Circular Building Knowledge Platform
Founded in 1997, AREP is a multidisciplinary architecture practice. AREP brings together the specialities and areas of expertise that are essential to the renewal of architecture, cities, and regions. AREP stands for architecture, research, engagement, and post-carbon. Client-oriented, the company provides practical solutions to the ecological emergency through its EMC2B approach. AREP contributes to research, public dialogue and shifting practices through its publications. AREP employs nearly 1,000 people of 30 different nationalities and is present both in France and abroad. It ranks first among architectural practices in France in terms of turnover.
AREP’s ambition is to develop within each of its architectural teams the skills and reflexes to reuse materials. AREP has created a REAP unit, a team specialized in the reuse of construction materials and the circular economy, to accelerate the consideration of reuse by all of the company’s teams of architects, engineers, designers and economists. This unit supports the AREP design office teams or direct clients such as the SNCF or external clients on the subject of reuse. AREP has also created its own internal digital reuse platform to facilitate the exchange of materials between projects. Reuse is one of the 12 main criteria that enable AREP teams to assess the environmental impact of decisions on each project, such as the proportion of bio- and geo-sourced materials, the carbon footprint, or the production of renewable energy. Reuse has been identified as a priority lever for reducing the carbon impact of a construction project and reducing pressure on resources. Among the many reuse projects carried out by AREP:
Arep has proposed two pilot projects to the DDC program. AREP’s REAP team, which specializes in supporting the reuse of materials in a construction project, was able to test the digital tools developed by the program to facilitate circular deconstruction and reuse. Thanks to a joint work, REAP was able to benefit from the possibilities offered by digital tools for its reuse strategies and to give feedback to the developers of these tools so that they can better respond to the needs of a circular strategy. On the second Gare du Nord pilot, the European program was able to witness all the stages of a project integrating reuse considerations: from the design phase to the deconstruction phase.
