Platform for Circular Building Nodes

Sharing site experience with a view to confidently implementing construction nodes for the circular economy

'Building nodes' are places in the building where different building components come together and need to be attached to each other. To avoid heat loss and condensation at these places, nodes are becoming increasingly complex. On top of this comes the challenge of implementing them in a circular manner so that various building components and materials can be disassembled for reuse. Here there is still a large gap between theory and practice. From experience LabLand and VUB Architectural Engineering know that a lot of circular building nodes are designed on the building site itself: driven contractors bring in an architect, a manufacturer and a client to realize a quality building node. The pity of the matter is that their innovative solutions are rarely shared.

At the moment, many contractors are each working on their island to create the circular building economy. Because of this, but also because of the rat race of every construction project, they usually fall back on known construction nodes and fixing methods. LabLand wants to change this by encouraging the building of circular practice.

Together with VUB Architectural Engineering, LabLand wants to investigate and test how they can use innovative forms of collaboration and knowledge flows, together with practitioners, to squeeze out, document and validate more and more circular building nodes. They want to experiment with a "platform" for innovative collaborations and knowledge flows. Building professionals could exchange practical experiences there, giving them confidence to apply circular building nodes.

By giving the practical experience a resonance board and thus generating a long-term win-win for everyone who participates, the project partners are resolutely going against the crippling competition that currently leads to short-term decisions and a status quo.