Brighton University joins European partners in funding bid for handbook of salvageable materials.
The University of Brighton is part of a £1m+ joint EU research bid to develop a handbook of materials and components that can be salvaged from mid-to-late 20th century high-rise buildings.
The toolkit will help building owners considering refurbishment or demolition, in the UK, the Netherlands or Belgium, identify products suitable for reuse, remanufacture or recycling, as well as providing a step-by-step guide to dismantling and reusing or selling them on.
The research team comprises the University of Brighton, the University of Brussels, the Delft University of Technology, the Belgian Building Research Institute, plus architects BBM Sustainable Design and Rotor. Input will also come from consultant Jonathan Essex, former sustainable construction manager at Bioregional.
The partners have applied for a total £1.174m of funding from ERA-NET Cofund Smart Urban Futures, under the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, covering a number of subject areas.
Duncan Baker-Brown, director of BBM Sustainable Design and senior lecturer at the University of Brighton, told CM: “Some people think the only way forward for tall buildings constructed in the 1950s, 60s, 70s, or even 80s, is to demolish them because they are poorly ventilated and insulated etc. We will prove that these buildings can be salvaged at both a micro and a macro scale.”
Brighton University is looking into salvage opportunities for offices and high-rise residential from the 20th century
Brussels-based studio Rotor will put together the handbook, which will identify all possible material flow opportunities and provide a methodology for dismantling and reassembling components and materials. This will cover products such as light fittings, ceiling tiles, furniture, partitioning systems – anything beyond the building shell and core.
Baker-Brown commented: “Rotor’s disassembly initiative has already shown how we can salvage the unsalvageable. They dismantle buildings one screw at a time, then reuse or sell on what would have been torn down. In some cases they have stripped out buildings, unpacked and cleaned up components, then reinstalled them in the same building in a different context.”
The proposed research will vary in scope by country. The University of Brighton will look at salvage opportunities for late-20th century high-rise residential and office buildings in the UK.
It will also identify opportunities that avoid the need to demolish, working in collaboration with a structural engineer and an environmental engineer to demonstrate that knocking down concrete-framed towers to replace them with a modern equivalent is highly unsustainable when the original structure could be retained and upgraded.
The Dutch researchers plan to examine the cultural heritage of high-rise buildings, as well as the social impact on communities of demolishing them.
“Many buildings are being destroyed as a knee-jerk reaction just because people don’t like them,” said Baker-Brown. “Aside from the unsustainability of demolition and the loss of value of materials inside, there is the lost value of communities and social cultural heritage to consider.”
The team expects hear if its research bid is successful in May.
