! S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y
16
ICONIC
Reusing materials is a mindset Urban mining is part of our overall vision on sustainability and innovation. We are already integrating as many circular materials as possible into our construction projects.
In search of urban
building gold In Flanders alone, the building sector produces 15 million tons of construction and demolition waste per year.
This is a sizeable amount, especially
Urban mining means extracting raw materials
when you consider that it’s the equivalent
and materials from construction and demo-
of about 40 demolished Empire State
lition waste in cities, and using them for the
Buildings. This gigantic mountain of waste
construction of new projects. This may involve
is a potential gold mine of reusable raw
different types of materials such as electron-
materials and materials. It is therefore no
ics, wood or metal, but also soil that is dug up
surprise that more and more architects,
for new projects. In Brussels alone, 2 million
engineers, entrepreneurs, and project
tons of soil are excavated each year. We can
developers are showing an interest in urban
transform this soil into clay plaster to finish
mining.
walls, or cob to make floors and non-loadbearing inner walls. Such materials are nothing new, as we built with them in the past, but at some point, we stopped using them. Yet they are very useful: the soil is pressed and not baked, so we don’t need fossil fuels to transform the raw material. This makes them doubly sustainable! — Price tag Part of the reason why many companies are not yet fully on board with this circular mindset is due to the price. New building materials
