Rubble Walls
Despite the enormous emissions and raw materials needed to produce concrete, healthy structures made of concrete are demolished daily under the jaws of hydraulic excavators and energy-intensive crushers. We propose to upcycle large irregular concrete rubble pieces from demolition sites into walls with the help of digital tools and through minimal material processing
Our real-scale demonstrators are walls of approx. 2.5m tall, 2.7m long, 30cm thick, built out of large “off the pile” concrete rubble pieces. Digital tools are used to harness the geometrical complexity inherent to found irregular concrete rubble pieces and to precisely assemble them into a slender yet stable wall. Due to its commodity and environmental potential, using unaltered concrete rubble as a new construction material hints at new possibilities for circular construction.
Latest demonstrator
Completion date: 02.11.2023
more information on the construction process.
Scientific Papers
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Concrete rubble as a new construction material: Panorama of applications to known structural typologies M. Grangeot; S. Parascho; C. Fivet 2024 IASS Symposium 2024 – Redefining the Art of Structural Design, Zürich, Switzerland, 2024-08-26 – 2024-08-30.
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Upcycling concrete rubble into masonry walls: Design and assessment of two prototypes built with digitally augmented tools M. Grangeot; M. Bastien Masse; S. Parascho; C. Fivet 4th fib International Conference on Concrete Sustainability, Guimarães, Portugal, 2024-09-11 – 2024-09-13. p. 324 – 331. DOI : 10.1007/978-3-031-80724-4_40.
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Structural Concrete Rubble Arrangements – A Framework for Upcycling Demolition Waste into Slender Masonry Walls for Buildings M. Grangeot; Q. Wang; K. Beyer; C. Fivet; S. Parascho Design Modelling Symposium 2024 Kassel – Scalable Disruptors, Kassel, Germany, 2024-09-16 – 2024-09-19. p. 15 – 27. DOI : 10.1007/978-3-031-68275-9_2.
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An Investigation into Machine Learning Matchmaking for Reused Rubble Concrete Masonry Units (RR-CMU) D. J. M. Marshall; M. Grangeot 2024 IASS Symposium 2024 – Redefining the Art of Structural Design, Zürich, Switzerland, 2024-08-26 – 2024-08-30.
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Rising from rubble – Leveraging existing construction tools for upcycling concrete waste into slender walls M. Grangeot; Q. Wang; K. Beyer; C. Fivet; S. Parascho 2024 ROB|ARCH Robotic Fabrication in Architecture, Art, and Design, Toronto, Canada, May 21-25, 2024.
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From soon-to-be demolished mushroom column slabs to reused reinforced concrete saw-cut assemblies: the case of the rebuiLT pavilion C. Küpfer; M. Bastien-Masse; M. Grangeot; C. Meier; L. Graulich et al. 2024 World Sustainable Built Environment Conference, Virtual, Online, 2024-06-12 – 2024-06-14. DOI : 10.1088/1755-1315/1363/1/012052.
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From concrete waste to walls: An investigation of reclamation and digital technologies for new load-bearing structures M. Grangeot; C. Fivet; S. Parascho 2023 cisbat 2023 The Built Environment in Transition, Lausanne, Switzerland, September 13-15, 2023. DOI : 10.1088/1742-6596/2600/19/192019.
Sourcing Process
Design Process
Construction Process
Tools
Credits
Research by Maxence Grangeot
With the supervision of:
Prof. Corentin Fivet (SXL)
Prof. Stefana Parascho (CRCL)
With the support of :
SXL: Dr. Maléna Bastien-Masse, Dr. Célia Küpfer
EESD: Qianqing Wang, Prof. Katrin Beyer
GIS: Gilles Guignet, Luca Mari, Frédérique Dubugnon, Gregory Spirlet, François Perrin
Imaging Center: Edward Andò
Tinguely: Benjamin Mamzer, Sylvain Montant, Daniel Savic, Gomez Juvino, Luis, Philippe Guédat
Sika: Cédric Chetelat
Lullin Engineering: Simon Lullin