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SecondHand Story 2012 Architects built a house out of 60 per cent recycled materials.

Text David Keuning / Photos Allard van der Hoek

Cable reels are generally worn-out after a few years and are subsequently discarded. 2012 disassembled them and reused the wood in the faรงade of a villa in Enschede.

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Harvest map industrial estate Enschede.

A house made of waste material. A nice idea for a tourist attraction in a sparsely-populated corner of the globe, built by some starryeyed idealist. A bitter reality in the slums of poor African countries. But hardly what you want in a new residential neighbourhood in a densely populated developed country.

At least, that was the opinion of urban designer Pi de Bruijn, responsible for the reconstruction of the working-class neighbourhood Roombeek in the Dutch provincial city of Enschede. Roombeek was devastated in 2000 by a fireworks warehouse explosion that wiped the entire neighbourhood off the map in a single stroke. And it was certainly not what he wanted in the Museumlaan, an important street that connects the TwentseWelle cultural museum, designed by Search (see Mark #15) to the city centre. This street was reserved for houses designed by architects of high standing. 2012 architects, a Rotterdam-

“We just drive round to ask if companies produce scrap” — Jan Jongert —

Harvest map Enschede, showing all the waste products that can be collected in the area.

based firm that specializes in building with recycled materials for environmental reasons, was not on the list of privileged firms.

That was a big disappointment for Ingrid Blans, who is now living in a magnificent house built on a plot just behind the Museumlaan, five years after the request was turned down. Constructed from waste materials, designed by 2012. ‘At first, we were offered the choice of the adjacent plot,’ says Blans.

‘De Bruijn had a list containing the names of around 20 well-known architects we could choose from, but we were already in contact with 2012 and we didn’t want to drop them. So, ultimately we had to renounce our plot and move a little further away. In the meantime, the price for a plot had risen significantly, so that was a bitter pill for us to swallow. The neighbours tell us that De Bruijn now says he is sorry he turned us down.’ »

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2012 was not exactly an established firm back in 2005. At the time, Jeroen Bergsma, Jan Jongert and Césare Peeren were making a name for themselves with a number of small projects. Anyone visiting the Duchi shoe shop in Scheveningen, for example, realized in 2004, feels a vague sense of recognition when looking at the shelves on which the shoes are displayed, but it is only after further inspection that the penny drops: the lightly curved glass shelves were once car windscreens. The Miele Space Station (MRS), dating from 2003, did service for a long time as an espresso bar in the hall of the now burneddown faculty of architecture in Delft. From a distance, the small round windows gave the impression of a high-tech installation, but up close, they turned out to be the round glass doors of discarded washing machines.

These projects, designed to illustrate that highly interesting visual imagery can be achieved with waste material, could be dismissed as just a fun gimmick, up until now. It is easy to make a temporary object or a shop interior from waste material, but a whole building is a different kettle of fish.

So De Bruijn's doubts were understandable, to some extent. But with the delivery of the house in Enschede, 2012 has demonstrated that recycling does not need to be limited to fiddling about in the wings.

‘In terms of volume, around 60 per cent of all the materials in this house have been recycled,’ says Jongert. ‘We haven’t calculated the percentage in terms of weight yet.’ Why are all the building materials not recycled? ‘100 per cent reuse in a building is very difficult to achieve. In some cases, reuse is impossible or senseless. All the screws, for instance, come straight from the factory.

The technical installations, the plasterboards used to finish all the interior spaces and, of course, the stucco work applied on top: all new.’ The foundations and the floor on the ground level are understandably made of new concrete; they were not included in the energy calculations. But the rest is almost completely derived from waste.

By now, 2012 has developed a standard procedure to source waste material for all their projects. If at all possible, they prefer to find the materials on industrial estates in the vicinity of the building location, to keep CO2 emissions during transport to a minimum. Local supply is the key. ‘We just see what sort of industrial companies are located near a building location and we drive round to ask if they produce scrap,’ says Jongert. ‘To begin with, we really did visit all the companies, but these days we have enough experience to use a list from the Chamber of Commerce to make an assessment of the sort of industrial waste we can expect to find in a particular area.’ Drawing up an inventory results in what Jongert calls a ‘harvest map’: an overview of the area with all the waste products that can be collected nearby. »

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Cheap Reels

“Secondhand wood often comes from better quality trees” — Jan Jongert —

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01 The cable reels are worn-out after a few years and are subsequently discarded.

