Publications related to Reuse | EPFL Graph Search

Geometry-Driven Stock-Constrained Truss Design via Equilibrium-Based Structural Models

This paper presents a geometry-driven approach to form-finding with reused stock elements. Our proposed workflow uses a K-mean algorithm to cluster stock elements and incorporate their geometrical values early in the form-finding process. A feedback loop i ...

Springer2024

Reusability assessment of reinforced concrete components prior to deconstruction from obsolete buildings

Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet, Maléna Bastien Masse, Julie Rachel Devènes

A large part of building demolitions is motivated by purely socio-economic reasons. Hence, about-to-be-demolished structures, commonly made of reinforced concrete, very often present no or little degradation. When adaptive reuse of the entire building is n ...

2024

FLO:RE – A new floor system made of reused reinforced concrete and steel elements

Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet, Numa Joy Bertola, Maléna Bastien Masse, Célia Marine Küpfer

Carefully extracting reinforced concrete (RC) elements from soon-to-be demolished structures and reusing them as load-bearing components is an emerging circular low-carbon alternative to building new structures. As floor construction typically accounts for ...

IABSE2024

Reusability Assessment of Obsolete Reinforced Concrete Structural Components

Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet, Maléna Bastien Masse, Célia Marine Küpfer, Julie Rachel Devènes

The production of concrete, the most widely used construction material, detrimentally affects the environment. Obsolete reinforced concrete (RC) load-bearing structures, even when still in good condition, are today prematurely crushed and landfilled or rec ...

Springer2023

Low-tech methods for the reuse of reinforced concrete structural elements

Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet, Maléna Bastien Masse, Nicole Widmer, Julie Rachel Devènes

Most of existing buildings are made of concrete, new buildings are being built with it and others are demolished when still in good structural condition. This drives increased demands for raw materials, greenhouse gas emissions, and an accumulation of demo ...

2023

A Reuse-Ready Timber Slab-and-Column System for Modular Building Structures

Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet, Jonas Warmuth, Jan Friedrich Georg Brütting, Alex-Manuel Muresan, Edisson Xavier Estrella Arcos

The construction industry is a significant contributor to resource consumption and waste generation. To address this issue, component reuse has been proposed as a way to prevent valuable building elements from being discarded and avoid producing new ones. ...

Curran Associates, Inc.2023

Re:Crete – reuse of concrete elements in new structures: A footbridge prototype

Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet, Maléna Bastien Masse, Célia Marine Küpfer, Jan Friedrich Georg Brütting, Julie Rachel Devènes

Concrete accounts for the largest share of worldwide building material use and waste generation, with cement production being responsible for approximately 9% of global anthropogenic CO2 emissions. A currently untapped strategy to significantly reduce thes ...

CRC Press2022

Upcycling Space Structures (Preface to special issue)

Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet, Olivier Baverel

The construction industry’s contribution to the deterioration of Earth’s ecosystem is huge. 11% of all anthropic greenhouse gas emissions worldwide are due to the construction, demolition, and transformation of buildings and infrastructure. Construction an ...

2021

Concerning the research “Material history of the built environment and the conservation project” (2008–2020), methodology and results

Franz Graf, Giulia Marino

Recent successes in the reuse and rehabilitation of 20th century architecture have shown that design begins with the study of history. Study of the material history of built structures, together with historical and critical investigation, supported by diag ...

CRC Press/Balkema2021

Concerning the research “Material history of the built environment and the conservation project” (2008–2020), methodology and results

Franz Graf, Giulia Marino

Recent successes in the reuse and rehabilitation of 20th century architecture have shown that design begins with the study of history. Study of the material history of built structures, together with historical and critical investigation, supported by diag ...

CRC Press/Balkema - Taylor & Francis2021

Publish your thesis while respecting copyright rules

Béatrice Marselli Fuerer, Marjorie Platon, Manon Velasco

It is very common to reuse content in a thesis (e.g. in the case of the theses made of a compilation of published articles). It is therefore important to ensure that the use (or reuse) is possible and to ask for authorizations from the rights holders when ...

2021

Decision Framework to Balance Environmental, Technical, Logistical, and Economic Criteria When Designing Structures With Reused Components

Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet, Numa Joy Bertola, Célia Marine Küpfer, Jan Friedrich Georg Brütting

The reuse of structural components in new buildings has great potential to reduce the environmental impacts of the construction sector but remains uncommon practice. An obstacle to its wider implementation is the lack of robust assessment methods and decis ...

2021

Optimum design of low environmental impact structures through component reuse

Jan Friedrich Georg Brütting

Load-bearing systems (structures) in buildings and infrastructure contribute to a significant share of adverse environmental impacts (EI) because of resource- and energy-intensive fabrication. A currently overlooked circular economy strategy to reduce EI i ...

EPFL2020

Comparison of environmental assessment methods when reusing building components: a case study

Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet, Endrit Hoxha, Catherine Elvire L. De Wolf

The building industry is responsible for 35% of all solid waste in Europe and more than a third of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To address this, applying circular economy principles to the building sector is crucial, for example by reusing building elem ...

2020

Increasing reuse in learning objects authoring: a case study with the Cacuria tool

Roberto Gerson De Albuquerque Azevedo

Artifacts and best practices reuse as a way of improving educational resources and easing and speeding up the authoring process have been an important theme since the earliest research efforts on Learning Objects (LOs). In such a context, authoring tools t ...

ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY2019

Exploration of spatial structures made from reused elements and the design of optimal kits-of-parts

Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet, Gennaro Senatore, Jan Friedrich Georg Brütting

Reuse reduces raw material use, waste generation and energy consumption caused by building construction. A substantial share of these impacts is contributed by load-bearing systems be-cause of their mass- and energy-intensive production process. Therefore, ...

Taylor & Francis Group2019

Enhancing solar disinfection of water in PET bottles by optimized in-situ formation of iron oxide films. From heterogeneous to homogeneous action modes with H2O2 vs. O-2 - Part 2: Direct use of (natural) iron oxides

César Pulgarin, Sami Rtimi, Stefanos Giannakis, Sakine Shekoohiyan

Solar disinfection (SODIS) is a well-accepted intervention method, leading to an improvement in contaminated water sources. In this work, we attempted to further enhance the bacterial inactivation process during light exposure. By means of iron oxide addit ...

ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA2019

In Situ Formation of Frustrated Lewis Pairs in a Water-Tolerant Metal-Organic Framework for the Transformation of CO2

Paul Joseph Dyson, Fatmah Ebrahim, Serhii Shyshkanov, Kyriakos Stylianou, Ngoc Tú Nguyên

Frustrated Lewis pairs (FLPs) consist of sterically hindered Lewis acids and Lewis bases, which provide high catalytic activity towards non-metal-mediated activation of "inert" small molecules, including CO2 among others. One critical issue of homogeneous ...

Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH2019

Optimization Formulations for the Design of Low Embodied Energy Structures Made from Reused Elements

Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet, Gennaro Senatore, Jan Friedrich Georg Brütting

The building sector is one of the major contributors to material resource consumption, greenhouse gas emission and waste production. Load-bearing systems have a particularly large environmental impact because of their material and energy intensive manufact ...

Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature2018

Optimum Truss Design with Reused Stock Elements

Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet, Gennaro Senatore, Jan Friedrich Georg Brütting, Joseph Jean François Desruelle

This paper proposes the application of optimization techniques to design reticular structures made from a stock of reused elements. Still little explored, the reuse of structural components over multiple service lives has the potential to reduce the enviro ...

2018