Ettelbrück. The station will be demolished and materials from this ancient building reused instead of placing in building depots. This article (in German) gives an insight on the recycling economy of building materials.

Read the article here.

The professional magazine Recyclage et Récupération in France edited an article on DDC Manifesto. Read the article below.

Recyclage et Récupération

4 case studies elaborated on the use of digital technology for urban mining & reuse made by project partner WTCB-BBRI (B).

French

Accélérer l’inventaire des bâtiments grâce aux photos à 360 degrés et à l’intelligence artificielle[48].pdf

Inventaire automatique des éléments intérieurs des bâtiments grâce à l’intelligence artificielle[36].pdf

Encourager le réemploi des éléments de construction à l’aide de modèles numériques rapides[95].pdf

Comptages automatiques et rapides des éléments ayant un potentiel de réemploi[70].pdf

Dutch

Automatische inventarisatie van interieurelementen in gebouwen met kunstmatige intelligentie.pdf

Versneld gebouwinventarisaties maken met 360-gradenfoto’s en kunstmatige intelligentie.pdf

Snelle automatische tellingen van elementen met potentieel voor hergebruik.pdf

Hergebruik van gebouwelementen stimuleren met snel te maken digitale gebouwmodellen.pdf

What if the city was a mine? Re-employment is on the rise in the construction sector

What if the city was a mine? If, looking at it, you did not see apartment buildings, houses, stores or offices. But bricks, tiles, frames, parquet floors, natural stone, cobblestones, tiles... In short, a source of materials.

Read more about urban mining in the article of RTBF.be, for which one of our partners, Jeroen Vrijders from BBRI Belgium, was interviewed.

Accélérer le réemploi en Europe via les outils digitaux

Digital DeConstruction, consortium de 14 partenaires européens, soutenu en France par GreenFlex, l’AREP, SNCF Gares & Connexions, Nobatek/INEF4 et Vilogia, entend accélérer le réemploi en Europe, notamment au moyen d’outils digitaux.

Digital Deconstruction participe à la structuration d’un écosystème, centré autour de trois principes : « Réduire, Réutiliser, Recycler ». Celui-ci repose sur la volonté d’être bien plus sobre et efficace dans les usages et la consommation de matériaux. Le consortium prévoit ensuite de faire évoluer le mix matériaux de la construction vers des solutions moins carbonées et d’explorer les façons de mieux produire des matériaux d’usage commun : verre, acier, béton,...

Article in French magazine Mat Environnement about the digital platform for reducing waste in the construction and demolition industry.

Partner of the Digital Deconstruction project which aims to develop the circular economy in the building industry, GreenFlex wants to be one of the catalysts for ever more resilient approaches in this sector.

Together with the French partners of the program, AREP, Vilogia, NOBATEK/INEF4 and SNCF Gares & Connexions, they have developed the Manifesto for a circular (de)construction, support to share with you their vision of the sector, and their understanding of the levers to be activated to massively use reuse in the building sector.

You can download this Manifesto and learn more about their ambitions and ambitions of the Digital DeConstruction program, Interreg North West Europe (NWE) project, visit the brand new GreenFlex website!

Or click here for the (French) pdf file of the Manifesto.

The public authorities announce the postponement to 1 January 2023 "at the latest" of the application of the take-back system for waste from the construction sector.

According to the AGEC law of February 2020, the framework for the recovery of construction sector waste by an eco-organisation was supposed to become a reality on 1 January 2022. This will finally be the case "by 1 January 2023 at the latest", according to a press release issued by the Ministry of Ecological Transition on 17 November 2021.

French article here.

During the CIB W78 - LDAC 2021 conference project partner Elma Dumisevic presented a scientific paper on DDC, entitled"Development of conceptual digital deconstruction platform with integrated Reversible BIM to aid decision making and facilitate a circular economy"

Iceberg, the platform of circular economy of building materials published a article on the District Deconstruction project.

Read the article on their website.

Digital products, services and tools supporting the recovery of building materials sourced from deconstruction operations

Campus Transfo Num (FR) published this article about three initiatives to make circular economy possible. The Interreg NWE project Digital Deconstruction is one of them.

Campus Transfo Num in France enables its members to learn, train, discuss, collaborate, find solutions and growth drivers in order to better manage all of their activities at a lower cost.To do this, Campus Transfo Num shares a set of information from the major players in the sector and organizes working groups to jointly define the challenges and methods to come for a building that is healthier, more efficient and respectful of the environment.

See the article: Trois initiatives associant numerique et économie circulaire

Information on the 4 best practices in circularity in France. Digital Deconstruction is one of the innovative and sustainable projects mentioned by the Central Government of The Netherlands, by the Dutch embassy in France.

Blog Innovatie en Infrastructuur Rijksoverheid Nederland, Franse ambassade
Blog Innovation and Infrastructure Government The Netherlands, embassy France

Our new publication "NWE making an impact - Cooperation in action" provides a summary of all projects, showcases specific results and demonstrates the positive impact of transnational cooperation on the NWE territory. This publication was produced under the scope of the NWE Programme Capitalization Strategy, which aims at maximizing the impact from projects as well as ensuring long term benefits for NWE and Europe as a whole.

Read more in the publication of NWE