Circularia by ORI asbl

Building stakeholders and users build together Circularia, a knowledge platform for the circular building economy

As a national sector organization of consulting and engineering firms, ORI represents more than 2,500 professionals active in various fields, such as buildings, infrastructure, urban development, environment and industry. Within the Circularia project, ORI is joining forces with local officials active in sports, youth and cultural infrastructure. The goal? To define together the critical success factors for processes in the circular building economy, from idea to use.

Building is not just about constructing infrastructure, it is about realizing socially relevant facilities that can be used by various generations.
In this project, building technology actors (via ORI) and users (responsible for, among other things, sports, youth and cultural infrastructure) do not work together on a concrete building project. They do, however, go through a (fictitious) construction process from idea to use during one year. The focus is on the social relevance of building projects. The long-term perspective is the starting point.

By consulting together, all participants get a better understanding of each other's language and conceptual framework. This creates trust between the different actors and allows for better risk assessment. Bringing together the various leisure actors (sports, youth, culture) also broadens the scope of projects.

The lessons learned are gradually recorded in various process steps and compiled in a whitepaper / strategic note on circular building economy and leisure facilities. In this paper, the participants translate the ambitions of the circular building economy to leisure, with concrete collective ambitions, starting points, a concrete strategy, and important tips and lessons learned. In doing so, they realize a framework at the Flemish level, but above all an inspiring, motivating and supportive framework for local authorities and those responsible for leisure infrastructure.

The knowledge and expertise gained will also be made available online via the Circularia knowledge platform (www.circularia.be). The intention is for this platform to become an important reference in the field of circular building economy within Flanders. After all, ORI wants to repeat the exciting process it is now going through with the leisure sector with other sectors (such as healthcare).