Circular Building Knowledge Platform
Circular Building Knowledge Platform
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An ambitious circular deconstruction has been led on a Parisian residential 6 floors building. To deconstruct the whole building and refurbish the new shifted façade next to the building, the building owner SNCF Gares & Connexions missioned the architecture agency AREP for technical studies and its integrated REAP reuse expert team to work on a reuse strategy. Typical oak flooring, slates, modern wooden windows, doors, marble fireplaces, old stones, cast iron radiators and a lot of other materials have been reintegrated into other SNCF Gares & Connexions projects or external constructions projects
REAP operated a reuse strategy from deconstruction studies step to construction site supervision. The team did a complete inventory of materials, assessed the reuse potential of every materials from the building to be deconstructed and studied where those materials could be integrated into the new project construction. For quality materials for which a need has not been demonstrated, buyers have been looked for.
This approach then helped the building owner to integrate strong reuse objectives into the tender document and challenged the deconstruction company. In this way, many materials have been shifted away from waste during this projet.
Our test shows that having a 3D scan of the building to deconstruct can save time and be more precise in the inventory, especially during the data entry in the office. The scan 3D could surely be a way to spend less time on site too: the on-site identification of characteristics could be realized on more specific and complex elements (windows, structural beam timber, beam steel, technical floor etc.) and the rest (classic equipment and services) can be mainly identified from the 3D scan in the office. Finally, the 3D scan use can be even more relevant on specific operations when the time to spend on site is restricted.
The 3D scan is a good opportunity to showcase elements from a building and create desire and confidence on them for potential buyers. From the building perspective, it’s allowing a virtual visit and it can be more attractive than navigating between a list of elements. From the element perspective, knowing the element building context, showing its sanitary state can be useful to better consider a second life for the element.
The R-BIM has been modelized based on the 3D-Scan. We had the opportunity to compare the outputs of the R-BIM model with our own reuse potential identification.
It confirmed many of our observations and spotlighted some materials that we had nevertheless been set aside such as zinc roof cover or boilers. We can see that the BIM reuse potential could initiate a strategy on material reuse that would not have been identified otherwise by deconstruction actors, because they are not obvious or not in their habits.
BIM reuse potential is a way to easily classify reuse elements and to be more prepared to difficulties of dismantling too. This data can be precious for deconstruction actors because it’s a lever to anticipate and define the level of reuse complexity to be included in the project. This information can be a way to bring confidence on their reuse potential for experts or non-experts on reuse and for deconstruction actors in general.
Even if it is not the essence of BIM, R-BIM outputs can be confronted to the reality of the reuse industrial habits in a territory. A high reuse potential score doesn’t mean that there is an associated demand on the market for a specific. But this tool can be a way to put forward those elements and be a lever too to develop new reuse market.
