Living Labs

Circular business models are solid enough only if there is market demand behind, and we all know that users create the demand. Thus, conscious, informed consumers can drive the transition to alternative and circular business models. Some questions arise from this statement:

How would the way we build change if users decided on the design and use of the buildings and public spaces they inhabit?

  • How would the professional relationships among the different actors within the construction value chain be transformed if consumers demanded renewable, healthy materials, bioclimatic buildings, modular constructions designed for deconstruction…?

The second FISSAC Living Lab Barcelona, co-organized with the Societat Orgànica, a professional cooperative that works in the field of sustainable building, served as a visualization spot of successful experiences and as a space for an exchange of views and ideas:

Visualization of successful experiences: presentation of local concrete projects that have launched alternative circular models within the resource management, the design, and the construction phase, in which the needs and expectations of the users have been taken into account. Take a look at the APROP project of the Barcelona City Council or the ones being implemented by the cooperative of architects LACOL.

Workshop (debate, exchange of ideas): representatives of housing cooperatives, construction and building companies, technological institutes, environmental consultancy companies, public administration agents, architects and designers joined an open discussion about the different circular actions that are being developed within the construction sector and those that could ideally be developed. The event ended with a debate about the possible solutions to those concrete barriers that nowadays hinder to carry out more circular building projects.

Circular business models are solid enough only if there is market demand behind, and we all know that users create the demand. Thus, conscious, informed consumers can drive the transition to alternative and circular business models. Some questions arise from this statement:

How would the way we build change if users decided on the design and use of the buildings and public spaces they inhabit?

  • How would the professional relationships among the different actors within the construction value chain be transformed if consumers demanded renewable, healthy materials, bioclimatic buildings, modular constructions designed for deconstruction…?

The second FISSAC Living Lab Barcelona, co-organized by SIMBIOSY together with the Societat Orgànica (a professional cooperative that works in the field of sustainable building) on the 30th of October 2018, , served as a visualization spot of successful experiences and as a space for an exchange of views and ideas.

2nd LL BARCELONA_2 2nd LL BARCELONA_1

(suite…)

To create synergies between the FISSAC H2024 and the TRIS Interreg Europe projects, Geonardo Ltd. and the Herman Ottó Institute Nonprofit Ltd. jointly launched a forum series to improve achieving the efficiency of resource efficiency in the domestic construction industry. The first symposium was held on 13 April 2018 in the frame of the CONSTRUMA International Exhibition and Fair that is the largest annual event for the sector in Hungary. (suite…)

To understand the challenges and opportunities for industrial symbiosis you need to understand your value chain and where value for your sector is created. But just knowing your value chain may not be enough. Following the TIS structure of analysing your Technological Innovation System (TIS) you will be able to identify drivers and barriers for change. You will look at your actors and your value chain, but also at different networks, institutions and how a lack of knowledge and underdeveloped technology may be what is preventing change and hindering the development of industrial symbiosis.

In this new FISSAC report you will find an accessible introduction to the field of TIS and you can find a case study, explaining how the TIS methodology can be used in conjunction with a material journey, following a material from production to destruction and reuse.

We hope that this report and case study will help you in conducting your own analysis and developing your field of industrial symbiosis.

The third gathering of the Belgian Living Lab, a second one on Urban Mining, took place in Mechelen on 18 December. Once again, experts from the construction and demolition sector, civil servants and researchers, discussed the priority research questions. The focus was on practical aspects of demolition and processing on small sites, challenges for the economic model, the importance of cooperation along the chain, and the way in which policy and regulation can take urban mining to the next level.

A number of questions are being submitted to an expert team for further research, others are being tested, monitored, and analysed on existing sites, or will serve as topics for a subsequent Living Lab.

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