VIBE vzw

C-Builders: database of circular building products

Circular building is on the rise. Yet it is not always clear how to get started in practice. The c-builders.be platform therefore collects and distributes useful information to support builders, renovators, clients, architects and other building professionals. On this platform you will find a database of circular products and services, but also useful lessons and practical stories. In short: C-Builders is a platform for everyone who is interested in circular building and wants to put its principles into practice.

The C-Builders platform is an initiative of Bond Beter Leefmilieu, VIBE, BAS Bouwen, Dialoog and VUB Architectural Engineering. It bundles information and learning lessons from the C-Builders projects, supported by the Province of Flemish Brabant, and C-Builders Pro, subsidised by Flanders Circular. The platform revolves around a database of circular products and services. The platform wants to lower the threshold to circular building by showing what is already possible today. The goal is to support visitors in making informed choices about circular building in their own building project through low-threshold information.

The database
The product database shows a non-exhaustive range of building products with circular qualities already on the market today. You will find innovative products as well as well established and proven solutions. Construction products can contribute to circular building and the circular building economy in several ways. Selecting a building product is therefore based on a wide range of qualities and strategies. Each product in the database has been evaluated according to a series of strategies. This evaluation is qualitative but allows informed choices to be made. The most suitable building product is not necessarily the one that meets the most criteria, but the one whose properties best match your project and sustainability ambitions.

With circular construction, we want to close as many material cycles as possible within the construction sector. The circular economy distinguishes in the first place between the technical and biological cycles. But even these cycles are not unambiguously defined and allow for different strategies. After all, whether building products or solutions are the right choice depends on a whole range of preconditions, not least the context in which they are used. Building components that have to be changed frequently and quickly have very different requirements than, for example, a multifunctional building structure that can remain unchanged for a long time. There are many criteria on which to base the choice of a building product. In our database, we used these as qualitative characteristics, without assigning a score to them or comparing products with one another. They relate to four themes: the material, the component, the available product information and linked circular services. In addition to these products, the database also highlights many circular services. Services that support the collection and reuse of discarded products, for example, or services that offer second-hand building materials. After all, circular building is not only about the materials and building products themselves, but also about the way we deal with them.