Forschungsprojekt WieBauin ist zu Ende

The research project 'Innovative Reuse of Building Materials', WieBauin for short, is one of 22 interdisciplinary joint projects funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) within the framework of the funding measure Stadt-Land-Plus. The central object of the project is the reuse of building materials. This offers many advantages: it saves the energy needed for new production, reduces CO2 emissions, conserves natural raw material resources and reduces the amount of construction waste. Furthermore, reuse promotes the preservation of our typical townscape and regional building culture as well as the transmission of craft traditions to future generations.

Over a period of five years, interdisciplinary cooperation between chairs of the TU Darmstadt (Land Management, Material Flow Management and Resource Management, Design and Urban Development) and municipal partners (Münster municipality (Hesse), Otzberg municipality, Darmstadt-Dieburg district) as well as other associated and cooperation partners developed approaches and possible actions to sustainably regulate disparities in material flows in the construction sector between rural and urban environments. New approaches and instruments were developed that can optimise urban-rural relations and the aforementioned material flow management. Thus, the status quo was identified and potentials for a concept of an economically viable market were developed. This approach should enable a circular model for building materials in the future. WieBauin aims to reduce the use of land and raw material resources in the construction sector by reusing building materials that have already been used. Value chains, from the owner of demolished buildings to users of the building materials recovered during demolition, have been developed to create a mutual economic and ecological advantage.

After five insightful years, the project ended in September 2023. All findings collected in the project will also be available for download free of charge in a summary report on our project homepage www.wiebauin.de in spring 2024. You can already find our previous publications there. We have also included links to existing marketplaces on the project homepage so that the idea of reuse can be continued beyond the end of the project.

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have actively supported us over the past five years, e.g. by giving interviews about their own experiences or by providing examples of best practice.