In 2023, RISE was entrusted by the Nordic Council of Ministers to coordinate a student competition to inspire, educate, and allow transdisciplinary student teams in the Nordic countries. The competition task was to co-create design ideas based on the overall vision of the New European Bauhaus and its three core values: Beautiful, Inclusive, and Sustainable.

The competition 2024 - solutions for the reuse of four sites

In the spring of 2024, student teams took on the challenge of designing innovative and creative solutions for the adaptive reuse of four sites: Kvarteret Hammaren in Umeå (Sweden), Verksgata 54 in Stavanger (Norway), a military area in Kuopio (Finland), and Gadehavegaard in Høje-Taastrup (Denmark). A common goal for the property owners of these sites was to investigate the possibilities of transformation instead of demolition and redevelopment.

The competition was divided into two phases. The first phase was open for all student teams to present design ideas for one of the competition’s four sites. Almost a hundred students from Nordic universities submitted 29 design proposals, and 12 proposals were selected to be further developed and refined in phase two according to the jury’s instructions. During the award ceremony in Umeå on May 30th at Umeå School of Architecture, a team was crowned the winner for each site.

• Kvarteret Hammaren in Umeå, Sweden 
• Winner: Intertwining narratives by Malin Dybeck, Molly Myrsten, and Sophie Sjöberg, Lund University, Sweden. 
• Military Area in Kuopio, Finland
• Winner: Resilience of togetherness by Veera Annala and Annika Annala, Aalto University, Finland. 
• Verksgata 54 in Stavanger, Norway
• Winner: Fjordnest by Albina Lampa and Isabelle Olsson, Chalmers Institute of Technology, Sweden.
• Gadehavegaard in Høje Taastrup, Denmark
• Winner: Again and Again by Nils Österberg and Adam Sävhage, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden.e.

The NEB Design Challenge serves as one example of RISE's involvement in the New European Bauhaus initiative. Find out more projects and initiatives about it:

•    New European Bauhaus - En grön samhällsutveckling byggd på mångfald och inkludering (in Swedish)
•    Stor satsning på Sveriges kompetens inom träbyggande och cirkulärt byggande (in Swedish)

The Design Challenge was organized by the Nordic Council of Ministers, Nordic Carbon Neutral Bauhaus, Finnish Ministry of Environment, and the Research Institute of Sweden in collaboration with Architects Sweden.

Jury assessment

The jury, consisting of Camilla Berggren-Tarrodi (RISE), Marlene Johansson (RISE), Ambra Trotto (EIT Culture & Creativity), Maja Westman (Kvarteret Konstruktörer), and Patrik Karlsson Ryberg (RISE), appreciated that the students’ proposals spanned the full spectrum of architectural intervention, from new imaginative functions within existing buildings, through careful readaptations, to large-scale transformations.
 

Among the many competition entries, the winning teams’ creative and empathetic design proposals serve as models for more sites with similar prerequisites than those in the competition, and as inspiration with great relevance for the entire construction industry. Also, in times of great uncertainties in the world, the competition's design proposals convincingly demonstrate how communities can strengthen society through architecture.

To enable positive societal transformation and achieve the goals of the Green Deal, all the core values of the New European Bauhaus remain central, and continued efforts are required from students, professionals, and policymakers. 

The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, or Fraunhofer Society for the Advancement of Applied Research, is a German research organization with 76 institutes spread throughout Germany, each focusing on different fields of applied science. RISE’s German sibling, in many ways. 

Through a recent project the two organisations have discovered the potential of further collaboration.

But let’s back the tape. There once was a park in southeastern Germany… 

“…It was sitting on the brink of this beautiful lake, which used to be a coal mine. Flooded long ago. Picture the scenery: breathtaking mountains, a nice little town. And twenty-five-year-old wooden benches, practically falling apart.”

Thus begins the tale, as told by Sebastian Scholz, leader of the Fraunhofer Plastics Centre Oberlausitz, Professor at the University of Applied Sciences Zittau/Görlitz, and guest researcher at the Application Center for Additive Manufacturing at RISE.

Arriving at RISE

Sebastian Scholz arrived in Sweden in 2023, to work together with the additive manufacturing and composite teams at RISE. With him, he brought his family and the prospect of 3D printed benches. 

