About ReBAU
ReBAU follows a paradigm shift: away from pure energy saving measures, towards a comprehensive resource and climate protection in the construction industry. Instead of a mere focus on the operating phase of a building, the entire life span of a building is addressed. By using renewable resources efficiently and by following principles of the “Circular Economy”, greenhouse gas emissions, raw material and primary energy consumption can be reduced further. By implementing these principles, the ReBAU project makes a significant contribution to a new building culture.
Center for resource transition
The overall goal of the ReBAU project is to establish a center for a regional resource transition in the built environment, in which businesses, public authorities, research and civil institutions cooperate in various ways, through for example new education activities. The project also proceeds with various pilot projects such as:
- Development of new circular mineral building products,
- Establishment of a secondary raw material exchange platform,
- Innovation calls that support the planning of fundamentally new types of construction methods,
- Prototyping a new neighborhood according to Circular Economy principles.
These steps support the construction industry in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia to become more ecofriendly region. To do so, ReBAU is mobilizing potentials for cost-neutral climate protection through resource efficiency and circularity in the construction industry that has hardly been noticed until now.
The resource transition is so far a new field in the construction sector. It can be regarded as a third transition within the building sector after the transition towards a more energy efficient environment and a climate active one. Up to now, non-renewable resources have been the main materials used in the construction industry. Still, the building economy is rather linear with a ‘Take-Make-Dispose’ system – raw material is disposed after a singular use, mostly for landfilling.
Numerous raw materials which are essential for the construction sector are not scarce in the geological sense. Sand and gravel are available in sufficient quantities in most regions of Germany. Nevertheless, there are tendencies towards a shortage of mineral raw materials. Due to the scarcity of building plots, land for infrastructural projects, agriculture and areas for nature conservation, it is hardly possible to expand raw material extraction nor landfilling areas in many regions.
The economy of the future – and thus also the construction industry – must therefore be a circular one with closed material cycles.
Therefore, the climate, energy and resource transition have to be implemented in the entire life cycle of products in a holistic way. At the end, buildings are made of products, and each product has its end of life and should be preserved from ending up as waste.
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Rhenish Mining Area
ReBAU is implementing a resource transition in the building industry in the Rhenish mining area, situated in the federal state North Rhine-Westphalia in West Germany. It is home to 12,544 building industry companies, the highest density in Germany. The area is historically shaped by the extraction of primary materials such as coal.
The project targets structural change in the sense of long-term sustainable development in the region. Around 2.4 million people live in the Rhenish mining area. At the same time, the surrounding cities Aachen, Düsseldorf, Cologne and Mönchengladbach are significantly growing. The transformation in the Rhenish mining area has the potential to create new and innovative jobs for people living in a more sustainable environment. This transition requires a strong stakeholder network, innovative projects and a more circular economy, also within the building sector.
Therefore, it is essential to achieve to closed material cycles, preserve natural resources and avoid waste production. Hence, the ReBAU project’s objective is to generate a strong network of creative partners in order to contribute to the transition towards a regional resource transition in the building economy.
Team
The ReBAU team is available for you at the Faktor X Haus:
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Magdalena Zabek
has been working at Zukunftsagentur Rheinisches Revier as a project manager since 2016. At the same time, she is an active member of the junior professorship for Reuse in Architecture at RWTH Aachen University, where she is involved in teaching and research activities. As an architect, her field of interest lies in the circular design of buildings.
Zukunftsagentur Rheinisches Revier
T: +49 2465 75 28 926
E: magdalena.zabek@rheinisches-revier.de
Fotos © Lisa Beller
Lillith Kreiß
is the in charge of the Innovation Call at ReBAU project and works for the Zukunftsagentur Rheinisches Revier since September 2020. During her work as an architect, she focused on financially viable alternatives to conventional construction methods for private investors. In addition to her work as a project manager, she develops games as educational formats for transporting urban design strategies and is active in various associations that deal with urban design, community orientation, and resource conservation.
Zukunftsagentur Rheinisches Revier
T: +49 2465 75 28 926
E: lillith.kreiss@rheinisches-revier.de
Janika Ketzler
has been employed at the Faktor X Agentur der Entwicklungsgesellschaft indeland since February 2020. As an architect, she works on the development of an urban design concept for the Future Settlement in Inden/Schophoven. Here, she works on a guideline for resource-efficient settlement planning. Her focus is particularly on circularity and resource efficiency in urban design.
Faktor X Agentur der Entwicklungsgesellschaft indeland GmbH
T: +49 2421 221 084-119
E: j.ketzler@kreis-dueren.de
Klaus Dosch
is the leader of the Faktor X Agentur der Entwicklungsgesellschaft indeland in Inden/Düren since 2017, which promotes a resource transition in the construction industry in the Rhenish mining area. The agency advises municipalities, developers and planners on how to implement lifecycle climate and resource protection in construction and housing projects. In addition, he is active in VDI guideline committees on resource efficiency.
Faktor X-Agentur der Entwicklungsgesellschaft indeland GmbH
Faktor X Agentur der Entwicklungsgesellschaft indeland GmbH
T: +49 2421 221 084-115
E: dosch@faktor-x.info
Julia Kaiser
has been part of the ReBAU team since October 2020 and is responsible for controlling and communication process, At the same time she manages the partner project ReNeReB, which focuses on developing a platform for resource-efficient building products, best practices projects and stakeholders. In her master thesis she focused on a holistic concept for the resource-efficient development of new industrial and commercial areas, inspired by the Factor X Philosophy by Klaus Dosch.
Faktor X Agentur der Entwicklungsgesellschaft indeland GmbH
T: +49 2421 221 084-117
E: j.kaiser@kreis-dueren.de
Christiane Kretschmer
has been working as a project manager at the Faktor X Agentur der Entwicklungsgesellschaft indeland since September 2020. Influenced by her bachelor’s degree in architecture as well as her master’s degree in human geography (focus on urban research), she considers socio-spatial and architectural issues primarily from a socio-scientific perspective. In the ReBAU project, she is responsible for public relations and educational formats.
Faktor X Agentur der Entwicklungsgesellschaft indeland GmbH
T: +49 2421 22 10 84-118
E: c.kretschmer@kreis-dueren.de
Harald Kurkowski
is actively working on the development of recycled mineral building materials since 1985 in various positions in the fields of research and development, quality control and product launch. Today, this long experience is the basis for his work as an external consultant for Bimolab gGmbH.
Bimolab gGmbH
T: +49 2921 341 676
E: info@bimolab.de
Partners
Zukunftsagentur Rheinisches Revier
Am Brainergy Park 21
52428 Jülich
Entwicklungsgesellschaft indeland GmbH
Bismarckstraße 16
52351 Düren
www.indeland.de
Faktor X Agentur der Entwicklungsgesellschaft indeland GmbH
Bismarckstraße 16
52351 Düren
www.indeland.de/bewegen/faktor-x
Bimolab gGmbH
Am Kuhfuß 21
59494 Soest
www.bimolab.de
Consulting Partners
Wuppertal Institut für Klima, Umwelt, Energie
Bau- und Liegenschaftsbetrieb NRW
Holzkompetenzzentrum Rheinland
Ministerium für Umwelt, Landwirtschaft, Natur- und Verbraucherschutz NRW
RWTH Aachen Universität, Rezykliergerechtes Bauen
Metabolon, Bergischer Abfallwirtschaftsverband
BDA Bund Deutscher Architekten