Super Circular Estate - First Circular Social Housing Estate for 100% Material and Social Circularity

In 2015 the EU launched an “action plan for the Circular Economy”, to move from “waste” to “reuse” and to push the circular economy forward towards closing the loop. The Dutch government specified its national goal to develop a circular economy in the Netherlands by 2050 and to realize an objective of a 50% reduction in the use of primary raw materials by 2030 by designing products and buildings in a way that they can be reused with a minimum loss of value and without harmful emissions entering the environment. In this context The Super Circular Estate project tested new circular economy processes aimed at 100% reusing, repairing and recycling of the materials acquired from the demolition of an outdated social housing building. The project experimented with and evaluates innovative reuse techniques for decomposing a high-rise tunnel formwork concrete building in Kerkrade. The demolition materials have been used to build 3 pilot housing units with 14 different reuse/recycle techniques to be compared in order to assess their viability and replicability. Besides that, the project experimented with innovative techniques for water reuse in a social housing context by testing closed water cycle. Social tenants were strongly involved in the co-design, operation and monitoring of new collaborative economy services/facilities (aiming at reducing the need for vehicles, tools, spaces etc.) to support the transition towards a sharing, reuse and repair community model.

During its implementation, the UIA project has capitalised on its experience so that it can be shared with peers. The outputs displayed on this page are the result of this process.