Our research results have been published recently in the Journal of Housing and the Built Environment. The entire team collected examples of temporary housing environments that fed a detailed database. We conducted a systematic comparison via tabulation (table work), in an interdisciplinary manner considering details regarding built structure, open spaces, area, infrastructure, organizational and socio-economic aspects. The analysis led to a detailed typology of temporary housing environments that is universally applicable, independently from the housing environment’s background.
This study aims to create a general understanding of temporary housing and its attempt to create a general terminology provides the possibility to those engaged in the field to communicate and learn from each other.
The article from Mirjam Stocker, Gerda Schneider, Julia Zeilinger, Gloria Rose, Doris Damyanovic and Marion HuberâHumer can be read online and downloaded here:
Five of our project members submitted a paper to the Journal âApplied Scienceâ that got published in the special issue “Sustainable and Durable Building Materials”. In this article, Gaetano Bertino, Johannes Kisser, Julia Zeilinger, Tatjana Fischer, Guenter Langergraber and Doris Ăsterreicher analyzed building deconstructability, intended as the selective dismantlement of building components, in prevision of a future reuse, repurposing, or recycling, in alternative to common demolition. The purpose of this research work is to analyze the deconstruction potential of buildings and the strategies to apply in order to keep the impacts on the urban environment low. The article aims to facilitate the implementation of circular economy strategies for buildings by proposing common principles for deconstruction as a sustainable alternative to demolition and defining the key points to be applied during the design and planning process regardless of the type of construction system or material used.
Keywords: building deconstruction; building deconstructability; design for deconstruction; end-of-life material recovery; material reuse; sustainable construction; building circularity; building lifecycle
This is an open-access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Citation: Bertino, G.; Kisser, J.; Zeilinger, J.; Langergraber, G.; Fischer, T.; Ăsterreicher, D. Fundamentals of Building Deconstruction as a Circular Economy Strategy for the Reuse of Construction Materials. Applied Sciences 2021, 11, 939, doi:10.3390/app11030939
Our second stakeholder workshop was held on November 5th, 2020. The workshop was planned to take place in May 2020 but was postponed due to COVID-19 and was finally held in an online setting. Nevertheless, it was possible to create an interactive event with the participation of numerous experts from the fields of architecture, sustainability, disaster research, city administration, and neighborhood management, among others.
Tuesday 1st January 2030 is the deadline for the “construction sector” to contribute to the fulfillment of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs). But how can the building sector contribute towards the creation of Sustainable Cities and Communities of the future? What challenges and opportunities result for the building sector from implementing the SDGs?
The BEYOND2020 World Sustainable Built Environment Conference, organized by the Chalmers University of Technology from November 2nd-4th, aimed to create clear links between the most relevant SDGs and the built environment, with the focus on achieving SDG11, “Sustainable cities and communities” by the 2030 deadline. BEYOND 2020 embraced a global perspective that reaches across academia as well as private and public sectors, working together to develop concrete solutions and achievable implementation plans, incorporating research, policy, finance, education and innovative thinking, in order to create the resilient and sustainable built environments of tomorrow.
In this context, on November 2nd Gaetano Bertino presented âTemporary urban environments – framework conditions and solutions for sustainable short-term pop-up living systemsâ with the aim of showing how the use of temporary pop-up environments can represent a solution to some of the problems that characterize the modern city. By presenting international case studies, it was possible to define the sustainable aspects and the low environmental impact of temporary strategies. By suggesting their use in cases where urban planning fails to propose adequate solutions, a temporary approach based on circular strategies, such as the reuse of components and constructive reversibility, could contribute to the creation of sustainable cities and communities of the future.
Poster on Temporary urban environments – Framework conditions and solutions for sustainable short-term pop-up living systems
We are happy to announce that the poster has won the conference’s Best Poster Award. đ
After the successful cooperation in the winter semester 2019/20, we were able to continue the partnership with the TU Wien (Vienna University of Technology)/JASEC (Japan Austria Science Exchange Center) in the summer semester 2020. Students of the design class âGroĂes Entwerfenâ could choose from three scenarios to develop a model and visualize it with a 3D software.
The three scenarios are:
âLife on track(s)â is a concept in which living space is provided in wagons on tracks. The wagons can be moved rapidly from one site to another without organization of additional carriers. In this manner, a large number of temporary housing units can be transported and placed within a short period of time. Four different designs were developed for Life on track(s) (by Johanna Huber, Felix Neudeck and Konstantin Werni, Livia Karner, Goekcan Celik).
In the scenario âShop-hopping Boxâ (ShoHoBo) the continuing high vacancy rates for ground-floor retail spaces are taken as a starting point to create temporary living rooms. To make better use of the available built environment of the city, these vacancies can be temporarily appropriated as living spaces until another retailer moves in. The architectural challenge is to make the best use of the existing building structure while still providing good residential quality. Structural adjustments, therefore, have to be envisaged either as reversible, easily removable or to be implemented within the course of renovation or maintenance activities of the retail spaces. Six students (Masayuki Fukui, Rachael Verdugo and David Egido, Meryl Barthe, Magdalena Czarnowska and Dokyun Jung) developed four different designs for âShop-hopping Boxâ.
The scenario of the âDonAutonomâ concept involves the use and redesign of old Danube ships (e.g. old cargo ships) that can be purchased, with the idea of ââbeing anchored on the Danube to offer a short-term home for different types of user groups. The strength of this concept is the potential of a high degree of autonomy or self-sufficiency in the use of resources. Three different designs (by Cleo Sophie Traub, Mila Mihaylova and Sandra Prieto, Victor Zugmayer-Preleitner) were developed for this scenario.