“I had been in contact with the town, called Olbersdorf, and discussed how to go about the bench-problem. The idea of 3D printing was raised, and Fraunhofer was asked to make it happen. Unfortunately, our large-scale printer was still under development. I arrived in Sweden, at RISE, and thought: why not do it here?” Sebastian Scholz continues. 

The Application Center for Additive Manufacturing at RISE has two large-scale robotic printers which previously have been used to print everything from designer furniture to fully functional kayak prototypes in innovative materials.

Capturing nature

RISE was intrigued by the proposed collaboration, prompting Constanze Kuring, product designer and Sebastian’s colleague at the Plastics Centre, to start working on the design.

“It was new to me, designing for big parts and this type of printing. When you know how it works it’s easy, but it’s a learning process. The benches were to be placed right next to the lake, atop these very linear concrete blocks. My goal was to create a contrast and incorporate the surrounding nature. The printed benches are quite heavy, but I wanted them to look light, nice, and friendly. And I wanted them to capture the waves of the lake,” says Constanze Kuring. 

There were to be five benches in total, made up of three different design models. Benches for sitting, benches for laying down, and one bench adapted for face-to-face conversation. Bike stands were to be incorporated into some of them, as cyclists are frequent visitors to the park.

“For every design model we printed at least one test bench, in form of a short section, so that we could try out the ergonomics. Then we did the final benches. That is one of the many perks with 3D printing, that you are able to approach your final design step by step, and pick up problems at an early stage,” says Constanze Kuring.

Despite conducting test prints, numerous challenges were encountered along the way. These included the need for adjustments to the 3D printing infill design, addressing shrinkage and warping issues with larger parts, and ensuring proper fixation on the print bed to maintain stability throughout the entire printing process.

"Thanks to the extensive experience in large-scale 3D printing from the RISE team, coupled with Constanze’s design expertise, we were able to overcome all challenges successfully. I'm confident that we've gained valuable insights and are now well-equipped for future projects involving 3D printed outdoor furniture," says Sebastian Scholz. 

Planting a seed

Sustainability played a crucial role throughout the project, influencing not just the selection of manufacturing process, but also the choice of materials.

“It’s a 100 percent biobased and recyclable material, a PLA containing 20 percent wood fibres. It possesses all the properties we want for the future, and is hopefully also resistant to the environmental influences in Olbersdorf,” says Sebastian Scholz. 

The benches were shipped to Germany and installed by the end of May, 2024. All in all a successful project, and hopefully the start of a series of collaborative initiatives between Fraunhofer and RISE.

“We have many things in common, but we are not competitors. We possess a deep understanding of the industrial and societal needs within our respective countries, and can only benefit from this cooperation. During my time in Sweden, I have worked on setting up transnational projects involving both RISE, Fraunhofer and the University Zittau/Görlitz. The first project just started, and I’m convinced that more applications will be approved. The primary objective of coming here was to plant a seed for future long-term collaboration, and that has certainly been accomplished,” says Sebastian Scholz. 

Reusing materials is an important way to meet society's climate challenges and reduce waste. Leaving the linear flow of materials and creating a more circular mindset is also important in housing construction. There is a need for knowledge about how to build today in order to be able to reuse in the future and thereby save the planet's resources.

The research institute RISE and IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, together with 16 partners from the construction value chain, are conducting a project entitled "Future design - Reuse of wooden buildings in a circular economy". The project is developing demountable and reusable wooden buildings to increase environmental benefits and at the same time increase collaboration in the circular value chain for residential construction. The wooden buildings should be easy to disassemble and flexible to change so that they can be used for different applications over a long period of time while maintaining value and reducing construction waste. The aim is to demonstrate opportunities and systems suitable for disassembly, reassembly and reuse. 

Everyone is needed to create circular flows 

To leave the linear material flow and create a more circular way of thinking, it is important to engage all parties and build a common understanding of the interaction in the circular value chain. The project participants' competencies and experiences have been the basis for assumptions and scenarios that have then been used to estimate and simulate disassembly, reassembly, reusability and calculate climate benefits (such as waste quantities and additional new materials during construction, energy use in the factory and on the construction site). This created a common methodology that was used to simulate disassembly and reassembly on two buildings.

