Publications by Célia Marine Küpfer

Pedagogy of an interdisciplinary, hands-on workshop to design and build floor systems with reused materials

Peter Zurbrügg, Maléna Bastien Masse, Célia Marine Küpfer, Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet, Barbara Ludivine Justine Lambec

This paper reflects on the pedagogy used for a series of student workshops on building with reused materials at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and presents the results of its 7 th edition, which focused on floor systems. During these w ...

CRC Press2025

Designing Waste-Negative Floor Systems Made of Reused Saw-Cut Reinforced-Concrete Slab Elements

Célia Marine Küpfer, Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet

Building demolitions are often triggered by reasons independent of their structural conditions, causing the disposal of large quantities of reinforced concrete in good condition. Today, this concrete is, at best, crushed into aggregates, causing the loss o ...

Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH2024

Reuse of concrete elements in architecture: characterisations and design methods for sustainable structures

Célia Marine Küpfer

Because of established demolition routines and low construction-material production costs that neglect negative externalities, discarded concrete today is crushed and landfilled or downcycled as infill material or recycled aggregates, wasting its embodied ...

EPFL2024

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

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

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

Reuse of cut concrete slabs in new buildings for circular ultra-low-carbon floor designs

Numa Joy Bertola, Célia Marine Küpfer, Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet

The study explores an original idea that responds to the urgent need to reduce the detrimental environmental impacts of load-bearing floor construction in new buildings by reusing saw-cut reinforced concrete (RC) pieces salvaged from soon-to-be demolished ...

2024

Structural component reuse of precast and cast-in-place reinforced concrete in architecture since the late 1960s in Europe

Célia Marine Küpfer, Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet

The reuse of concrete pieces salvaged from structures undergoing transformation or demolition into new architectural projects has gained a sudden and visible interest over the past five years. However, the practice of reusing concrete pieces in new structu ...

vdf Hochschulverlag AG2024

A concrete answer for circular construction: three prototypes reusing saw-cut elements

Maléna Bastien Masse, Célia Marine Küpfer, Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet

Existing concrete buildings should be retained for as long as possible to reduce the environmental burden of demolition and new construction. However, when urban pressure makes demolition unavoidable, salvaging and reusing concrete elements elsewhere in ne ...

2024

From soon-to-be demolished mushroom column slabs to reused reinforced concrete saw-cut assemblies: the case of the rebuiLT pavilion

Maléna Bastien Masse, Célia Marine Küpfer, Maxence Grangeot, Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet

The piecewise reuse of soon-to-be-demolished cast-in-place reinforced concrete (RC) structures in new structural projects poses new design challenges. Unlike the disassembly of prefabricated structures guided by existing connections, deconstructing monolit ...

Institute of Physics2024

Reading the existing: What discarded materials bring to the project

Célia Marine Küpfer, Maxence Grangeot, Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet, Barbara Ludivine Justine Lambec

Buildings are being demolished sooner and sooner after their construction. Regrettably this trend shows no signs of being reversed anytime soon. Demolition activities are driven today by real estate developments fueled by investment logics and rapidly chan ...

EPFL Press2024

Reuse of concrete components in new construction projects: Critical review of 77 circular precedents

Maléna Bastien Masse, Célia Marine Küpfer, Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet

Extracting pieces of concrete from obsolete buildings and reusing them, as is, in new assemblies is today rarely considered a strategy for improving the sustainability of the construction sector. By delaying the crushing of concrete into aggregates and avo ...

2023

Panorama of approaches to reuse concrete pieces: identification and critical comparison

Célia Marine Küpfer, Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet

Practices that reuse concrete pieces in new building or infrastructure projects are currently diversifying as concrete reuse gains more and more relevance for sustainability. The present research provides a yet missing identification of the main approaches ...

IOP Publishing2023

Design of New Low-Carbon Floor Systems by Reusing Cut Cast-in-Place Concrete Pieces

Numa Joy Bertola, Célia Marine Küpfer, Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet

As floors typically account for the largest share of a building embodied carbon footprint, new strategies to build low-carbon floors must be developed and implemented. Among these strategies, the reuse of existing components is a promising circular approac ...

Novus Press2023

Reusability Assessment of Obsolete Reinforced Concrete Structural Components

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

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

Environmental and economic analysis of new construction techniques reusing existing concrete elements: two case studies

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

As the most widely used construction material worldwide, concrete is the main cause of greenhouse gas emissions, material depletion, and waste generation by the construction industry. Typically, concrete waste is crushed and, at best, reclaimed into recycl ...

2022

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

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

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

Re:Crete - A Footbridge made of Reused Concrete Blocks

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

Today, concrete is the most widely used construction material worldwide. Strong, versatile, durable, and vector of economic development, this exceptional material is also the principal cause of greenhouse-gas emissions, material depletion and waste generat ...

Asociación Española de Ingeniería Estructura2022

Re:Crete – Reuse of concrete blocks from cast-in-place building to arch footbridge

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

About 9% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions worldwide are due to the production of cement, key constituent of concrete. Concrete also contributes to a large share of demolition waste, usually coming from building structures that are discarded becaus ...

2022

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

Numa Joy Bertola, Célia Marine Küpfer, Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet, 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

Assessment of the Environmental Impacts of Bridge Designs Involving UHPFRC

Eugen Brühwiler, Numa Joy Bertola, Célia Marine Küpfer

Ultra-High-Performance Fibre-Reinforced Cementitious Composite (UHPFRC) has been developed to design lightweight structures and enhance existing designs. As the environmental footprint of the construction industry must be significantly reduced, the potenti ...

2021

Selektiver Rückbau - Rückbaubare Konstruktion: Studie zur Förderung der Abfallreduktion und der Wiederverwendung in der Baubranche

Célia Marine Küpfer, Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet

Diese Sammlung stützt sich auf eine Literaturrecherche sowie 32 Fallstudien und Interviews mit Fachkräften und: › fasst die Grundprinzipien beider Ansätze zusammen; › dokumentiert und gibt Erfahrungsberichte und bewährte Verfahren weiter; › liefert technis ...

EPFL2021