A circular biobased composite facade

Abstract

The building industry produces 40% of the total amount of waste in the Netherlands and almost all of this waste leads to landfill loading. This has been the start for this research into a circular biobased composite façade.

The question for building materials is expected to increase in the future and some common used materials impend to run out, therefore biobased materials could provide a solution.
Thereby is circularity often called as a solution for the material problems because when materials can keep performing, there is no need to discard them.

This thesis studies a high performance and circular application of biobased composite on a facade. During the research the focus was on office buildings in the Netherlands.

Biobased composite has previously been used for bridge design, and a few façades have been developed of which only one has been built today. These designs regard quite simple facades without windows or insulation, while for office buildings (especially the higher buildings) extensive safety requirements are obliged.
Because biobased composite is a material for which not many tests have been performed, the information, especially regarding safety requirements, is still scarce.
With help of specialists of DGMR a set of requirements has been defined. Besides the safety requirements the research focusses on different production methods and their environmental impact.

For circularity, different scenarios are defined, which are reuse, adaptation and recycling. Especially the connection methods between different parts are very important regarding circularity, because they define whether a part can be reused, adapted or recycled.

To establish the durability of coated and uncoated biobased composite for external use (when exposed to weather conditions as any facade is) two different material tests have been performed. The first test focusses on extreme temperatures while the second test simulates freeze-thaw cycles.

Eventually different common building products and facade typologies are compared to their biobased concept in terms of weight, thermal insulation and shadowcosts.
Thereby the circular scenarios of both the original element as the biobased concept are compared.

Overall it can be concluded that the durability of biobased composite is quite good when a safety margin for the bending stiffness is taken into account. The environmental impact is at this moment not better than that of most common building materials, therefore the shadowcosts require improvement. The materials does offer good options for designers, however requires more research and testing before large-scale application is possible.

The results of the research offers information on biobased composite useful for designers. Different subjects are circular design, a comparison between the environmental impact of common used building materials and manufacturing of biobased composite.