Post by Vanessa Vivian Wabitsch

STATUS QUO: REUSE The #reuse of materials is the most challenging topic in the field of #circular building. Where are we in the field of reuse of materials when deconstructing #buildings in Austria/Europe? Answer in short: Small circles - reuse within the company group is feasible and works. Reuse in medium or bigger circles - which requires to sell materials requires a lot of effort, work, money, resources and is not feasible for a standard 100-year old building with bad building substance (meaning not a lot of valuable materials such a metals etc.). The story behind it: I have explored this question for nearly 2 years and talked to many experts and leading companies in the field with the concrete question: How does reuse look like for a building like Pachmüllergasse by W.CREATE Real Estates in Vienna? The conclusion was for this kind of building it is not economically feasible because the materials are not valuable enough that people would buy it. Or we would need to invest in the investigation if it would be feasible - which given the expectation of difficulty to sell it at the right time is not an additional risk one would like to take. Even for me - a person who is passionate for #circularity who carries nature in the heart it was frustrating - because reuse was just difficult and not feasible economically. The happier I was, when I saw that the team of vivoreal Gmbh, our partner company, was carefully disassembling the majority of the building products that were in good shape to reuse them in other buildings. For example washing machines, dishwasher, gas heating, kitchen, beds, tables, post box, lamps and much more. It was beautiful to see that it is self-evident for the team of vivoreal. One of the founders Ivo Wabitsch said: "It would be a shame to throw these things as they are good." The company is not emphasizing this sustainable approach to the public and it was great to see that it is just a natural way of acting in business and life. And that's how it should be 💚 Please see below some impressions of stage 1 of disassembling reusable products. Vivian-Thomas Wabitsch Eva Bacher Steffen Robbi Maximilian Klammer Jakob Lederer Susanne Formanek Klaus Kodydek Bernadette Luger Michaela Smertnig Alexander Ghezzo Gudrun Ghezzo Thomas Kasper Elisabeth Moser-Marzi Eveline Urban-Supper Thomas Glanzer Gerhard Kopeinig Lara B. Dominik Blasenbauer FH-Prof. Dr.techn. Anna-Vera Deinhammer Otto Handle #BuildingsforLife #sustainability #circulareconomy #sustainablebuilding #sdgs