Design Museum Gent will be extended with a new wing under the name DING (Design in Gent) to a design by TRANS architecture urbanism, Carmody- Groarke and RE-ST architects. Sogent is coordinating the assignment as delegated builder on behalf of the City of Ghent. Maximum use will be made of sustainable materials and technology. For the façade, the museum and the team want a circular brick that incorporates a proportion of construction waste, preferably from the people of Ghent, as a raw material.
The project splits into a material-technical research into making a circular facing brick from local raw materials and waste on the one hand, and a legal research into the monopoly position of a new material and the way a government calls for tenders on the other hand.
For the facing brick, several samples were designed by different partners: fired bricks by StoneCycling and compressed bricks by Local Works Studio and BC Materials. For aesthetic and ecological reasons, we opted for the principle of compressed bricks.
On the legal side, an appointment guideline was prepared by project partner Caluwaerts & Uytterhoeven: legal advice specifically for the use of an innovative building material in contract documents for public works contracts.
The project combines legal guidance, design research, technical expertise and solid know-how throughout the entire development process of the public construction project. In this way, the project partners hope to do their bit for the principles of circular construction and become a source of inspiration in Flanders and far beyond.
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The facing brick was custom-made for DING. The know-how gained by StoneCycling and BC Materials during the process is an added value for future projects of both partners.
The developed process constitutes a model for producing bricks from waste that can be applied everywhere. We already hope that the circular facing brick will be scaled up for other building projects in the future. The more the model becomes widespread, the more waste streams will be reduced thanks to reuse in building materials.
Sogent
Partners Design Museum Gent (AGB Kunsten en Design), TRANS architectuur | stedenbouw, Caluwaerts & Uytterhoeven (Legal Office), StoneCycling en KU Leuven (Faculteit Architectuur)
Topics Selective demolition › Urban Mining › Levers: Legal › Circular materials and building systems ›