02 Villa Welpeloo is located in a residential neighbourhood with mainly traditional detached houses.

An exception is the apartment complex ‘de Eekenhof’, on the left in the background, designed by Claus and Kaan architects.

03 MOST OF the houses in the neighbourhood have their garage on a narrow back street in between the plots. In this way, the garage doors do not mar the appearance of the street.

During their search for industrial waste material in Enschede, the 2012 scout team found themselves at the Twentse Kabel Fabriek (TKF). This factory uses wooden cable reels with a diameter of 1.2 to 3.5 m. The two round wheels of the reels are connected by an axle constructed from so-called heartwood: rounded planks with a length of 0.6 to 1.33 m, depending on the diameter of the wheels. These planks have been attached to the house as façade cladding.

In a few sessions, the cable reels were disassembled at the cable factory. The team dismantled roughly one reel every seven minutes and acquired around 2 m2 of wood per reel. The length of the planks used in the villa is 1.02 m.

The thickness is sometimes 23 mm and sometimes 36 mm. In order to preserve the wood, it was Plato heat-treated: heated using residual warmth from a nearby factory.

To begin with, 2012 had their eye on another leftover job lot for the façade cladding.

The scout team had also tracked down a large consignment of unused railway sleepers near the building location. But they soon discovered than they had been preserved with creosote, and that is very unhealthy if inhaled for any length of time.

So this idea had to be abandoned.

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Subsequently, the architects determine the ‘superuse relevancy factor’. Jongert: ‘We use this to describe the relationship between the amount of energy that has to be added to reuse a waste product, including a preservation process and transport from the harvest location to the building location, and the original amount of energy associated with its production. Steel, for instance, has a high superuse relevancy factor, depending on the distance between harvest and building locations. Aluminium has an even higher factor; wood much lower.’

This method of working means that the architects sometimes have to accept limitations imposed on their design. The width of the villa had to be made 10 cm narrower than they actually wanted, because the steel profiles, that came from an old textile machine, were not long enough (see the box ‘Steel for a Steal’). As much as 90 per cent of the steel construction in the house comes from this machine.

All the other bulk materials are also recycled. What about the wood for the joists?

‘Part of it comes from Komu, a company in Vlaardingen that supplies second-hand building products. Another part comes from a demolished house nearby.’ That brings an extra benefit, according to Jongert: ‘Secondhand wood often comes from better quality trees, because in the past it was allowed to grow longer than now. Besides, the wood does not warp anymore.’

What about the insulation material? ‘It came from a demolished commercial building nearby. First a layer of EPS followed by three layers of glass wool with reflective foil.

It provides a higher level of insulation than the official standard.’ The kitchen? ‘Built from old site boards.’ Even the wall and floor finish in the bathrooms is recycled: it is produced

by Smile Plastics. This British company melts down recycled plastic coffee cups in an old steel factory to create water-resistant interior panels.

Not everything went smoothly. However well the architects thought everything through, the unmanageable building practice sometimes intervened and meant that their good intentions were difficult to realize. All the window frames, for example, are from Janisol and were newly fabricated specially for this house. After all, window frames are difficult to recycle, if you also have to meet all the insulation requirements. ‘But the builder made a mistake and arrived with the wrong sizes of window frames,’ says Jongert. ‘So they all landed on the rubbish pile. Which means that we have also produced unnecessary waste. Not very environmentally friendly.’

But according to the architects themselves, they did manage to reach their energy objectives. Jongert: ‘The façade of this house emits roughly five percent of the amount of CO2 that a similar cladding made from new materials would produce. The steel structure emits »

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“We also produced waste: the new window frames all landed on the rubbish pile” — Jan Jongert —

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01 The building lift was still on wheels during construction, but received a permanent place in a recess in the raised floor of the kitchen and the studio.

02 View from the hall towards the kitchen. The hall forms a semi-public private gallery, where commissioning client Ingrid Blans would like to display the work of young artists. For this reason, all the walls are provided with secondary wall partitions, with setback recesses where they meet floors and These ceilings partitions can easily be replaced if they get damaged.

