NEST office unit demonstrates potential for circulation
The new Sprint office unit in NEST, the modular research and innovation building of the two Swiss research institutes Empa and Eawag, was inaugurated on Tuesday. It was created in a short construction period for the most part from reused materials and components.
A new unit went into operation on Tuesday in the NEST research and innovation building of the Federal Materials Testing and Research Institute ( Empa ) and the ETH Domain's water research institute ( Eawag). As Empa in a message emphasized the office module called is Sprint was completed in just ten months. This demonstrates that building with reused materials and components is “a viable alternative to building with new material”. It “meets the market requirements for flexible and fast building”.
The entire unit follows the so-called design for disassembly approach. If necessary, the flexible partitions could be dismantled. This enables flexible use of space and the recycling of built-in materials.
The still existing skepticism of the construction industry about the reuse of materials is unjustified. Contrary to initial concerns about the tight schedule, "we were even able to find the re-use materials faster than new material," is quoted from Kerstin Müller, architect and business service member at the Basel construction office in situ , which planned the sprint unit.
In addition, reuse is not yet cheaper given the current market situation. However, that will change as soon as a competitive market has developed, believes component hunter Oliver Seidel from in situ. In addition, there is a need for CO2 taxation, "which relieves the cost of new materials and used materials in order to be able to quantify the ecological added value."