upcycling concrete rubble
Wall 2.2m x 2.7m built using large irregular concrete rubble pieces with the help of a digitally-hacked crane and a drill mounted on a robotic arm – credits : Maxence Grangeot – SXL & CRLC – EPFL
Our real-scale demonstrators are walls of approx. 2.5m tall, 2.7m long, 30cm thick, built out of large “off the pile” concrete rubble pieces. Digital tools are used to harness the geometrical complexity inherent to found irregular concrete rubble pieces and to precisely assemble them into a slender yet stable wall. Due to its commodity and environmental potential, using unaltered concrete rubble as a new construction material hints at new possibilities for circular construction.
Scientific papers:
Concrete rubble as a new construction material: Panorama of applications to known structural typologies
2024. IASS Symposium 2024 – Redefining the Art of Structural Design, Zürich, Switzerland, 2024-08-26 – 2024-08-30.Upcycling concrete rubble into masonry walls: Design and assessment of two prototypes built with digitally augmented tools
2024. fib International Conference on Concrete Sustainability, Guimarães, Portugal, 2024-09-11 – 2024-09-13.Structural Concrete Rubble Arrangements – A Framework for Upcycling Demolition Waste into Slender Masonry Walls for Buildings
2024. Design Modelling Symposium 2024 Kassel – Scalable Disruptors, Kassel, Germany, 2024-09-16 – 2024-09-19. p. 15 – 27. DOI : 10.1007/978-3-031-68275-9_2.An Investigation into Machine Learning Matchmaking for Reused Rubble Concrete Masonry Units (RR-CMU)
2024. IASS Symposium 2024 – Redefining the Art of Structural Design, Zürich, Switzerland, 2024-08-26 – 2024-08-30.Rising from rubble – Leveraging existing construction tools for upcycling concrete waste into slender walls
2024. ROB|ARCH Robotic Fabrication in Architecture, Art, and Design, Toronto, Canada, May 21-25, 2024.From concrete waste to walls: An investigation of reclamation and digital technologies for new load-bearing structures
2023. cisbat 2023 The Built Environment in Transition, Lausanne, Switzerland, September 13-15, 2023. DOI : 10.1088/1742-6596/2600/19/192019.Latest demonstrator
Completion date: 02.11.2023
Earlier demonstrator
Completion date: 08.09.2023
Sourcing
Design process
Construction process
Tools
Research by Maxence Grangeot
With the supervision of:
Prof. Corentin Fivet (SXL)
Prof. Stefana Parascho (CRCL)
With the support of :
SXL: Dr. Maléna Bastien-Masse
EESD: Qianqing Wang, Prof. Katrin Beyer
GIS: Gilles Guignet, Luca Mari, Frédérique Dubugnon, Gregory Spirlet
Tinguely: Benjamin Mamzer
Sika: Cédric Chetelat
keywords: circular economy, reuse, concrete, rubble, debris, demolition, waste, recycling, upcycling, cement, local, material, digital, tools, construction, industry, academia, scientific, research, stone, researchers, sustainable, sustainability, drill, industrial, low-tech, panel, housing, prefabrication, Kharkiv, challenge, competition, architecture, Foster, engineering, structural, prima cb, stone, art, installation, student, quarry, revalorisation, Vaud, Lausanne
mots clés : économie circulaire, réutilisation, réemploi, remploi, béton, gravats, débris, démolition, déchets, recyclage, upcycling, ciment, local, matériau, numérique, outils, construction, industrie, académie, recherche, scientifique, maçonnerie, pierre, sèche, innovation, avancée, chercheurs, publication, durable, durabilité, robot, perceuse, vertueux, solution, structure