V8 Architects builds Rotterdam homes almost entirely from reused and recycled materials

Dutch studio V8 Architects has created a pair of semi-detached homes in the Netherlands using recycled and reused materials above all else to demonstrate how circular design principles can be applied to housing.

Named Villa Residu, the houses form part of the Koer residential development in Rotterdam for developer VORM.

V8 Architects aimed to build the homes entirely from recycled and reused materials, save for the foundation and the stairs, as a case study for investigating how circular design could be implemented at a wider scale.

"No matter how small, Villa Residu is an enormously relevant project for us," said V8 Architects founding partner Michiel Raaphorst.

"As it has proven to be very difficult to implement circularity in the current development of large-scale housing projects, we wanted a smaller project to push it to the maximum and to learn from the process," he told Dezeen.

"Villa Residu also shows that aesthetics, construction methodology and circularity can work together."

Deliberately designed to contrast with the other homes in the district, the green building is a double house – a typical typology in the Netherlands.

Above ground, the semi-detached houses were built using structural materials salvaged from previous projects, with steel frames and timber floors sourced by Swanenberg Iron Group and demolition contractor Bork respectively.

The homes were enclosed in reused steel facade panels sourced by Van Engeland de Groot, with windows that were finger-jointed, re-planed and re-coated by CirQ Wood and Kiewit.

The facades' glass, railings, contour plates, flashings, timber frame and insulation were all also sourced from previous projects.

The block was divided in two diagonally, with a pair of entrance doors placed alongside each other under a canopy.

Each home contains a large home office space on the ground floor, which can be accessed separately from the main house, with a living room on the first floor. The upper floors of each home contain four bedrooms and two bathrooms.

Internally, the majority of the plasterboard used for the walls was reclaimed, while new plasterboard was used for the ceilings. An internal wooden staircase was also built using new materials.

Raaphorst explained that focusing on reused materials impacted how the homes were designed and built.

The project's permit was granted based on a broad specification of materials, and the contractor uses a specialist material broker to acquire the reclaimed materials. V8 Architects then amended the design throughout the construction process as required.

"You can't just design and expect the materials to be available somewhere, like you would pick them from a shelf," Raaphorst explained.

"So you need to specify your design in a much more generic way, to allow a wide range of variations within the specified size, material and shape to be available at a moment that could be two years after the design has been finalised," he continued.

"In short: the specification provided specific materials with indicative profiles and patterns, and was granted a permit. During engineering and even during construction, this was constantly updated when the contractor could acquire a certain material. "

According to the studio, an Environmental Performance of Buildings (MPG) analysis showed that the houses scored 56 per cent better than the legal standard.

With an eye on circularity, the building was also designed to be disassembled.

V8 Architects believes that to incorporate reused materials, "flexibility is key", and that there will be a growing demand for material warehouses if circular design is to become more widely adopted.

"We believe that there will be a huge demand for interfaces between donor buildings and destination buildings, like a warehouse or market, because availability and necessity are difficult to match in time," Raaphorst said.

"One thing we will do for sure is harvest materials at the beginning, at least for the key structural elements."

Raaphorst would also like to see governments introduce financial incentives to encourage reuse, as this project demonstrated to the studio that new materials can often be cheaper than recycled ones.

"Re-using is not always cheaper than using new materials and the necessary structural approvals for recycled or reusable materials are more complicated," he said. "Specific legislation and taxation of non-circular materials could be helpful in this matter."

Previous projects by V8 Architects include the Solar Pavilion at Dutch Design Week and a pavilion with its own enclosed water, energy and food system at Expo 2020 Dubai.

The photography is by Loes van Duijvendijk.

Project credits:

Architect: V8 Architects
Client: VORM
Material consultant: Superuse
Structural engineer: VOCON
Services consultant: Van Hoften

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