Two timber buildings as examples for future design

Documentation was produced for two building projects to demonstrate reusability and climate benefits from different perspectives. The building projects are Folkhem's planned construction of five new residential buildings in the Klockelund block in Farsta and the "Flexibility House" around Kiruna and Skellefteå municipality. One building project is based on industrially manufactured house volumes and the other on plan elements from the partnership's representatives of the wooden house industry. 

Demountable and reassemblable wooden building with industrially manufactured volumes

The Folkhemmets building project is a planned building in the Klockelund neighborhood in Farsta. In the project, a dismantling plan was developed with instructions for information management for dismantling construction with volume elements. The plan describes steps for dismantling such as securing walls and floors for fire and strength, details for dismantling installations, joints, lifts, balconies, stairs, attics, roofs, facades and lifting of roof and volume elements. There is great potential to reduce the climate impact when reusing industrially produced wooden volume elements. The climate impact was calculated using LCA (life cycle analysis) for the product phase (A1-A3 in the standard), the construction production phase (A4-A5) and the final phase (C1), which includes dismantling and demolition.

"Flexibility House" a flexible timber building with reusable plan elements 

The great need for housing in a changing housing market in the north presents both short-term and long-term challenges. Many homes are already being built today with simple modular solutions for incoming entrepreneurs and students, but to attract skills and labor, attractive living environments and services are required. Based on this challenge and the need to respond to the constant changes in society, the concept of the 'Flexibility House' was developed. It is a flexible dismountable building that can be modified, moved and added to as needed, adapting to its context and enriching the site on which it stands.

The aim is for the Flexibility House to save resources in all phases of its life cycle and thus have a low climate impact. The climate benefits of reuse are significant in both projects, with the advantage that it is already possible to reuse industrially manufactured volume elements. Reuse is facilitated by the industrial production because all information from the design is available, which the manufacturers of volume elements Derome, Lindbäcks Bygg and OBOS confirm.

The buildings developed according to the method of the Future Design project can already be ordered today, but it is important to contact the suppliers at an early stage of your project to increase the accuracy of what you want and to ensure that both design and construction are efficient.

This is an article from our magazine Trävärden, view it here! (Link)

We face a major need for renovation, especially of buildings constructed between the 1950s and 1990s. From a societal perspective, it is important to improve the building stock by extending its lifespan and updating it to current energy requirements. In renovations, additional insulation is a common measure that often negatively affects the aesthetic appearance of the façade. This means an operational gain but often a loss of the original design. In a previous project Fasaden i Staden, Snabb, Snygg, Smart (financed via BioInnovation), led by RISE Träbyggande, an innovative wooden façade system was developed for new construction in the urban environment.

Through the project "E2B2 Climate-smart renovation with innovative wooden facade (funded by the Swedish Energy Agency), it is possible to save energy by continuing to develop and adapt the facade system to the renovation of million program buildings.

-In addition, the facade system will be designed with a focus on an adaptable and digitalized design process, and the components will be possible to dismantle in the future, says project manager Karin Sandberg, RISE. 

The façade system should also be designed so that it can be manufactured in the factory and then easily assembled on the construction site.

-Case studies will be used to verify how well the façade system is designed for manufacturing, LCA energy optimization, digital management of information and variation in design possibilities for the architect. The result will be presented in a digital platform model, says Camilla Schlyter, RISE, who works as the institute's doctoral student on the issue.

The aim of the project is to ensure that the entire chain from design to production works in practice. Prototypes are being manufactured by the project partners Hedlunda Industrier and SCA with Kiruna Bostäder's renovation of Lombolo in mind, and Equator Arkitekter is contributing design expertise.

-We see an increased demand for facade systems that are climate neutral and optimized for low material and energy consumption, and provide the opportunity for aesthetic freedom and variation for architects, developers and managers, says Camilla Schlyter.

-The project contributes to the development of attractive bio-based facades central to the transition of the civil engineering industry towards a reduced fossil dependence, concludes Karin Sandberg.

This is an article from our magazine Trävärden, view it here! (Link)