Actie Bouwbedrijven Circulair

making circular construction accessible to SMEs

Until recently, the available documentation on circular construction in Flanders was mainly aimed at designers and clients. With Actie Bouwbedrijven Circulair (ABC), Bouwunie wants to specifically target contractors. We want to convince SME construction companies to build circularly by providing circular solutions and practical examples tailored to their needs. 

We collected some 35 concrete circular solutions centralised around five building components: roofs, outer walls, windows, floors and (integrated) installations. We translated these briefly and clearly into tailor-made training material, such as training using models, technical sheets, instruction videos, etc. We have solutions both for new buildings, focusing on reusing used materials later, and for renovations, focusing on recovering existing materials. 

To raise contractors' awareness, we highlighted inspiring projects by fellow building professionals. With a series of company visits, videos and testimonial articles, they were used as ambassadors for circular construction. We consciously chose small-scale projects such as residential projects and small commercial buildings. 

With our hands-on approach, we also hope to make more traditional contractors aware of the need for circular construction, and to accelerate the integration of circular techniques.

What will the future bring?

We would like to further disseminate the developed training material so that as many construction professionals as possible, as well as teachers, trainees, students ... can use it. The Flanders Circular network can play an important role here. 

Furthermore, it will be necessary to keep the models up-to-date, and there is still a need for more information on how all those circular components can be connected in a circular way. A study on building nodes as an extension of this project would certainly be opportune. 

Also be sure to take a look at www.bouwunie.be/ABC for more info!