Last month, DivercityMag met Romain Poulles, one of the key players in the field of circular economy applied to construction and town planning in Luxembourg. In this second part, Romain Poulles focusses on virtuous examples of good circular practices in the Luxembourg construction sector.
Many projects are still in the process of being designed or carried out. The Loop Park car park in Roost will be one of the most interesting . Right from the start, this project was designed to be fully reused and even get a new function. It could, for example, become a hotel, an office building or even apartments. It will be modular like Lego. In fact, the circular economy is as easy as Lego: you would never think of throwing away a single brick since you know you can reuse it endlessly. Well, the circular economy makes it possible to process building materials as easily as your Lego.
Looppark luxembourg
Change paradigm
Grünewald © Fonds Kirchberg
I will cite another spectacular example inspired by C2C principles: the Grünewald in Kirchberg, 35,000m2 of a mixed project that will bring together housing, offices, hotels and shops. The place was designed, like Kiem 2050, as a construction focused on the circular economy.
This obviously calls for new business models…
Absolutely. An example: it would be good if the equipment of a building had the same lifespan as the building itself. However, this is not currently the case. The performance times of each product are limited (obsolescence) and different for each of the products. To increase it, in a few years, an owner will no longer buy lifts but a “vertical transport service” that he will pay by kilometre. But, you see, this kind of evolution will require a fundamental change in the industry. Another example: we will no longer buy triple glazing (the lifespan of which is limited by an ultra-rare gas that escapes little by little) but “transparent insulation”. Or we will imagine that you will buy a building, but no longer its raw materials… The promoters, too, will change profession, ceasing to be assemblers of parts to become assemblers of services. I am sure that within ten years, this type of offer will have become commonplace.
Romain Poulles
Tags: circular economy, Grünewald, Kirchberg, Loop Park., Luxembourg, Romain Poulles., Roost