The TU-course was lead by Iris Mach and Thomas Rief.
We thank all participants for their commitment and great work!
Click here to watch the video showing insights of all designs
A paper of 5 of our project members recently got published in Sustainabilityâs special issue “Urban Planning and Social Well-being“: Framework Conditions and Strategies for Pop-Up Environments in Urban Planning by Gaetano Bertino, Tatjana Fischer, Gustav Puhr, Guenter Langergraber and Doris Ăsterreicher
The purpose of this research work is to outline the general requirements of pop-up environments in urban developments that allow for adequate integration into urban planning strategies. Based on an extensive evaluation of the existing literature and a series of case studies, the paper analyzes the key elements that define the framework conditions of urban planning strategies for temporary developments that generate a positive impact on the overall urban system.
Abstract: Urban strategies and the way
cities are planned have changed throughout history, adapting to the needs of
the inhabitants, infrastructure requirements, and advances in technology. Uses
and customs of people and cities are changing and can evolve much faster than
in the past, with the result that urban planning is often too slow to
adequately meet the current needs of society. In this context, the development
of pop-up environments for temporary developments could be a solution to meet
the needs of flexibility, adaptation, and resilience of a city. This allows the
urban planner to consider systems from a short-term perspective, fulfilling
current needs without compromising the development of potentially different
activities in the future. The purpose of this research work is to outline the
general requirements of pop-up environments in urban developments that allow for
adequate integration into urban planning strategies. Based on an extensive
evaluation of the existing literature and a series of case studies, the paper
analyzes the key elements that define the framework conditions of urban
planning strategies for temporary developments that generate a positive impact
on the overall urban system.
This is an open-access
article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly cited.
MDPI and ACS Style
Bertino, G.; Fischer, T.; Puhr, G.; Langergraber, G.; Ăsterreicher, D. Framework Conditions and Strategies for Pop-Up Environments in Urban Planning. Sustainability2019, 11, 7204.
TemporĂ€re Nutzungen und Wohnformen beschĂ€ftigen in zunehmendem MaĂ auch die Raum- und Stadtplanung. Dieser Umstand zeigte sich auch auf dem diesjĂ€hrigen AESOP Kongress, welcher von 9. bis 13. Juli bezeichnenderweise in Venedig stattfand und unter dem Motto “Planning for Transition” sich ganz besonders dem Umgang der StĂ€dte mit neuen und alten Herausforderungen widmete. Das Akronym AESOP steht fĂŒr “Association of European Schools of Planning”, einem groĂen Netzwerk europĂ€ischer UniversitĂ€ten mit StudiengĂ€ngen der rĂ€umlichen Planung, zu denen auch die BOKU Wien gehört. “Pop-Up Environments” wurde von Projektmitarbeiter Gustav Puhr (Institut fĂŒr Raumplanung, Umweltplanung und Bodenordnung) im Rahmen der Session “Housing, gentrification and socio-spatial dynamics” vorgestellt. Im der anschlieĂenden Diskussion gaben WissenschaftlerInnen und PlanerInnen aus verschiedenen LĂ€ndern wertvolle Inputs zum Thema temporĂ€res Wohnen. Unter anderem kamen die Wichtigkeit von Leerstandserhebungen und die Förderung des kritischen Diskurses ĂŒber temporĂ€re Wohnformen zur Sprache. Bei vielen Punkten wurde dabei erneut eine gewisse Sonderstellung Wiens deutlich, welche z.B. auf dem groĂen Anteil des sozialen Wohnens fuĂt.
Over 600 people from all over the world attended the NGM2019 to exchange ideas regarding sustainable development within and beyond the discipline of geography. Within the session âUrban Innovation and the Rise of Projects, Platforms, and Testbedsâ, the Pop-Up Housing project was introduced to the community through a presentation by Gloria Rose and Michael Ornetzeder, titled âTemporary housing projects as experimental niches for sustainable innovationâ. Various existing niche concepts and observable forms of temporary living environments were compared with the aim of recognizing sensible interlinkages. Additionally, empirical examples of innovative spaces and temporary housing contexts where learning processes are currently taking place in Vienna were presented.
Project team member Mirjam Stocker (Institute of Landscape planning) attended the The Paradigmatic City Conference that was held in Istanbul from May 8th to 10th, 2019. Transforming Cities was the focus of this year’s conference and an opportune occasion to present our (pop-up housing) project. She presented the project and preliminary results, summarized by her and Gerda Schneider, in the session âUrbanization and future citiesâ. The participation of scholars of very different disciplines led to interesting and enriching discussions. Especially interesting for our project were contributions such as on Boox: A framework for container settlements (Belinda Torus, Asena Kumsal Ćen Bayram, OÄuz Orkun Doma, Sinan Mert Ćener) and on The ânewâ inhabitant of the city: changing urban dynamics in Gaziantep, Turkey (Pınar Karababa Kayagil). The participation of Mirjam was kindly facilitated by a travel grant of BOKUâs Equal Opportunities Working Party (Arbeitskreis fĂŒr Gleichbehandlungsfragen (AKGL)).
On July 18th the project team came together for the first quarterly meeting: we worked on formulating our vision, the Juniors presented their progress on administrative and scientific tasks, we discussed paper publishing options and further steps.
