digital upcycling of concrete rubbles
how : academic research
what : 1:1 wall prototype
who : Maxence Grangeot, Corentin Fivet [SXL-EPFL], Stefana Parascho [CRCL-EPFL]
where : Lausanne, Switzerland
Despite the enormous emissions and raw materials needed to produce concrete, healthy structures made of concrete are demolished daily under the jaws of hydraulic excavators and energy-intensive crushers. We propose to upcycle large irregular concrete rubbles into walls with the help of digital tools.Our first full-scale demonstrator is a wall of approx. 2.5m tall, 2.9m long, 25cm thick, built out of 7 large “of the pile” concrete rubbles. Digital tools were used to harness the geometrical complexity inherent to found irregular concrete rubbles and to precisely assemble them into a slender yet stable wall. Due to its commodity and environmental potential, using unaltered concrete rubbles as a new construction material hints at new possibilities for circular construction.More information will soon be released in scientific literature.