Reuse of Secondary Materials: Enabling and Assessing ‘Reuse of Secondary Materials’ as a Circular Approach for the Façade Industry

Over the years, the extraction and consumption of raw materials have increased radically, with a 60% increase since 1980. About one-fifth of the material extracted worldwide ends up as waste, corresponding to 12 billion tonnes (Gt) of waste per year. To tackle the increasing consumption and waste in the economy, the Netherlands government...

Reprocessing of uni-directional Biosense Webster ablation catheters: a novel disassembly method: Extraction of the yielding parts and/or materials from the Thermocool Smarttouch SF Uni-directional ablation catheter

Annually, around 180,000 cardiac ablation procedures are performed as a result of people experiencing cardiac arrhythmia’s. During this ablation procedure, an ablation catheter is used to scar the problematic cardiac tissue after which the arrhythmia will stop. The ablation catheter is discarded after one single use. Incineration of these...

Reuse potential of the Van Brienenoord arch bridge: Fatigue and corrosion damage evaluation of structural steel elements

The building and construction industry is one of the main polluting sectors contributing to climate change, and is responsible for around 37% of global CO2 emissions. A circular approach is needed to address the global demand for construction materials and resources in a sustainable way. Steel is a commonly used material in construction and...

A Roadmap to the Second life of Photovoltaic Modules

Two words that could epitomize the focal point of today’s society are ”Energy Transition” and ”Sustainability”. The PV systems are at the forefront of this energy transition. In PV systems, first-generation Si-based PV modules are the market leaders with a market share of 92.5% in 2020. However, sustainability concerns have emerged in recent...

Amstel III - The Reuse City: Implementing urban mining as a tool to transform vacant office buildings, reusing 100% of the existing building components.

Our excessive need for new building materials is causing our natural material stock to be depleted at an alarming rate. What happens if our most common building materials can no longer be acquired? This thesis shows the potential in reusing buildings and the components they comprise of by setting an example. An existing office building is...

Using the water pinch analysis to optimize the water network of a brewery and its neighbours to achieve circularity: Can the process effluent of a brewery be used to grow oranges?

Water is an important resource in many industries in the world. Due to emerging regulatory framework, change in consumer’s perspective and increasing costs for water, industries are forced to move towards sustainable water use. Nowadays, improvements in the brewery industry are focussed on increasing the efficiency of the processes or treating...

Circularity; the reuse of an office building

This graduation project addresses two problems, the high vacancy rate of office buildings in the Netherlands, and the linear approach of take-make-use-dispose, which results in the depletion of natural resources. In this project, an office building is transformed for other multiple functions with the old materials of the building in...

Harvest Hub: Building with the existing: Showcasing the potential of reusing building components in architectural design

The combination of the building sector as one of the largest consumers of natural resources with the changing needs and standards of the Dutch population aks for a transition in building methods. This thesis showcases the potential of reusing local resources in architectural design. On the one hand, the Harvest Hub facilitates the logistic...

City Curriculum: Constructing a common place for culture and knowledge exchange

The city of Nijmegen is in a process of losing its unique identity and urban fabric, as a result of a continuous commodification by the interests of private investments. The rise of commercialization creates an environment of strangers where the emphasis lays on individual perspectives and activities, accessible only to particular social groups,...

How can police stations help solving housing crisis in the Netherlands?

The Netherlands is facing a severe housing crisis. There is a necessity to create 845.000 new homes due to its growing population by 2030 (NL Times, 2020). According to prognosis (Capital Value, 2020), the housing shortage is greater than recently estimated and will continue to grow. Especially in Groningen, where the Police office building is...

Identifying and subducting the key barriers of reusing precast girders in Dutch overpasses

Reuse is highly appraised in the theories about circularity and sustainability. However, overpass girders in the main road network of Rijkswaterstaat are never reused for the same function. There are barriers present which hampers the reusing elements in comparison with the traditional way of handling infrastructure projects. Most of the main...

An Eco Synergist Hub In Rotterdam: Reuse and Regeneration of neglected urban fragments into Ecological Hotspots

This paper focuses on the regeneration and reuse of remnant wasted structures, lands in Rotterdam into future ecological hotspots to foster biodiversity, improve the quality of people and species’ lives. Due to a phenomena of pressing urbanization undergoing in the city, the majority of the old industrial, harbour areas or structures are...

Circular Institute of Fashion: 'Made better by Hem'

With an ongoing growing population and the aim towardsa more sustainable future, revitalizing building is aconsiderable topic. Architect should take into accountthe current building stock and look into more possibleways on how to easily reuse buildings. The location of theHembrug area, makes it an even more attractive area todevelop. It can...

Towards a Circular ICU: How to implement reusable video laryngoscopes at the ICU

The healthcare sector uses a lot of on single use medical products, causing large amounts of CO₂ emissions and excessive amounts of waste. This project contributes to a circular Intensive Care Unit (ICU) by investigating the barriers and possible solutions for a transition from single use video laryngoscopes (VL) to (partly) reusable ones, in...