Representatives of the Institute for Civil Engineering and Environment at the University of Luxembourg and Empa signed a “Memorandum of Understanding” on 27 October in Luxembourg.

The project is entitled Eco-Construction for Sustainable Development (ECON4SD) and focuses on the development of innovative components and design models for buildings. The aim is to make these both resource and energy efficient. As the building sector is generating a large amount of CO2 emissions, resource consumption and waste production, new eco-construction approaches are needed. The focus is on the development of novel components and design models for resource and energy efficient buildings based on the construction materials concrete, steel and timber.

“The ECON4SD aims to turn buildings into materials and components banks and will allow producers of structural elements to come to a different business model. That would consist in loaning materials or components to customers and take them back after use in a particular building, in order to resell them directly, recondition or recycle them,” commented professor Danièle Waldmann of the University of Luxembourg in a press statement.

The focus of the research will lie on modularity, flexibility, adaptability and upgradability with detachable inter-structural connections. These components should require as little maintenance and repair work as possible, and be easily disassembled, and re-used. Thus, the whole service life of the structural elements will be considered. The aim is to reduce energy and resource use throughout the entire life cycle of buildings and their components.