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Start TopicsReversible Building Design

Reversible Building Design enables resource efficient repair, re-use and recovery of building materials, products and components since different layers like floors, windows, electric cords, ventilation, inner walls can be accessed without damaging other parts of the building and components can easily be removed or replaced.
Image: © durmisevic

REVERSIBLE BUILDING DESIGN

Background

BAMB´s mission is to enable the shift to a circular building sector. Refurbishment, maintenance and demolition of buildings create large amounts of waste. Substantial stocks of used building materials are discarded, because it is more expensive or impossible to recover them for re-use with their value intact. Buildings are seldom flexible enough to easily adapt to new requirements.

Transformations of building use create considerable amounts of waste and demand of virgin materials, if the building is not designed to accommodate the change.

For effective use of building materials and to facilitate recovery and reuse of components, products or materials in buildings, buildings need to be easily reversible.

Reversible Building Design

In BAMB, a Reversible Building Design Protocol was developed in order to enable different stakeholders in the construction value chain to implement Reversible Design strategies and approaches in construction and refurbishing activities.

Reversible Building Design is design of buildings which can be easily deconstructed, or where parts can be removed and added easily without damaging the building or the products, components or materials. Reversible Building Design enables resource efficient repair, re-use and recovery of building materials, products and components since different layers like floors, windows, electric cords, ventilation, inner walls can be accessed without damaging other parts of the building and components can easily be removed or replaced. It can also be used to design flexible and easily transformable buildings. Reversible Building Design has been developed and tested by multiple players the last years on an experimental basis, but is still far from mainstream commercial building.

Reversible Building Design enables:

  • Flexible and transformable buildings, easy to repair, refurbish or change whilst generating less waste
  • Buildings which function as banks of valuable materials since valuable materials are easy to access and recover
  • Resource efficient maintenance, repair as well as flexibility in the use of space and systems

Reversible Buildings by design eliminate waste and enable a circular building sector when used together with reusable materials, products and components.

DESIGN PROTOCOL FOR DYNAMIC & CIRCULAR BUILDING

The Design Protocol for dynamic & circular buildings informs designers and decision makers about the transformation capacity and reuse potential of the design and the impacts of design solutions during the conceptual design phase. It aims to support the design of reversible buildings – and more specifically offices, apartments and public (socio/cultural) buildings with high transformation and reuse potential.

 

The Design Protocol integrates the main criteria for the design of transformable buildings with reusable components into building transformation models and a set of design principles and design indicators pointing out the relevant design aspects and adequate design decisions for each design phase.

E-books

Design Strategies for Reversible Buildings (E-book, 2/2019)

Explorations for Reversible Buildings (E-book, 2/2019)

What are we trying to achieve?

Listen to our BAMB partner Dr Elma Durmisevic, University of Twente

Research leader of Reversibel Building Design

Pilot Green Transformable Building Lab

Pilot Green Design Center