Scrap Scissor Lift A platform lift is handy during construction – but also afterwards. The second-hand lift used during construction to transport building materials to the first floor and the roof has now been tucked away in a recess in the floor next to the kitchen. It can be used to move large objects to the storage on the mezzanine level, but can also be used as a lift for people, if the residents ever have mobility problems in the future. In order to be allowed to transport people, it will have to be provided with protective railings at that time.

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about twelve percent of a similar new structure. That is including the production and preservation processes and transport.’

Is a house made out of recycled materials like this one actually cheaper than the same house made from new materials? ‘The construction costs of a similar new house would probably amount to around € 900,000,’ says Jongert. ‘This house cost approximately € 800,000.’ In absolute numbers, that is a big difference, but in percentage terms it is not really huge. But that is not what it is all about, of course: ‘Saving money was of secondary importance; the objective was to save energy.’

It is difficult to check if all the numbers and percentages mentioned by the architects are exact. But even if the house only achieves half the energy objectives, the result still appeals to the imagination. With this house, 2012 has proved that building with waste does not need to remain the domain of DIY fringe figures; they have made a serious alternative to conventional construction methods.

What about the Museumlaan, what is the result there? Detached houses have been built there, designed by firms including Bolles + Wilson, EEA, Benthem Crouwel and Cino Zucchi.

But none of the buildings is recognizable as the masterpiece of a great architect. The villa designed by 2012 is without a doubt the most impressive house in the neighbourhood. The best possible way of being proven right. «

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“We could choose from 20 wellknown architects, but 2012 wasn't one of them” — Ingrid Blans —

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01 The Paternoster was used to change large spools of yarn quickly. It was dismantled and reused in the steel skeleton of the villa.

02 Large, made-to-measure cupboards provide space for Ingrid Blans’ collections. She collects all sorts of things, including fabrics, traditional headgear from different cultures and art objects. The steel construction in the house is largely concealed behind plasterboard. In the few places where it has been left visible, such as here, it is finished with fire-resistant paint.

03 View through from the bedroom towards the hall. If you look closely, you can sometimes see the recesses on the wooden façade planks, for the handles needed on the cable reels they come from.

04 Landing on the first floor. The linen chutes next to the stairwell transport the laundry directly to the scullery.

The open door gives a glimpse of the elevator shaft.

05 The kitchen interior is made of recycled site boards. On the left, the position of the former building lift can be seen from the seam on the floor, with the lift shaft above.

06 View from the bathroom towards the bedroom. The water-resistant, black wall panels were manufactured by the British company Smile Plastics and consist of melted-down plastic coffee cups.

Steel for a Steal During their search for construction materials for the villa, the 2012 scout team found themselves at the firm Louwers – Lotex, a company dealing in second-hand textile machines. Since the Chinese textile industry has largely taken over West European production, many machines have been put in the clearance sale. One of the machines was a so-called Paternoster of the make Timmer, dating from 1989. The appliance provided space for thirty rolls of yarn, each 4 m long and 80 cm thick. A mechanism with heavy chains ensured that a new roll of yarn or a different colour could be loaded quickly. In total, the original Paternoster measured 4.5 x 10 x 6 m.

The structural engineer indicated only the minimal sizes for each separate profile in the application for planning permission. Only in the detailed specification stage did the available steel get a definite place in the construction.

The local planning authority gave its agreement for this unorthodox method of working. Because the origin of the steel could no longer be determined (quality marks and steel type were not indicated on the profiles and the manufacturer no longer existed), all the calculations have been made on the basis of the worst quality.

After the available profiles had been allocated a place in the construction, the old steel was blasted and re-leaded and adjusted to the correct length. New end plates were welded to either end. The steel skeleton is hardly visible any more in the completed house, in accordance with fire safety requirements.

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CROSS SECTION.

First Floor.

“The façade emits five percent of CO2 that a similar new façade would produce”

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— Jan Jongert —

Mezzanine level.

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01 Entrance 02 Art gallery 03 Guest bedroom 04 Guest bathroom 05 Dining room 06 Living room 07 Kitchen 08 Studio 09 Platform lift 10 storage 11 Scullery 12 Garage 13 Landing 14 Master bedroom 15 Master bathroom

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GROUND FLOOR.

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01 Reused cable reel wood horizontal 02 Reused steel profile HEA 140 03 Reused wooden beam 170x46 mm 04 Polystyrene 160 mm 05 Lamp of reused umbrella ribs 06 Reused cable reel wood vertical 07 Aluminium drip edge

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